The April Fool Elves Have Hit Us At Work

Programming Directors Office!

One of the perks of working in news is getting to work before most are even out of bed. But these elves beat us all to the office to play a little April Fools mischief.  Luckily they did the dirty work because I don't have the guts to do any of this....

Need a few more ideas? Here are a few to make you giggle from the WASHINGTON POST:

Geektastic April Fools’ Day pranks By Hayley Tsukayama
April Fools’ Day is all about harmless fun, so if you have access to a victim ... er ... friend’s computer, here are some light-hearted prank ideas with a techy twist that we’ve found floating around the Internet:
1. Push some buttons: It’s pretty easy to switch the primary and secondary buttons on a friend’s mouse. Head into Windows’ System Preferences mouse control pad and — bam! — one-click prank accomplished. Just be sure to tell your victim how to switch it back before he or she goes insane.

2. Feeling blue: The Blue Screen of Death is one of the most-feared sites in all of techdom. Strike some good-natured fear into the hearts of those you love with the BSoD screensaver. Microsoft is willing to help you out on this one; you can download the screensaver from the Microsoft site.

3. Screenshot wallpaper: Set someone’s wallpaper to a screenshot of their normal desktop and then use the “Arrange Icons By” menu to hide all the desktop icons. After that, just sit back and enjoy the frantic clicking.

The old bathroom sign switcheroo!

4. Tricky linguistics: Google offers several interface languages to make search easy for everyone — including Klingons, Elmer Fudd and the Swedish Chef Muppet. Head up to the search settings menu on any Google search. Other options include 1337 and Esperanto.

5. Too many mice: If your victim uses a wireless mouse, switch out his receiver and watch him like a hawk. When he’s moving his mouse, send the one on-screen in an entirely different direction. Those particularly good at stifling their giggles can probably keep the prank going for quite a while.
These are all pretty low-tech pranks that require almost no technological prowess.