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The best office prank I ever pulled was on a fellow dev, probably the smartest guy in the room. He came back from lunch and all of his apps stopped working. He
by solardev 3y ago
The best office prank I ever pulled was on a fellow dev, probably the smartest guy in the room. He came back from lunch and all of his apps stopped working. He couldn't launch anything. He restarted the computer and still nothing would start. He eventually figured out that launching an app from search works, but nothing would launch from his desktop shortcuts.
That's because while he was having lunch, I took a screenshot of his desktop, set that screenshot as the desktop background, and then hid the dock and deleted all his real icons :) (Well, put them in a folder for easy recovery).
He just kept clicking and clicking on that screenshot for way too long. Best 15 minutes of my life...
- lajosbacs 3y agoOf course it is a nice prank, but best 15 minutes?
- solardev 3y agoThe secret to happiness is low expectations :)
- a012 3y agoIt’s fun and game but nowadays if someone didn’t lock their computer when away then we’ll have a security incident to report
- solardev 3y agoIt gets better. I think it was actually set to auto lock after a minute or two, but I had practiced the routine on my own computer a few times first and managed to get it down to like ten seconds. He went to the bathroom right before heading out for lunch. I had my window. I did it quickly, and then joined him for lunch, keeping a straight face the whole time. When we came back I nonchalantly asked about some code for him to review but he was like hold on... Didn't suspect me until way too late :D But then after that, every time some random error popped up, he was like... "solardev, what did you do this time!" Fool him once...
- orthoxerox 3y agoIf someone on my team leaves their PC unlocked I usually start writing a self-incriminating email to cybersecurity on their PC before locking it.
- Two4 3y agoI've recently been driving a policy at my workplace that if you find a PC unlocked, you send out an email blast promising donuts (also copying in the victim). The victim then has a choice: admit to a security breach and have to sit through a training session, or follow through with donuts. This incentivises reporting, and disincentivises leaving your computer unlocked through social, economic and experiental means
- MobileVet 3y agoHaha. I did the exact same thing to a boss. We all had a good laugh and he stopped leaving his computer unlocked.
- WediBlino 3y agoI used to enjoy having the screensaver show a picture of a BSOD
- WediBlino 3y agoInfact Sysinternals used to have a screen saver scr file with a selection of BSODs from various operating systems
- djbusby 3y agoxscreensaver still has this. I have it on my laptop. Sometimes it triggers when I'm out consulting. Clients think the machine crashed. How could you not notice this is a crash screen from HPUX?
- I_Am_Nous 3y agoI believe this (or a descendant) still exists in Fedora, and it got my fellow Linux user coworker to double take once :)
- gosub100 3y agoAt work I tried the XP background that looks like the LCD cracked, and a picture of IE with ALL the spammy toolbars installed (such as Bonzi Buddy)
- JJMcJ 3y ago> deleted all his real icons Everything else you've described is amusing but if your recovery had failed, that's close to a fireable offense.
- checkyoursudo 3y agoHaving icons on the desktop is the real fireable offence.
- HenryBemis 3y agoHaving 500 MS Office files on the desktop should be the real fireable offence!
- mikewarot 3y agoUsing the recycle bin as a filing system should be a fireable offence.
- tonyedgecombe 3y agoI did some contract work at one site where they stored files in C:\Temp.
- hulitu 3y agoA lot of programs store files in c:\temp.
- tonyedgecombe 3y agoUsers shouldn't though, I'm talking about Word documents, PowerPoint files, etc.
- checkyoursudo 3y agoMy goto folder name when I don't know what to name it is temp. I have so many temp folders around. Never seem to get around to renaming them something more meaningful.
- phpisthebest 3y agoI am more disappointed that any dev would use desktop shortcuts...
- wruza 3y agoWhat? Why?
- mdhb 3y agoAgreed, what a bizarre thing to say.
