January 12, 2006

Curious George: Pranking. Me and some of my friends are planning to prank a friend by acting as if I had never existed, and we need to change some stuff on the prankee's computer to remove evidence of my existence.

Our plan is to access the prankee's computer, and, after backing up the original photos, edit me out of the pics. Is there a way that I can remotely access her harddrive, without her knowing, to edit and backup the photos without exposing her to malicious intruders? Secondly, we'd like to insert a fake article in on a news website. We figure we can do it on her end, i.e., when she goes to www.blahtimes.com/archives/X, she gets directed to our version of page X. I've seen this happen with malware, where entering google.com would take me to a spam site. Again, is there a way I can do this without exposing her hackers? I have access to her computer, but not for than about 15 minutes at a time. So I can install software, but not edit the actual software; that's why I need to do it remotely.

posted by Dr. Robotnik 18 years ago
  • Boy does this sound fishy phishy.
  • lol
  • I understand your suspicions-- but that's why I want to be sure that whatever I do, I make it as secure as possible, so that she doesn't get viruses and hackers and whatnot. I also want to be sure everything I do is completely revertable, and I'll be backing up any photos I edit. If there's no safe way, the other option is to physically go to her computer and change the photos, but I'd still like to be able to have the fake newspaper article, because to the goal is to trick her into thinking I died ten years ago. That's why I'd like to fake the article, but if it's too dangerous, I could just makea fake memporial geocities site.
  • that last phrase was supposed to be: "I could just make a fake memorial geocities site."
  • Seems like a lot of effort for something that's neither funny nor believable.
  • Sounds like the only solution here is to burn a disc of the files you want to edit and in a separate 15-minute session put the "new" files on. But I agree with what PareidoliaticBoy said. Lots of effort for probably not so much payoff.
  • Yeah, I'd go with the whole "gluing everything down to her desk/up on her ceiling/etc" trick.
  • You have access, by which you mean, she GAVE you access, and you have proof of this? Depending on your jurisdiction, if you are not the owner of the machine, you may run afoul of laws against tampering should your friend not react the way you expect her to. If I were you, I would not touch their computer. A) something goes wrong and you do lose information, or B) you discover something you aren't supposed to when they aren't expecting you to be logged in.
  • Is there a good reason for why you're doing this, aside from some sort of belief that it will be "funnee"? It actually sounds more than a little cruel. Could be just me.
  • I prefer to wrap everthing in foil.
  • As someone who's edited photos for a living I must ask: Have you planned a time budget for all this? Namely the photo editing? Even just a small handful of picture would take way more time that I'd want to involve myself in on a practical joke. To pull the joke off they'd have to be convincing, and that takes time. For computer access just set up a network and hope the person isn't savvy enough to notice. Then you'll have all the time you need to copy files and whatnot. But, remember to back-up like mad and make all your steps reversible. And hope this person is not like me. It's one thing to use my computer to browse website or cruise my iTunes, but I'd kill the person who's gone mucking about my computer like that. My laptop is my entertainment, communication, thinking space, creative tool, personal archive and greatest income generating tool. If this is someone's personal computer you might well be seriously violating their personal space and their trust.
  • Are you sure you're not being set up for some kind of identity theft sting or something here, Dr.Robotnik?
  • Custard pie to the face. Much easier. Not very funny, but easy.
  • My girlfriend once nearly convinced me that snakes hover. "Just look at the way they move!"
  • She was right. They do. EVERYBODY knows that! Pfft!
  • You just watched Flightplan, huh?
  • do you want to convince her you never existed (main post) or that you died ten years ago (follow up)? in any case, this sounds very dodgy and i won't offer advice other than a friendly "drop the idea".
  • Hoversnakes On a Plane!
  • There are good pranks and bad pranks. A good prank takes into account the prankee's sensibilities. For instance, if someone touched my computer behind my back, I would brutally kill them. No trial, No jury. Straight to execution. You just don't fuck with another person's computer. But maybe your friend is a lot more easygoing about her digital stuff. Just be careful.
  • Actually that reminds me of the movie Doc Savage with it's green floating killer drug snake demons. As for this prank, how are you going to react when they seem a lot happier when they realise you never existed?
  • Dude, I was going to post a question on pranks gone bad. Here's an example: I wrote a fake virus in Java, it popped up a screen that said "You Have Been H4xx043D!!!", then ground through the entire file system, displaying "deleting: " + filename. It didn't actually do anything. So I installed it on a coworker's computer, in the startup folder. Then I sat back and waited. Unfortunately, the reboot I was waiting for happened just as the big boss walked in. As in, the boss' boss. Ruh roh! Somehow I signalled to the victim that it was jsut a prank, please do not panic in front of hefe grande. I lost the joke factor, but not the job.
  • As for this prank, how are you going to react when they seem a lot happier when they realise you never existed? Now that would be funny!
  • You just don't fuck with another person's computer. Yeah, this is a bad, bad idea. And I have a sneaking suspicion one reason you're willing to do it to your friend is that she's a she and thus unlikely to go medieval on your ass. But please, think of something funnier and less assholish.
  • I lost the joke factor, but not the job. So, yeah, to make this post relevant, let this serve as an example of why you should find some other way to prank this person. I've always been tempted by the jello-in-the-toilet thing. But I'm not sure the phys plant people would appreciate it so much either.
  • If you want to convince someone that you never existed, then I will gladly put you in touch with some ex-girlfriends of mine. They seem to have pulled the trick off neatly for themselves.
  • Bitches.
  • This smacks of Effort, followed by Big Trouble. Go with the ol' standbys -- removing every single lightbulb in the house, incl. the fridge, or every single container, glass, bowl, etc. filled with chum. Reversibility is key to any 'good' prank.
  • Might be easier to convince her that you DID exist, but that you've disappeared without a trace. Witness protection or something like that. 'Cause to make her think you never existed, you'd have to temporarily disappear in the present, anyway.
  • Better yet, convince her you have a fictitious brother. That way you can still do the fun photo editing.
  • Why not convince her she doesn't exist? Just get everybody she knows to ignore her, a la "It's a Wonderful Life". Pretend they don't see/hear her, that sort of thing.
  • Kill her. I'll help you hide the body.
  • The joke's on you! You're dead! Ha Ha! Get it? You're dead! Hello? Hello?
  • OMG! NO! I KNOW! OMG!!!111!! You cut off her feet.... and replace them with flippers!!! OMG! ROFLMAO!!!!
  • Who are we talking about?
  • You're dead, but you and the kid you're talking to don't know it!
  • Did somebody hear something. It sounded like the wind was whispering "Whooooo are we talking abooowwwwtt...?"
  • Why don't you just download Bonzi Buddy and have done.
  • All you need is a De'Lorean and some plutonium and the photo retouching will take care of itself.