Hacker Typer: How To Look Insanely Busy In A Coffee Shop (2011)

[stbullard]

Can we get a (2011) appended, please?

Sources:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2480946

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2485159

http://whois.domaintools.com/hackertyper.net

[adamnemecek]

OT but this is the first time I've seen the ternary operator used with only one operand. Apparently, it's only valid in GNU C though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%3F:#C

[conradev]

I've seen it used a lot in Objective-C for default values:

    NSNumber *value = dict[@"key"] ?: @1;

[erikig]

Yeah, it is a pretty nice shortcut. They also added it to PHP in 5.3 so you can do something like this now:

  $var = trim($_POST['var']) ?: 0;

[ja27]

I once wrote a quick Java program that recorded our project's build output (about 5 minute's worth at the time) and captured the time between each line of the output. Then it could play back the build output at the same pace. I could run that in a loop in a shell window and I could nap for an hour while it looked like I was waiting on a build to finish.

We joked about having a screensaver that looked like code being written and played realistic keystroke sounds like you were typing.

[phaer]

Then you just need a keyboard with pulls the right buttons down while you are napping with your hands on said keyboard.

[rcfox]

Why not just write a script to continuously run the build?

[w1ntermute]

The code comes from the Linux kernel: http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/kernel/groups.c

[granttimmerman]

Tip: Hit Cap Lock 3x (Then hit Alt 3x)

[cantcatch22]

This has been posted so many times, very old

[cpeterso]

I remember readying an magazine article (K-Power?) about the 1983 TV series "Whiz Kids". They used a similar typing simulation to make the hacker kids appear to be perfect speed typists. The magazine even include a BASIC program so you could run it on your home computer, too. :)

The Associated Press review of the show said: "Whiz Kids does not make a whimper on the sex-and-violence scale, yet it may be more dangerous to children than anything on television this season. Our adolescent heroes – sort of Hardy Boys high on silicon chips – engage, willy-nilly, in assorted illegal activities: computer tampering, driving without licenses and grave-robbing."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiz_Kids_%28TV_series%29

[cookrn]

Original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2480946 Another: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3997664

[spectre256]

The file you appear to type is groups.c from the linux kernel: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/dc0755cdb16cb129c4054...

[brianwillis]

Be warned: if you type like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sffBHGpIRZE

...people will know that you're faking it.

[Houshalter]

Only if you make the "bing" noise though. Don't be so obvious.

[eponymous]

This is hilarious! I wish I could really write code that fast.

Most of my actual coding is head-scratching and browsing documentation.

[haydenjameslee]

First day of freshmen programming class our professor made everybody go on this site when students came in late... One kid literally walked in, turned around, walked out and dropped the class.

[chmike]

It's not hilarous on an iPad 1. Nothing happens beside the prompt blink. How could I look insanely busy with that in a coffee shop ? ;)

[alelefant]

Can't look busy on my phone either.

[chewxy]

The best part IMO is that backspace functions like backspace.

[alexvr]

I cracked up when I tried this. Not sure why

[zoom]

Ahhhh, so this is how Win8 was written.

[adam419]

This is hilarious! Great work

[cylinder]

Clever and satirical. Nice.

[shire]

This is very funny to me I started cracking up right away nice.

[pokpokpok]

this hardly belongs on the front page of hn.