TED Pranked With 'Color Wheel of Death' Glitch During Presentation on a Mac

Whether you give a presentation to a couple dozen, hundreds or thousands, when it comes to bringing up your multimedia component, a technical glitch can be your worst nightmare -- especially if you're not one for improv.

A speaker at the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference met a familiar foe of Mac users while on stage beginning his presentation. Frequently referred to as a color wheel or beach ball of death, the spinning icon pops up on Macs while the computer "thinks" and remains spinning if the computer stalls.

(Related: Blaze staffers share how they really feel about the Mac 'Color Wheel of Death')

Watch what happens to Colin Robertson who only had three minutes to share his idea about a "solar-powered crowdsourced health care solution" to 1,500 people:

Perhaps you were tipped off to the fact this was a prank when the umbrellas started popping up in the audience, or maybe it was when the glitch went from spinning color wheel to major malfunction, either way the folks at Improv Everywhere had a good time. The Huffington Post reports that even Robertson was part of the prank; his real name is Eugene Cordero.

According to Improv Everywhere's post on this prank, participants in the beach ball/color wheel/whatever-you-call-it joke were TED attendees themselves. Those who signed up to take a course on Improv Everywhere didn't even know what they were getting themselves into.

[H/T Daily Rushbo]