Hidden away deep in the Apple Newton's innards is proof that the geek is mighter than the sword. Newton's Area 51 Easter Egg From the Files of Fortean Slips by D. Trull Enigma Editor dtrull@parascope.com One of the grandest geeky pursuits in all of geekdom is the elusive splendor of Easter eggs. Not the chemically-hued ones Peter Cottontail delivers, but the electronic kind. True geeks, in whose number I surely count myself, can unlock hidden tricks and treats that reside deep in the bowels of their treasured software, access granted by word-of-mouth (geeky), USENET groups (geekier), or independently through the fruits of one's own hacking (high omnipotent geekmanship). The first Easter egg I ever heard of was tucked away inside that Atari 2600 standard, "Adventure." The programmer spelled out his name in a secret room; considering that your character in this game was a tiny square blip, this feat of hubris must have eaten up half the cartridge's ROM. Technology has matured by leaps and bounds since those days, but geeks assuredly have not. Hence, Easter eggs have proliferated robustly. Entire magazines exist to catalog video game secret codes, and even the staid landscape of respectable operating system code is littered with hidden goodies. Despite heavy competition, Apple could well be the modern-day champion layer of Easter eggs. The Macintosh is chock full of goodies like the secret Finder box and Clarus the Dogcow, and the Newton possesses one of the most infamous Easter eggs of all. If you scribble "Elvis" in the "Time Zones" feature, Newton will indicate on a world map where the King is presently taking care of business. And there's another, lesser-known Newton trick that's even better. That same world map also features the location of the military's least-secret secret base, the ever-popular Area 51! But you have to work a little harder to uncover this little treasure. Why? Because of a government cover-up, of course. The story goes that the Newton programming team took a trip to Rachel, Nevada, in 1994 while finalizing Newton 2.0 software. Inspired by the mysterious installation's then-obscure mystique, they stuck Area 51 into the "Time Zones" application along with Elvis and the major cities of the world. They went one step further by altering the datebook's icons once Area 51 had been selected. For instance, the event icon changed from a flag to a saucer, and the meeting icon transformed from two faces in profile to a human and an alien having a tete-a-tete. In August 1995, the new Newton was ready to hit the market, following the dispersal of seed units to a number of consumers. Among the beta testers was a CIA cryptographer who stumbled across the Area 51 entry. Failing to dig the geeky conviviality with which this harmless Easter egg was presented, he promised to sic the CIA on Apple unless the Area 51 joke was excised, pronto. Apple acquiesced, but the Newton 2.0 ROM was already completed. To remove the offensive material without having to start all over, the programmers issued a system update patch that quietly eliminated access to any and all sensitive issues of national security. You know what that means, junior hackers! That's right: that which can be patched can also be unpatched! Stick it to The Man by restoring Area 51 to its rightful place in your Newton 2.0. Just follow these instructions straight from a Newton programmer: 1) Open the Extras drawer. 2) Switch the folder of the Extras drawer to "Storage." 3) Tap on the icon "Time Zones" and press the "Delete" button. (WARNING: any cities you've added to your Newton will be lost.) 4) Switch the folder of the extras drawer back to "Unfiled icons." 5) Tap on "Time Zones." Behold: Area 51 stands revealed at last! May our government recognize this small victory as fair warning: the geek is mightier than the sword. (c) Copyright 1996 ParaScope, Inc. Next: The Moon is Mine! Fortean Slips Index What do you think? Tell us in the message boards!