- Feature Articles
- CodeSOD
- Error'd
-
Forums
-
Other Articles
- Random Article
- Alex's Soapbox
- Announcements
- Best of…
- Best of Email
- Best of the Sidebar
- Bring Your Own Code
- Coded Smorgasbord
- Mandatory Fun Day
- Off Topic
- Representative Line
- News Roundup
- Editor's Soapbox
- Software on the Rocks
- Souvenir Potpourri
- Sponsor Post
- Tales from the Interview
- The Daily WTF: Live
- Virtudyne
Admin
Like I said the last time this was posted, immature people suck. This stuff isn't professional at all, although I bet it must have been funny.
Oh yeah, First/frist/fist!
Admin
Well, but nobody died, right? So I'd say this is the best way how to give that guy a lesson he won't ever forget.
Admin
Last week at work, we all recieved an e-mail from a colleague offering to buy us a drink at the pub after work. Our company consists of over 500 people and this was a particularly stingy colleague who sent the e-mail.
I was a bit confused until later in the afternoon when we recieved another e-mail apologising that he won't be able to afford to buy us all drinks, and that he will never leave his computer un-locked again.
Admin
How hard is it to lock your computer before you get your butt off the chair...
Everytime someone forgets to lock a computer should get a fish punch to the face. This will fix the problem rather quickly. Monkeys learn and learn fast especially when pain is inflicted.
Admin
oh, so now changing the default homepage is considered funny.. hmmm... man, i think i've lost my sense of humor... guess it's time i resort to doing simpler pranks like that instead of shutting down the manager's pc remotely :(
Admin
install the trayicon-less version of vnc on their machine and prolong the fun :)
Admin
Maybe the real wtf is using ie.
Admin
My favourite trick was taking a screen shot of their desktop, then setting it as the wallpaper. Then, if you drag all their normal desktop items into a corner (or the trash!), they can't click on anything.
It drives people nuts, thinking their computer has locked up. Fun for hours!
Kevin.
Admin
I'm glad I don't work with you guys. The only reason your company has a "lock your computer" policy is because you are a bunch of assholes. I prefer working places where you can trust your co-workers.
Admin
Bob? That you, Bob?
Admin
I personally enjoy the comradeship gained from pranking each other in the office, gives you something to reminisce about at the bar or the water cooler when tech talk doesn't fit the bill.
ynohoo... why so bitter buddy? what good is a hippie flower sniffing development firm who doesn't joke with each other and spends needless time worrying about everyones feelings?
Admin
touch *
Admin
If everyone is in on the joke, pranks are fun. If you play a prank and they laugh with you instead of you laughing at them, it's all good. You don't mess around with people you don't talk/joke around with.
Admin
All of you people saying that this behavior is immature are correct. All of you people saying you should be able to trust your coworkers are correct.
But immature people exist and you can't trust everybody. Sure, I trust everyone in my department enough that they have full admin rights on my computer. They can unlock it if they need to. They also all know my password to our development environment. But there are other people that I don't trust that much. Not because they are immature or malicious, but because they just want to try out the latest app I've been working on or they want to see what the new UI looks like--after all, what harm could come from running an alpha-stage application or flipping through tabs in developer studio?
I trust people with benign intentions less than those with malicious intents. Kinda like how you can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest; its the honest ones you have to look out for. If you would prefer a different metaphor, "it is not the root you see underfoot that trips you."
Additionally, you don't know who else might have physical access to your computer. In industries where confidential or sensitive data might appear on a monitor, you better be sure passers-by can't see it when you're not there. In cases like that, even trusting coworkers is insufficient since simply looking at your screen can constitute a security breach.
If you don't deal with sensitive data or security-related issues and physical access is restricted to authorized and trusted personnel, then by all means don't lock your workstation, its not relevant. At that point all you have to worry about is a prankster. But if you're reading this you probably work in some form of IT position and you do have access to secure or privelged information, and you therefore should be locking.
Admin
Not hard at all, especially since you can set your screensaver in Windows to lock it for you after a few minutes.
Our favorite unlocked console trick is to leave a new e-mail open (but not sent) addressed to the person's boss with a resignation letter typed up.
