The Good Eggs
Filed under: Easter, gadgets and gizmos, internet, lifestyle
Easter has always confused me. The Sunday school teacher had words with the folks when I was about 6 because I insisted (read went red in the face, wouldn’t back down and generally displayed un-Christian ‘tude ) that Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves said “Open Sesame” to open Jesus’ crypt. I’m also confused about the date moving every year. Don’t bother to explain it to me – I’d prefer to remain confused.
The gift giving thing leaves me bamboozled too. Despite going to Sunday school for a season or two I was brought up in a fairly agnostic manner. It seems that if it’s young and cute we want to coat it in chocolate and eat it. Again – don’t bother explaining it to me.
So what IS exciting about Easter? Electronic Easter. I shall call it E-aster. Ooooh yeah. Here’s what I mean:
Lindt ran an online Easter egg hunt this year. There was $20,000 up for grabs for being the best Bunny Hunter and they promise to donate $20,000 to a children’s hospital. Seems like a good mix of online fun, selling stuff, brand messaging and doing good.
Seems that someone has thought of the blind kiddies and the unfairness they must encounter in Easter egg hunts. This may be old news to you, but apparently someone has invented an electronic Easter egg that beeps for the blind kids. It’s plastic not chocolate so the kiddies have to find the beeping egg and then trade it for a chocolate one. At least this is a step up from an alarm clock.
Cyber Easter eggs. If you don’t know what these are, they are little added extras or suprises that programmers hide in games, movies, DVDs of TV shows. Sort of like the biting into what you think is a filled chocolate only to be suprised by a luscious, gooey raspberry centre. Easter eggs used to be in-jokes between programmers but you can find lists of them all over the web. Here’s some of our favourites:
Google Picasa Teddy Bears
1. Open the Picasa software application on your desktop
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + Y
3. Teddy bear will pop up
1. Open Google Earth, version 4.2
2. Press Ctrl + Alt + A (Mac users: Cmd+Opt+A)
3. Flight simulator lets you feel like you’re in the cockpit of a F16 fighter jet or a lightweight SR22 propeller plane
Emacs Therapist
1. In the Mac Terminal, type emacs, hit Enter, press Escape, type “xdoctor”
2. Begin interactive dialogue with a shrink named Eliza
3. Press Control + X, Control + C to exit
Lost flight on Kayak.com
1. Go to kayak.com and select a one way flight from SYD to LAX for 9/22/10
2. One of the search results that pop up is Oceanic Airlines
Firefox Book of Mozilla
1. In the address bar, type in “about:mozilla”
2. A quote from the “Book of Mozilla” appears
- TechCrunch – Some of our Favourite Easter Eggs
- Lifehacker – Top 10 Software Easter Eggs
- CNET news – Kayak.com offers up ‘Lost’ Flight
- Easter Egg Archive
What are some of your E-aster treats?
