• (cs) in reply to A Gould
    A Gould:
    Sobriquet:
    I've got to admit, I never expected the surprise ending of "and then nothing happened."

    That got me to. I'll fill in with my personal "hacked school Mac" story.

    Grade 11 year, my Physics teacher did double-duty as the IT administrator. During the same block an English teacher got stuck teaching Basic Computing. (Nice teacher, just completely tech-clueless). So our teacher was constantly getting paged to the computer lab to help this guy out. After a few weeks, he started sending me and another clueful student instead (we were doing well enough in class and it was less disruptive that way).

    One day, a particularly panicky call comes in over the intercom, and it was my turn to go down. Get into the class, and the teacher has evacuated one side of the classroom, because "one of the computers is infected". Apparently infected computers are contagious, or can explode - didn't have the heart to tell him that it's safe to be near a Mac Classic.

    Get over to the computer, and see what's up - the screen is divided into sixteen squares, and pieces of the display are sliding around.

    I bump the mouse, which turns off the screen saver. Reassure the teacher that yes, this is normal, and there's no need to punish the kid at that desk. Chuckle all the way back to class.

    Oh, and

    Kensey:
    Do not ever, ever, EVER mess with a librarian.
    This is truth. Librarians are up there with receptionists and the person who processes your paycheck on the list of "people you stay on good terms with".

    ... besides if you stay on the good side of those of the sex of your preference for partnership, you might even get to shag them. And lemme tell you, librarians are super-hot.

  • noland (unregistered) in reply to fritters
    fritters:
    My favourite story about bad Mac design was the "pizza box" Mac Centris/Quadra 600 series computers. They had a little slot for the floppy drive, and right underneath the floppy slot, a little round button. Naturally I assumed that this was, finally, a manual eject button like every other non-Apple computer had. Nope, it was the power button... Unfortunately I made this discovery on someone else's computer. Fortunately they didn't have any unsaved work...
    TWTF is to look for an eject button on a system with soft eject. TWTF is to look for any user-button of a classic Mac aside of the keyboard.
  • The Dead (unregistered) in reply to Lindsay

    The Dead as in, e.g., Fiesta de los muertos?

  • Erik (unregistered)

    This reminds me of when my friend and I we using the computers at the library.

    Me, having a computer and internet at home, was not that interested, but my friend of course wanted to browse pr0n at the library.

    Immediately after loading the site, the librarian comes over to scold us for not checking into the computer

    My friend dashes away, and I'm stuck with a minimized browser window full of pr0n. The librarian reaches over to maximize the browser window to see what we've been up to on the computers.

    As she clicks to maximize - GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT - Netscape Must Close

    It was the most welcomed fatal error I've ever seen.

  • (cs)

    Sure bad design can save the day, sometimes. Anything can save the day, sometimes. A nuke can save the day, if you have an asteroid whizzing toward Earth.

    But like a nuke, bad design is much more likely to give you a bad day than a good day, so use of either one is not really recommended if you prefer good days.

  • Matt (unregistered)

    This story is a disappointment. I was hoping for more.

    When I was in high school six-seven years ago I was in a "laptop class", meaning everyone had laptops. We were on limited user accounts and that made it very difficult to do anything and all the time we had to call in the IT guy who was Polish, spoke terrible German and apparently didn't know that much about computers. First off, he always got mad when we had more than one program running... we only have one processor after all! I tried to explain, but he shrugged me off because I couldn't possibly know more than him. Well, we had two partitions. School and personal. From the personal partition I accessed the SAM file for the school and checked out the admin password (took all of a second). It was simple "gujon". With XP's poor security, longer wouldn't have helped, but it's still really, really weak. We were using Novell network login stuff. Soon I could be admin on any machine I wanted to. I never needed to be, so I didn't bother. What I did find though is that this is his password for everything. I could access the routers, modem, servers... anything that had an admin account for him (which was everything). I could literally change grades to whatever I wanted, drop entire tables or making them something nonsensical (no validity checking! WHAT?)... no real point as all teachers kept hard copies, but there was the possibility of doing so. Even remove classes, report teachers as ill, etc. So I had a little bit of fun with that, but nothing major. A few times so I could cut school early when needed and everyone else would too without drawing any attention to myself.