Admin
I'm a big fan of a single piece of scotch tape (or maybe two) on the bottom of an optical mouse - hard to see and it will leave them scratching their heads as to why their mouse stopped working - will unplug/plug, reboot machine, etc.
Admin
Back before our IT security department locked down share points on our PC's, we could pretty much get to anyone's PC's c-drive (and the subsequent Windows directory).
This made our vacations extra fun. What would we find when we got back? Personally, I got several "e-sheep" that fell when I started my PC. Not bad...
But the funniest prank was pulled was on a rather prim and proper co-worker who, shall we say... has several lady friends who aren't women. I think the term is "metro..." these days.
Anyhow, we hacked into his Windows start-up sound and made sure the the headphone extension was pulled from the back of his computer.
"Hey everybody! I'm looking at pr0n over here!"
Since 95% of the surrounding folks weren't in on the prank, there was pretty good gofer effect!
Admin
let's hug it out!
Admin
As I said when this was posted previously, I do not think it is normal to lock down your computer every time you leave your chair. I NEVER lock my workstation at work, just so people can actually get data off of it if they need to when I am not there. If the company I work for adds "lock workstation" policy, I am prepared to quit my job, because it would mean to me that the working environment is no longer friendly and trusted enough for my comfort. If I found myself in Bob's situation, I would call IT security and told them, that my coworkers messed with my computer and requested a formal investigation into the matter. To make the accusation more serious, I would claim, that the coworkers deleted some files resulting in lost productivity. Then I would cross my fingers and hope somebody gets fired for this.
Admin
Immature? Sure.
Fun? You betcha.
There's no harm in a little prankery among co-workers. It's all about comraderie.
Admin
I used to work in an office with strict lock your workstation rules, any time somebody's workstation was unlocked, it was messed with.
My favorite little prank on the pranksters was to take a screenshot of my desktop, outlook and all and set that as my background. I locked my workstation, moved the dialog box off the screen and left the room. Peeking in a little later revealed that somebody found my workstation 'unlocked' and was clicking alot on the 'new email' button in outlook...
The joke was on them that time...
Admin
Admin
Because throwing a hissy fit and getting someone fired for changing your start page is certainly the action of a mature individual.
Seriously, anyone who cares about security should keep their workstation locked. Data that needs sharing should be on a shared server, and in the worst case an admin can unlock your machine. If you NEVER lock your workstation, I hope you never work at a company that handles any of my personal data. This is stuff they teach kids even in British schools where the IT Curriculum is the Real WTF(tm)
Admin
At a previous employer, I was required by policy to have my computer locked when I wasn't there, to protect the confidentiality of certain unannounced projects. Ever since then, it's just been my habit to do so.
Now that most of my work is done on a laptop, it again makes sense to be locking it, because of the increased risk of theft/loss when I take work out of the office.
Many (most?) of my coworkers don't seem to use the lock feature though - I wonder if they don't think it's important? Maybe it just doesn't occur to them that taking a laptop filled with confidential data out into the world with essentially no security is a potential problem?
Admin
Wow. I really, REALLY hope I never work with or near you or anyone like you. That's a distinctly unpleasant overreaction. What's wrong with just pouring a glass of water into the seat of their chair next time they're away from their desk, or planting some cress seeds in their keyboard? It's better to be a prankster than a dick...
Admin
And then all of IT would know just how much a crybaby you are, pat each other on the backs when you aren't looking, and say "Yes! We've got one!".
Then your life would be a living hell because noone is going to be fired for what they did... at the very least, the IT security folks would begin to mess with you on a daily basis for the simple reason that you cannot take a joke.
I can't even begin to imagine what you would do if you left your desk with your computer not locked and someone locked it while you were gone. THE HORROR!!!!
Admin
You are evil, and I am going to Hades. I just pulled that one on my coworker who is out to lunch. Hilarity will commence soon.
Admin
Windows-L, baby.
Admin
back in the day of mainframes and dumb terminals, we had a CMS Exec that would remap keycodes. if someone left there desk without locking, we would scoot over there, attach to the disk that had the exec, and invoke it.
