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Easter Egg - technical definition
A component of a computer program that is hidden
from plain sight and usually is not executed. Typically, an Easter egg can be
revealed by entering an otherwise unused sequence of commands. Easter eggs are
usually hidden in the code as a prank by programming teams. Finding an Easter
egg might reveal additional credits to the programmers, embedded images, hidden
levels, and graphical content in computer games. Generally, an Easter egg is an
undocumented and therefore untested feature of a program that is embedded
without managementÂ’s knowledge. Because of their nature, Easter eggs are
considered to be security risks in applications.
In 2005, there was considerable controversy over the Easter eggs in the popular computer game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.” Apparently, users could access sex scenes in the PC version of the game, an outcome that placed in jeopardy the game’s alleged rating of teen appropriateness.
Hayes,
F.: Grand Theft Auto smashup. Computer World, Inc, [Online, April 21, 2005.]
http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/615.
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