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karatestomp | 5 years ago

Even Excel has (had?) a secret flight sim.

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lynndotpy|5 years ago

Had -- Microsoft has essentially had a no-easter-eggs policy since at least 2002 as part of their "Trustworthy Computing" initiative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trustworthy_computing

They have a blog post from 2005 on the matter: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/larryosterman...

> One of the aspects of Trustworthy Computing is that you can trust what's on your computer. Part of that means that there's absolutely NOTHING on your computer that isn't planned. If the manufacturer of the software that's on every desktop in your company can't stop their developers from sneaking undocumented features into the product (even features as relatively benign as an Easter Egg), how can you be sure that they've not snuck some other undocumented feature into the code.

enriquto|5 years ago

This "Trustworthy computing" thing is 100% bogus if you cannot compile the code yourself.

Drdrdrq|5 years ago

Ironic, given the tracking built into Windows 10 Home.

throwanem|5 years ago

Not for a quarter century now, more or less.

Whimsy is a wonderful thing, taken in moderation. It has no place in tools meant for serious work.