[ale] OT: Pranks are out

[Scott Castaline]

Robert L. Harris wrote:

>  At one time we had about 20 Noc staff, Tier one and Tier two network
>support staff. Well I arranged to modify a couple commands on their 
>computers.  If they ran "ls" "cp" or some other basic commands it would 
>run "sl" in stead which runs an ascii train across your screen.  But 
>then it would replace the executed command with the real one immediately.
>An at job would at a random time replace the binary again and reset 
>itself to run some random time later again.  They looked for us logging 
>into their machines and crons but they never looked for "at" jobs.  
>Took em a while to find it.
>
>  One of my co-workers ran "xjitter" I believe it was but he had a week
>or so in advance modified all their profiles to open xhost+ for his
>workstation so he could remotely run the xjitter on his machine and for
>some random durration, for a random "size of jitter" at a random repeat
>level jitter their mice, a couple at a time, randomly.  About drove them
>nuts.
>
>
>Thus spake Christopher Fowler (cfowler at outpostsentinel.com):
>
>  
>
>>http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/06/01/06/2140227.shtml?tid=123&tid=95
>>
>>I can't believe they busted him for that.  Years ago I did the following
>>to the staff that worked in the print room of my school.
>>
>>
>>for(x=0; x <= 100; x++) {
>> open PRINTER, "LPT1:";
>> print PRINTER "\014";
>> close PRINTER;
>>}
>>
>>I wrote my original loop in basic. 
>>
>>I did have a teacher I did not like.  I found out the printer in her
>>office and executed this loop:
>>
>>open PRINTER, "LPT1:";
>>for(x=0; x <= 100; x++) {
>>  print PRINTER "\014";
>>}
>>close PRINTER;
>>
>>100 pages came shooting out of the printer.
>>
>>The first loop was written because if I send one print job with 100 form
>>feeds to the printer then the print staff could easily delete that job.
>>They could never delete 100 print jobs with one FF.  They usually came
>>out of the room screaming. I can still picture it in my head.
>>
>>Maybe you guys can share a prank or two that you pulled off in the past.
>>
>>
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>>    
>>
>
>:wq!
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Robert L. Harris                     | GPG Key ID: E344DA3B
>
>DISCLAIMER:
>      These are MY OPINIONS             "We can't solve problems by using
>       ALONE.  I speak for                the same kind of thinking we used
>       no-one else.                         when we created them."
>                                          - Einstein
>
>  
>
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1. While working for Harris Computer Systems back in 1979, I and a 
couple of other Techs, wrote a program in Harris Assembler that would 
blank out the main console terminal and make the system appear to be 
shut down. The console would display "Vulcan Quiescent", while the staus 
lights on the term would flash in certain pattern, as wall as the leds 
on the system control panel. We then loaded this program into another 
Tech's test station and ran it. When he returned, he saw what he thought 
was his system in a shutdown state, so he just hit MasterClear and 
rebooted. This caused the system to crash and he had to reinstall the OS 
and Testing Software, a 4 - 6 hour task.

2. Another time while working for Quotron Systems back around 1985, I 
was on a service call at a Merril Lynch office for a keyboard problem. 
Well the Sales Assistance who was having this problem, insisted that the 
problem was in a circuit board in the main computer and not his 
keyboard. The brokers around the office and I were on good terms with 
each other and the indicated that they were tired of this guys attitude 
and wanted to teach him a lesson. So they convinced me to go along with 
them by getting all of my spare boards out of my service van, bringing 
the SA to the computer room and turning off both computers ( Mini 
Computers) and informing him that since he seemed to know what the 
problem was and I was totally clueless, that he should be able to fix 
the problem quickly. It was a very slow day on the stock market that 
day, so a couple of the brokers took me to lunch, after informing him 
not to open the door untill he had the systems backup. The other brokers 
and SAs, in playing along kept banging on the Computer Room door yelling 
for him to fix the systems. Of course when we returned, I took care of 
the keyboard and then "let him off the hook". About a week later I was 
at a smaller satellite office that was referred to as the last resort 
office for SAs and saw my "Computer Expert" there as bottom man in the 
bullpen.