The GNOME desktop is also a worshipper. In GNOME, pressing Alt + F2 opens the run command dialog inputting gegls from outer space executes yet another variant of a space invaders game with offenders that look like a cow, smell like a cow, but really are not, but hey do I care? no real phasers in sight. See figure 1 for a visual.

Figure 1: Holy bovine! And you thought I was strange

Let us end this bovine like nonsense and move to higher realms of cluelessness, mutual stupidity and mistrust.

Gaming delight

Frets on Fire, figure 2, is not really an Easter egg, just a plain old, jolly good and fun game. The presence of Frets being played by sugar boosted children is similar a very noisy room full of bees and I should know bees are my friends. I have lots of friends.

The noise and the insults in the tutorial really speak to me, especially when the game aims them directly at my elder son. I must practice the approach next time I ask for a pay rise or refuse to give out a week’s worth of pocket money. To install this rock and roll enabled application from the command line type:

sudo apt-get install fretsonfire

Obviously, you will now find an icon under the Games menu. But be warned, be very warned, the game is addictive and is best served with the bass up high and the neighbours away on holiday.

Be warned, be very warned, Frets on Fire is addictive

Figure 2: Main screen Frets on Fire

Hidden in aptitude, figure 3, is a minesweeper game. From a terminal type aptitude and once started Ctrl+T to highlight the relevant menu. Yes, why not waste time trying to find mines at the company’s expense; it is cheaper than coffee and less likely to send you to the nearest toilet.

Figure 3: The mine sweeper game in aptitude

The OpenOffice.org developers, not to be out done by secret competition, also hide more than complex trend resolving algorithms in their spreadsheets. In any randomly chosen cell input =GAME("StarWars") and press return you will now find yourself within a space invaders type feature, see figure 4. Hey hardened gamers, I am not going to mention my final score, but there is no way you are going to beat me ever. I rule and there is no way you can prove otherwise. Now back to the main story.

Figure 4: Calc’s version of space invaders

While we are working really hard on our spreadsheet/game to generate a random smiley type in the command =TTT(). Easter eggs are by their very nature hidden; you are only supposed to find the hidden gems and rotten eggs under special circumstance. For example, by deeply mining the code or when they are released on aforementioned holidays. Trying to do my research thoroughly (hahaha!) I searched the apt cache on local machine via:

apt-cache search Easter

and found to my great delight.

wesnoth-ei - Eastern Invasion official campaign for Wesnoth

Not that wesnoth-ei is an Easter egg, but it is a rather a good mission for an excellent game, so this is my lame excuse to help interested wesnothnauts to add more fun to these darkening days. So far so good, a few games and an extra mission, how about viewing a few questionable photographs (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

How about viewing a few questionable photographs, nudge, nudge, wink, wink

Show me a photo

Have you ever wondered what the hard working OpenOffice.org development team used to look like in the StarOffice days, long before steam engines? While in calc type in a cell and press return =STARCALCTEAM() and a relaxed and well dressed bunch of reprobates will, as if by c-coding-magic, appear in a separated dialog box. If you can take the strain then feel free to view figure 5, otherwise the exit is to the left.

Figure 5: The nearly original Calc team

For the same affect in the OpenOffice.org word processor, type the magic word StarWriterTeam followed by the F3 function key and finally throwing fairy dust into the air (good for covering the mist from old socks that I suspect you can smell while you are reading this article). A delightful picture coincidentally similar to figure 6 will now appear. I particularly liked the cutouts and think the effect added an air of realism to the whole event. The included text mentions the hard working developers. If you recognize any of the names, the next time you see the developer in cut out pose, pat him on the back and thank him for his software coding efforts. The world is a better place and we do have more choice because of OpenOffice.org and other ODT format supporters.

Figure 6: A fake photo of the Star Writer team

Perhaps we can find a more realistic photograph (figure 7) of the developers in the zenity tool. The tool allows for the easy creation of dialogs of different types. If you input from a terminal zenity --about and then type zen an extra graphic appears. The realism fooled me for a few minutes until I realized that this was not a member of the Star Writer team. To be honest, my younger son has a Gameboy DS and the figure reminds me closely of a certain commercial figure.

Figure 7: A realistic zenike about

Finally, let’s acknowledge the work done by the large base of Firefox developers. In the address bulk insert about:credits. Wow, so many dedicated hard workers and so much quality effort.