    So this had been going on for two or so years and I know they figured something was up, but they assumed it was a software fault (yeah, emails were completely accessible too). I really don't even know why I did this, probably because I could.

    It's my final year and get called to the principal's office. This is extremely rare in Germany. It just doesn't happen. Your class teachers are always the ones talking to you. So I got worried, figured they found out. Yup, it was about hacking, but not what I though...for some reason, I don't remember, I used net send. Bad idea. I was suspended for hacking, in fact they wanted to get the police involved, thought about kicking me out, etcetera. It was a huge ordeal. After the week long suspension they were still discussing things. Some teachers no longer liked me, some didn't care, some asked why. Random people would congratulate me. Two weeks after net send we hired a lawyer, simply so they would listen to what I was saying from the start, that net send was not malicious in any way. It got through to them, mainly because the counter-suit and media attention would not have looked good for the school (and our principal was a media whore which is why he went into politics a few years after my graduation). Of course the school admin was like, I knew that... blatant lie. I'd know even if I couldn't have read the emails. Just think, him googling could have stopped this whole ordeal as they took his word to be worth gold. They struck the suspension from the record, made sure my grades weren't punished for missing school and we all moved on. I graduated and did really well. Better than expected, better than a lot of people. Some of the exams caught people off guard apparently... People that were in my study group. On my last day, we were supposed to come in to have the school partition formatted. I told him I already had, he let me go. I said "Good bye gujon". He looked at me, mouth open, I left.

    I tried logging in a year later. The password had changed. It was now gujon123.

  • ÃƒÆ’Ã‚ÂÃƒâ€šÃ‚Â´ÃƒÆ’Ã‚ÂÃƒâ€šÃ‚Â°ÃƒÆ’Ã‚ÂÃƒâ€šÃ‚Â½ÃƒÆ (unregistered)

    This kind of stupid story deserves the gay unicorns and rainbows.

  • (cs) in reply to Erik
    Erik:
    As she clicks to maximize - GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT - Netscape Must Close

    It was the most welcomed fatal error I've ever seen.

    Best "saved by the bell" story I've heard in quite a while.

  • (cs) in reply to tOmcOlins
    tOmcOlins:
    Silverwizard:
    It's a Bill Code to hate Macintosh, of course.

    At the same time - it seems to me that the main problem here is that the teacher let him delete what looked like system files without noticing.

    You think someone who doesn't know how to turn on a freaking computer is going to say, "Hey, you're deleting system files!" ?

    Whenever I need to do something (legit) on someone's computer and I have to delete something and they're watching what I'm doing, I tell them "I discovered a virus and that it should be deleted, ok?" They never really know what they're looking at anyway and always end up thanking me for whatever it was that I just did.

  • дмитрий (unregistered) in reply to Matt Westwood
    Matt Westwood:
    Boris! Ya tebya lyublyu! Tui ponymayesh Nagesh?
    Что ты, американский идиот?
  • BentFranklin (unregistered)

    My little computer mischief was in my first job. We had IBM-PCs. Not even an AT yet. Somehow I found a binary editor and started poking around in FAT tables and saving info in disk sectors after EOF and things like that. I looked at command.com and found the string literals near the end. I decided to try changing some of the commands but I didn't want to change the lengths, so I made all the built-in commands backwards. You typed RID for DIR, etc. If you typed a command correctly you got:

    "!sdrawkcaB"

    instead of

    "Bad command or filename."

    I put it on some peoples' computers and they were actually amused instead of ticked off, probably since I didn't drag out the joke too far. A couple of them actually figured out how to keep using their PCs. As a result, people thought I was 1337 so when we finally got that AT I got first crack at it.

