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diff --git a/posts/2013-02-24-practical-joke.org b/posts/2013-02-24-practical-joke.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f422ddf --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/2013-02-24-practical-joke.org @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +I've nothing exciting to write about so I'll share a prank I did a few +years ago (because I'm kinda proud of this one). + +To protect the innocent, I'll change all the names. + +I was working at a company named $LF. One of my colleague ($NG), always +looks at his keyboard when he types. Some time he can type for a few +minutes. Then he looks at his screen, only to realize that it's full of +typo, or worse, that he had typed in the wrong window. This used to +really bother me, because I know he's been typing for years, but I was +not sure if he was looking at his keyboard because he needs to, or just +because his head is too heavy to look at the screen. + +So one day, while everybody (except $GM) were away taking a break, I +decided to conduct an experiment. + +The french keyboard uses the +[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerty][AZERTY]] layout. $NG uses the +[[http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][best editor in the world]], where +the /x/ key is /really/ important (try to do something without +'Meta-x'). He also uses a laptop, connected to an external monitor and +with an external keyboard. So I decided to swap the /x/ and the /w/ +letter on the external keyboard, by switching the caps. The actual /x/ +and /w/ were still at the same place, only the label on the key was +switched. + +When he came back from the break, he starts typing as usual. Quickly he +realized that something was wrong, and he did a lot of things to figure +out what. Among them: + +- verify that the content of =xmodmaprc= was correct, and then tweak it +- reinitialize the layout with =setxkbmap= +- use a tool (maybe =showkey= ?) to see what was the actual code send + from the keyboard while hitting the key +- probably recompiled a bunch of stuff +- definitely upgraded his Linux distribution + +At this point, he understood that when hitting /x/, /w/ was received, +and for /w/, /x/. He rebooted his laptop (because when in doubt, you +should "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8][tried turning it +off and on again]]"). But the problem was still there. + +If I remember correctly, that's when he decided to look at the laptop's +keyboard and tried to use it, only to realize that it was working +correctly! So he asked the ops guy, $GM, who was sitting next to me, if +there was a spare keyboard somewhere. I slowly turned my head toward +$GM, whispering 'noooo' to him, and he replied to $NG "nop, sorry, no +spare keyboard, ". + +The other developers started to realize that something was wrong with +$NG, but no one said or did anything yet. We were about 30 minutes in +the experiment now. + +Because he still had work to do, he tried to cop with the problem, and +every time he needed a /x/ or a /w/, he would type something, stop, look +at the screen, sigh/grumble, and use the laptop's keyboard to fix all +the /w/ and /x/. That was difficult to miss, and soon other people asked +him what was wrong, and so that's when I revealed . + +When I explained what I did he was surprised, starred at the two +keyboards for a while, and saw that, effectively, the keys were swapped! +I'm pretty sure the rest of the team made fun of him but I don't really +remember exactly how. + +I consider the experiment to be a success: I proved that he need to look +at his keyboard to type, and I'm also confident that I can reproduce it +with the same subject multiple time and obtain the same result again. |
