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United States Programming

In Hidden Message on White House Website, Biden Calls For Coders (reuters.com) 145

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
The recently updated website for President Joe Biden's White House carried an invitation for tech specialists savvy enough to find it. From a report: Hidden in the HTML code on www.whitehouse.gov was an invitation to join the U.S. Digital Service, a technology unit within the White House. "If you're reading this, we need your help building back better," the message said. Former President Barack Obama launched the service in 2014 to recruit technologists to help revamp government services -- for example by modernizing Medicare's payment system or reforming hiring practices across government agencies. Tech specialists join the Digital Service for typically one or two years.
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In Hidden Message on White House Website, Biden Calls For Coders More

In Hidden Message on White House Website, Biden Calls For Coders

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  • Way to go! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jjaa ( 2041170 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @05:28PM (#60970720)
    It was covert for a reason, why spoil it for everyone? :p

  • So Space Force is being replaced by Force++?

  • Spoiler alert guys! Now that you've blabbed the secret code, they're going to have to find a new place to hide it. Now any idiot can claim they found the message. Sheesh.

    Also, I'm guessing my slang dictionary needs updating, but what exactly does "building back better" mean?

  • Similar vibe to a century ago or so... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Nothing new here, slaves used to work forging the chains that bound them also.

  • Savvy? (Score:3)

    by Anachronous Coward ( 6177134 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @05:40PM (#60970776)

    I pressed Ctrl-U entirely by accident.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      I pressed Ctrl-U entirely by accident.

      D'oh! Now that you have revealed the secret code, they will have to change it.

  • I found it by reading the Slashdot front page. That makes me leet doesn't it? Doesn't it?

  • Not exactly hidden (Score:5, Informative)

    by bob4u2c ( 73467 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @05:51PM (#60970810)
    It is in a comment on line 9 of the html source, not very hard to find at all. The bigger question is who would even bother to look in the first place?

    Looking at the page, they could use some help on not embedding svg images directly into the page. Nothing like wasting bandwidth sending the same information over and over again instead of just making an svg file that will be cached by the browser. They did use some svg images, so I'm not sure why they didn't do that consistently.

    Oh, and please get some help in sizing images appropriately, an image 2500x1250 transmitted in full only to be scaled by css to 617x477 (and yes the browser is cropping the sides to not distort the aspect ratio). That kind of laziness annoys me to no end. If you wanted people to view the full picture, make it a link to it, but use an appropriate thumbnail.

    Lots of mystery meat navigation as well, and things you would expect to be links that aren't. Sadly this is about par with most corp sites I've seen.

    • Re:Not exactly hidden (Score:5, Funny)

      by igelineau ( 4296473 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @05:55PM (#60970832)
      congratulations, you got the job !

    • Re:Not exactly hidden (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @06:17PM (#60970932)

      an image 2500x1250 transmitted in full only to be scaled by css to 617x477

      This is why web designers should be required to test their work with a 56k modem as their connection to the Internet.

      • See, that's the kind of insight we need to be best building back better -- you're hired! Or conscripted. Either way works.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        As a contractor I once pointed out to the designers that a page loaded slowly on a typical home setup of the time. They replied as long as their boss's connection showed it fast enough, they were not concerned. The boss wanted his bandwidth-hogging eye candy and they were afraid to rain in his parade with the reality of ordinary Joe's and Joann's.

        Dilbert is a comic strip AND a documentary.

        • Pre-scaling images doesn't make a site less eye-candyish.

          If anything, it is better because you can use the best algorithm for scaling rather than relying on the user's browser to do it.

          Working for a PHB is no excuse for a lack of professionalism. Would you recommend any of the designers to a future employer?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          Scott Adams has said that no matter how absurd he makes the plot lines people still write in about them asking, "Have you been in communication with my co-workers? This exact thing is happening."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by antdude ( 79039 )

        Nah, 28.8k modem speed since that was my former home area could go even with 56k (FCC limits to 53k). :(

      • Also, a 10 year-old computer to render it on, with a default browser install without any plugins.

      • Re:Not exactly hidden (Score:5, Interesting)

        by swillden ( 191260 ) <shawn-ds@willden.org> on Thursday January 21, 2021 @10:02AM (#60973324) Journal

        an image 2500x1250 transmitted in full only to be scaled by css to 617x477

        This is why web designers should be required to test their work with a 56k modem as their connection to the Internet.

