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TL;DR: don't fuck with your IT guy.

One of the guys in our office treats his laptop like shit, has dropped it a number of times and had managed to break the screen. There was a nice crack diagonally corner to corner across the screen with a nice black splotch around it making a good chunk of his screen unusable. Servicing the laptop would be too expensive and would mean being without the machine for several weeks forced to use a Mac.

I offered to replace the screen for him since I have experience doing laptop repairs. Once the screen arrived I kept the laptop for the evening and spent an hour replacing the screen. I left a note telling him he owed me $60 for my time.

He sees the note, laughs and says "I'll buy you lunch."

Not only does this guy only keep his word when offering to buy lunch about 10% of the time, when he does actually do it he charges it on the company card so it isn't really him paying for it. So I spent my lunch break writing up a little Python app which randomly fucks with his mouse and keyboard.

I sent him a message that I needed to run some tests on his new screen tonight so I'll be able to install it and set it to run on boot.

The app does things like:
Jiggle the mouse
Minimize all windows to show the desktop
Double click
Right click

Can't decide if I want to add in reboots as well.

I figure I'll leave it going until I get $60 worth of entertainment out of it.

Comments
  • 11
    @Null-Device it was discussed that we would work something out but no actual amount was ever determined, he just said things like "I'll take care of you".

    By offering to buy my lunch one time he's telling me that an hour of my time is worth ~$10 to him.
  • 9
    moral of the story: let him use a mac for a few weeks. then format his HD for no reason.
  • 11
    Reboot might be a bit too much. He could say that the whole PC is broken.

    I love your ideas so far, if I may, you could have some fun with the volume to scare him :D
  • 5
    @AlexDeLarge oh he's definitely a straight up tool. This is hardly the first annoying thing he has done.

    @Jilano that's where I sit with the reboot option. I was going to make the chances of it happening extremely low, but I would hate for it to happen while with a client. The volume would be a good idea too if I didn't sit right across from him so it would affect me as well.
  • 7
    @sylar182 Fair enough, what about something more subtle like screen brightness or even mouse sensitivity, then?
  • 2
    @Jilano I do still have time to code lol.
  • 0
    if you are the only IT guy there, have fun but forget the reboot. if not, dont do such stuff, dont do any favors and stick only to whatever you are supposed to do. because if there are other IT guys and he might approach to them with the problem they might actually spend hours breaking their heads with this problem and when they will figure out that you did it you are in trouble.
  • 3
    Set it to run on reboot.
  • 3
    Or.. set up a RAT.
  • 6
    @ewpratten running on boot is gonna happen. I'm going to randomize initialization of the main class so it only starts about 40% of the time so I can tell him to reboot and see if that fixes the issue.
  • 6
    I would try to do something with his mouse sensitivity/acceleration. Keep changing settings just a tiny bit, so he wont notice, but it should annoy him when he will over/under drag just a little. :)
  • 1
    > I left a note telling him he owed me $60 for my time

    Aaaaand there goes your rant.
  • 3
    Or be a man and get over it. Next time don't offer your services to this guy and be straight up front about your rate
  • 1
    @telephantasm when someone says I'll take care of you, you expect that there will be some payment or barter. Since no definite amount was determined and I spent an hour of my time doing him a favor I said $60 which is less than a standard rate for such a repair.

    Do I expect him to actually pull out cash and pay me? No, but in these sort of situations, the party receiving the services should at least acknowledge the favor. I didn't have to fix the computer. Had he said he'd buy lunch the rest of the week I'd have been cool with it but 1 lunch doesn't cover this and every other instance of helping this guy out.
  • 1
    @sylar182

    > I didn't have to fix the computer

    You didn't have to even offer to fix it.

    If you do things expecting something in return, then it's not a favor. You wanted compensation for your work? You should have told the guy beforehand :P
  • 0
    Lol, giant troll
  • 2
    Lol, that’s great! Also, Install a miner and dump its earnings in your wallet. Delete it when you get $60+ In whatever coin you wish. He’ll def wonder why his computer is running like shit. Please keep us updated lol.
  • 0
    Just created some scheduled tasks to do random shit.
  • 0
    Jesus! I hope you did it. Tell us!
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