61 lines
2.3 KiB
Plaintext
61 lines
2.3 KiB
Plaintext
Nighttime Hacks
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===============
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A repository of miscellaneous hacks.[0]
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This repository is so named because I usually only have free time at night
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after the kids are in bed.
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The inspiration for this repository is largely entertainment: sometimes I
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get burned out, and one tempting way to unwind is to play some sort of
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game. The problem is, although it's useful for unwinding, most games aren't
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productive, so I feel that my limited time is wasted.
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I found that my burnout isn't necessarily related to programming or research
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as an act in itself---the burnout is caused from doing too similar of things
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for extended periods of time. But hacking is enjoyable, and can easily be
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considered a game; as long as it's different than what caused me to burn
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out, then it's a suitable alternative to playing games, and more rewarding.
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On top of that, it can produce examples that are useful for others to learn
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from. I hope you find some of these as entertaining as I did.
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[0]: The term ``hacking'' refers to playful creativity, not breaking
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security (which we refer to as ``cracking''). For a good overview of
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the distinction, see <https://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html>.
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Hack Criteria
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-------------
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I constrain myself to these criteria:
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1. The hack should be something that I wouldn't normally do;
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2. It has to have hack value; and
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3. It should be able to be done in small (e.g. 30m) increments.
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#3 is particularly important so that these small hacks don't turn into
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projects. If it gets to that point, then they should be forked as such
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rather than continuing to live here.
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There may be much easier ways of accomplishing some of the hacks in this
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repository. For example, rather than a sed script trying to treat text as a
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character matrix using regular expressions, I could write a trivial (and
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significantly faster) C program. But that wouldn't be a hack---it'd be a
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trivial C program doing what C is good at doing.
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License
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-------
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All programs in this repository are free/libre software. See COPYING and
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the header of each program for more information.
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Free software refers to freedom, not price.
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<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html>
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Copyright (C) 2018 Mike Gerwitz
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This file is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
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International License. See COPYING.CCBYSA for more information.
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