When the unsuspecting person returned they would start typing. of course, when s was mapped to x, a to g, etc, they would not get very far and would wonder why gibberish was displaying on the terminal. once they left again, we knew the correct keys to press to undo the mappings.
Admin
The best one of these I ever saw was working in a COBOL shop back in the 80's. Yeah, I'm old...Some of my coworkers called the most gullible guy on our team, posing as the phone system workers. They told him to leave his phone off the hook, they had to blow dirt out of the phone lines.
After about 15 minutes nobody could stand it and we all had to burst out laughing. But, that guy left the company within a few months and became...a preacher!
Admin
My personal favourite is a 2-second joke which will have weeks of hilarious repercussions. Simply wait 'til your co-worker leaves their desk, pull out your trusty screwdriver/pen/paperclip, and swap their "n" and "m" keys over...
Admin
My personal favourite is a 2-second joke which will have weeks of hilarious repercussions. Simply wait 'til your co-worker leaves their desk, pull out your trusty screwdriver/pen/paperclip, and swap their "n" and "m" keys over...
Admin
The ex-network admin at my job hated unlocked PCs. He would jump in, change the password, and lock the PC, forcing the user to contact him to get it unlocked. It gave him great joy to be able to yell at users for their "carelessness". I thought it odd since it was a small company where we all knew each other, and had been to most of each other's homes - how careless could it be to deserve a public reprimand?
He stopped doing it after locking down a customer support rep's PC, then leaving for lunch, making it impossible for the CSR to help paying customers. Our boss felt it appropriate to publicly reprimand him for screwing over a customer for his petty jollies.
Since then, no nasty lockdowns, some jokes (all minor and in fun), and a much nicer workplace.
Admin
another favorite was getting the Blue Screen of Death screensaver from SysInternals -
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen.mspx
Admin
Yeah apparently some of these guys have no sense of humor, but then again these aren't the guys we pull the pranks on. It's ok to have a little harmless fun at work every now and then.
Admin
Even better... scotch tape over the holes in the phone handset.
You can pick your poision: speaker holes or microphone holes.
The former is harder to spot but has the downside that one can compensate for it by cranking up the volume on the phone. The latter is pretty easy to spot, but the unfortunate target will likely spend some time yelling at the top of their lungs to compensate before they figure it out.
Admin
Personally, I fail to see how it's somehow more honorable to get somebody fired by consciously lying about what they did to one's PC than it is to have a locked-workstation rule.
In my line of work, there is definitely potential for abuse. For the most part, I trust my immediate coworkers -- the ones I know, and with whom I work on a regular basis. I do not, however, trust the people I don't know who happen to be in the facility. Not enough to let them view data which they have no right to view, anyway. And even those I trust I do not trust to know what not to mess with. I know none of my immediate coworkers would touch my PC at all if weren't an emergency, but if an emergency transpires, I'd hate to see them accidentally hit something they didn't mean to, and which they then could not recover from because they didn't know what I was working on.
Locking your workstation is very easy -- so easy it quickly becomes automatic. I have to consciously not lock my workstation when I get out of my chair if for some reason I want it to stay open. So it's really not a hardship to lock your workstation. On the other hand, the potential danger of an unsecured PC can be huge. I'm still amazed that my doctor's office doesn't lock the PCs they keep in every exam room. Patients are left alone for upwards of 15 minutes with these PCs -- I could see a person accidentally reformatting the hard drive out of sheer boredom. They do diligently lock the application that stores all of the sensitive patient information, so they're not at risk of a HIPAA violation. But they are at risk of a malicious (or simply bored) patient causing serious harm to their network.
Really, the consequences for a security breach are so huge that I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with something as trivial as locking their workstation when they're gone. It's a negligible annoyance, compared to damages that could range from lost productivity to multi-million-dollar lawsuits, depending on what exactly happens with the unsecured PC.
Admin
Here is another classic prank....
minimize all windows, take a snapshot of the desktop and save to desktop.jpg. Then, move all icons to a hidden folder and change the desktop wallpaper to desktop.jpg. It will drive someone crazy.
Admin
There were a couple cocky nerds at my old job. One of them had domain admin rights, so he would unlock my desktop and change the homepage, erase all my desktop icons, send emails, unmap drives, etc.
