Favourite Colour: Myrtle

Question

At work we use confluence.

On occasion it crashes, resulting in an error 500 page being generated.

This page includes some interesting reference information, including:

System Information:
favouriteColour: Myrtle
javaRuntime: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment
jvmVersion: 1.0
operatingSystem: Linux 2.6.18-92.1.13.el5
...

Myrtle?

Many thoughts raged through my head. What's Myrtle? Why is it my favourite colour? Is it my favourite colour? Why does that particular tidbit of information require its own system property?

At first I assumed it was just something that someone at work had done. A remnant of a project long forgotten, an old April Fools joke perhaps?

It seems I was mistaken. In fact, even Atlassian acknowledges the colour, though they give no reason for its existence.

Now, I know what you're thinking? Who cares?

I do, gentle reader, I do. And you should too. It's little mysteries like this that make life worth living.

So, is there one among you who knows the secret of The Mysterious Myrtle uh.. Mystery? At least one inquiring mind wants to know..

Answer 1

Maybe it's something incredibly fundamental to programming - like pi for math, 42 for the universe, or the L-unit for space travel (as we all know, without it, space travel is but the fevered dream of a madman).

We can only guess.

Answer 2

FWIW, I've frequently put "interesting" information in error dumps -- I've found it's easier to get people to report it in bug reports, and they're more likely to accurately report something like "myrtle" as opposed to "error #47" or whatever...

Answer 3

Your Confluence System Favourite Colour (Australian spelling FTW) is also available from Admin -> System Info.

And if I told you any more, I'd have to kill you.

Answer 4

This looks like an obfuscation of their version or the error number.

You're not supposed to give your exact version away when selling corporate enterprise systems - it supposedly makes it easier for hackers to know what vulnerabilities to hit.

However they still want to be able to know what version you're on or what error id you got when you call for technical assistance, so they have a code word for each release.

I suppose the colours run out pretty quickly.