  • (cs) in reply to David Wright
    David Wright:
    You guys had it easy. We didn't have Macs when I was at school. In fact there weren't any computers in schools in those days. So we had to do SCIENCE instead.

    My OMG WTF HAVE I DONE was filling the advanced chemistry lab with cyanide gas when an (unauthorised) experiment went wrong.

    Fortunately I recognised what I'd done before I breathed in much, and was able to clear it without a) killing myself, b) killing anyone else, or c) getting caught.

    I'm so glad I found your post through google! How did you clear the gas? I did the same thing and I'm starting to feel really woozy. Please send teh^%@#jH65 NO CARRIER

  • Boris Vladamir (unregistered) in reply to Matt Westwood
    Matt Westwood:
    Boris Vladamir:
    In my country, this is not option. Those only who have computer access are those only which know of computers. Computer programmer, I have studied under other computer programmers who know of PC.

    I know of this Apple, which makes me laugh and reminds me of America: overpriced, underproducing hardware. Like your space program sending worthless products to lunar landscape. Cancellation of your shuttle is ultimate disgrace and demonstration of futility.

    Here we have switch labeled "On" and "Off" which we use to initiate boot sequence, unlike stupid white machine named after inferior coffee producer. When light is on, we know it is accepting power, and when off we know off. Furthermore, if Brian had tried this trick on my headmaster, he would have found work PC infected with viruses and homework assignment to eliminate them.

    Boris! Ya tebya lyublyu! Tui ponymayesh Nagesh?

    This is, how you say, "pig spanish?"

  • davee123 (unregistered) in reply to call me Bill
    call me Bill:
    I'll decloak as the original author of this story to say that [...] the substitute teacher [...] s/he was having trouble [...] s/he knew full well [...] him/her [...] his/her [...] s/he [...]

    You're the original author and you don't know if it was a he or she? Either that or your security slider bar for protecting the innocent is overly high :)

    DaveE

  • ted (unregistered)

    In my computer labs in HS, we had Windows 98 machines locked down with Novell Netware or whatever it was called.

    I found that one could create macros in Word and get the VB script editor.

    I then found using the help file that I could run an external executable by supplying the path. I did this and started Solitare.

    I dutifully closed it and privately met with the school admin to show him the security hole so he could close it.

    I had my computer privileges revoked for 1 week for unauthorized use of the computer. Lost all respect for that asshole after that.

    Mr. Jay at some shitty high school in the most south-western corner of Missouri. If you're reading -- fuck off. You know who I am.

    I never did check if he plugged the hole. In fact, I never used the computers at the school again after that, because I was so disgusted.

  • (cs) in reply to Nagesh
    Nagesh:
    Boris Vladamir:
    What is troll? In my country and language, it is title of great respect.

    In deference, Boris

    frits often talk about troll. I think it is language invented by grits. Perhaps one day he might also publish a dictionary for everybody. Then all of us can hope to be funny like frits.

    Don't get so butt-hurt. Frits didn't mean to say you aren't funny. You're very funny. You're just not the kind of funny that makes people laugh.

  • (cs) in reply to Matt
    Matt:
    From the personal partition I accessed the SAM file for the school and checked out the admin password (took all of a second). It was simple "gujon". With XP's poor security, longer wouldn't have helped, but it's still really, really weak.
    The security was only "poor" because of the outdated LanMan hash. You could disable the LanMan hash with policy or by setting a 15 character password.
  • Herby (unregistered)

    While having a funny audio sound on startup is nice, the best one I heard was something on the order of "Help! Help!! <taps on CRT tube> Let me out of here!!". It (hopefully) was recognized as a joke by all who heard it. Not as bad as something that COULD be malicious. Then again the caliber of the high school computer "instructors" offsets many things. On the occasion that a student DOES find a REAL computer savvy teacher, value the time. You WILL learn something.

