My introduction talk to the Open Hack Day in Bangalore, India, 2010 explaining what a hack is, how to build hacks quickly and how to present your hack once you are done.

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

2. There are a few myths and
misunderstandings about hacking and
hack days...
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3. 3

4. In the Yahoo! sense, hack days are
about innovating and playing with our
own systems.
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5. Hack days to day to day development
is like The Ramones to The Beatles.
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6. We are all hackers.
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7. Hacking means making something work
regardless of the circumstances.
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10. Hacking is nothing new.
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11. Folding Bridge (Netherlands, 1926)
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12. Early GPS (1932)
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13. Back then, those people were
considered crazy.
Now, we have these products!
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14. Here and now, we are looking for
software solutions to problems.
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15. In a 24 hour period we want you to find
a problem and solve it with an IT
solution.
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16. Preferably we’d like you to play with our
products and see how they work for
you.
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17. 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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18. 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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20. Hacking is not very complex.

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

31. Libraries and frameworks.
(...)

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

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

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

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

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

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

44. http://vimeo.com/8075850

45. http://keywordfinder.org/

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

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

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

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

51. http://isithackday.com/fifa2010/

52. And when you are done, think about
presenting your hack.
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53. Presenting your hack
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54. It is not about you.
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55. Do not show us slides about your hack
=
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56. Instead show us what the hack does!
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57. Then tell us how you got there.
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58. Technical glitches happen.
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59. Don’t big things up.
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60. Don’t fake things.
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61. Let’s have a demo of that.
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62. And when it all is over?
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63. Reach out to others.
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64. • 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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65. ChrisDan Heilmann
h4p://wait‐Dll‐i.com Thanks!
h4p://developer‐evangelism.com
h4p://twi4er.com/codepo8