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Pranks

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''She's only programmed to be very nice <br> But she's as cold as ice <br> Whenever I get too near''<br>-- ''Yours Truly 2095,'' Electric Light Orchestra
* In the middle of October, [[Brian Hirshman '06]] noticed that [[Johannes Pulst-Korenberg '06]] was away from his keyboard. Brian deftly set Johannes's keyboard layout to [[Dvorak Keyboard Layout|Dvorak]], which is different then the standard QWERTY layout that most people use. Johannes quickly found that his keystroke input was more or less unusable, and demanded that Brian change it back. Johannes vowed revenge, and got some on [[Halloween]] (see [[#Pranks Involving Rooms|Pranks involving rooms]]).
* ''Williams classic:'' Many [[Berkshire Symphony Orchestra]] parties ended with the host's desktop background set to a tiled image of someone's [[WSO Facebook]] picture, guaranteeing confusion when they woke the next morning.
* One time freshman year, [[Mark Alexander Kelly Matthews '07]] left his computer unattended. This was a big mistake. He returned to find Creed playing on a loop on his computer loud enough that his entire entry could hear it. It was his fault for having a Creed song in the first place.
* The sound scheme on a computer can easily be altered so that a a relatively uncommon event (like Windows Critical Stop) or excruciatingly common event (like Menu Open) will be accompanied by a prerecorded sound, preferable one of distinct embarassment.
* I have only gotten this trick to work on the corner desks in sawyer: if you have a mouse and are sitting next to someone who is working without a mouse at their laptop, connect your mouse to their computer when they get up. it will be quite confusing for them if you can move the mouse in close to, but not quite the direction they are trying to go on their screen
* In December of 2005, [[Brian Hirshman '06]] had to turn in a background chapter of his thesis to computer science professor [[Duane Bailey]]. Brian used the [http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/ random computer science paper generator ] in order to do so. Good times ensued.
* There is a program called [http://osx.portraitofakite.com/index2.htm? FlyakiteOSX] that puts a Mac OSX-like interface on PCs. You can prepare a nice surprise for your PC-using roommate, when s/he comes back from a grueling tutorial session or something.
* During Winter Study 2006, Sean McKenzie '08 was walking back to his room in Pratt when he discovered his entire room had been recreated in a patch of snow on the lawn outside Mission. Rather than deal with the large effort of carrying all his possessions including desk, bed, and dresser up the four flights to his room, Sean decided to simply get into bed and deal with the whole mess in the morning.
* Over Halloween night, [[Dan Burns '06 ]] struck back with a vengeance. He turned Brian's room literally upside down. He took the bed and turned that upside down. He took the bookcase and turned that upside down, then proceeded to take the books on the bookcase upside down. He turned Brian's desk upside down, and everything that was sitting on top of it upside down. To top it off, he even went into Brian's closet and turned Brian's clothes upside down, tying shirts to the hangers to make sure that they would stay upside down until Brian returned.
* Cover the outside of someone's doorframe with newspaper, duct tape, TP, etc. Or stretch a piece of clear packing tape, sticky side in, across the doorframe at chest level. Wait for the victim to wake up and try to leave their room. If newspaper or some other continuous material (i.e. dozens of stretched facebook images of a person feared by the victim) is used to cover the doorframe, the intervening space between the paper and door can be filled with small objects that will spill into the room when the door is opened (note: particularly effective if you happen to unearth your victim's secret cotton ball phobia). This technique was used to great effect by Lisa Lindeke '06 against [[Esa Seegulam '06]] in his freshman year.
* During the [[Winter Study]] of 2003, Robert Hahn '05 traveled to the remote Galapagos Islands, leaving his key in the care of trusted suitemate Matthew Spencer '05. Teaming up with nearby friends Justin Brown and Jenni Simmons '05, these three filled the room floor to ceiling with red balloons to await. They were sure to make their move only the day before Robert's return, so that minimal deflation would occur before he arrived to appreciate it.
* Steal all of someone's clothes except for their tuxedo and then send them on a campus-wide treasure hunt to locate said clothes, creatively prolonging said treasure hunt so that the victim is forced to wear said tuxedo to breakfast the next morning. For more information, contact [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06lds Lisetta Shah '06] or [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06eac Eric Cheung '06].
* Cover the room's floor with dixie cups filled to the brim with water. Leave just enough space for the door to open, but nothing else. The victim will have to remove the cups one by one.
Please include only pranks that were actually attempted, though unachieved, and not pranks that were merely planned. Sure, we've all ''imagined'' awesome pranks -- the list of those would be endless -- but the real ''thrill'' of hearing a good prank story is being, in your mind, right there beside the people who carried it out.
* The Great Pumpkin Steal: During [[Halloween]] 2005, a giant pumpkin was placed in each dining hall, each weighing over 150 pounds and over a yard in diameter. Several [[Cross Country Running|students]] successfully stole one of these pumpkins out of Driscoll Dining Hall one evening without the dining staff noticing. The pumpkin was found several hours later in the back of one of the students' cars. While they were unable to place the pumpkin on top of Schow, as was planned, they did manage to amaze Security with their ingenuity and skill. Remarked [[Dave Boyer]], "That's the funniest thing I've ever seen. Don't do it again." The editors note that, technically, the pumpkin was within the "one piece of fruit" limit for dining hall take-out.
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