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Scorpiuscat
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Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:36 am

We have been having a prank war in our office between two departments.

It has been civil and fun with each department trying ot out do each other.

For example: One day I can in and found my stapler encased in Jello

I have an idea to force the other side to surrender by changing the layouts of thier keyboards on thier computers. They would still have all letters and numbers so techincally they would still be 100% functional, but the keyboard layout be so different that it would slow them down greatly.

I would tell that if they unconditionally surrender, I would return thier keyboards to their normal layouts.

Does anyone this is going to far?

Maybe i will just do this to thier leader instead of all of them if you guys think its too extreme.
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MadManOriginal
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:38 am

If you have to ask it probably is too far.
 
bthylafh
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:55 am

Yeah, if you have to ask, it's probably too far.
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derFunkenstein
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:02 am

I don't think he's really curious if it's too far, he just wants to share the fun. Besides, if they're rubber dome keyboards with key caps that pop off easily, I don't see the big deal. Just don't break one if it's not yours. :p
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:11 am

Stapler encased in jello...sounds suspiciously like a scene in "The Office".
 
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:16 am

dmitriylm wrote:
Stapler encased in jello...sounds suspiciously like a scene in "The Office".

That's exactly what I was thinking.
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Scorpiuscat
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:18 am

derFunkenstein wrote:
I don't think he's really curious if it's too far, he just wants to share the fun. Besides, if they're rubber dome keyboards with key caps that pop off easily, I don't see the big deal. Just don't break one if it's not yours. :p


I did not plan on changing the keys on the keyboards, but rather the layout Windows uses (i.e. Dvorak Keyboard layout).

That way, they have to surrender for me to change thier computers back to standard US layout. Changing keyboards will do them no good......MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA :lol:
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wibeasley
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:23 am

This may be neutering your idea too much: what do you think about rearranging the keys on a spare (but identical) keyboard and replacing their usual keyboard with it? If there's some urgent crunch at the office and they need a normal keyboard immediately, you could swap it quickly. There's no risk of you having to un-rearrange the keys while everyone and their boss is waiting for you to finish before they can start their important work.
 
wibeasley
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:27 am

Scorpiuscat wrote:
I did not plan on changing the keys on the keyboards, but rather the layout Windows uses (i.e. Dvorak Keyboard layout).
If you don't change the keys' locations to the corresponding new layout, I don't agree with your initial post that said, "techincally they would still be 100% functional".

If you changed the setting, is there any risk that some sensitive employee would claim you can't be trusted with administrative privelages on other people's computers?
 
Scorpiuscat
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:42 am

wibeasley wrote:
Scorpiuscat wrote:
I did not plan on changing the keys on the keyboards, but rather the layout Windows uses (i.e. Dvorak Keyboard layout).
If you don't change the keys' locations to the corresponding new layout, I don't agree with your initial post that said, "techincally they would still be 100% functional".

If you changed the setting, is there any risk that some sensitive employee would claim you can't be trusted with administrative privelages on other people's computers?



These are field superintendants, they dont use thier computers a lot, mostly data entry at the end of the day and its never time critical work. As long as the days work hours,etc get entered by the end of the week, they will be good.

These are not overly sensative people, we have done some pretty mean things to each other over the years. They dont expect to be handled with kids gloves.

Thats why I think I can force a surrender with this keyboard idea. They will be helpless.
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wibeasley
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:08 pm

It sounds like you're enjoying it and would be disappointed if they surrendered.
 
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:16 pm

The question you have to ask yourself is: will they immediately realize it's a prank and not a problem? Because then can fumble around for 2 hours and summon up IT, etc, before they realize it was you.
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:23 pm

How about the old screen cap the desktop, delete all short cuts and move the task bar to the top of the screen set to auto hide trick? The keyboard idea is good to though.
 
wibeasley
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:26 pm

I assumed he was IT, because he has administrative privilege.
 
Scorpiuscat
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:03 pm

morphine wrote:
The question you have to ask yourself is: will they immediately realize it's a prank and not a problem? Because then can fumble around for 2 hours and summon up IT, etc, before they realize it was you.



