If you're in a teasing mood and want to play a good joke on your friends... I've got just the thing for you!
In addition to being a developer, Stephen Downward is a big joker. He has found a way to trick people with a simple Chrome extension that will drive them crazy!
Its extension for Chrome, naively named “ Chrome Engine » will slow down the playback of videos on YouTube by 1% every day until it reaches 70% of the original playback speed (after 30 days). Install this extension discreetly on a friend's computer, a colleague's computer... and watch them pull their hair out trying to figure out what's going on with their videos.
Worse, if your friend uses Chrome on multiple computers and syncs his account, the problem will affect all his machines. Even by tinkering with the playback speed on videos using YouTube's controls, the user will achieve nothing since the extension will compensate for the settings changes.
To install this extension, go to its GitHub repository From the computer you want to trap, click on the link "chrome-engine-packed.crx" then click on "View raw" to download the extension.
Then launch a new tab in Chrome and type "chrome://extensions" to open the extension management tool. Then drag the CRX file you just downloaded onto this tab and click "Install". Once this is done, a Chrome logo will appear at the top right of Chrome, alongside any other extensions that may have been installed. To be more discreet, you will hide this logo by right-clicking on it and choosing the "Hide in Chrome menu" option.
Now you just have to wait... yes sorry, you have to be a little patient with this joke! And that's what makes it so charming. At first, the trapped person won't realize anything... and little by little they'll end up asking questions! Until they get really angry!
But remember, the shortest jokes are often the best... so if you don't want to lose all your friends, try to warn them before they reformat their computer or worse, throw it out the window!
Do you know any other schoolboy pranks that would drive any computer scientist crazy? Don't hesitate to share your best tricks with us in the comments below!
Article updated on January 24, 2021 by Byothe
