HTMLGOODIES EXPRESS ™
December 6, 1999 — Newsletter #57

Greetings, Weekend Silicon Warriors,

Did you hear…

XML is going to be the wave of the future, so says Bill
Gates as the keynote speaker at the Fall Comdex get-together.
Web commerce is apparently the target for XML’s
implementation.

Want things that are itty-bitty? Well, last week, NEC
Technologies released the $179 PetiScan Flat Bed Scanner.
It’s the world’s smallest scanner. It runs through the USB
port of your computer. You can hold it up to just about
anything or use it like a normal flat bed, and it’ll scan it.
Of course, what you scan has to be itty-bitty. It looked just
big enough to do a normal sized photo.

Paper? Bah! H&R Block is gearing up to get your return
submitted online… by you! They see it as the future of tax
preparation. Their Web site will be set up so you do-it-
yourselfers can submit online. Cost? Ten buck for federal,
five bucks for local. Pretty cool.

Now, onto today’s topic…

A couple of newsletters ago I told people to put
“about:mozilla” into the location bar of Netscape and hit
Enter to see an embedded program pop up. I also told you
about a flight simulator that is embedded inside Excel 97,
although I didn’t tell you the steps to get to it. Many
people pointed out my lack of instructions and told me, in
no uncertain terms, to provide them with instructions to get
to it.

Well, since those last newsletters, I have been inundated
with helpful e-mail from readers who know all about these
little embedded programs. They’re all over the place and
pretty easy to get to if you know the steps.

The slang term for these embedded programs is “Easter Eggs.”
If you get one to work you’ve “cracked the egg.” In doing
research for this newsletter, I ran across dozens of Web
sites that offer steps to hundreds of Easter Eggs.

I figure, rather than rant about some computer topic for 500
words, why not have some fun instead? Below I’ll list for you
some of my favorite Easter Eggs (and those I got to work) then
offer links to some sites that offer more.

Readers may write that some of these items are not technically
Easter Eggs, rather they’re just keyboard short-cuts. Well,
maybe, but as always in the world of computers, you need to
offer a broad definition of some things. I offer that here.

Follow the steps carefully. If you leave out one step, the
effect won’t work. Please understand that many of these Easter
Eggs are not only software-specific, but also version specific.
If the Easter Eggs is intended for Excel 97, it won’t work in
Excel version 4. Get it?

Many of these Easter Eggs completely blank your screen before
running. I have found that for all of them, you can hit the
Escape to stop the program and return to your regularly
scheduled desktop.

I’m giving you the steps without telling you the outcome;
believe me, it’s more fun this way and you’ll know when you’ve
done it correctly.

These things are a blast… here we go!

For Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 5.0:

1. Type: into notepad.
Type only that.

2. Open the file in MSIE 5.0 and meet the design team.

For Word 97:

1. Type “I want” then follow it with anything you want.

2. Highlight the text and choose Thesaurus.

3. One of the results will be “I’ll drink to that!”

For Word97:

1. Create a new document by clicking on the blank page icon
in the upper left of the screen.

2. Type the word “Blue” (without the quotes and make sure the
B is in caps).

3. Highlight Blue by dragging your mouse over it.

4. Select Format, then Font from the menu bar.

5. Choose the Font tab (it may be chosen already). Select Font
Style Bold and Color Blue. The word Blue should change
accordingly.

6. Close the Font dialog box.

7. Type a space after the word Blue, followed by a single
quote (‘), another space, and another single quote. It should
look like this: Blue ‘ ‘

8. Select Help, then “About Microsoft Word”.

9. Click on the Word icon in the upper left-hand portion of
the About Microsoft Word dialog box.

10. Ta Da! Pinball!

11. To play, use the Z key as your left flipper and the M key
as your right flipper.

12. Escape gets you out of the game. The names that come up
are the development team.

For Windows 95:

1. Create a new folder on the desktop and title it “and now,
the moment you’ve all been waiting for”

2. Rename that folder “we proudly present for your viewing
pleasure” When you rename the folder you must click on the
icon with the right mouse button and choose Rename.

3. Rename the folder “The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!”

4. Open the folder and the credits should be displayed.

For Netscape Navigator:

1. Open Navigator. Make sure you’re online.

2. Press the Ctrl, Alt, and F keys at the same time.

3. You’ll be taken to the Amazing Fish Cam!

For Excel97 (this is the one everyone wants):

1. Open a new, blank spreadsheet in Excel.

2. Press F5. The Go To dialog box should appear.

3. In the Go To box, type X97:L97 (no period). Click OK.

4. When the box closes, the fields you just noted should be
highlighted.

5. Press the Tab key once.

6. Press the Ctrl and Shift buttons at the same time and click
once on the Chart Wizard button. (The chart wizard is up on
the tool bar. It looks like a little bar graph.)

7. Welcome to the flight simulator! Use your mouse to fly
around. The names scrolling by on one of the mountain sides
is the design team.

For Solitaire:

1. Cheating at Solitaire is wrong, but here’s how. When you
are playing in the 3-card mode, hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift to flip
only one.

For Minesweeper:

1. When the game opens, hold down the Shift key and type
XYZZY.

2. Release Shift, then press it again.

3. Now, whenever your mouse rolls over a bomb, a black dot
will appear in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.

Cheater…

For 3D Pipes Screen Saver (Windows):

1. Choose 3D Pipes as your screen saver.

2. Click Settings and choose Mixed Joint Styles.

3. When the screen saver runs, teapots will appear randomly
as joints in the pipes.

For Windows 98:

1. Click on the time in the lower right-hand part of the
Taskbar. The Date/Time box will pop up.

2. Click on the tab marked Time Zone. A map of the world
should appear.

3. Press and hold the Ctrl key.

4. Still holding the Ctrl key, click your mouse on the
approximate location of Memphis, Egypt (the northeastern
corner of Africa). Get close. No need to be overly specific
here. (Memphis was the working name for Windows 98 before it
was released to the public.)

5. Still holding the Ctrl key, drag your mouse pointer to
Memphis, Tennessee (south-central USA, above the Gulf of
Mexico).

6. Unclick the mouse, but keep the Ctrl key pressed and your
mouse pointer near Memphis, Tennessee.

7. Click Memphis, Tennessee (your mouse pointer should already
be there) again and drag your cursor to Redmond, Washington
(northwest corner of USA). Redmond is where Microsoft is
headquartered.

8. Release both the mouse and the Ctrl key.

9. Watch show. If your speakers aren’t on, turn them on.
There’s music playing!

Well, there you go. A few Easter Eggs for the holidays. Want
more? Try these helpful sites:

The Dummies Easter Egg Page: http://www.dummies.com/eggs/

The Easter Egg Page: http://www.htsoft.com/easter/

The Easter Egg Archive: http://www.eeggs.com/

All are fun and full of Eggs you’ll want to crack. Just don’t
get too into it. I’ve actually sent e-mail to friends asking
if they have specific versions of programs so I can see a
specific egg work.

I gotta get a life…

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That’s that. Happy egg hunting. Thanks for reading.

Joe Burns, Ph.D.

And Remember: Coca-Cola actually has fruit flavoring in it.
Did you know that? Originally (in the 1920s) the formula had
the juice right in it. Today the flavoring is done through
citric acids and other nontraditional means. Coke’s fruit
flavoring? Lime.