I took the liberty of typing up an Unconditional Surrender document that states they will acknowledge my superiority and they will cease all hostilities.

We are a small company, so I work in the sales department as well as being the IT guy. The "victims" work in the production department.

Here is an example of one:

Let it be known that _________________ unconditionally surrenders to the Sales Department and in doing so will cease all hostilities against the Sales Department.

By signing this unconditional surrender; _______________________ acknowledges the superiority of the Sales Department in every way possible especially their technological superiority and will display proper respect to all member of the Sales Department at all times.

Upon the signing this agreement the Sales Department agrees to return ______________________ equipment to original its configuration. For the record, the Sales Department would like it to be noted that _______________________ equipment was still 100% functional despite the change in configuration.

The Sales Department would also like it noted that “While we did not start this war, by God we are going to end it with such ferocity that it will never happen again”

Let it be known that the Sales Department is a peace loving entity and will be a benevolent ruler over _______________________ and in no way wished to humiliate his manhood by forcing his surrender.

Dated the year of our lord, June Twenty Third, Two Thousand and Nine.


Losers Signature _______________________________________

Winners Signature________________________________________
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MadManOriginal
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:19 pm

Heh well it's obvious you're not really asking and have already decided to do it. So keep us updated :p
 
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:22 pm

morphine wrote:
The question you have to ask yourself is: will they immediately realize it's a prank and not a problem? Because then can fumble around for 2 hours and summon up IT, etc, before they realize it was you.


my favourite prank is the sysinternals BSOD screen saver (uses blue screen error messages for your OS as your screen saver and disables the mouse so you have to press a key to exit)

Though as morphine says, they're more likely to panic and call support (or just hit reset) than realise it's a joke!
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Nitrodist
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:35 pm

Hance wrote:
How about the old screen cap the desktop, delete all short cuts and move the task bar to the top of the screen set to auto hide trick? The keyboard idea is good to though.


Don't delete, just right click on the desktop and hit Arrange Icons> Show Desktop Icons
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:39 pm

Nitrodist wrote:
Hance wrote:
How about the old screen cap the desktop, delete all short cuts and move the task bar to the top of the screen set to auto hide trick? The keyboard idea is good to though.


Don't delete, just right click on the desktop and hit Arrange Icons> Show Desktop Icons


I didn't know that learn something new every day :D
 
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:50 pm

Only you can really say if it's over the line, hard for us to say without knowing the environment and the people and past history.

I did something similar, the kicker was I also rearranged the keys on the keyboard to match the changed layout in windows. The hilarious part was they popped the keys off and put them back into their original location thinking that was going to resolve it.
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Scorpiuscat
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:52 am

I changed hte keyboard of the leader and put the surrender letter on his desk.

He stubbornly refused to surrender saying he would learn the new keyboard layout.

However, after locking himself out of his account...twice. He negotiated a cease fire and I returned his keyboard to the normal US layout.

In the end, I win!!

There will be peace for now, but I know after a few months, the war will start up again. 8)
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:18 pm

Well done. Remember: Peace through strength.
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ludi
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:02 pm

Scorpiuscat wrote:
There will be peace for now, but I know after a few months, the war will start up again. 8)

Point of advice: Learn about the awesome and dangerous power of the ThinkGeek Annoy-A-Tron before they do.

Might also want to pick up a couple of those USB random keyboard/mouse event generators as well, just in case.
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Mon Jun 29, 2009 11:09 am

ludi wrote:
Point of advice: Learn about the awesome and dangerous power of the ThinkGeek Annoy-A-Tron before they do.


the annoy-a-tron is one of THE single greatest inventions of the 20th century. I couldnt get away with it in my office, but my sister on the other hand....
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Re: Office Prank War - Is this over the line?

Mon Jun 29, 2009 11:17 am

Not sure how you could do this, but ... switch all of their keyboard layouts to dvorak. If you can roll this out via a policy, great! If you can't, then it would be troublesome and difficult to implement.

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