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April Fool’s Day

Mac OS X Hints and April Fool’s Day

When I ran Mac OS X Hints, I had a tradition of running April Fool's Day pranks. Here's a link to every one I ever published (including the intro of each) from 2003 through 2010 when I departed for Many Tricks. I've also found and included the images that went with each post, as these have vanished from the static version of the site that remains online.

2003: PR: macosxhints.com announces future direction

Beaverton, OR -- April 1, 2003 -- macosxhints.com today announced its new strategic direction to address the constant need for growth in the dynamic web site information portal business. In a highly anticipated move, the site announced that all future hints will eventually focus solely on the WindowsXP platform.

2004: Apple releases speed- and CPU-bumped G5s

Cupertino, CA -- April 1, 2004 -- Apple today announced its first-ever triple-CPU system, the PowerMac G5 Cubed. Featuring a total of three G5 processors, the G5 Cubed offers unmatched desktop processing power. "It's clearly the fastest thing we've ever made, and it's head and shoulders above anything the Wintel world has to offer," said Apple and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs.

2005: Install and run OS X on an iPod

After running this site for a few years, I've come to know many people in the Mac world. Many of these fine folks are slaving away on pet projects, most of which will never see the light of day. Yet still, they toil, hoping for success. My good friend Richard is one such person. He's been obsessed with running OS X on his iPod since the day he bought his first generation machine. Not just installing it and booting a Mac with the iPod, but honest-to-goodness using OS X on the iPod. I should preface and say that Richard is brilliant, stubborn, and amazingly resourceful ... three required qualities for this particular project!

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April Fool’s Day: Ten simple Mac pranks—part 2 of 2

As promised, this collection of five more April Fool's Day pranks completes the set of 10 that began with these five pranks. As with the first group of pranks, this is still applicable…

Note: None of these pranks are destructive in any way, but please make sure you're close by to "solve the problem" before your target's frustration boils over.

And now, on to the second five pranks…

6 - Create strange keyboard shortcuts

Again in System Preferences, you can have a lot of fun with the Text tab on the Keyboard panel. Set up replacements that do all sorts of weird stuff:

  • Make them think they're just missing their keys, i.e. replace the with tje (you must use at least two keys in the original).
  • Mess with their grammar thoughts by replacing to with too, their with they're, etc.
  • Screw up letter case; replace the with tHe, she with shE, etc.
  • Completely change words, for instance, replace weight with w-you sure it's e before i?-ght or me with me, the brilliant one.
  • If you have some time, add the words from a full pirate talk dictionary. Hello becomes Ahoy there!, etc.
  • Change l to 1, o to 0, etc.


You get the idea.

7 - Run the screen saver in the background

Did you know you can run the screen saver in the background? I explain how in this tip. I'm not sure this has much practical value, but it's certainly fitting for April Fool's Day. Here's how it looks in action, from the original post:

After executing the command, press ⌃L in Terminal (to clear the screen). Then, because you have to leave Terminal running to make this work, minimize the Terminal window to the Dock, then hide the app via ⌘H. Even if your victim finds the Terminal window, they won't know how to stop the screensaver unless they're familiar with background tasks in Unix. (Or until they quit Terminal, which will terminate the screen saver.)

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April Fool’s Day: Ten simple Mac pranks—part 1 of 2

With April Fool's Day upcoming, here are some relatively-painless jokes to pull on your Mac-using friends. All of these pranks require direct unrestricted access to your target's Mac, and many further require that System Preferences isn't locked down (i.e. not set to require a password before changing any values).

Note: None of these pranks are destructive in any way, but please make sure you're close by to "solve the problem" before your target's frustration boils over.

The pranks aren't in any particular order, though they do sort of progress from easiest (to implement and to detect) to hardest.

1 - Make the Mac take a daytime nap

Head to System Preferences > Energy Saver, then click Schedule. Set the target's Mac to go to sleep in the middle of the day…

If they're working at the time, they'll get a pop-up dialog, so the Mac probably won't go to sleep. But they may think it was a quirk, until the same thing happens the next day.

2 - Change the desktop picture—often

The simple version of this one is to go to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop, click the Change Picture button, then use the pop-up menu to set it to five seconds.

This one won't fool most Mac users for too long, so you might as well have some fun with it: Instead of just changing the interval, copy a folder full of your own images, and then use the sidebar in the Desktop tab to choose that folder of images.

What kind of images? Well, nothing too bad, of course, but maybe fill it pictures of your target's least-favorite sports team. Or their college's rival school. Or screens of motivational sayings. Bright neon-colored backgrounds—whatever.

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