Cube Farm Ordnance?

In a humorous departure from the normal question fare, B747SP asks: "In my office, we have a healthy disrespect for the comfort and safety of our colleagues, and the accompanying arms race is strong, and competitive. We've tried everything from hurling balls of paper back and forth, to stress balls, flying torpedoes, Nerf weaponry al-la thinkgeek.com, and even Air Soft guns (I did say no respect for safety!!!). OK, so that's my office. What about other Slashdotters? What ordnance do you use in your office to keep that sucker in the next cube on his toes? Do you build your weapons from stuff around the office, or do you buy from a store?"

Comments

Think beach ballz. And Razor scooters.

[dmorin]

Over the summer the company provided beach balls (deflated) as some sort of promotional deal. Some losers took theirs home. The engineers blew them up (all of them, even those unclaimed ones) and they have been lying around ever since. Many, many things can be done with a beach ball:

• Stress test. As you're walking down the hall with a beach ball and someone comes the other way, toss it to him. If he grabs it and tosses it back, good man. If he swats at it like a fly and it goes sailing into the light fixture, he's a little stressed. If he ducks, you've found your next Nerf target.
• Testing headshape. Stand behind someone and bounce the ball off his head. See what angle it returns at. Play from a distance, and try to get it to always come back to you. (I am quite serious, we really do play this game).
• Bombardment. Named for the technique from the old high school game. Find 3 or more, then toss one at somebody. While he is reaching to catch it, fire the others at his head.
• Cube volleyball. Works best with two cubes sharing a wall, but can be played across a hallway (window between cubes optional). Players must stay in their seat.
• Distance basketball. Person in cube A sets up a net. Person in cube B attempts to get beachball in net. Works best if net cannot be seen by B.
• Plinko (named for the Price is Right game). Stand up in cube. Toss ball randomly into center of cube farm, and hope that it winds up in the cube of someone who doesn't get pissed off easily.
• William Tell. Put beach ball on your head. Allow people to shoot nerf darts at it.
• Keeping-people-awake-at-meetings game. While someone is at the whiteboard talking, toss the ball around. Don't let it hit the floor. Finds the sleeping people quickly.

Add a Razor scooter or 3 to this and you've got some real potential. Hallway jousts, anyone? Or how about the occasional driveby? (Yes, we really do have at least 4 people with scooters, and they have been known to ride them in the halls. Including the big bosses. It's funny to see your coworkers fall down.)

War at work

[Why Should I]

I once got dared to make a working weapon out of things that could be found in the office. I wasn't allowed to use anything from outside the office at all (not the materials, nor the tools to build it), and I had to do it in an hour.

I ended up building a miniture cross-bow that shot real life arrows a distance of about 2 meters on a relatively true path.

It worked so well that Above my desk there would be a collection of about half a dozen projectiles stuck in the pinboard-like ceiling panels.

How did I make it?

Basically it was constructed out of the metal clips used to hold together reams of paper which have been punched to fit in a ring binder. You know the things that go where the rings in a ring binder would usually go.

The clip was made out of aluminium and came in 3 parts.

• The binder pice - A long flat piece with points on either end. This was used as the actual rings in the ring binder. Each end was bent up to make it into a 'U' shape, and these ends were inserted into the holes in the paper. this was used as the cross section of the bow.
• The sleeve pice - Another shorter piece which had the side edges bent up and around to make a sort of sleeve for the first piece. It also had 2 holes at either side where the binder piece would go through. used as the 'barrel' of the weapon.
• The lock in piece - a flat pice of metal the same length of the sleeve which was used to slide into the sleeve piece and cover the ends of the binder piece (which were bent flat against the sleeve after being inserted in the holes). these were the projectiles.

I had to find a way to attach the cross sectoin to the barrel. I did this by using a hammered out T-Clip. I then attached a rubber band across the cross section of the bow, cut arrow heads into the projectiles and wolla... A miniture cross bow.

what we do

[Rude Turnip]

Instead of weapons, we use words. A Nerf arrow to the head may surprise you for a moment, but a series of well-placed demeaning cracks can cripple one's self worth for weeks.

Other than that, we go into the Pine Barrens each year and shoot one another with paintballs. About a year ago, a colleague and myself each had windowless offices. Somebody with a window had just left the company and we were both asking if we could have it. Our president suggested that we fight it out with paintball guns. Luckily, a more senior person came to the firm and got the office, so no one had to get bruised.

Had to declare a DMZ at work...

[human bean]

The day after I stepped out of my office and was barraged with enough Nerf and rubber bands to cover the hallway floor. Declared my and the general manager's offices as UN inspectable, to be verified weapons free.

I was impressed, however, at the ingenuity some of the guys had worked up. One individual had run a compressed air line up from the shop and attached it to the back of a Nerfball gun. The other favorite was frozen Nerf, where a Nerf (or other foam) whatever was soaked down in freeze spray and then launched, slipped, stuffed, dropped, or otherwise planted on unsuspecting victims.