/ Cory Doctorow / 6:45 am Tue Apr 26, 2011

Hacker Typer produces code from keybashing


The Hacker Typer allows you to produce convincing code the way the movie-hackers do: simply bash at the keyboard and hey-presto, you are 1337!

Hacker Typer

23

  1. Bee-utiful!

    Ok, now we just need to get it to auto-type. That way I can have that going on my big external monitor, while I’m playing a Flash game in a small browser window on my laptop screen. Yay!

  3. Yes, but can you still create code while getting a blow job while John Travolta watches you?

  4. That’s a lot of fun… me loves the internets.

    SamSam.. just tape down the anykey and you are good to go.

  5. Nobody is going to fall for this. The screen doesn’t inexplicably project onto my face when I’m sitting in a dark room!

  6. One complaint… it should allow either F11 or Esc or both to be used regularly. Then again, I suppose it has to be actor-safe.

    I will have fun with this one at work.

  8. I think my favorite part is the way that the code flows out, left to right, whole cloth and with comments to boot!

    Perfect.

  11. If you want to 100% ruin any TV show or movie computer scene, no matter how much effort they put into the onscreen display, remember 3 words: Listen For Spaces. Actors pretending to type never hit the space bar.

    1. Re: ‘Listen for Spaces’

      I used to work as an Assistant Sound Engineer and a studio working in the Foley Department. If we were in a rush to get some ‘moves’ covered (clothing sounds, typing, chair movement, footsteps) we’s just clack on an old keyboard while looking at the screen to match up the moves the actor was making. We’d never spend time typing correctly, because we’d need to cover the next thing. Besides, the location sound guy would never catch the keyboard sound the actor was making. That’s why you’d never ‘hear’ the spacebar on screen.

      Sound guys are lazy ;)

    2. Conversely, too many spaces is exactly what I listen for to know whether my co-workers are busy coding or or typing away at emails and IMs!

      When typing code one normally uses a lot fewer spaces and a lot more modifier keys than a normal sentence (unless you’re using Ruby or something, which allows spaces and “do/ends” instead of parentheses and braces). There also tend to be far fewer 1-2 letter words, unless you have someone who’s hell-bent on writing unreadable code by making every variable one letter.

      IM’s, similarly, have a very noticeable rhythm: type type ENTER PAUSE, type type ENTER PAUSE.

      1. I know the shame of primarily coding in Matlab, and throw spaces in all over the goddamn place to make the code more legible without any practical effect.

        In a lot of ways it’s a really weird language.

  12. How many keystrokes does it require to reveal the molecular formula for transparent aluminum?

  15. No website that tries to access about:blank is allowed anywhere near my machine, on principle. This is one such. I don’t know whether it’s malice or incompetence, and don’t care enough to try to find out.

    1. Are you sure that’s not a javascript call that’s being blocked by adblock (or a popup spawning in a tab if that’s your pref being blocked)?

      I’ve seen that plenty of times with adblock.

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