Facebook

[sargon94]

I got bored with my friend so we decided to crash the Facebook group chat... And succeded. It took under 2 minutes and it's been down for 30.

[Disch]

Why would you want to do that other than to be a jerk?

EDIT: and then to brag about it. Seriously, wtf?

[helios]

Is that not reason enough? The act of deriving amusement out of other people's annoyance even has a word in English: prank.

[blackcoder41]

waste of time..

[iw0XoG1T]

@helios

So there is no word for this in Spanish? When my children were younger before I give them their bottle I would squirt them in the face with it. There is nothing funnier then the look a pissed off baby gives you when they realize your screwing with them.

[Kyon]

Heheheh. Have to try to remember that for later. :P (Much later, but whatever.)

[helios]

There are localisms, but not a word that's understood everywhere.
Anyway, my point was that the concept of prank is common enough to have a word, not that English is special in having a word for it.

I remember one time we turned a coworker's monitor upside down while also turning the video output upside down. This only works with CRTs for obvious reasons.
Also the time we switched his shutdown music to a sound we recorded. That one took a long time to be found.
And the time we recorded new Q3A sounds so that, among other things, you'd hear something to the effect of "you lucky camper bastard" instead of "impressive!". We got a good chuckle out of that one.

[xander333]

Which group chat did you crash?

[Nohbdy]

// Does no one see the irony in this? :O Has anyone seen the movie "A Social Network" about the guy who invented FaceBook? He did stuff like crash networks apparently, if the movie is accurate in that aspect! He would also brag about it, I think he would be proud :P

// Not something I would do though personally.

// I recommend watching A Social Network by the way, it was sort of programming-oriented, at least in the beginning!

[TNLDS4]

Nohbdy

So you would recommend "A Social Network"? I heard it wasn't that good so I didn't bother.

[ajputnam]

The movie was alright... and if you watched the movie he wasn't trying to crash the network, his site got over loaded with resopnses and crashed the server. Which in return made him get caught.

[helios]

it was sort of programming-oriented, at least in the beginning!

If you want a movie like that, watch Pirates of Silicon Valley and The Triumph of the Nerds. They're both more or less about the same period in computer history, but one is a movie and the other a documentary.

[Pax]

I watched Pirates of Silicon Valley earlier this week, weirdly. Bit pro-Jobs/anti-MS - but that seems to be a common theme in the computing world for some reason. Another good docu-drama about computing history is "Micro Men" about Spectrum/Acorn computers -- British.

[Disch]

helios wrote:

Is that not reason enough? The act of deriving amusement out of other people's annoyance even has a word in English: prank.

There's a difference between pulling a prank and just being an asshole.

Pranks are funny. The target of a prank often can appreciate the humor. If they don't, it's a bad prank.

If there's no way the target could possibly find humor in it, then it's not a prank. It's more like being a bully.

The sad thing is I've met people who really couldn't tell the difference. Although those people are usually either complete douchebags who I'd rather not know, or they're just completely socially inept.


On an unrelated note, I find myself skipping Nohbdy's posts because they look commented out.

[helios]

pro-Jobs/anti-MS

You think? Everything about how he (Jobs) is portrayed just makes me want to punch him. From his hipsterness to his asshole behavior.
The best characters, though, are Ballmer and Paterson.

What's with all the Steves, anyway? Was "Steve" the most popular name during the 50s?

[NGen]

Just goes to show that if your name is Steve, you'll be famous.

[Kyon]

Disch wrote:

Pranks are funny. The target of a prank often can appreciate the humor. If they don't, it's a bad prank.

If there's no way the target could possibly find humor in it, then it's not a prank. It's more like being a bully.

This requires prior knowledge of the definition of humor, for example.

Although people pull a lot of pranks on me, I do enjoy them myself, too. I don't see the humor in all of them, but that doesn't make me (or the prankster) feel or think he or she is a bully. I think you should append: "If the target is actually annoyed or bothered by the prank, it's more like being a bully."

[sargon94]

ok wow! I'll answer most of you:

Helios: Thanks for the back-up. It was a prank, mostly. That and boredom, creative thinking and curiosity gone bad.

Blackcoder41: It took 2 minutes.

Kyon: It was easy to do. Fun as well.

Helios (again): Niice! I'll have to remember that.

Xander333: We made a new one and added 711 people. That's what crashed it.

Nohbdy: I am proud, thank you.

The rest are mostly unrelated (but funny) so I'll leave them alone. Incidentally, The chat is still down.

[Disch]

sargon94 wrote:

Nohbdy: I am proud, thank you.

Right. Robbing total strangers of their fun and giving other people additional headaches that they have to deal with is certainly something to be proud of.

At least you gained something fr... oh wait.... you didn't.

me wrote:

those people are usually either complete douchebags who I'd rather not know

[sargon94]

They weren't total strangers. Think for a minute, on facebook you can only add friends. the only people added were either my friends or his.

How am I robbing them??? I made it in the first place! That doesn't make any sense.

Please stop impersonating the stereotype of humorless programmer, it's making me sick.