Boo! I just MacPwned you.

September 1, 2006 2:46 PM

So, sometimes I'm sitting on my Intel Imac and my wife is on the couch behind me on the Ibook G4. Is there anyway I can send something over the wireless network that would scare/surprise/amuse her? Something that would pop up on her screen? (Yes. This is the level of my boredom right now)
posted by drewcopeland to Computers & Internet (17 answers total)

Send her a scary message with a LAN messenger. Pretend to be an ISP and question her about what she's been looking at on the web.
posted by ifranzen at 2:54 PM on September 1, 2006 [1 favorite]

You could IM her a giant picture over Rendevouz...

Or you could pre-install software like a flash animation and use remote AppleScript/Growl/command-line to start it.
posted by onalark at 2:56 PM on September 1, 2006

You could also just leap up and start screaming incoherently.

Not really computer related, but I bet she'd be surprised.
posted by quin at 3:00 PM on September 1, 2006 [2 favorites]

Give someone (you trust) on here her IM name. Feed that person comments/questions etc. Let them mess with her and make her nervous about how a 'stranger' knows so much / so specific info.
posted by inigo2 at 3:03 PM on September 1, 2006

Back in the old OS8 & 9 days, there was this wonderful little app (for networked Macs) called Radiation. You surreptitiously dropped an extension on your victim's Mac. Then, from your own Mac you could propagate faux system warnings on the victim's Mac. They looked like the real thing, but you could enter whatever text you wanted. I think the default warning was something like:
The radiation shield on your monitor has failed. Please move back 10 feet.

Ah, those were fun times.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:06 PM on September 1, 2006

Here's a list of computer pranks (with links) from wikipedia.
posted by Espy Gillespie at 3:23 PM on September 1, 2006

Me and my brother pulled an absolute hilarious prank on my sister. It is called 'office poltergeist' and can be found at http://www.officepoltergeist.com/

You install it on their computer when they arent there. then from your computer you can control theirs. You can play a bunch of really scary sounds, send them messages, or open/close their cd rom tray. If you come up with a good story, it can be really funny. My sister was convinced that someone had hacked into her computer and was watching her.

*not sure if it works on macs though.
posted by nyu2 at 3:40 PM on September 1, 2006

Once you've got Apple Remote Desktop installed, her machine is your oyster...
posted by dmd at 3:45 PM on September 1, 2006

Thorzdad, yes! Radiation was such a killer in our newsroom. The editors used to get really pissed off because when they'd make yet another idiot pronouncement, the desk would fall silent as everyone battered their keyboard sending messages to each other.
posted by bonaldi at 3:57 PM on September 1, 2006

Also, once you have remote login (ssh) turned on on her machine, you can ssh in and use the "open" command to make things start up.

This works best when you can log in as her user, so if you have her password, you can "su - herusername" once you log in and when you use the "open" command from the shell, the result will appear on her screen. If you have an admin account on her Mac, but not her password, you can "sudo su - herusername" I think.

You could scp things to her machine and then "open /path/to/thing.jpg" and it will open in the default app for that filetype.

Same thing can work with sounds, but I can't remember if it will auto play them with Quicktime.

There are plenty of shell to Applescript bindings out there as well, so you can probably write something to do some wacky things on her machine.
posted by tomierna at 4:07 PM on September 1, 2006

don't know if it's still out there, or if it still works with current versions of itunes, but there was an app called iHamOnRye that let you control iTunes remotely on another computer on your network... on more than one occasion I scared the hell out of co-workers by suddenly causing their itunes to blare crazy soundfiles...
posted by ab3 at 4:23 PM on September 1, 2006

Best answer: get her password. ssh to her computer from the terminal like so: ssh username@IPADDRESS. Then type in the password at the prompt.

then type in "speak THIS IS THE KIDNAPPER. I AM IN THE HOUSE."

Best to do this when she's alone.
posted by damn dirty ape at 4:33 PM on September 1, 2006

There's a remote desktop application that Apple used to have for classrooms that allows one person to control the computer screen of another computer. My husband used it on me one time, forcing me to porn websites while I was trying to surf the web. I didn't know what the heck was going on until I heard him giggling.
posted by Lucinda at 5:11 PM on September 1, 2006

Note that once you ssh in, you can also use the open command to open Web sites in the default browser:

open http://www.tubgirl.com/

etc.
posted by kindall at 5:41 PM on September 1, 2006

My favorite thing to do for a while at work was to leave my iBook on my desk (in a shared office) then go to another part of the building that was still in Bluetooth range. Then I'd open up Salling Clicker with my Bluetooth phone and use the built-in scripts to play a certain track in iTunes, open a random iPhoto pic, speak a certain phrase, etc. etc.

So if you ever get local access to her iBook, download the free trial version of Clicker and configure it for your phone. That way you don't even have to be at your iMac to mess with her!
posted by toddshot at 6:51 PM on September 1, 2006

online sex.
posted by visual mechanic at 7:19 PM on September 1, 2006

poop alerts. that is all.
posted by dreamyshade at 12:05 AM on September 3, 2006