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>>I did get chewed out for an accidental Easter egg at a previous job. We
were writing an IETM (Interactive Electronic Technical Manual) and needed a
procedure for any time the calibration of the built-in multimeter failed. I
was told by the boss to "just put anything there" as a placeholder because
we needed a working link before the hardware was actually developed so there
was no way to know what the real procedure would be.<<
LOL! This reminds me of an egg that someone (not me, thankgod) laid at a
previous job. The beta version of our flagship product went out to test with
several (documented) non-working links. I produced a beta version of the
Help file that included an explanation that because not all the links were
in place, some buttons (I listed the categories) would produce a dummy
screen instead of the actual result. Naturally I checked what the dummy
screen looked like, and discovered that one of the developers had put in a
screen that said "OH NO! You have hit the SELF-DESTRUCT! Your computer will
be DESTROYED in 10 seconds! 10, 9, 8..."
I e-mailed the developers and their manager (who was also mine - at that
time there wasn't a specific development manager) to say that I thought this
message really, really ought to be changed before it went out to customers,
even as a beta version. The manager didn't reply (I found out later he had a
major backlog in his e-mails) and the developers, to a man, all said "It's a
joke. It's obvious it's a joke. No one will care."
I e-mailed back that I knew it was a joke but I didn't think our customers
would think it was funny. (I was a very new TW then, both to the profession
and in that company, and it didn't occur to me (1) that I needed to do
anything more (2) that I should do anything more. But...)
I was right. They didn't. I kept my head down for quite a while afterwards:
nothing worse than being in a position to say I Told You So to a bunch of
chauvinistic developers and the managing director who had collectively
enough egg on their faces to make an omelette...
Jane Carnall
Technical Writer, Digital Bridges, Scotland
Unless stated otherwise, these opinions are mine, and mine alone. Apologies
for the long additional sig: it is added automatically and outwith my
control.
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