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When I worked on an early SoC with a display on the dev-board, our test software didn't do anything with the display. Depending on the last state of the system,

When I worked on an early SoC with a display on the dev-board, our test software didn't do anything with the display. Depending on the last state of the system, the display usually had a bunch of ugly LCD noise on it. Eventually I got around to implementing a rudimentary framebuffer to send to the display. Wondering what to display, I figured I'd compute a Mandelbrot fractal! People liked it, and I was happy to have made our dev systems a little less ugly. I went to work on other things for a few months. When I came back, they had replaced my fractal with the company logo :\ (I suspect, but don't know the codec, that the jpeg used to store the company logo ended up using more space and cycles-per-pixel than my fractal)

registeredcorn 5y ago
Although frustrating and disappointing to hear, that certainly sounds like the perfect sort of opportunity to surreptitiously upload slightly altered versions of the company logo. Slightly mismatched colors. Bassic mispelings. Logo rotated by 4 to 5 degrees. Overlay a semi-transparent competitor logo for a single frame. Etc.
- futharkshill 5y ago
  > Overlay a semi-transparent competitor logo for a single frame. I have to ask: is this serious or not? While extremely funny, are you guys all working for places where this is not potentially billions in damages?
  - scrumbledober 5y ago
    Sounds like it was only on dev boards, not going out to production.
    - admax88qqq 5y ago
      Dev work often finds curious ways to production.
    - junon 5y ago
      Famous last words.
- Damogran6 5y ago
  We had a call center with an 18 screen Hiperwall. The manager was a little OCD. Each viewport was completely configurable and modifiable. I may have left it for awhile with each viewport rotated by a degree...maybe two.
bsedlm 5y ago
duxup 5y ago
I put googly eyes on the men and women figures on the bathroom signs once. HR sent out a series of painful to read HR speak emails where they chastised whomever did it, implied just about everything you could imagine ... all while saying nothing at all. Whimsy can be dangerous.
- Melatonic 5y ago
  Those ANIMALS drawing attention to our definitely not weird signs!
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  > HR sent out a series of painful to read HR speak emails where they chastised whomever did it, implied just about everything you could imagine ... all while saying nothing at all. If HR cares and has time to do that it’s a sign, there's fat to trim in the organization. I’m sure your investors would be thrilled to learn that.
- subsubzero 5y ago
  We need more whimsy in life in general and at the office more-so.
  - jfengel 5y ago
    We do, but it's easy for whimsy to go too far. Googly eyes on a poster is cute. Graffiti everywhere isn't. When one person does it, it's a clever surprise. When many people do it, it quickly becomes tedious and repetitious. It's interesting only when it's done judiciously. It's even worse when it escalates, such as with vandalism, or cruelty, or shock. And one person's "whimsy" can easily become "what, can't you take a joke?" So I can see why an HR department would want to say, "Yes, the was very cute, the first time. Please don't turn it into a problem".

registeredcorn 5y ago

Although frustrating and disappointing to hear, that certainly sounds like the perfect sort of opportunity to surreptitiously upload slightly altered versions of the company logo. Slightly mismatched colors. Bassic mispelings. Logo rotated by 4 to 5 degrees. Overlay a semi-transparent competitor logo for a single frame. Etc.

futharkshill 5y ago
> Overlay a semi-transparent competitor logo for a single frame. I have to ask: is this serious or not? While extremely funny, are you guys all working for places where this is not potentially billions in damages?
- scrumbledober 5y ago
  Sounds like it was only on dev boards, not going out to production.
  - admax88qqq 5y ago
    Dev work often finds curious ways to production.
  - junon 5y ago
    Famous last words.
Damogran6 5y ago
We had a call center with an 18 screen Hiperwall. The manager was a little OCD. Each viewport was completely configurable and modifiable. I may have left it for awhile with each viewport rotated by a degree...maybe two.

bsedlm 5y ago

duxup 5y ago

I put googly eyes on the men and women figures on the bathroom signs once. HR sent out a series of painful to read HR speak emails where they chastised whomever did it, implied just about everything you could imagine ... all while saying nothing at all. Whimsy can be dangerous.

Melatonic 5y ago
Those ANIMALS drawing attention to our definitely not weird signs!
908B64B197 5y ago
> HR sent out a series of painful to read HR speak emails where they chastised whomever did it, implied just about everything you could imagine ... all while saying nothing at all. If HR cares and has time to do that it’s a sign, there's fat to trim in the organization. I’m sure your investors would be thrilled to learn that.
subsubzero 5y ago
We need more whimsy in life in general and at the office more-so.
- jfengel 5y ago
  We do, but it's easy for whimsy to go too far. Googly eyes on a poster is cute. Graffiti everywhere isn't. When one person does it, it's a clever surprise. When many people do it, it quickly becomes tedious and repetitious. It's interesting only when it's done judiciously. It's even worse when it escalates, such as with vandalism, or cruelty, or shock. And one person's "whimsy" can easily become "what, can't you take a joke?" So I can see why an HR department would want to say, "Yes, the was very cute, the first time. Please don't turn it into a problem".