I started out by just making his job more difficult. I told him I needed a few development servers. I kept "accidentally" screwing them up which made for some late nights for him as he either restored from backups or re-installed the OS. Fortunately I didn't have anything running on these servers, so the downtime was no issue for me.
That got too tedious and boring so I just spilled coffee on him one day and told him never to touch my computer or account again.
Admin
Old favorites: changing the keyboard layout, or sending an email ("from" the victim) promising donuts for the whole office the following day.
Seriously, it may be an immature way of sending the message that screen-lock is important, but the message should definitely be sent. I think as long as it's something done in good humor (e.g. no lasting damage and minimal "repair" time), it's an acceptable bit of workplace humor.
Admin
Honestly, I'm laughing at how bent out of shape you guys are getting with this. A tiny, harmless prank is nothing to get worked up over. If it's frequent and becoming harassment, sure, that's approaching immaturity and should be dealt with, but a single prank? Pfft.
My co-workers and I mess with each other and we're a very tight group. Hell, just last week one of them reversed one of the batteries in my wireless mouse, leaving me scratching my head since the light was still lit on the optical sensor. He did this in retaliation to my switching his spacebar so that it would press the bottom 5 keys of his keyboard simultaneously.
Admin
My favorite is changing their windows theme to be a black foreground and black background. They can't even see enough to change it back. I had to go to another computer, memorize the keyboard shortcuts, and repeat the process on my machine. (Application key, up arrow, enter, tab, tab, tab, down arrow x4, etc).
Admin
B, A, B, A, Start?
Admin
The best thing to do:
Change their IE to use a web proxy. Set the proxy address to your machine where you have a proxy server that you wrote set up to add certain things to their pages when they request them....
Images... text... etc..
Admin
"To make the accusation more serious, I would claim, that the coworkers deleted some files resulting in lost productivity. Then I would cross my fingers and hope somebody gets fired for this."
And the person fired would, of course, be you for leaving your workstation unlocked.
--
My favorite trick was installing the BSoD screensaver on a coworkers computer. I like that one because it doesn't do any damage at all; move the mouse and it's fixed. Heh.
On the other hand, there was the guy whose PS/2 mouse got regularly moved over to the keyboard slot, whereupon it was plugged in AND stopped working, until he got one of us techs to look at it -- we unplugged it, plugged it back in and Wow! It worked! That one didn't even require them leaving it unlocked -- although the days of USB mice soon brought this fun to an end. (It didn't stop me from changing his scroll wheel to do entire pages at a time instead of a few lines. That lasted almost a year before I was helping him fix something else at the computer and fixed that while I was at it.)
Admin
Hopefully they would fire asshole who lied to IT security.
Maybe you work for a tiny little company that wouldn't attact the attention of industrial spies because it's never done anything worth stealing. I don't. There are people from other departments, cleaning staff, maintenance staff, customers, and other people wandering around. Yeah, sure, they're not supposed to look at people's computers, but if you're not around, you can't make sure of that. Unless you take the 3 seconds to click the "lock" button when you get up, and another 3 seconds to type in your password when you sit down again. Yeah, I could see quiting a job over such an inconvenience.
Admin
If your org is has laptops full of confidential data with 'essentially no security,' then you have a far bigger problem than people not locking their systems. All unencrypted data on a laptop is essentially free for the taking, regardless of if the user bothers to Windows-L or not.
Admin
Someone pulled that prank on me once. I didn't even notice for months, until someone mentioned to me that my n and m keys were reversed.
Touch typing FTW
Admin
How fitting. Just yesterday in class someone had left themselves logged in, both to their computer and to their gmail account (which was open for all to see).
Personally, I changed his background, looked him up on my school website to find his name, and changed his homepage to "hisname.justgotowned.com". There was an email in his inbox with the subject "Hey Baby" that was clearly from a girlfriend so I sent her an email saying
"I have a confession to make. I am gay. I have been hiding it but it is time to come clean. I'm sorry for lying to you all this time."
Could have done a lot worse, I guess, but I don't have that much meanness in me.
Admin
Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN