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Apple Easter Eggs
Blue Meanies


By: David K. Every
& Daniel Fanton
(C) Copyright 1999 DKE - All Rights Reserved.

Blue Meanies

Of course everyone knows that the Blue Meanies are those mean furry blue guys that were killing the peace in the Beatles movie "Yellow Submarine". Or if you didn't know, you do now.

At Apple, the Meanies first appeared as an easter egg hidden inside the System file.

One of the meanies sent me this little tidbit on the origin of the name:

Why Blue Meanies? Well, System 7 was "Blue". We were mean (we were also known as the "arrogant bastards"). Blue Meanies were actually characters in the Beatles movie "Yellow Submarine". There were also Apple Bonkers, which became the name of an important server which our team used.

Why was System 7 blue? Because that's the color of the index cards that features, at a Pescadero off-site meeting, went onto for the "next release". "Future release" stuff went onto pink cards, hence the precursor to Taligent was called "Pink". There was also Green and Red, but that's for another time.

We had a good time. We were on a mission. System 7 was a good system to work on. It was a bit much to do all at once, and it could have been planned better, but it was a big accomplishment, and an all-around excellent thing for Apple and its customers.

Some Apple engineers made up a fictional story about the blue meanies which can be found at http://www.spies.com/greg/bluemeanies.html.

The Egg

When opening the System with a text program like BBEdit, you will see text about Blue Meanies hidden inside. There are also many other programs (MacSnoop, MacTools, MS Word, CanOpener) that will open any application or file, such as the System file.

Here are the different flavors:

System 7.0.1:

Help! Help! We're being held prisoner in a system software factory!

The Blue Meanies

Darin Adler
Scott Boyd
Chris Derossi
Cynthia Jasper
Brian McGhie
Greg Marriott
Beatrice Sochor
Dean Yu

System 7.1:

Help! Help! Weíre still being held prisoner in a system software factory!

The Blue Meanies

Lew Cirne
David Collins
Wayne Correia
Chris Derossi
Pete Helme
Fred Huxham
Don Louv
Kevin MacDonell
Brian McGhie
Greg Marriott
Jeff Miller
Fred Monroe
Dean Yu

System 7.5:

Help! Help! He's STILL being held prisoner in a system software factory!

The Blue Meanie:

Brian McGhie

Also serving time:

Giovanni Agnoli
Eric3 Anderson
Jeff Crawford
Cameron Esfahani
Dave Falkenburg
Hoon Im
Dave Lyons
Mike Larson
Darren Litzinger
Rob lunatic Moore
Jim Murphy
Mike Puckett
Anumele Raja
Jim Reekes
Alex Rosenberg
Eric Slosser
Randy theLen
Steve Stevenson
Roshi Yousefi

and Tristan Farnon (because he paid us ten bucks)

Fugitives:

Lars Borresen
Scott Boyd
Jaime Cummins
Brad Post

Will the last person to leave please turn off the lights?

System 7.5.2:

Help! Help! He's STILL being held prisoner in a system software factory!

The Blue Meanie:

Brian McGhie

Serving time for 7.5 crimes:

Giovanni Agnoli
Eric3 Anderson
Clinton Bauder
Jeff Crawford
Cameron Esfahani
Dave Falkenburg
Ian Hendry
Mike Larson
Dave Lyons
Rob lunatic Moore
Jim Murphy
Anumele Raja
Jim Reekes
Alex Rosenberg
Eric Slosser
Randy theLen
Steve Stephenson
Roshi Yousefi

Serving time for 7.5.1 crimes:

Eric Hewitt
Darren Litzinger
Eric Rapin

Serving time for 7.5.2 crimes:

William Berry
Dave Evans
Eric Hewitt
Deric Horn
Dave Lyons
Jim Murphy
Steve Stephenson

Fugitives:

Sam Barone
Lars Borresen
Scott Boyd
Jaime Cummins
Hoon Im
Brad Post
Mike Puckett
Paul Wolf

Mercenary:

John Yen

Will the last person to leave please turn off the lights?

System 7.5.3: (7.5 Update 2.0)

Code Name: System 7.5.3 Revision 2 Code Name: Buster (ex-CEO Gil Amelio's high school nickname) & Son of Buster, Thag (from Gary Larson's Cartoon)

From: Steve Myers ([email protected])

Mercenaries hit the factory and freed the prisoners.

On contract:

Wendy Chiou
Doug Clark
Mike Crawford
Michael Dautermann
Dave Evans
Nitin Ganatra
Darren Litzinger
Jim Luther
Dave Lyons
Jim Mensch
Alex Rangel
Steve Stephenson
John Yen

Freed, armed, and dangerous:

Eric3 Anderson
Clinton Bauder
Derrick Carty
Jeff Crawford
Cameron Esfahani
Ian Hendry
Eric Hewitt
Deric Horn
Jim Murphy
Craig Prouse
Mike Puckett
Jim Reekes
Steve Swenson
Harry Yee

Released before the raid:

Giovanni Agnoli
William Berry
Dave Falkenburg
Brian McGhie
Rob lunatic Moore
Anumele Raja
Alex Rosenberg
Eric Slosser
Randy theLen
Roshi Yousefi

Fugitives:

Sam Barone
Lars Borresen
Scott Boyd
Jaime Cummins
Hoon Im
Brad Post
Paul Wolf

Who dares wins.

System 7.6:

Mercenaries hit the software factory and freed the prisoners.

On contract:

Cameron Birse
Steve Bollinger
Don Brady
Ray Chiang
Wendy Chiou
Steve Falkenburg
Nitin Ganatra
C.K. Haun
Deric Horn
Daniel Jalkut
Darren Litzinger
Jim Luther
Dave Lyons
Jim Mensch
Alex Rangel
Keith Stattenfield
John Yen

Freed, armed, and dangerous:

Eric3 Anderson
Clinton Bauder
Derrick Carty
Jeff Cobb
Cameron Esfahani
Ian Hendry
Alan Lillich
Dave Peterson
Mike Puckett
Jim Reekes
Steve Swenson
Karen Wenzel
Harry Yee

Who dares wins


Created: 08/26/98
Updated: 11/09/02


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