funny prank ideas?

[jmd9qs]

hey all,

i recently set up my sister's laptop w/ ubuntu 8.10, and i installed the opensshserver on it. i have figured out how to ssh into the laptop, and i can get it working fine.

i would like to do some HARMLESS pranks over ssh to freak her out, so i'm asking for ideas. right now, all i've got is this:


amixer -c 0 sset Master,0 100%; mplayer /home/mysister/.scream11.ogg; amixer -c 0 sset Master,0 20%

basically, this is a hidden .ogg file of a loud scream... i set this up as an alias in her .bashrc as SCARE, so i can log in and type that from wherever i am and it'll freak her out. i know, i should just make it a script, but i've no clue how to write those yet (if you know some good tutorials, let me know).

please, any ideas are welcome! remember, no harmfull pranks! i don't want to mess up her computer, just have a little fun and maybe freak her out in the process!

[apoth]

Along similar lines, festivaltts?

[mttman]

Look into cron jobs, they execute commands at a specified time which means you can have an alibi.

[kestrel1]

This is cruel, leave your poor sis alone.

[bapoumba]

So funny. Does she know you have remote access to her stuff?

[jmd9qs]

i actually have tried festival --tts, and it's pretty funny! i did this:


sleep 45s; echo 'you are a loser' | festival --tts

and she thought it was pretty funny. i did the sleep 45s so i could run upstairs and sit next to her before it went off, thus "proving" my innocence!

kestrel1, like i said before, i'm not doing any harm. just messing around, and it gives my bragging rights because all of the rest of the family uses windbloze! they think i'm a computer god!:D

[jimmy the saint]

ssh into her machine and execute something like

sudo-apt get install windows-vista

Naw, that would just be too mean and prbably **** her off a little!

[jmd9qs]

So funny. Does she know you have remote access to her stuff?

yes she does. it is her comp, so i asked her permission first. i set it up originally so that i could help her fix any problems remotely, in case i wasn't home

[bapoumba]

So funny. Does she know you have remote access to her stuff?

Does she?

Edit: Ah okay, we posted at the same time.

You know, we have access to your account. letsse what kind of funny prank ideas I can come up with.

[jmd9qs]

ssh into her machine and execute something like

sudo-apt get install windows-vista

Naw, that would just be too mean and prbably **** her off a little!

HEY!! remember, i said no HARMFUL pranks! lol:D

[jmd9qs]

Does she?

Ah okay, we posted at the same time.

You know, we have access to your account. letsse what kind of funny prank ideas I can come up with.

why do you say that? i've tried to stress that i don't wish to do anything malicious...

[bapoumba]

why do you say that? i've tried to stress that i don't wish to do anything malicious...

Neither do I, neither do I. I just want to have fun !

[kestrel1]

kestrel1, like i said before, i'm not doing any harm. just messing around, and it gives my bragging rights because all of the rest of the family uses windbloze! they think i'm a computer god!:D
You are lucky, I think my family think I am mad :lolflag:
I was only messin' with you, wish I had a sis to play pranks on. I am also a bit long in the tooth to do that sort of thing now. If I played a prank I am sure it would get out of hand. You need to know when to quit.

[donkyhotay]

Heh, if you can get it I would play voice clip of HAL. A really fun one would be to 'free the fish' (assuming she uses gnome) but I don't know how (or even if) that can be done from the terminal. If you want to know what I'm talking about in gnome press alt-f2, type in 'free the fish' without quotes, then press enter. Wanda the gnome fish will then start swimming around the screen.

[jmd9qs]

You need to know when to quit.


agreed! if she freaks out too much and is actually frightened, like thinks that someone is stalking her or something, i'll let her in on the joke! she is my sis, after all.

[kestrel1]

Good on you.

[jenkinbr]

amixer -c 0 sset Master,0 100%; mplayer /home/mysister/.scream11.ogg; amixer -c 0 sset Master,0 20%

basically, this is a hidden .ogg file of a loud scream... i set this up as an alias in her .bashrc as SCARE, so i can log in and type that from wherever i am and it'll freak her out. i know, i should just make it a script, but i've no clue how to write those yet (if you know some good tutorials, let me know).

please, any ideas are welcome! remember, no harmfull pranks! i don't want to mess up her computer, just have a little fun and maybe freak her out in the process!



