Great April Fool's Pranks
Here’s an oldie but goodie by one of our favorite former Small Doggers, Ben B., with some great tips for how you can fool someone this Sunday…originally featured in Kibbles & Bytes issue #717.
Today is April Fool’s Day, and pranksters everywhere are most likely messing with their friends, family, and co-workers. While classics such as the toothpaste Oreo, rubber-banded dishes sprayer, and decaf switch out—seriously evil—consistently get the job done, this year we thought it would be fun to compile a short list of (mostly) harmless Mac-themed pranks.
Misbehaving Mice
Quickly becoming a classic itself, this prank has officially replaced unplugging the peripherals from your victim’s desktop Mac. As more mice become wireless, it’s the only way to ensure chaos. Simply place a small piece of tape, the more opaque the better, over the optical “eye” on the underside of your victim’s mouse. While most users will figure this prank out within a few moments, less tech-savvy users will take considerably longer.
Curse the Cursor
Though intended to make OS X accessible to everyone, the Universal Access preference pane in System Preferences can be a prankster’s paradise. A harmless prank that will bewilder many unsuspecting users is the super-sized cursor. Navigate to System Preferences > Universal Access > Mouse and drag the slider next to “Cursor Size” all the way to the right. Your target will have no idea what to do with his or her jumbo cursor.
A Negative View
Here’s a quick but powerful prank that requires only momentary access to your victim’s keyboard. To invert the colors of any Mac’s screen, simply press the following combination of keys: Control + Option + Command + 8. Suddenly things will get very negative—especially your target’s attitude—unless you eventually fill them in on the secret key combo, which can also be used to revert the screen’s appearance.
A New Home
Although it’s among the more basic pranks on the list, never underestimate the comedic value of changing an unsuspecting co-worker’s homepage to something silly. While the process of reassigning a homepage varies slightly among browsers, it can be accomplished by visiting “General” in the preference menus of Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. As Rickrolling has been a bit played out, may we suggest surprising your victim with a hearty dose of Billy Ocean? Remember to crank the speakers!