The Tungsten PDA

Although many, to think of a programmer for a large company like Palm, imagine a person seriously and boring, the reality is that they are human beings who have their good days and bad days. And also have days when being raised funny. These days, used to include small jokes in the programs they write, what is known as Easter eggs (easter eggs in English), which can only activate certain actions undertaken in an application, which in normal use would never .

It is well known for example the fastest way to write a document in Microsoft Word, or photos of dogs that appear to bear a special page on a server running PHP (same as this one). For the curious, worth an example a summary of other easter eggs in Excel, WinRar, Gimp and Firefox among others.

And of course our Palm would not be less. There are also easter eggs in the applications of our aircraft, even with any utility. Let's see how we can implement them:

Let's start by an Easter egg that lives up to its name. Depending on the operating system version, the procedure is slightly different:

• For Palm 2.xa 4.x: go into the Preferences application, and within it in the General category. Then in the lower right corner of the screen, draw a small circle in the direction of clockwise. An Easter Eggs will appear in that corner. To remove it, we just have to draw another circle.
• For Palm 5.x: enter preferences, and now in the Power section. We draw the circle and the egg appears.

An Easter Egg decorated and everything

Now let's see the easiest way to call a taxi, even without a Treo. With the "Easter Eggs" activated before, let's implementation Memos and, while holding down the key address below, write a line from the center of the area of graffiti, toward the left edge of the deck. A funny taxi passes through the screen from side to side.

Calling a taxi from the notebook

You may also see claims of people who have worked in Palma, in an animation. Again, the procedure depends on the version of operating system.

• For Palm 1.xy 2.x: let's application memory, making and maintaining the stylus tap on the number of operating system version, with our finger push the button address below.
• For Palm 3.x and 4.x: in the launcher applications, we are going to the menu, go into implementation, and enter "Info ...". We select the button down version of everything. Now we keep doing the stylus tap into the title bar, and press down direction of the finger.
• For Palm 5.x: once turned the trick of "Easter Eggs" commented earlier, we press the button of the house (that is, we're going to launch applications), enter the menu option "About applications." Press the button to scroll down and hold we tap "OK". We repeat this step two more times, and not the last we press the button below. Appear credit and will not disappear until you release the button. I have not been able to reproduce it in my Tungsten E2, probably because when you press the button of the house was already in the launcher, the program opens favorites.

Appropriations of the creators of Palme

There is a way for the Palm remain indefinitely waiting for the PC when connected to press the HotSync button, instead of giving us an error timeout a few seconds: We entered the implementation hotsync and maintaining pressed the address below We tap into the upper right corner of the screen. There will be a message that says "It's enabled the DLserver Waiting indefinitely." The timeout was to reestablish make a hotsync.

Another Easter egg consists of writing an abbreviation with a certain format. (For those who have not read the manual for your Palm, an abbreviation is the symbol of lacito write any more text, which usually turn into any word longer and frequently, we have defined in the Preferences). Specifically, write the symbol of lacito one point and a specific character. We can write in any text area, for example in a memo. Depending on the number (or letter) used the result will be different:

• [bond] .1: a kind of active mode debugging with the serial port. This can quickly spend batteries. It was deactivated with a soft reset.
• [bond] .2: similar to previous, open the serial port. Soft reset to turn it off.
• [bond] .3: turn off Auto-off. "
• [bond] .4 displays the user name and number. Without apparent utility.
• [bond] .5: Danger, clears the user settings, and recording hotsync. To restore it is best to make a hard-reset and synchronize with the PC.
• [bond] .6: shows the date on which created the ROM machine.
• [bond] .7: alternating between mode NiCd and alkaline batteries. Useful to anchor battery function properly with NiCd batteries. If Palm has internal battery, the only option is lithium ion.
• [bond] .8: in older models like the Palm V or Palm IIIx, invests the backlight of the screen.
• [bond]. i: activates the option to receive infrared for a while. Useful for not leave our ignition depleted battery.
• [bond]. s: alternating between serial or infrared mode. In series mode, the information would be sent by infrared is sent by the serial port.
• [bond]. t: alternating loopback mode for the handler exchanges by infrared.

As we are not few easter eggs hidden our Palm. In fact there are many more, also exist within specific applications, and even within the Palm Desktop for Windows. We can find a list on this page.

This theme of Easter eggs always brings me to my next thought: if innocent as these features hidden for years have been hidden in the operating system and software that we use daily, how can we trust that there are no other much more dangerous programs in we write personal data, credit card numbers or other confidential information? Unfortunately only free software, available to the public its source code, we can give that assurance.

By: Mark Gonzalez Troyas in Tricks
| RSS comments | Trackback | Print this post

Related articles

• Install Java, Gmail and Java Games teams in Palm
• Vintage modding: 8Mb of RAM on a Palm III, Palm, PalmV, M100, Visor…
• Bluetoothtracking.org, the big brother Wireless

Labelling: Palm, Palm, PDA, security

Subscribe to stay abreast of developments in this blog