One of the great things about Apple is that, while the company has changed a lot over the years, its corporate culture continues to include strong senses of humor and whimsy. For example, take all those great Easter Eggs buried in the Mac OS. Depending on what version you're running, you can find anything from a flying iguana flag to a hidden game of Break-Out to crayons that wear out to messages like "Help! Help! We're being held prisoner in a system software factory!" And one of the really nice things about these hidden little gems is that, very often, they contain lists of the Apple employees who contributed to a given project; for instance, switch to the Finder, hold down the Option key, and select "About The Finder..." from the Apple menu to see a view of Silicon Valley and wait for a list of engineers who worked on the Finder. It's a sort of "geek fame," and we think it's pretty cool. It gives the Mac an even more human face.

Sadly, though, that may all be coming to an abrupt end. According to Mac the Knife, no less an authority than Steve Jobs himself recently issued a company-wide memo instituting a new policy: "Moving forward, no product should include a list of individual contributors, even if it is hidden... Instead, our products should all be labeled as a work of Apple in an appropriate manner." Hmmm. Sounds a little like "We are one people. With one will. One resolve. One cause." Where have we heard that before? We hope this isn't a really bad omen. The reason for the credits ban is that any credits lists "do not recognize all of the individuals who contribute to creating [Apple's] products," and leaving people out is just going to lead to hurt feelings.

Note that this isn't a ban on Easter Eggs in general-- but given how many Easter Eggs provide a list of credits, we think one of the main incentives to put them in has been eliminated. How likely is it that a team of engineers will want to bury a secret option-click into the Date & Time control panel that just says "Date & Time was brought to you by Apple"? Oooooh. And while we understand Steve's desire not to leave anyone out, he was the guy who had the signatures of every Mac engineer burned into the case of the original Macintosh way back when. Is this a fundamental paradigm shift? And is it really for the better? (Insert ominous music here.)