        Good web developers use tools to simulate slow connections. e.g. https://developers.google.com/... [google.com]

        It's interesting to set that to 5 kbps down, 5 kbps up and 100 ms latency (a fair simulation of a 56k modem), then try to use the modern web. It's completely unusable. The above link, for example, takes over an hour to load (with nothing cached). How much over an hour I don't know; I gave up waiting.

        • Good old Opera with "cached images only" was a life saver back in the day. Right-click -> load image on any image you actually cared about.

          I haven't seen anything as elegant since they disposed Opera for Chrome-clone Opera.

    • What a clever move! Man!! This is genius!

      No body reads comments. Dijkstra said, "Debug code, not comments", right after declaring GOTO statements are evil

      So hiding it in comments is how you defeat hackers, who are stepping through code in a Black Orifice decompiler/de-obfuscater will never see the comments. It is in the code of conduct handbook of every paid-by-the-hour consultant, never read comment, always run it in debugger, step through code to find one crafty if statement to special case the bug and

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by bob4u2c ( 73467 )
        That reminds me.

        The last place I worked they used html templates with injected code. When I started looking at the html output I kept seeing a bunch of comments, including a few rants devs made. Instead of making these comments in the code, almost everyone made them in the html. So yeah, clients probably saw a few of them. That is until I brought it up to my supervisor who tasked me with moving them to inside code blocks.

        As far as comments, it depends. A comment that says something like, "update al
        • The comment might have been correct, but over time code evolves, example the function no longer update some map in that function call, but the comment says it does, that is how wrong comments are found in code. Code changes go through unit testing suite and regression testing suite. Comment changes are not tracked by machine but by human diligence. To err is human.

          To me it is critical to comment the code that is NOT there. Example: "We used to uniquify the domain IDs here. We acquired JumpNet and their pr

    • Chi coms gonna feast on that site. puttn an ad in the html, winos did that

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Gwala ( 309968 )

      It's because mobile devices have high DPI screens, and their browsers _will_ render the higher resolution.

  • <!-- If you're reading this, we need your help building back better. https://usds.gov/apply [usds.gov] -->

    • Re:Spoiler (Score:5, Insightful)

      by XanC ( 644172 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @06:22PM (#60970948)

      It says:

      We strongly encourage people of color, members of racial and ethnic minority groups, women, LGBTQI+ people, those with disabilities, and Veterans to apply. We build better products when our team represents all of America.

      We do not discriminate based off of color, race, age, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, pregnancy, status as a parent, national origin, disability (physical or mental), family medical history or genetic information, political affiliation, military service, or other non-merit based factors.

      The first and second paragraphs are completely at odds with each other. So which one is it?

      Imagine if some job site said "We strongly encourage heterosexual white men to apply, because most coders in this country match that description. We do not discriminate based on color, race, gender identity, or sexual orientation."

      Would that fly?

      • Re:Spoiler (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Rhipf ( 525263 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @06:42PM (#60971010)

        I think you picked this nit a bit too much.

        The two paragraphs are not at odds with one another. You can strongly encourage a specific group of people to apply to a job and still not use those particular characteristics when sorting through the applications. If you don't encourage people that might not normally apply to apply then it is harder to hire a team that "represents all of America".
        Your example is a bit off since there is really no need to encourage "heterosexual white men to apply" since "most coders in this country match that description" and that group is likely to apply whether you encourage them or not.

        • Re:Spoiler (Score:5, Insightful)

          by fwad ( 94117 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @07:34PM (#60971202) Homepage

          I get the intention of the statement, however when you go through HR with a white candidate and you have to justify several times why they aren't coloured, but you bring a coloured candidate through and no questions asked then you do need to start to wonder.

          I'll fix it for you

          We strongly encourage *all people to apply regardless* of their color ....

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mysidia ( 191772 )

            when you go through HR with a white candidate and you have to justify several times why they aren't coloured, but you bring a coloured candidate through and no questions asked

            Required steps necessary in order to fulfill the legal duty to not discriminate against minorities, by compensating for a disproportionately low number of candidates in minority groups applying or being hired.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by 45mm ( 970995 )

              Required steps necessary in order to fulfill the legal duty to not discriminate against minorities

              Which is discriminatory towards white candidates, because you're now treating them differently than non-white.

