1337 Hakorz Pranks for April Fool's 2008
Today is the day many people will tie their friend's shoelaces together, pull the chair out from under an unsuspecting coworker, or tell their boss that they are quitting to work on American Idol audition songs.If you prefer pranks of the technical nature however, check out these suggestions:
Screw with Firefox - download/install the Total Confusion Combo pack on the victim's computer to wreak havoc on their Firefox installation. The pack of Firefox extensions will (at various times through the day) go two links back instead of one link forward, Rick Roll 2% of videos watched, change the user's Gmail inbox to display "666" messages, add "sigh" and "lol" to the end of sentences, and remove letters from text links. Thankfully though, the extensions will only be effective today (even if the victim doesn't uninstall them). [Via Lifehacker]
Remap keys - by using a program like SharpKeys or KeyExtender, you can do tricky things like flip the layout of a victim's keyboard (make 'a' become ';' , 's' become 'l' , etc.).
Disorient optical mouse - by sticking clear tape over the sensor on an optical mouse and coloring the matte side with marker, you can really cause the mouse to, um, not work properly. [Via Wired]
Use a specific Windows prank program - RJL Software has a bunch of small Windows programs that could drive your favorite victim nuts. For instance, "ScreenScrew" makes the monitor look like it's going bad by drawing scan lines, changing the color, making the display blurry, etc. "Follow Me" makes the user's Start button follow the mouse pointer horizontally on the task bar.
Use these pranks at your own risk, and happy AFD '08!