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magine playing a computer game that plays back—one that
starts intruding on your real life, calling you at home, sending
you emails at work... freaking you out. That’s the appeal of
alternate reality games (www.argn.com), a form of interactive
storytelling in which the audience becomes a willing participant
in the intrigue.
ARGs hinge on an exciting story—say, a stranger who has
uncovered a conspiracy and needs help. Map your complete tale
into chapters, with puzzles as milestones. Create cryptograms
(http://tinyurl.com/66ejxp), dabble in steganography (http://tinyurl.com/4aphq), or use any of Unfi ction’s puzzle tools at http://tinyurl.
com/5snq3h to keep your players interested. Then give your fi ctional
characters full online identities—email addresses, blogs, Facebook
and IM accounts—and digitally role-play with your friends. You’ll
use all those vehicles to tell your tale in small, real-time chunks
over about two weeks. For extra intrigue, make fi rst contact via an
anonymous remailer (http://tinyurl.com/5wff qv). The more intrusive
the storytelling, the better—call players from and at pay phones or
arrange live online chats at specifi c times for real-time spookiness.
Aft er all, it’s just a game, right?Create an Alternate Reality Game
Skype Conference Call Press the conference call button on
Skype and simultaneously call up to 24 people who sit near
you. For best results, ring both offi ce phones and cellphones,
and to ensure plausible deniability, remember to call your
own phones as well. Use Pamela (www.pamela-systems.com)
to play an audio clip when people pick up. We think anything
said by Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross sets the right tone.
Autocorrect in Word On a coworker’s computer, open
Word 2007, choose Word Options and then Proofing. Click
the AutoCorrect button. Next, choose the words you want
to be automatically replaced. Try having Word change a co-
worker’s name to “worthless drone” or all articles to “I hate
my job.” Be creative.
Change Keyboard to Dvorak In XP, go to the Control Panel,
select Regional and Language Options, click the Details button
on the Languages tab, and choose United States-Dvorak. Soon
your coworker will wonder ,day yd. d.nn co ircbi rbvW
ith popular video sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion
funneling thousands of new videos to the web every day,
it can take some serious eff ort to keep up with them all—
not to mention, keep track of your favorites. Make it easier on your-
self and download and save the ones you want for future viewing.
Use Moyea FLV Downloader (www.fl vsoft .com). The app is free and
easy to use, and it comes with an FLV player, letting you watch your
downloaded videos without going online. Convert your videos to
MPG or AVI with the free app Pazera (http://tinyurl.com/5r2u33), so
you can upload them to your favorite media player.Download and Save Flash Video
Get a College Education
T
ake courses from some of the most prestigious
universities in the United States—for free. We
like to fi ll our brains via MIT’s OpenCourseWare
program (http://tinyurl.com/2t2rfj ). Simply browse
through the course off erings and download lecture
notes, reading materials, tests, and videos for the
classes that interest you. Go ahead and take that course
in the thermodynamics of biomolecular systems. Be
warned that the university states that OpenCourse-
Ware isn’t a replacement for an actual MIT education.Prank Your Coworkers
35 AMAZING
THINGS