IIT Delhi 8th Aug– 11th Aug2013

Hacking 101 and everything else you need to know

to survive a hackday!by Jithin Emmanuel

What are hacks ?

What is HackU ?

What is a good hack?

Tips to survive a Hack Day !!

“Altering a system to do what you want it to do using

what is at your disposal”

hacking: v.

hacker: n. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities

What is a Hack?

An innovative solution to a real world problem; quick and dirty workaround, yet effective.

Who is a hacker?

A hacker is a passionate, skilled and creative technologist who thrives on building innovative solutions to real world problems.

Wear the Hacker Badge with Pride!

Hackers are:

People like you and me.

Creative developers & designers.

Love technology.

Love building things.

Come to events like this.

It’s a term of great respect!

Wear that badge with pride!

Hacking is nothing new

Ticketing hacks

Cooler hack

Hack as art

Medical hack

Life Hacks

Life Hacks

Life Hacks

Public Hacks

Systemic Hacks

Hacking in your hostel room

However, we are looking for

software hacks

http://hacks.developer.yahoo.com

What is this thing?

24 hours of un-interrupted, unrestrained coding and

innovation

Talks for two days

Take something from idea to prototype in a day

Hack

Get Help

Have Fun

Eat

Recharge

Hack

Fix

Demo

Win Prizes

and other stuff

Winners 2012

Delhi Winners 2012

Join us!

Got it! So what’s a good hack?

A good hack starts with an idea…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinpoliachik/3893820201/

Scratch your own itch

Build something you will use yourself

Fix something you use every day

People look for inspiration or entertainment

Or try to tackle some larger issues

Hack for Good – Make the world

a better place

Think Politics

Green / Environment Hacks

Accessibility

Accessibility

Accessibility

Tools for activism and awareness

Accessibility

Tools for Religion

Where do I start?

To build a typical web hack you need data,

access and an interface

The web has lot of data around

http://developer.yahoo.com

http://developer.yahoo.com/everything.html

http://www.github.com/

ProgrammableWeb.Com – 6831 APIs

To access the data easily you can use YQL

YQL is a SQL-Like Language that lets

you …

… filter, combine, tweak data across hundreds of Web Services.

http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console

Data however is not enough.

You also need working interfaces

Technologies are easy:HTMLCSS

JavaScript

Making it work on all browsers and OS is tricky

So, we have YUI!

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui

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

You do not want to write multiple versions of same app for different

devices

So, we open sourced

http://developer.yahoo.com/cocktails/mojito/

15 HackUsurvival tips

Scratch your own itch!

Eric Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer’s personal itch. To solve an interesting problem, start by finding a problem that is interesting to you.

Know what’s happening

• Talks – 6:00pm to 11:00pm Thu/Fri• Dinner – 8:00 pm Thu/Fri/Sat• Hacking – 11:00am Saturday to 11:00am

Sunday• Submit your hack - 10am Sunday • Hack Demos - 2pm Sunday• Winners Announced - 6pm Sunday

http://facebook.com/hackuniversity@hackuindia

Look up other hacks

http://hacks.developer.yahoo.com/

Get the right skills on your team

Choose the right tools

developer.yahoo.comdeveloper.yahoo.com/everything.html

Source your data / content

YQL

BOSS

Fantasy Sports

Scrape Sites if you need to

Tackle the hard problems first

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Learn something new

Don’t concentrate on your favorite toys

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cristiano_betta/571879057/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Expect the unexpected!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/major_clanger/1488173116/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Be prepared for the worst!

Stay up all night

I am your friend!

Take a Break & have fun

Practice your pitch

Make a memorable pitch!

http://careersuccess.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-art-and-beauty-of-a-wonderfully-crafted-elevator-speech---is--yours-memorable.html

A good hack doesn’t need to be a big!http://1funny.com/big-lioness/

Don’t try to boil the ocean

Don’t slap on too many features

Find things that already work

Look under the hood

Fake

Bake

Make

Build

Presenting your hack

Do not show us slides about your hack

Powerpoint = Fail!

Instead show us what you have done

Technical glitches happen

Have a plan-B

• Record screencast• Do not depend on internet• Keep your stuff ready in browser• Rehearse the demo with atleast one crew

member before hand

How we judge the hacks• Solves a real problem• Working Prototype• Displays Creative Thinking, and push the

boundaries of what we’ve seen before• Great User Experience• Uses data or technology in a unique and

interesting way• Uses technology or data from Yahoo!• X-factor! • Realistic that it was built in 24 hours

And once you are done

• Keep your hack live• Show others what you have done• Publish your code on github• Join us and take it even further!

• developer.yahoo.com/blog• @ydn on twitter

Where to host your hack?

Talk to us to host at http://www.hackyourworld.org

Hacks can be more than just fun!

http://public.yahoo.com/~filo/stanford/940520/bin/index.html

Innovation is not a skill

It is about wanting tochange what we have and be

ready to play

Realize your potential

The web is yours, go out and

play!

Social Media

• Follow @hackuindia for detailed updates

• Follow @ydn for general updates• #hackuindia (twitter)• Hackuniversity at Facebook -

https://www.facebook.com/hackuniversity

• http://hacks.developer.yahoo.com

Hack Resources

• http://developer.yahoo.com• http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/consol

e• http://www.github.com• http://hackyourworld.org/• http://isithackday.com/hackday-toolbo

x/• http://talks.php.net/show/hacku/• http://hacks.developer.yahoo.com