USB PC Prankster: guaranteed to freak out, enrage your cubicle mates

Oh, brother. As we all know so well, the office can be a draining place. But devices such as these could make even the most burnt-out middle manager excited to clock in. The USB PC Prankster looks like a stock flash drive, but as you can clearly see above, a few toggle switches enable it to become quite the headache. Once plugged in, the unlucky PC that it's attached to will have its Caps Lock enabled and disabled at random, see garbled text splattered about quarterly reports and be victim to uncontrollable, erratic cursor movements. Thankfully, the drive will never activate the Enter key nor close or save documents, so you can rest assured that it's all in good fun. Turning your office up on its head costs just £19.99 ($33), but you'll have to wait a tick 'til it comes back in stock.

[Via Switched]

[Namminamm Posted Oct 19th 2009 11:25AM]

suck my d!@k!!!

[vman81 Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:35PM]

There is still lots of potential to overwrite any selected text etc..

[dman Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:14PM]

⌘Z???

[RequiemOfLife Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:31PM]

no, it doesnot know what ur doing it just acts as a keyboard and presses buttons, like if u had two keyboards plugged in with an annoying person pressing buttons...sure it can shift arrow key to select but it would not know what it was selecting

[newreformation Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:43PM]

Am I the only one who would automatically press ctrl/alt/delete and check my processes?

I am sure I could kill this thing within seconds.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:54PM]

As if you only have computers at work or as if at work you work with stiff idiots. This device is perfect to use in a more relaxed environment, such as home for wifey or kid's computer (Did you fixed it?). However if indeed you got fired for less at your old job, it was pointless to waste your time with them in the first place. And no, not every program is displayed in the task manager.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:53PM]

@ sacapuntas Nothing will appear in task manager. It is an effectively an external keyboard and mouse, not a program. Your only chance to catch it would be if you went into the device manager and saw the extra devices.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 18th 2009 5:51PM]

Not only that... what about auto save in an unattended station?

[Hell Angel Posted Oct 18th 2009 6:01PM]

Imagine using this with windows vista's readyboost.... ready... set... crash...

[Wwhat Posted Oct 18th 2009 7:13PM]

The first thing even tech-challenged people will do is look if their keyboard is plugged in right, and likely see the thing and steal it and leave you out $33.

[TIMMAH Posted Oct 19th 2009 7:01PM]

They should have one that launches Word and sends out TPS Reports to the printer at random intervals...

[barCODE Posted Oct 21st 2009 3:04AM]

I think the Wiebetech (fast) mouse wiggler is the better and funnier option.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/16/wiebetechs-mouse-jiggler-usb-stick-prevents-sleep/

[Sora Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:35PM]

Because nobody would notice something that isn't their's jutting out from their computer.

[Peter F Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:37PM]

There are USB ports in the back of computers.

[ebayaholic Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:39PM]

Unless you're blonde....

[B3astofthe3ast Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:38PM]

Thats why you use the rear usb ports.

[Shon Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:38PM]

not if its in the back of a desktop in a cramped cubicle

[kyoukoku Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:42PM]

Well they probably won't notice if you stick it round the back where they can't see it, and given the IT literacy of some office workers they probably won't notice it at all.

[Sora Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:44PM]

I'm with comanches66 on this. It's not worth going through the hassle of struggling to get to a back USB port in a cramped cubicle.

[kris120890 Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:07PM]

Your second comment was even worse than the first. Well done.

[MrAffrox Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:30PM]

Actually, the link shows a laptop with this thing plugged in which is dumb.

[Nismode Posted Oct 18th 2009 5:13PM]

@kyoukoku

That's what she said.

[Ghen Posted Oct 19th 2009 7:20AM]

When I fix computers I routinely use the front ports.. the once a week that I forget and leave a thumb drive in there people rarely notice and remind me.

Kinda sucks.

[MONKEY Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:38PM]

Another good one is you take all of the RAM out of their computer so it doesn't work.

[Arkenklo Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:41PM]

You fail at prank. You only take out 3/4 of the ram, alternatively replace everything with 32 mb. Unplugging the cpu fan is also a stealthy but harmless one.

[MONKEY Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:43PM]

making someones computer stop working isn't really a prank. I was joking.

You could also burn someones house down. That's another good one.

get it?

[Lazarpandar Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:46PM]

Or you like format their hardrive or spill water in their power supply LOL

I really like the one where you kill your bosses mother and rape her, gets me every time xD

[newreformation Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:56PM]

My favorite thing to do is take their new LCD panel and rip off the top and the insides. Then you fill the screen case with water and put some fish inside. When your coworker comes back you say, "Hey, I put this neat aquarium screen saver on your computer". You should just see their faces... .teeheeheehee


Another thing I like to do is fix my ramen by disabling the fan and removing the heat sinks from a coworkers desktop and boiling the noodles with the resulting heat. mmmmm... ramen.

[nickyP Posted Oct 18th 2009 5:01PM]

Why are we even replying to MONKEY's comments, especially since he raped and killed that poor girl in 1994. It's just terrible, if it happened, which it probably did.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 19th 2009 1:43AM]

killin me here!

[jinjin Posted Oct 19th 2009 1:33PM]

Or you like format their hardrive or spill water in their power supply LOL

I really like the one where you kill your bosses mother and rape her, gets me every time xD



so you kill her and rape her... necrophiliac? whatever gets you off bro

[SkonOfVulcan Posted Oct 19th 2009 2:25PM]

Yep. "Rape there horses and ride there women out of town!" (The Three Amego's)

[Arkenklo Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:38PM]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/ae83/

I first saw it a year ago. Don't know how much longer it's been for sale.

[tavisjohn Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:55PM]

I like the $13 USD price better than the articles $33 usd price!

[RioRyan Posted Oct 18th 2009 5:40PM]

That`s where I got mine. Had it for a while now, didn`t know that the Engadget staff wasn`t aware.

[SkonOfVulcan Posted Oct 19th 2009 2:25PM]

Variations on these have been around for at least 10 years.

[Eddie W Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:39PM]

Good luck using this at the office and not getting fired or even arrested. I can't see any boss in a corporate office putting up with this sort of behavior. I've seen people get fired over way less than this.

[ebayaholic Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:44PM]

That is, unless, you ARE the boss.....:-D

[silversun Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:52PM]

like a boss

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:07PM]

@silversun shit on deborah's desk

[morsch Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:07PM]

@silversun

like a boss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c

[LandMine Hare Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:19PM]

So wear powderless gloves to stealthily apply the product into a computer.

Then when they go up to get support, remove it, and make them look INSANE \o/

PROBLEM SOLVED LOL

[Amun Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:26PM]

I got fired for less. But then again, it was worth it... jobs come and go, epic pranks are timeless.

[nrkcubed Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:55PM]

I'll buy bulk and put them on every computer at my college

[SkonOfVulcan Posted Oct 19th 2009 2:26PM]

Especially good if you plug it into a port that's inside the case. Like on a USB expansion board. ;-)

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:03PM]

why buy this when you could just write a program to do the same thing, put it on a standard usb flash drive and set it to autorun?

[dman Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:17PM]

cause not everyone can write a program to do the same thing, put it on a flash, or set it to autorun

[KillaChaos Posted Oct 18th 2009 7:24PM]

Because Vista SP2 and 7 no longer allow any device to "autorun"

[googleworldblog Posted Oct 18th 2009 3:58PM]

This is available much cheaper at ThinkGeek.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/ae83/

[Legend Posted Oct 18th 2009 4:05PM]

Thanks!