#!/bin/bash
amixer -c 0 sset Master,0 100%;
mplayer /home/mysister/.scream11.ogg;
amixer -c 0 sset Master,0 20%


There's your bash script, provided your original code works.

You can save it to ~/bin as .scream, make it executable (chmod +x ~/bin/.scream), and then log out and back in again (if ~/bin didn't exist already), and then you can run .scream and it will do the trick.

You could set up a hidden bin folder at ~/.bin if you want, but to have it added to your path on login, you will need to add these lines to the user's ~/.bashrc file:


if [ -d ~/.bin ] ; then
PATH=~/.bin:"${PATH}"
fi
Those lines look similar to a set for the ~/bin directory, but this code block is for ~/.bin .

[Elfy]

Perhaps next time the Cafe would be a better place to put this ...

[jmd9qs]

#!/bin/bash
amixer -c 0 sset Master,0 100%;
mplayer /home/mysister/.scream11.ogg;
amixer -c 0 sset Master,0 20%


There's your bash script, provided your original code works.


cool man, thanks! doesn't look that hard, really...

[jmd9qs]

Perhaps next time the Cafe would be a better place to put this ...

ahhh... agreed, sorry. however, i'm a beginner and i'm learning! why not have a little fun?

[schauerlich]

There's always espeak.


sudo apt-get install espeak


espeak "your phrase here"

Make it say whatever you want. :)

Also, try "beep"


sudo apt-get install beep

There are a bunch of options, so try

man beep

To see what you can do. Basically, it makes it do a system beep. Combine it with cron and you can have a lot of fun. :)

[kestrel1]

Heh, if you can get it I would play voice clip of HAL. A really fun one would be to 'free the fish' (assuming she uses gnome) but I don't know how (or even if) that can be done from the terminal. If you want to know what I'm talking about in gnome press alt-f2, type in 'free the fish' without quotes, then press enter. Wanda the gnome fish will then start swimming around the screen.
You could also try out 'gegls from outer space' from the run application panel (alt + F2) You get a space invaders game start up.

[bapoumba]

So moved, thanks forestpixie :)

[jenkinbr]

cool man, thanks! doesn't look that hard, really...

No problem - it was a simple matter of breaking down your command into chunks at the semicolons (;), and adding the '#!/bin/bash' line. If you can do it with commands at the command line, you can almost certainly automate it with a simple bash script.


So moved, thanks forestpixie :)

Darnit! You made my post count drop! *cries* j/k :)
I'm surprised you didn't do that when you first posted...:)

[jmd9qs]

You could also try out 'gegls from outer space' from the run application panel (alt + F2) You get a space invaders game start up.

that's funny! remember, though, i'm doing this via ssh... i haven't run across a terminal command to run Wanda the Fish o gegls from outer space.

if anyone knows what they could be, let me know... it looks like they don't even run as individual processes but are attached to gnome-panel

[Dr Small]

export DISPLAY=:0
xmessage 'YOU ARE BEING WATCHED. MUHAHAHAHahaha'

[bapoumba]

Darnit! You made my post count drop! *cries* j/k :)
I'm surprised you didn't do that when you first posted...:)

Eheh, talk about mine :tongue:
I thought about it. There were other things going on, and I forgot.

[jmd9qs]

export DISPLAY=:0
xmessage 'YOU ARE BEING WATCHED. MUHAHAHAHahaha'

hey that's neat! is there a way to have one of these xmessages ssh over to my server to let me know when my sis logs on? so that when she logs into her computer, it automatically does something like this:


ssh jmd9qs@myhostname.com xmessage -center -timeout 360 'your sister has logged on!'

i don't think it would work in the .bashrc, 'cause that's just terminal options, right?

what file do i edit for logon options?

[jenkinbr]

Copy that code and then open up gnome-session-properties and add that line into a new entry. Not at ubuntu at the moment, so can't really provide more info...

[donkyhotay]

export DISPLAY=:0
xmessage 'YOU ARE BEING WATCHED. MUHAHAHAHahaha'

That one is fun, I didn't know you could do that. I could see myself having some fun with that. "Warning: this computer may not conform to NSA remote surveillance requirements. Please purchase and install microsoft windows to allow backdoor access to this system." :twisted:

[jmd9qs]

That one is fun, I didn't know you could do that. I could see myself having some fun with that. "Warning: this computer may not conform to NSA remote surveillance requirements. Please purchase and install microsoft windows to allow backdoor access to this system." :twisted:

it's cool but when i try to do that over ssh, it shows up on my screen, not the remote... how do i fix that?

