Facebook has revealed that hidden messages were inadvertently printed inside VR controllers that will be shipped to customers soon:
Facebook said it accidentally hid bizarre and "inappropriate" messages inside "tens of thousands" of virtual-reality controllers, including "Big Brother is Watching" and "The Masons Were Here." Nate Mitchell, the cofounder of Oculus, the Facebook-owned VR company, said on Twitter on Friday that the company inadvertently printed some unusual messages in its Touch controllers, handheld devices for playing games and navigating VR environments.
These messages were intended only for prototypes, but a mistake meant they were included in regular production devices, he said. Some messages were included in developer kits for people building software for the product, while others made their way into consumer devices in significantly larger numbers. While there should have been no internal messages of any kind in any of the devices, a Facebook representative told Business Insider that the company would not recall them.
"Unfortunately, some 'easter egg' labels meant for prototypes accidentally made it onto the internal hardware for tens of thousands of Touch controllers," Mitchell wrote. "The messages on final production hardware say 'This Space For Rent' & 'The Masons Were Here.' A few dev kits shipped with 'Big Brother is Watching' and 'Hi iFixit! We See You!' but those were limited to non-consumer units," he said. iFixit is a tech repair company known for publicly deconstructing new gadgets and posting photos of their innards online.
Also at Road to VR.
Related: Facebook Announces a New Standalone VR Headset: Oculus Quest; HTC Releases Vive Wireless Adapter
(nobody made a submission about Rift S because it is boring)
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday April 14 2019, @03:15PM (3 children)
So what purpose did these messages serve on the prototypes? Fun? It's not like a label alters the functionality. I guess the iFixit one could have at least been entertaining. But the others seem to just be stupid, I guess the big brother one could be interesting considering it's Facebook we are talking about, self-deprecation humor? Was this supposed to have been an easter-egg? In that case it was quite lame and didn't really hit the mark.
For all we know these labels are all over all the devices, we should crack them all open and see. Back in ye' olden days of computing it wasn't all that uncommon for hidden messages here and there from the developers. The Amiga 1000 comes to mind, all the developers and a dog paw print signed the inside of the covers.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by RandomFactor on Sunday April 14 2019, @03:35PM (2 children)
The Masons told me to say: It's just devs being devs. At least it wasn't some developmental backdoor accidentally left in this time.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 14 2019, @03:51PM
Exactly. As much as I hate Jewbook I always appreciate good gallows humor.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday April 14 2019, @03:51PM
That sounds about right. Facebook has a loose work culture that leads to goofing around and apparently a lack of quality control.
The messages may be more than self-deprecating: they could also be an indignant take on the amount of criticism the company receives. I think we had a recent story sourced from Facebook insiders that described devotion to Zuck, Sheryl Sandberg, and other leaders as cult-like (I will look for this later).
I'm not sure if the iFixit message is meant to be friendly or not. Regardless, they will still be taking the crap apart. Probably with more zeal now that they know about these little Easter eggs.
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