Hacking the Big Easy... Button

[bunsen_h]

The receptionist at my workplace has one of those big red "easy" buttons from Staples at her desk. You press the button, and a synthesized voice says, "THAT WAS EASY." Feh.

A couple of weeks ago, it started saying "THAT... WAS ANNOYING."

Then it started saying other things.

Here's how I did it: http://www.geocities.com/jpolowin/easybttn/easybttn.htm

(I put this on my "alternate" website at Geocities because there are lots of pictures in the explanation, and though the Geocities ads are annoying, I get 4.2 MB/hour download bandwidth there compared to 25 MB/month from my main site at Sympatico.)

Comments

[metalana.livejournal.com]

so what was the reaction?

[popelaksmi.livejournal.com]

That's what I want to know!

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

It took about a day for anyone to really catch on.

I swapped my hacked button for the original around mid-morning. I pressed the button a couple of times through the day, when nobody was around, and was disappointed to hear my message. "THAT... WAS ANNOYING." I pressed it again on my way out, and heard the same message. Our new HR person, whose desk is near the receptionist's, called out something about "It doesn't sound very good, eh?" Well, yeah, the recording quality and level are so-so at best, and I did get the sound clip from the synthesized voice provided by Windows.

Early the next morning, it was still playing my clip, but by mid-afternoon someone had changed it. When I left that day, the button was saying, "STOP PUSHING THE STUPID BUTTON!"

I think it was the day after that, when I pushed the button again on my way out and it was overheard by a colleague, that anyone guessed who was responsible.

People have been having fun with it. Wolf whistles, dog-barking noises, "Get your timesheet in!", "Steve's in trouble!", "Harry Potter kills Snape in Malfoy love triangle!", "Hey! [Our receptionist] is not your mother! Wash your own dishes!"

[beable]

But shouldn't it be singing Don't Push That Button?


That's awesome! con_girl wants to enlist your help in making her one.