Posts from — March 2008

If the Phantom Keystroker didn’t strike your fancy for a good April Fools’ day prank, there’s certainly a wealth of good ideas floating around the web right now.   The fellas over at Popular Mechanics just dropped the top 5 pranks that can be pulled at your job.  I can’t say i was particularly smitten with most of them, as they seemed either too time consuming, or too confusing to execute.  Nonetheless I am still going to give the Refrigerator Handle Switch a try.  Apparently you can place the handle on most office fridges on the opposite side of the fridge, thereby rendering any attempt at opening the thing useless.  If you’re looking for something a bit less involved, there are several delightful Firefox Prank add-ons that will cause erratic browser behavior and consequently massive headaches.  For even more great computer related pranks head over to Lifehacker’s Top 10 Harmless Pranks.  Feel free to post any of your successful pranks in the comments.

The other day a friend was telling me about his experience at a boot-camp workout session. It was his first time, and he was asked to do as many push-ups as possible in 1 minute, in order to set a benchmark by which he could compare future progress. He supposedly managed to muster up 45 good ones, a claim which i regrettably ridiculed as child’s play. Although I had not exercised in quite some time, I based my declaration on the knowledge that I had been somewhat of a gym rat a few years back, and back then doing 45 push-ups was nothing more than a nice warm-up. Sadly, this was not the case anymore as I struggled to break 40, and was left motionless on the floor for some time after, swimming in humiliation. The whole experience made me realize, that by sitting in front of my desk all day snacking on Doritos, I am destined to become that weird fat guy who hangs out by the soda machine on his lunch break, and gets his stapler stolen everyday. Feeling the urge to take immediate action, i began crawling the internet looking for a solution, and eventually arrived at what can only be described as true genius: the Hula Chair.

Sadly, while the Hula Chair might provide me with my much needed “exercise”, it will most likely not prevent my stapler from getting jacked.

SOURCE

It was brought to my attention that last week marked the 40th birthday of the cubicle.  I’m not celebrating, obviously. While it is difficult to rejoice over a creation eventually lamented by its own inventor, Robert Propst, who called it a contribution to “monolithic insanity, I did find myself excited about discovering that in 2001 Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, teamed up with design firm IDEO to create the “ideal cubicle”. The result was a cube I could only hope to be placed in sometime. Ditching the conventional office furniture normally stuffed into our cubes, Adams created a modern looking work space built around the basic needs of the employee, to “eat, sleep,[and] avoid the boss”. Aside from practical neccesities like a office chair, and computer, Adams included a hideaway hammock, punching bag, a screen that monitors your boss’s movements, floor modules that lift for storage, and several oddities like an accoustically activated mechanical flower that shudders with happiness when you are present. Sadly the whole thing is far too unpractical for any company to install, but I can always dream.

SOURCE

I came across a nice article today that listed some ways to make your office more eco-friendly.  While I don’t have a die hard “go green” mentality, I do think its an important issue and was disappointed when I realized that my company has only implemented 3 of the 10 tips listed.  Some of the suggestions include using LED lights, installing motion sensors for the lights, and using ceramic plates instead of disposable ones (which is something my company should really do considering we have a catered lunch every day for more than 150 people).  Go check out the article and see how your company fares.

10 Ways To Green Your Office at Low Impact Living

Do you have an annoying cubicle neighbor who taps their feet on the divider all day. I do. To express my gratitude I have decided to get one of these Phantom Keystroker prank devices. After plugging it into the back of his PC, it will periodically begin to move around the cursor while typing in random text, and hopefully send the person into panic. As a bonus I’m thinking of planting a spy cam in his cubicle to capture the magic on tape.

Think Geek via OhGizmo!