I seriously dislike April Fool’s Day. It may be my lack of patience, it may be my lack of sense of humor, but I’m leaning more toward my lack of creativity when trying to come up with a good prank of my own. I mean, I work in the Technology Field; I should be able to come up with something cool to not only fool the gullible, but also to highlight my technological know how. This morning, I have nothing. So instead I’ll just highlight some of my favorite pranks, please feel free to share some of your own.
The Basic
The Old Faithful in the world of computer pranks. Wait until your co-worker leaves their computer unattended and logged in. Take a screenshot of their desktop with all of their icons on it, then move those icons into a directory in their My Documents folder. Next, use the screen shot that you took of their desktop and make it their background image. Wait for hilarity to ensue when your co-worker starts clicking like mad on icons that aren’t really there. *Ups and Downs* This prank is easy to pull but can also be easy to spot. It’s getting pretty old now, you may need to come up with a way to spice it up a bit. Don’t look at me for suggestions though, remember: Me = Not Creative.
The Geeky
This year there is a cool new item at ThinkGeek that is perfect for your April Fool’s Day mayhem. This little device plugs into a USB Port on the computer of your victim of choice. It will make mouse movements, turn Caps Lock on and off, and even type complete garbage on the screen – all at random intervals. *Ups and Downs* This one could be funny all year long. The trick with this kind of prank is to set the intervals as low as they will go and then let your co-worker’s frustration build and build. The problem is that this is a pretty large USB Device, it would be hard to miss for anyone that knows what they’re looking for.
The Unbelievably Wide Reaching
The folks at Google are masters when it comes to the April Fool’s Day prank. They have been getting more and more elaborate over the past 10 years. Today’s first prank from Google is Email Motion. I’m constantly amazed at the effort that Google puts into their pranks. According to Wikipedia there are already nine known pranks pulled by Google this year. Some of them will make you think, some of them will make you laugh, and some of them will make no sense to you at all, but you should still check them out. *Ups and Downs* These pranks are great, wide reaching, and for the most part very funny. The problem is this: you will never out do Google. Try as hard as you want, but Google has the resources of a city’s worth of people; they will always go bigger and stronger than you. It can cause normal pranksters to feel pretty inferior in the long run.
Celebrate this day of good natured pranking if you’d like, I’m going to try to keep my head down and stay out of the way. I’ve already been gotten once today and once is enough for me. Can you believe the nerve of business social networking site Linked In? They had me convinced that Albert Einstein, Sherlock Holmes, and The Mad Hatter were in my network. The morning has already been full of Wonderous Excitment and Infinite Disappointment.
I just keep telling myself that it’s almost over, just 14 more hours.
Dennis Edmondson Jr
Computing Concepts LLC
