What the hack?
Christian Heilmann
What is a hack and how to survive a hack day.

There are a few myths and
misunderstandings about hacking and
hack days...
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In the Yahoo! sense, hack days are
about innovating and playing with our
own systems.
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Hack days to day to day development
is like The Ramones to The Beatles.
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We are all hackers.
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Hacking means making something work
regardless of the circumstances.
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Hacking is nothing new.
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Folding Bridge (Netherlands, 1926)
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Early GPS (1932)
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Back then, those people were
considered crazy.
Now, we have these products!
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Here and now, we are looking for
software solutions to problems.
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In a 24 hour period we want you to find
a problem and solve it with an IT
solution.
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Preferably we’d like you to play with our
products and see how they work for
you.
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Hack days are a great way for you to do
the things you always wanted to do but
your job doesn’t allow you to.
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This is for you to play with things you
haven’t before and show that - if you
get the chance - you can be great.
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Hacking is not very complex.

Find a problem that needs solving and
then have a go at solving it!
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Tell each other your skills...
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And collaborate as teams.
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Don’t concentrate on using your
favourite toys
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Concentrate on building one thing.
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You only have 24 hours!
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Find things that already work.
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And then put them together.
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Some great resources...
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http://developer.yahoo.com

Libraries and frameworks.
(...)

http://code.google.com/apis/charttools/
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http://code.google.com/appengine/
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http://github.com
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http://heroku.com/
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YAP is the pla0orm
h4p://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/yap‐overview.html

http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/yql-
geo-library/

Do you really want to fix CSS layouts?
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/builder/

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

YQL h4p://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/

Some examples...
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http://icant.co.uk/goohoobi/index.php?research

http://vimeo.com/8075850

http://keywordfinder.org/

http://uk-house-prices.com/

http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/around-you/

http://isithackday.com/demos/warwickshire/
http://github.com/codepo8/warwickshire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uAOyzw50PY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_1sVnNkN2M
http://isithackday.com/hacks/flickrcollector/
http://github.com/codepo8/flickrcollector

http://isithackday.com/fifa2010/

And when you are done, think about
presenting your hack.
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Presenting your hack
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It is not about you.
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Do not show us slides about your hack
=
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Instead show us what the hack does!
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Then tell us how you got there.
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Technical glitches happen.
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Don’t big things up.
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Don’t fake things.
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Let’s have a demo of that.
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And when it all is over?
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Reach out to others.
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• Publish your code on GitHub
• Tell us when your hacks go further
• Stay in touch with other hackers
• Come and visit us on our forums and
show us what you have done.
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ChrisDan Heilmann
h4p://wait‐Dll‐i.com Thanks!
h4p://developer‐evangelism.com
h4p://twi4er.com/codepo8