    As for "high school" stories, I reflect back on my experiences. My junior year (5th form for you English guys) my English teacher was new to the school. In addition to an English class, he was put in charge of coordinating the PE classes (which as every nerd knows are evil). He was fiddling with cards and pieces of paper when I volunteered to "computerize" it. That year I was on the "excused" list, and the next year (my senior year) I was conspicuous by my total absence from the whole system. It was wonderful to have access to more computing power than the whole school (it was the late 60's) I used an IBM 1130 where I was working. What fun!

  • (cs) in reply to Nagesh
    Nagesh:
    boog:
    Nagesh:
    frits often talk about troll.
    Actually, I don't hear him talk about you much at all. Other than today of course.

    Well booger, you're wrong. :)

    Who cares?

  • (cs) in reply to ted
    ted:
    I had my computer privileges revoked for 1 week for unauthorized use of the computer. Lost all respect for that asshole after that.
    At least computers aren't an educational resource. Otherwise, one might suggest the school banned you from your education for showing enthusiasm.

    Oh wait...

  • (cs) in reply to hoodaticus
    hoodaticus:
    Nagesh:
    boog:
    Nagesh:
    frits often talk about troll.
    Actually, I don't hear him talk about you much at all. Other than today of course.

    Well booger, you're wrong. :)

    Who cares?
    Zing!

  • Gunslinger (unregistered) in reply to Todd Lewis
    Todd Lewis:
    David Wright:
    You guys had it easy. We didn't have Macs when I was at school. In fact there weren't any computers in schools in those days.

    Showing my age here: What passed for pranks when I was in school was wandering through parking lots and [god help me] locking unlocked cars. Man, we were teh terrors!

    My dad's favorite prank was putting a car around the flagpole. As in, the flagpole sticking up through the roof. Without removing the flagpole first. Without damaging the car (I presume it was a convertible or had a sunroof). They also put a VW bug on the school roof, without a crane or ropes.

  • Jack (unregistered)

    My brother rigged up a radio control that would ring the school bell. In an exceptionally boring class he would ring the bell 5 minutes before ending time. Everyone would go to their next class. When the real bell rang for the beginning of break, everyone assumed it was end of break. 5 minutes later, when the real end of break bell rang, everyone wondered why the bells were going off a third time.

    The true test of a prankster in such a situation is can you restrain yourself? Use your power too often and someone will figure out something's up.

  • K (unregistered)

    Reminds me of back in highschool. I had written a tiny program that would suppress most of the beeps that a PC would make. Mostly those beeps would happen if you tried do do something wrong. But in the computer lessons at school there was a program that we had to use, that would beep whenever certain normal operations were performed, even if the user didn't do anything wrong. When you were trying to concentrate on something you would constantly be disturbed by beeping sounds all around.

    Then one day during a break I installed my program on all the machines to put an end to those annoying beeps. Sure it would be easy to see who wrote the program, but you couldn't see who had installed it, and several of my classmates had received copies of the program before that.

    Then one day a teacher approached me about the program. He said he had noticed this program was installed on all of those machines. I started getting somewhat worried. Then he asked me, can I assume this program is freeware? Yes, I replied slowly. Great he said, cause I'd really like to install that program on the machine I use in the library.

    I suppose it does put you in a better position when what you install is a useful piece of software rather than a prank.

  • Xythar (unregistered)

    That ended kind of anticlimactically.

  • Martin D (unregistered)

    This is the worst TDWTF article ever. It's not an interesting story and it's certainly not a WTF.

  • Shite (unregistered) in reply to ShatteredArm
    ShatteredArm:
    Anonymous:
    Todd Lewis:
    David Wright:
    You guys had it easy. We didn't have Macs when I was at school. In fact there weren't any computers in schools in those days.

    Showing my age here: What passed for pranks when I was in school was wandering through parking lots and [god help me] locking unlocked cars. Man, we were teh terrors!

    I once wrapped some powdered drain-marking dye in balls of tissue and spent a lesson throwing them out the window into the pond beneath. The entire thing turned bright red which was hilarious, but the sudden death of all the fish did not go down well with the teachers.

