DIY
PRANKS
EVIL MOUSE PRANK
Control your co-worker’s cursor!
By John Edgar Park
Joe Bowers is sneaky, resourceful, and rotten to
the core. Whatever you do, don’t get in a prank war
with him.
Photograph by Sam Murphy
Returning to my desk from a coffee break, I sat
down, grabbed my mouse, and ... nothing. The
cursor was stuck to the left wall of my monitor.
I shook my mouse wildly. The cursor moved up
and down just fine. But when I jerked my mouse
viciously to the right, the cursor nudged a little,
then slammed back to its new favorite position,
clinging maddeningly to the leftmost pixel.
Blowing on the mouse’s nether regions didn’t help,
so my officemate, Hide Yosumi, took pity on me. “Do
you hear something?” he asked knowingly. There
was a high-pitched whine coming from behind my
workstation. I looked and saw that a strange mouse
was plugged in. Not just any mouse. A prank mouse.
Like most analog mice, it once used a ball to drive
MATERIALS
Analog mouse
Tiny DC motor from an old cellphone, toothbrush, or R/C toy
SPST switch
Insulated 22 AWG stranded wire, 4"
One AAA battery
Electrician’s tape
Heat-shrink tubing
TOOLS
Phillips head screwdriver
Sharp knife
Pushpin
Hot glue gun
Soldering iron
Lighter or candle
Make: 149
