Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ask Slashdot: What Happened To the Prank Apps That Used To Be Popular?

Posted by BeauHD on from the maybe-we're-maturing dept.

OpenSourceAllTheWay writes: Back when PCs were more boxy looking than today and people used floppy disks to store stuff, there were a bunch of prank apps around that one could put on a DOS or Windows computer to annoy the hell out of siblings, classmates, coworkers and others. (Here is a listing of some older prank apps and some more recent Android prank apps.) Some prank apps would flip the Windows desktop upside down. Some would make the mouse pointer move in strange ways or make it give you the middle finger. Some would cause you to hit the right keyboard key and still mistype a word. Some would play an audio file in the background every now and then that gave the impression of your computer making strange noises for unknown reasons, even turning the OS volume up before the sound, and then down again, making it impossible to make the sounds stop. There are many more computer users today than there were back then, yet there doesn't seem to be much new in the way of prank apps -- at least for Windows. Why is that? Did Windows 8 cause PC users to lose their humor?

4 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. My brother's favorite programing language is ruby by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Funny

    because everything's an object, including literals. You can redefine anything. e.g. you can redefine 2 as 1. Did this on a coworkers computer when they forget to lock it. Hilarity ensued.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  2. Windows 10 ... by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... isn't a prank app?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  3. Re:My brother's favorite programing language is ru by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nowadays, even if its locked, Microsoft installs an "update". Its much the same really.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  4. Re:it was a more innocent world by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's not about innocent. It's about being serious.

    Computers used to be widely used by the nerdy few. Playing pranks on like minded people was a great pastime. However computers are now essential for everyone so it's a bit less funny.

    But the reality is we just moved on from needing the apps. Intel's display driver alone is able to flip screens on command. That got so prolific last year that we actually got bored of pranking each other. So I took it to the next level.

    I got a screwdriver and turned the person's screen upside down on it's base. He was using the shortcut key to flip his screen back to the correct orientation and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. Eventually he flipped it to the incorrect orientation and thought all was good until he rebooted his computer and the password prompt was upside down.