    Then there was the classic "set off the fire alarm at the end of term" prank. Only difference is that I lit smoke bombs on the fire escape, so everyone thought the school was geuinely burning and the exits were blocked. A lot of people thought they were going to die, one guy even jumped out a window and broke his ankle. It's a miracle there weren't more injuries.

    I never got caught for any of this stuff. The trick is to work alone, getting friends involved is a surefire way to get ratted out.

    My best high school prank was senior year AP english class, when we were doing a practice AP exam in small teams, and whichever team got the best score got out of doing an essay (which I had already done). The valedictorian candidates formed a team and turned in theirs first, because they were the "smartest," and the teacher started grading it while others were still completing theirs. I walked up to the teacher and started asking him some BS question about turning in past assignments which I didn't do (and had no intention of ever doing), and while he answered me, I memorized the answers. We of course purposely missed one so as to avoid detection, and of course, I arranged to be forgiven for all the missed assignments instead of getting out of writing an essay I had already written. And the "smart" kids were put in their place.

    Wait, I guess that's not a prank; it's cheating.

    Do you want a cigar with such a fine story?

  • Jongle (unregistered) in reply to Bit Head
    Bit Head:
    TRWTF is people who purportedly have technical backgrounds and yet don't know the difference between "constantly" and "continually".

    TRWTF is that people seem to think that technical people would have a better than average command of the English language.

    Why do you think the having (or purportedly having) a technical background would make any difference?

  • Mr Big (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    English Man:
    Your Name:
    When I was in high school, I tried to keep things subtle. The computer labs were full of Windows 95 or 98 or whatever machines that were locked down by this crappy third-party program called "Fortres". Yes, spelled with one "S".

    Anyway, I was one of like three people in the school who knew how to work a damn computer, and let's just say I'm not counting the school's IT guy. Eventually one of us figured out that he left the administrator password as "admin" or something similarly retarded.

    Anyway, the other guys were pulling a few joke-type pranks, but I decided, instead, to remove this "Fortres" crap so thoroughly that you couldn't tell it had ever been on there in the first place. The thing didn't exactly have an uninstaller, but eventually I figured out the combination of files, registry keys, and AUTOEXEC.BAT and WIN.INI lines (remember that shit?) that needed to be exorcised and had a few computers liberated.

    The IT guy never did figure out that his "secure" password was leaked. He ended up replacing the computers. No kidding.

    TRWTF is that you think this story is something to boast about rather than be ashamed of.

    Oh look, an ex-prefect. When I was at school we used to spit on you guys from our customary smoking spot on the roof.

    Wow all the tough-guys are here today. Is everyone shitting themselves, or is it just me?

  • Strikeout (unregistered) in reply to Bill's Kid
    Bill's Kid:
    Boris Vladamir:

    "In my country, this is not option...

    "Furthermore, if Brian had tried this trick on my headmaster..."

    Come on, man. It's funnier if you stay in character.

    No it's not.

  • Pedant (unregistered) in reply to call me Bill
    call me Bill:
    <snips> I'll decloak as the original author of this story ... <snips>

    Hardly 'decloak' when you still post anonymously....

  • Grast (unregistered) in reply to A Gould
    A Gould:
    Sobriquet:
    I've got to admit, I never expected the surprise ending of "and then nothing happened."

    That got me to. I'll fill in with my personal "hacked school Mac" story.

    Grade 11 year, my Physics teacher did double-duty as the IT administrator. During the same block an English teacher got stuck teaching Basic Computing. (Nice teacher, just completely tech-clueless). So our teacher was constantly getting paged to the computer lab to help this guy out. After a few weeks, he started sending me and another clueful student instead (we were doing well enough in class and it was less disruptive that way).

    One day, a particularly panicky call comes in over the intercom, and it was my turn to go down. Get into the class, and the teacher has evacuated one side of the classroom, because "one of the computers is infected". Apparently infected computers are contagious, or can explode - didn't have the heart to tell him that it's never safe to be near a Mac Classic.

