Office High Jinx

There's no better way to welcome back your coworkers from the holidays, vacation, or that long sales trip than with an office prank. There is no need for pranks to be relegated to April Fool's Day; any day of the year is good for a small joke. A prescription for safe office pranks if often perfect for some fun lighthearted fun and/or well deserved payback.

In this day and age, Technology and the Internet rule, and most people spend their time online browsing, emailing or shopping. Why not try and play a joke on your friends where they spend most of their time…their computers and offices.

Remember, any prank you can easily play on someone could just as easily be used against you as well.

The Mouse Jiggler

The Mouse Jiggler is a product that is designed to:

Prevent a computer from going to sleep while you work or play. (The) constant mouse activity prevents sleep mode and screen savers (and their password prompts).

Simply wait for your victim to step away from their computer for a few minutes and attach the Mouse Jiggler to one of the rear USB ports (to keep it from being immediately noticed). When the victim returns to their computer, the mouse cursor will be jumping all over the screen.

Can You Hear Me Now?

| In : Phones

Imagine sitting at your desk getting your work done, when out of nowhere, all of the phones in your office/department start ringing at the same time. A sign of demonic possession you say? No, not quite, it's simply what Skype and $10 in Skype credit (the minimum you can purchase) can get you.

Set up a Skype conference by clicking on the conference button on the main Contacts tab, then type in the numbers of the people you want to call.
Add all of your departments/offices phone numbers in the participants field (don't forget desk, fax, and personal cell numbers).
When you press the "Start the call" button, Skype calls out to all of the numbers at once with Caller ID showing "Unknown Caller" or "000-000-0000"
As people answer their phones they will be talking to each-other talking, all saying each-other called them.

Houston, Do You Copy?

| In : Copier , Dry-Erase Markers

Want to include a personal message on everyone copies? Not a problem, just write it on the copy machines' glass. Most people don't look at the glass before they make a copy, and if you write small message, even if they look, they are likely to miss it.

Using a fine tipped dry-erase marker, write a message on the copy machines glass copy surface. Writing backwards will make your message legible after it has been copied.

If you are really lucky they will copy a whole stack of papers by using the document feeder trays and will walk off while the copier goes to work resulting in their entire stack of copies with your message all over it.

If you make your message small, perhaps a small heart with "I Luv You" in it, they are less likely to notice until after they have distributed their copies to people in the office.

Before executing this prank, it is highly advisable that you double check to ensure the marker is easily removable from the copiers copy surface.

The Never Ending Fax

| In : Fax , hardware

The never ending fax has been around for a while but isn't something people expect. For the never ending fax to work, you need to make sure that the victims fax is a paper fax, not a fax number that gets forwarded to their email.

Write a funny message or get a funny picture of the victim and print it out. Make 3-4 copies of the print out and tape the pieces of paper together so they form a long sheet of paper.
On your fax machine, initiate a fax to your victim and as the beginning of your fax is read by the machine, securely tape it to the tail of the paper, forming an endless loop (like a belt).
Your fax machine will endlessly scroll through the loop of paper, sending the same information over and over again to your victim.

Would You Like To Super-Size That?

| In : computer , Cursor , Harmless , Mac , Preferences , Software , Universal Access

Do you have a coworker who is always loosing things? Help them keep track of their mouse cursor by super-sizing it for them.

Go to System Preferences > Universal Access
Select the "Mouse and Trackpad" pane
At the bottom of the window, adjust the "Cursor Size" slider to the far right, "Large"

With a cursor this big, you can be sure they will always be able to find it on the screen.

Can You See My Point of View II?

| In : computer , Display , Harmless , Mac , Preferences , Software , Universal Access

In our earlier post we discussed how Apples "Universal Access" Preference Panel is designed to enhance the user experience for people with disabilities. When enabled, they can produce some pretty wild experiences for those who don't know what is going on. But what if you want only a subtle change? Something they notice but it will take them a second or two to figure out whats wrong? The answer is simple, just turn their display to Grey-Scale.

Go to System Preferences > Universal Access
In the "Display" section, check the "Use grayscale" checkbox.

The "Enhance Contrast" slider will determine how bright the colors are, but "Normal" is good for a subtle change. Depending on how bright your victim is, it may take them a few minutes to realize that they lost all of the color on their screen.

Can You See My Point of View?

| In : computer , Display , Harmless , Mac , Preferences , Software , Universal Access

Apples "Universal Access" Preference Panel is designed to enhance the user experience for people with disabilities. When enabled, they can produce some pretty wild experiences for those who don't know what is going on.

Go to System Preferences >Universal Access
In the "Display" section, set the radio button to "White on black"

This prank is completely harmless to the computer, an unsuspecting victim will likely be on the phone to tech support to get their displayed replaced in a matter of minutes.