              • "Encouraging" others is not the same blocking out some. In centuries past, it was common to see signs such as "Blacks/Natives/Jews/what-have-you need not apply," because they wouldn't even be considered. So there's a mentality among minorities, et al, not to even bother applying because it was likely that they wouldn't even be fairly considered. The "encouraging" is saying, "We'll give you a fair shot at the job," not, "We're not considering whites."

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by mysidia ( 191772 )

                Which is discriminatory towards white candidates, because you're now treating them differently than non-white.

                No.. Discriminatory hiring against a class means that a low number of that class have been hired, therefore, showing a bias against that class. If more total white candidates have been hired, Then they are by definition not discriminatory against white candidates as a group, even if a new white candidate applying has a lower chance of being hired at an individual level

                Employers are allowed to

        • I agree mostly with what you're saying because I've been involved in the government hiring process. After everyone applies on USAJobs.gov, HR filters the list down to a manageable number based on certain criteria which are heavily scrutinized to avoid even the appearance of preferential treatment. Some departments do it better than others but people sue the government _all_the_time for discriminatory hiring and firing practices so most organizations have mechanisms to maintain impartiality. While imperfe

      • See, that's the kind of nitpicky attention to detail we need from people updating our technology, not a bunch of outsourced cut-and-paste Java code from some no-bid graft-ridden contractor. You're hired too!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mysidia ( 191772 )

        The implication is that that the groups they describe might less often apply for the job/simply not apply more of them thinking/fearing they cannot get the job than other groups.

        Thus every employer in that situation have a legal duty to make corrections/attempt to compensate for that; e.g. by specifically calling out some groups and encouraging them to apply.

      • "We do not discriminate based off of color, race, age, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, pregnancy, status as a parent, national origin, disability (physical or mental), family medical history or genetic information, political affiliation, military service, or other non-merit based factors."

        There's no mention of weight, height, hair colour, hair length, hair style, eye colour, ears size, nose size, fingers length, heart rate, blood type, etc.

        I mean, their list seem t

      • The first has to be there, because an ordinary person would infer that because it's an job ad, one could just respond to it, where as those mentioned have to be explicitly told to reply to it. Like in colleges now, where they strongly encourage you to attend class, study, do homework, and take tests, but it's not required. https://quillette.com/2020/12/... [quillette.com]
      • We strongly discourage nitpickers, grammar-naz1s, people with low slashdot ids, people with high slashdot ids, kooks, qanons, and mask-deniers.

      • The first and second paragraphs are completely at odds with each other. So which one is it?

        If your reading comprehension skills are that poor I suggest you're probably not the right person for the job. Or at the very least buy a damn dictionary and look up the word encourage.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by XanC ( 644172 )

          mmmhmm. They're telling us who they ACTUALLY want to hire. If they gave platitudes about being equal opportunity while signalling that they actually wanted to hire white people, what would you say?

  • A plan (Score:3)

    by ebonum ( 830686 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @05:53PM (#60970824)

    Sweet. Work from home. Ya'know. Because COVID. Sub the coding to Chinese coders on UpWork. Profit! What could go wrong?

    • A lot can already go wrong even without Chinese coders. Hell, a lot can already go wrong even with people who supposedly learned how to do the damn job.

  • Why is Slashdot always several days - weeks out of the new cycle?

  • Savvy enough or simply curious enough? (Score:4, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @06:05PM (#60970858)

    ... savvy enough to find it.

    Yup, <right-click> "View Page Source" -- a secret skill of elite coders everywhere. :-)

    • Exactly -- the kinds of people still reading any government webpage other than "Where's my Tax Refund" on laptops/desktops rather than on their phones, and then bothering to peek at the source code. You cleared two hurdles already, we might as well just hire you now!

      • Am 1337 enough to have viewed source on my phone, at least.

        Really disappointed that all the racist 10%ers are still hanging around.

        (Not calling you out, parent)

        Really a drag that they are smart enough to like news for nerds, but dumb enough to be easy prey for the brownshirts and dipshits. They got no self-respect, I suppose.

    • Yup, "View Page Source" -- a secret skill of elite coders everywhere. :-)

      If they were smart enough their code would dynamically detect the right click and hide the message. If you're so slow that you use a mouse instead of keyboard shortcuts then you just aren't what we're looking for.

  • I hear that there are tech folks out of work. I also hear that unemployment systems are in need of an update. There is a win-win available here.