[Dr Small]

it's cool but when i try to do that over ssh, it shows up on my screen, not the remote... how do i fix that?
Are you setting the display on the remote machine before executing the command, and how are you ssh'ing to the box? Don't use -X

[donkyhotay]

Just use basic ssh

ssh 192.168.0.1 -l username
without anything fancy (like the -X command). Also make certain you have the

export DISPLAY=:0
command typed in after you login but before using xmessage. Then you can use xmessage to your hearts content. Works on macs too! (c;

[jmd9qs]

here's what i'm doing:

i'm on the laptop now, and i open up gnome-session-properties. i add a new launcher, with this command:


ssh jmd9qs@myhostname.com export DISPLAY:0; xmessage 'Your Sister is Now Logged In'

but i've tried a few times, and nothing happens on the remote end... if i do it straight via terminal, it will wait for the ssh to authenticate (i've set it up passwordless), but then it displays my message on the machine i'm on, not the remote machine.

if i ssh into the remote computer and run them as two commands, it works. that's all fine and dandy, but i want to have this run after she logs on in order to notify me that she's on; obviously, if it's going to be automatic, i have to change the command somehow...

what am i missing here?

[Dr Small]

what am i missing here?

You obviously forgot that you were ending the command and starting a new one. Try:

ssh jmd9qs@myhostname.com "export DISPLAY=:0; xmessage 'Your Sister is Now Logged In'"

[wangsuda]

Heh, if you can get it I would play voice clip of HAL. A really fun one would be to 'free the fish' (assuming she uses gnome) but I don't know how (or even if) that can be done from the terminal. If you want to know what I'm talking about in gnome press alt-f2, type in 'free the fish' without quotes, then press enter. Wanda the gnome fish will then start swimming around the screen.

I just had to try this one. Now I have a fish swimming around my desktop. Pretty cool. So how do I stop it?

[Kopachris]

Hey, I never thought about ssh'ing into my Mom's Ubuntu machine to prank her! She has to work tonight (graveyard shift), so that'll be the perfect time to set up ssh! :twisted:


Look up how to set up ssh in Ubuntu
Look up how to set the volume from the command line
Look up the command for Ubuntu's speech synthesis

[MaxIBoy]

I just had to try this one. Now I have a fish swimming around my desktop. Pretty cool. So how do I stop it?


Click on her and she'll go a way temporarially.

To get rid of her entirely, just restart.

[Dr Small]

Hey, I never thought about ssh'ing into my Mom's Ubuntu machine to prank her! She has to work tonight (graveyard shift), so that'll be the perfect time to set up ssh! :twisted:


Look up how to set up ssh in Ubuntu
Look up how to set the volume from the command line
Look up the command for Ubuntu's speech synthesis

Here's some tips for starting:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server
amixer set PCM 100%
espeak 'goodnight mother'

[Dr Small]

Restart?! Why not just kill the program?

[MaxIBoy]

Well, you could also do a full X restart (ctrl-alt-backspace.)

Wanda becomes part of GNOME's main process when you run it.

[wangsuda]

To get rid of her entirely, just restart.That's kinda what I figured.


Restart?! Why not just kill the program?And how does one do that?

[Dr Small]

That's kinda what I figured.

And how does one do that?
I don't have the program, but I would certainly be looking through htop, or searching with terms in grep like 'wanda', 'fish', or 'free'...

[wangsuda]

I don't have the program, but I would certainly be looking through htop, or searching with terms in grep like 'wanda', 'fish', or 'free'...
Thanks, I'll try that. However, I don't think I'll be running fish real soon!

[jmd9qs]

That's kinda what I figured.

And how does one do that?

don't restart the whole comp! just do:


sudo killall gnome-panel

this will kill the panel, but don't worry, your open programs wont go away. the panels will come back in a minute, too

[wangsuda]

don't restart the whole comp! just do:


sudo killall gnome-panel

this will kill the panel, but don't worry, your open programs wont go away. the panels will come back in a minute, too

Thanks!

[jmd9qs]

no problem man

[bapoumba]

I'm closing the thread, it's been answered. For other ideas, or to make jokes on some other people you know, please go search or ask elsewhere. Now, I'm going play funny jokes my way too :)