    Get over to the computer, and see what's up - the screen is divided into sixteen squares, and pieces of the display are sliding around.

    I bump the mouse, which turns off the screen saver. Reassure the teacher that yes, this is normal, and there's no need to punish the kid at that desk. Chuckle all the way back to class.

    Oh, and

    Kensey:
    Do not ever, ever, EVER mess with a librarian.
    This is truth. Librarians are up there with receptionists and the person who processes your paycheck on the list of "people you stay on good terms with".

    FTFY....

  • Diogenes (unregistered)

    I normally believe these stories are the figment of somebody's imagination, but there I was in this diner with a sexy waitress giving me the eye, and then her twin sister came in with their really hot mother....

    oops wrong publication I am an IT teacher (career change after 25 years in software engineering - I use thedalywtf because the stories/photos are great examples of what not to do :-) ) the tricks the little s**s come with to get out of work like ... the error message dialog box ( a simple vb program or javascript in a browser) the disk full error (another small vb program) the shortcuts that point to other programs fake "google is down" pages etc

    I must say it keeps me on my toes and if they put as much effort into doing work as goofing off

  • Denis the Menace (unregistered)

    And another time, I accidentally stepped in Mr. Wilson's flower bed. That was a two-part episode!

  • Geoff (unregistered) in reply to Jongle
    Jongle:
    Bit Head:
    TRWTF is people who purportedly have technical backgrounds and yet don't know the difference between "constantly" and "continually".

    TRWTF is that people seem to think that technical people would have a better than average command of the English language.

    Why do you think the having (or purportedly having) a technical background would make any difference?

    Because technical training is supposed to teach you to be more aware of fine details?

    As a side note, I really dislike the message on the back of our rubbish trucks, namely "CAUTION - VEHICLE CONTINUOUSLY STOPPING". What, the vehicle is never in motion? (see http://www.planetian.com/garbage.html).

  • chhopsky (unregistered)

    I did this exact same thing once, but on a PC in the school library. I found a .wav file called 6farts.wav and slowed it down, inserting 5 minutes of silence at the start, and added it to the startup items of a library computer, turning the amplified speakers to full volume. I was studying a few rooms away when I heard it go off, much to the lulz of our group of social outcasts.

  • EvilWhiteDragon (unregistered)

    TRWFT that I see unicorns!

  • Peter (unregistered) in reply to Jellineck
    Jellineck:
    Lo and behold, a month before my 18th, I got arrested for public intoxication and underage drinking. My unfortunate friend, 3 days into his 18th year, got the same two charges plus a contributing to the delinquency of a minor charge.

    He got 18 months' probation and a record. I got 6 weeks of drug and alcohol re-education.

    I pee on suspensions.

    And also, apparently, on your "friend".

  • Matt Westwood (unregistered) in reply to дмитрий
    дмитрий:
    Matt Westwood:
    Boris! Ya tebya lyublyu! Tui ponymayesh Nagesh?
    Что ты, американский идиот?

    Nyet! U tebya belit mosg. Angliskiy, tovarishch.

    дмитрий? Nyet дмитри? Kogda идиот, maslo-mosg?

  • Matt Westwood (unregistered) in reply to boog
    boog:
    ted:
    I had my computer privileges revoked for 1 week for unauthorized use of the computer. Lost all respect for that asshole after that.
    At least computers aren't an educational resource. Otherwise, one might suggest the school banned you from your education for showing enthusiasm.

    Oh wait...

    Hey kids - take this one on ... If you're enthusiastic about getting an education, you'll be able to educate yourself, no problem. So why should the school waste precious resources on you when they don't need to? Take a leaf out of Frank Zappa's book and go to the library. The employees of the education system can console themselves with the fact that 100% of their class (rather than just 95%) are complete losers, slackwits and wasters.

  • Boris Vladamir (unregistered) in reply to Jongle
    Jongle:
    Bit Head:
    TRWTF is people who purportedly have technical backgrounds and yet don't know the difference between "constantly" and "continually".