- wredue 3y agoWindows key, then start typing what you want. Of course, on windows, you’ll have to disable bing search for this to be reliable. I still use desktop icons for some things, but the windows key for launching is just much better/easier. Windows key + 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 will also launch / bring to focus the matching icon on your taskbar. I don’t know the Mac equivalents. I believe Gnome and KDE work similarly to windows.
- wruza 3y agoWindows key + 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 will also launch / bring to focus the matching icon on your taskbar Thanks, I didn’t know that!
- phpisthebest 3y agoI never use the desktop, hell for a period of time I used only tiling window managers. I wish windows would have tiling mode. for windows, keyboard shotcuts, hotkeys, and win + search are far far more effective than a bunch of shortcuts on the desktop, I can not remember the last time I even looked at the wallpaper of my system.
- wruza 3y agoFancyZones is a good alternative to tiling on windows. It combines best of both worlds, imo, is very easy to configure, and there’s apparently no tool like that for linux. Also I find clicking on an icon faster than typing, especially when your mind is too busy to recall the exact name but the muscle memory knows where it is, or when the interface of a program assumes using mouse anyway. (Although I have to admit that most of my “desktop icons” are actually start menu tiles.) So while I understand and agree that different workflows exist and you have yours, I still don’t get why you should be disappointed by someone else using another one or having desktop/icons at all.
- Waterluvian 3y agoWe did this all the time in high school and it was never not funny. Windows 98/XP pre-YouTube was a really fun time for “you’ve got tech but you still have to make your own fun.”
- matheusmoreira 3y agoBefore a certain school presentation I moved all the power point files into the windows startup folder and turned off the machine. The shenanigans that ensued had my friends and I laughing for two hours straight.
- MichaelRo 3y agoNever in all my jobs except for one, inappropriate one that I actually quit, would someone even dream of sitting at my unlocked computer without my permission and acknowledgement and do stuff behind my back be it pranks or admin stuff. It's beyond taboo, it's something that might get you punched in the face around here.
- InCityDreams 3y agoWhere i am, the offence is leaving your station open for others to mess with.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- I_Am_Nous 3y agoI work at a SOC2 audited business and had a coworker who would routinely leave his PC unlocked. I would routinely set his desktop background to My Little Pony. He would routinely get grumpy at me and tell me not to touch his computer. I would routinely tell him I can't touch his computer if he locks it. It was a great way to train someone to follow SOC2 requirements.
- morsch 3y agoI always put salt in my coworkers unattended drinks for the same reasons. It's their fault, really.
- I_Am_Nous 3y agoCan you please link the relevant security documentation which specifies all drinks should be tamper resistant?
- benj111 3y agoI believe it's a sarcastic comment to make the point that just because something should be secure, doesn't mean you can go in a fiddle with it. Ianal but I don't think it's a valid defense to walk in to a bank, find an unlocked safe and take all the money to make a 'point'. Further, you're just normalising messing with other people's accounts which doesn't seem to be a good thing from a security pov.
- narag 3y agoMy best prank was loosening the plug for my buddy's keyboard. It was perfect because: - The guy was always making fun of everybody else - I did it while talking with him in his desk so the others could see what I was doing - I just loosened it, not unplugged it, so the keyboard stopped working after a while, when I was already back on my seat - Everybody was LOL and he had no idea why, just complaining the damn computer hanged
- eastbound 3y agoSounds like harassment.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tobr 3y agoA more elaborate version of this prank is to combine it with two more steps: unplug the mouse (or turn off Bluetooth), plus also put tape or a sticky note on the underside of the mouse, covering the sensor. Voila, they will have to troubleshoot the malfunctioning mouse three times in a row.
- NeoTar 3y agoAt one company we talked about doing the ultimate version of that prank (which ultimately would make it easier to discover)… 1. Unplug the mouse, 2. Cover the mouse sensor with tape, 3. Replace the desktop with a screenshot, 4. Flip the screen 180 degrees, 5. Print out the screen, and tack it in front of the monitor…