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Comment by snarfy | Hacker News Reader

They are by definition something an engineer snuck in. Anything else is a regular feature that has been premeditated.

If it was snuck in, what else has been? What does it say about your security policies and practices if engineers can sneak stuff in?

This is why they are fireable offenses. It might not be for a piece of entertainment software like a video game, but sneak one in while working at FAANG and you'll most likely get fired.

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Maybe these days. There’s a famous story from early YouTube though and no one got fired. And Google frequently throws in Easter eggs like the time searching for cats or dogs let you trigger a mode where you can make paw marks on the page, although those are more formal affairs probably and not some random thing you throw in there on a whim.

Just to rephrase the OP’s point, I think they are drawing a distinction between “a feature not directly advertised to the user” and “a feature not authorized by whatever chain of command is supposed to be followed at the developer”.

The paw marks are an example of the former, but I believe OP was saying the latter is the fireable offense

The YouTube story I mentioned (couldn’t find it) is an example of the latter. There was like 1 guy and when Google introduced approvals he co-opted a coworker to stamp his PRs. This was a while back so unlikely to fly anymore, but only because the companies are so big and have all sorts of government and large business contracts that prevent that kind of stuff from a regulatory perspective.

> If it was snuck in, what else has been? What does it say about your security policies and practices if engineers can sneak stuff in?

I mean, of course engineers have that ability regardless? Maybe I’m being too technically-minded, but I just don’t see how not detecting an Easter egg somehow indicates that the engineers haven’t put one in surreptitiously..

> What does it say about your security policies and practices if engineers can sneak stuff in?

I mean, what does it say about hospitals that doctors can kill you with one stray cut? Ultimately you trust them to be benevolent.

Heh. What does it say about your engineers if they can't sneak something in?

I always found the whole affair of walking people out when they give their 2 weeks to be exceedingly idiotic.

I’ve known for a week or two that I was going to quit. If I was going to do something bad I would have done it before printing out my notice.

>What does it say about your security policies and practices if engineers can sneak stuff in?

What does it say about developer efficiency if you can't make any change or audition without getting approval from the CEO? Giving power for lower levels to make decisions is important to remain efficient.

For security most places don't leader molest require more than 1 or 2 people to approve your change. You just need get them on board your Easter egg.

Not if it’s something really subtle like manipulating a texture to have some small detail in it.

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