    TRWTF is that people seem to think that technical people would have a better than average command of the English language.

    Why do you think the having (or purportedly having) a technical background would make any difference?

    Actually, why wouldn't you expect technical to have excellent command of language? When the CPU complains that you put punctuation in wrong place, mispell, capitalize in wrong place one will naturally develop attention to this matters.

    TRWTF is technical users who have mental deficiency to pay attention to details like this.

  • (cs) in reply to Jongle
    Jongle:
    Bit Head:
    TRWTF is people who purportedly have technical backgrounds and yet don't know the difference between "constantly" and "continually".

    TRWTF is that people seem to think that technical people would have a better than average command of the English language.

    Why do you think the having (or purportedly having) a technical background would make any difference?

    Actually, it's programmers that I expect should be able to spell and use proper grammar and syntax. Our code won't even compile if we screw it up in a programming language. There should be significant carry-over into other languages, such as English.

  • Hatr (unregistered) in reply to Coyne
    Coyne:
    Erik:
    As she clicks to maximize - GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT - Netscape Must Close

    It was the most welcomed fatal error I've ever seen.

    Best "saved by the Bill" story I've heard in quite a while.

    FTFY

  • Hatr (unregistered) in reply to ShatteredArm
    ShatteredArm:
    My best high school prank was senior year AP english class, when we were doing a practice AP exam in small teams, and whichever team got the best score got out of doing an essay (which I had already done). The valedictorian candidates formed a team and turned in theirs first, because they were the "smartest," and the teacher started grading it while others were still completing theirs. I walked up to the teacher and started asking him some BS question about turning in past assignments which I didn't do (and had no intention of ever doing), and while he answered me, I memorized the answers. We of course purposely missed one so as to avoid detection, and of course, I arranged to be forgiven for all the missed assignments instead of getting out of writing an essay I had already written. And the "smart" kids were put in their place.

    Wait, I guess that's not a prank; it's cheating.

    Yeah, you really showed them smart kids by gleaning their correct answers. They must have been so sad. Hee hee.

  • CoderDan (unregistered) in reply to bertram
    bertram:
    ProfessorTom:
    So really, the WTF is why "Bill" hates Macintoshes, when they are designed to be VERY user friendly yet very powerful as they have a *NIX underpinning.

    I knew it wouldn't be long before one of these guys showed up.

    Also, I very much doubt the LC was built on Unix, but I could be wrong.

    You're not wrong.... ewww flashback to the Power PC

    Wisi: I must use my inhaler, I am wisi

  • anonymouse (unregistered) in reply to Professor

    Don't forget to tell them about the quake and the tsunami.

  • Jay (unregistered)

    When I was in high school, the most outrageous prank I ever pulled was to go the library and talk really loud.

  • (cs) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    When I was in high school, the most outrageous prank I ever pulled was to go the library and talk really loud.
    You're a monster.
  • drusi (unregistered) in reply to Your Name
    Your Name:
    When I was in high school, I tried to keep things subtle. The computer labs were full of Windows 95 or 98 or whatever machines that were locked down by this crappy third-party program called "Fortres". Yes, spelled with one "S".
    I think my high school used the same software.

    Personally, my way around it was a boot disk. I made an AUTOEXEC.BAT file that would disable Fortres on the machine (a simple matter of swapping the machine's own AUTOEXEC.BAT for one that omitted a single relevant line), or re-enable it if it was disabled, and enjoyed my newfound freedom. I rebooted my machine an awful lot compared to everyone else, but nobody in my class actually cared, since it was always back to normal when I was done.

    Also, the admin had assumed not including Internet Explorer among the programs the user could run would take care of the Internet entirely, so he/she (never did find out) didn't bother to block anything, and the people who figured out you could turn on a Location bar in that version of MS Word got to browse freely.

    Really, I kind of feel cheated now. I cracked it using skills I learned when I was eight. That's just lame.

  • bill_gates (unregistered)

    The real WTF was it was Bill Gates!!

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