List o’ Top 10 Nerdy April Fool’s Gags

Hey – it’s April Fool’s Day for nerds! These are totally stereo typed, completely biased and really unfair interpretations of nerdiness. And that is why they are so much fun. These over the top pranks and gags are the ones that you will pull on your nerdy friends at that favorite time of the year for jokers and pranksters – April Fools Day. *Check here for another list of pranks*

10. Re-Map Your Co-worker’s Keyboard

Every company has an employee who uses exclamation marks excessively, as in: C�mon guys!! We can do better this quarter!!!. Fool with the settings that re-maps their keyboard or switch the keyboard to a foreign language so that exclamations and question marks are switched. They will get something like: �C�mon guys?? We can do better this quarter??? Guys??�

9. The Old Speech-to-Text Platform Joke

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Hey, are you sure that is how its pronounced?

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You�ll need a wireless keyboard for this. Set up a meeting with a colleague to teach them a speech-recognition program (you�ll need a plausible reason why the company needs this). Then, right before the meeting, connect your keyboard wirelessly to the victim�s computer. Explain to the victim that the program will have to be trained to recognize their voice, and give them a sample sentence to try out. As they do this, have a co-worker a few desks away type gibberish into the program page (�Boomshakalaka!). The poor guy will make a fool of himself talking louder and changing his pronunciation to try and make it work.

8. Desktop Havoc on the Mac

A London design firm called Troika has produced video of an amazing computer �virus,� which may or may not be publicly available. It�s probably just a clever art project, but it�s too good not to mention here. Nonetheless, Troika�s Newton Virus is a Mac bug that rearranges the desktop icons using the accelerometers built into recent MacBooks. When the unsuspecting user picks up their laptop, all the icons and menu items fall to the ground as though under the influence of gravity. Check out the video:

7. Optical Mouse Confusion

This is an update of the old mouse-ball-removal trick: A small piece of tape over the laser sensor on an optical mouse will cause it to go haywire. Just color the nonstick side of the tape with a Sharpie and then tape it over the lens. Rumour has it that someone very high up at a major tech company (it rhymes with �Frisco�) was once fooled by this trick four times in a single day. Sometimes the simplest pranks are the most enjoyable.

6. Change the Language Settings on Google

When a co-worker leaves her computer unattended for a minute, quickly go to Google�s home page and click on �Preferences.� There, you can choose the interface language of the search engine. Klingon, Hacker and Yiddish are all excellent choices, but Elmer Fudd is a personal favorite. As Elmer, you can use the Google Diwectowy, perform a Google Seawch or find out if you�re �feewing wucky.��� *look here for the links or *here

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5. The Blue Screen of Death Screensaver

The BlueScreen of Death error in Windows has driven lots of users to the fringe of computer homicide. Tap into the river of pain by installing the BlueScreen of Death Screensaver on a friend�s machine. You might want to not let them rant for too long before coming clean; this really can be a funny but horribly stressful trick to pull on anyone.

4. Splitting Monitor Cables

This is one even software geeks won�t easily figure out. Open up their monitor cable (don�t worry, it�s safe) and wire the RGB lines to different colors � this will totally warp the image on the screen. Everyone will assume it�s a software problem. Of course, the hook is that you may be have to be something a nerdy geek type yourself to actually pull this one off.

3. The Old Screenshot-as-Desktop-Wallpaper Gag

This classic is as good as gold. Take a screenshot of your friend�s desktop and make it their desktop wallpaper. You�ll have to minimize applications, hide all of the desktop icons, and set the Windows task bar to auto hide. Pull up a comfortable chair and pretend to feel their pain while they click like mad and wonder what the “*^*&$” is going on.

2. Change Auto-Correct in MS Office

Ever spell checked to the wrong word? Most of have; hate it when that happens, but it does make a great gag. People rely very heavily on those lazy cheats, such as the Autocorrect feature in most word processing software. Capitalize on their laziness by adding a few of your favorite �alternative� spellings. Even better, try subtly adjusting the spelling of your victim�s name. It�s so hard-wired into most people�s fingers, they hardly look at it.

1. Remotely Monitor a Friend�s Webcam

Spy on your best buddy at work through his webcam, record the feed, then show a compilation of his brow-furrowing and nose-picking at the next staff meeting. This is why they like you. You can do this through remote-monitoring programs, such as WebCam Monitor on Windows and there are even apps to do this through remote and mobile devices. Have fun with all of these but, as with any prank, you better have eyes in the back of your head for the rest of the year.

And…last but not least, the Best Gag is here – Click to See