  • Obamacare website (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Tailhook ( 98486 )

    Wasn't the signature achievement of the Obama/Biden administration also the nexus of the most monumentally pathetic software launch that has occurred so far this century?

    WTF are they 'planning' now?

    • Yes, but this time they'll "build back better." Clearly, the only thing missing on the last attempt was a peppy slogan.

    • Wasn't the signature achievement of the Obama/Biden administration also the nexus of the most monumentally pathetic software launch that has occurred so far this century?

      Yes, healthcare.gov was a fiasco. USDS (United States Digital Service) was essentially spawned in the later years of the obama admin, from the team that unfucked healthcare.gov. And they've continued the mission of unfucking federal IT infrastructure for 6 years (and now 3 administrations) running now. They've delivered quite a bit in that time.

  • Remember the ones the lib's told to "learn to code" after they told them they were gonna kill their jobs off?

    • Downvoted, thanks.

      You say "lost jobs", I say "cleaner air and water for everyone". You're the kind of person that would have cried about the slave traders jobs at the end of slavery.

  • Was Drupal during Obama's terms ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @06:45PM (#60971024) Homepage

    Here is some background on the White House web site.

    Early in Obama's first term, a web agency was hired to build the White House's web site using Drupal. It continued to be powered by Drupal until early in Trump's term, when it switched to WordPress [eweek.com].

    I know because I consult on Drupal, and I was a core contributor. Some modules I developed were running on the White House web site (e.g. Nagios integration [drupal.org]).

    What will the web site move to [agileana.com]? It will be interesting to watch ...

  • Trump extended secret service protection for his adult children [washingtonpost.com] They are not entitled to it, but he did a directive on the last day of office. Yes, it is for the same "children" who would not let secret service use a bathroom in their home, forcing the government to rent a neighbor's basement studio apartment for 3000 $ a month [washingtonpost.com]. It would be infra dig for them to let their security detail use a bathroom in some corner. They were so considerate of their neighbors they first tried to have a porta potty perma

  • Yeah, it has been done probably thousands of times.

    That one isn't even clever, it is a link to the generic USDS job application page. Basically a cheap targeted ad, was pretty clever the first time it was done, but now, nothing special.

    But looking closer at the source, there is also a hidden field. Maybe that it is the real secret, the one that will allow talented coders to... get flagged as bots I suppose.

    BTW, I also tried a Konami code, it did nothing.

  • It's a Trap! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    They think anyone who views the source is a hacker. Don't identify yourself!

  • Get a zillion H1b folk. Screw American talent.

  • Do they know that HTML is a simple markup format, created for laypeople, kids and grannies?

    And yes, in the 90s and even 2000s, that's who wrote their own webpages. Because it is that trivial.

    If you want coders, I'd at least try a programming language instead.

    You *will* get blackhats though! :D

  • drink more ovaltine

  • I wondered where Obama had gone to hire the incompetent and stupid "coders" who wrote the disastrous Obamacare "program". I guess Biden has gone to the same well. Not having any other ideas, y'know.

  • every day, and that's still a no-no for government jobs. Fix your cannibis policy and I might sign up.

  • I hacked the login for whitehouse.com in my younger years. It was quite eye-opening as a teen in the late 90's. Username and login were both "backdoor". I only understood the double entendre after I watched the videos hosted there.
  • One of the oldest tricks in the book, make a watcher stop watching because they think they have found something. Pirates would bury a small cache on top of the real thing so the lazy would stop digging.

    Practically anyone could find that notice. A really skilled person would realize it might be purposely planted low hanging fruit to eliminate most of the applicants, where the desirable candidates would continue to search for further hidden messages, or look for stenographic messages in the plain text one. O

  • I don't want the job but... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by seoras ( 147590 ) on Wednesday January 20, 2021 @11:00PM (#60971960)

    Looks like they need some help. I got Firefox to show me the front page source and it high-lightened in red the /footer on line 950.
    A quick spin through validator.w3.org [w3.org] shows up 27 errors and warnings.

  • Maybe they were confused between the whitehouse.gov and whitehouse.org sites?

  • Who looks for comments in web code? I'm thinking people who try to hack your site for profit (or job, like foreign hired hackers) and possibly security researchers. So I'm having a hard time figuring out what group this ad is trying to reach. "If you are a Russian spy, we want you to work on government cyber project so you can add your backdoors easier?"

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