grark was here

I read through my old LJ posts for the past three years and realized that I haven't changed much.




So to change it up a little, since April Fool's day is in a week, I thought I'd share my favorite pranks to pull when a roommate or friend unwisely leaves their computer unattended (for Windows XP anyways):


1. Make one website redirect to another:

Go to your C drive, Windows > system32 > drivers > etc and you should find a file names HOSTS

Open up the HOSTS file with a text editor.

This is where IP addresses are mapped to host names, so we're going to create/override some mappings.

Look up the IP address of a website you want to redirect to. I used Google's IP address at 74.125.39.147.

At the end of the HOSTS file, add the IP address and then the website that you want redirected with some space in between. (e.g. 74.125.39.147 www.facebook.com ) would go to Google homepage when your roommate/friend types in "www.facebook.com" into their address bar. Then, you can nonchalantly walk by and say "Oh, didn't you hear? Google bought Facebook."



2. Missing/broken desktop icons

Take a screen shot of the desktop and save it

Replace their wallpaper with the screenshot

Make it not show their desktop icons by right-clicking on the desktop > Arrange Icons By > uncheck Show Desktop Icons

Of course this only works when people actually use Desktop icons (I don't)

Also, you can paste the screenshot into Paint and draw to your hearts content before setting it as the wallpaper.

And if you're feeling nice, you should save the original wallpaper before replacing it.



3. Sending someone an email from anyone

This doesn't require to find someone's computer unattended by it does require you to have some access to a web server to send out email.

You can get free PHP hosting pretty easily, although some web hosts might not allow mail()

In PHP:

In ColdFusion:

<cfmail to="friend@domain.com" from="myself@yourmomsplace.com" subject="Hello!">
Message here
</cfmail>

You can put your friend's email address in the "to" field, and put whatever email address you want in the "from" field.


Someone did this to me a couple months ago, sending me an email from my own email address:
Subject: Note to Self...
Message: Who am I?
(haha this actually does sound like something I would send myself)

And at first, I thought someone had used my laptop when I left it unattended, but I found out that it was send by a UCLA server.

So I thought maybe someone used their BOL account to send it, but nope, BOL doesn't allow mail() to be used.

I had forgotten about it until now.



So, *ahem* anonymous commenter, was it you who sent that email? :P (nice set up, eh?)

Note to self: learn more Spanish.

I had paused outside of Kerckhoff to adjust my backpack. There was an man in his 40s pacing around and glancing at the bulletin board that listed the student groups that had offices in Kerckhoff.

He came up to me after a minute. "You speak English?" "Uh, yes. I do." I reply.

He proceeds to show me a piece of paper. After a confusing mix of Spanish and English, I figured out what he wanted.

( lol I'm a terrible story teller :( )

In my previous post, I mentioned visiting Tokyo 7-7. While I was there, one of their regulars sat near me. He was a Japanese guy who's never been to Japan, but often goes to China to study the Dalai Lama. He teaches Qi-Gong classes at a local zen center. Also, he works in computer graphics and gave me some tips about how to avoid eye-fatigue from staring at the computer screen too long.

Anyways, he gave me his three rules of being happy:
1. don't think/worry too much
2. have faith in something (doesn't matter what)
3. ?? (I forget)

( emo rant/musings cut for length )

My friend saw me studying during finals week and he said something like, "I never see you study. You're always wandering around the hallways and buildings." (I did that a lot while I lived in the dorms.)

To which I replied, "Yeah, but since I don't live in the dorms anymore, I have to wander around LA."

So I was out wreaking havoc all over LA, Culver City and Santa Monica the last week, and here's the list of places I visited.

Tokyo 7-7
Small diner hidden in an alleyway in Culver City. Fairly cheap food served by Japanese women. I had pancakes and sausage with coffee. The food was pretty good, but not good enough for me to take a trip down there just for pancakes. Maybe I'll try their Japanese food next time. Also, I got to chat up one of the regulars. I'll probably post about that later.

Museum of Jurassic Technology
This place was awesome. I actually stumbled onto it while waiting at the bus stop after eating at Tokyo 7-7. I looked it up online before I went, and it was described as a "parody of museums" to which I was like wtf?
Well, wtf indeed, because that's what I was thinking the whole time I was there. It was kinda ridiculous, hilarious and amazing at the same time. Also free tea and cookies, and they had doggies there! squee cute! and best of all, they had a Cat's Cradle exhibit which I thought was the coolest thing ever. Where else would you find such a thing?

Funnel Mill
I love this place. I love coffee. This is the only place that I've been to multiple times so far, but that may just be because I am a coffee whore. The siphoning process is interesting to watch and I hear good things about the tea, but the coffee is just too hard to resist. rawrrr

Intelligentsia
After raving about Funnel Mill, Nairi's BF told me to go check out Intelligentsia. I thought it was cool because my cappuccino came with one of those foam hearts on the top, but otherwise, not someplace I would go regularly. The staff was really good looking though.

Grand Central Market
My roommate and I found this place after missing our bus stop on the way to Chinatown. I went here last week after I missed the bus stop while trying to get to Intelligentsia (lol). I tried the Mexican food at one of the vendors. The girl at the stand didn't speak much English, but the food was pretty good. Probably wouldn't really go here again for the food though, except maybe for the Horchata. The market itself has extremely cheap food. Three mangoes for a dollar?!

Chocolatt.. from Belgium
I got the hot chocolate here after reading reviews on Yelp. It was pretty good, and they had that glass case full of chocolate that I just stared at for a really long time before I gave in and bought a half pound box. The owner was really nice. He told me about dark chocolate and white chocolate and what those percentages mean and why chocolate starts to turn white after a while (due to sugar bloom and fat bloom?). The chocolate is pretty expensive though :/

Mashti Malone's Ice Cream
I saw the sign while taking the bus down Sunset. The ice cream is good, but not so good that I would choose it over Thrifty's ice cream. I tried the Rosewater Saffron since the Yelp reviewers mentioned it, but I didn't like that it had pistachios in there. (I like my pistachios not in ice cream.) So I ended up getting my favorite (mint chocolate chip) instead.

I'll have to write up some proper Yelp reviews when I find time.

whoo. So if I get called in for jury duty for more than one day, I get a metro pass so I can wreak havoc all over LA for cheaper :D

Any suggestions on places to check out?

"So, what do you do for fun?"

I have nothing interesting to say in response to that question :( *sigh*