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Ask HN: What's the most creative 'useless' program you've ever written?

296 points reverseCh | 2 comments | 20 Oct 24 11:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.408s | source

I recently came across the concept of "useless" programs - pieces of code that serve no practical purpose but are fun, creative, or challenging to write. These could be anything from elaborate ASCII art generators to programs that solve imaginary problems. I'm curious to hear about the most interesting or creative "useless" programs the HN community has written. What was your motivation? What unexpected challenges did you face? Did you learn anything valuable from the experience? Some examples to get the ball rolling: 1. A program that prints the lyrics of "99 Bottles of Beer" in binary. A text-based game where you play as a semicolon trying to find its way to the end of a line of code. A script that translates English text into Shakespearean insults. Share your creations, no matter how quirky or impractical. Let's celebrate the joy of coding for coding's sake!
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BiteCode_dev ◴[23 Oct 24 07:50 UTC] No.41922795[source]▶
I just wrote a script that uses 2 ultrasonic sensors + 1 raspy to detect if somebody is moving in one direction, so that I can put that in a giant green tunnel at the entrance of a video-game-themed party next week:

https://0bin.net/paste/GrfAHJRt#oqVtar1pUzqtdCWWzvEEK71mNlcd...

When the person walks in the tunnel, it makes the sound of Mario when entering a pipe.

It does nothing else. It's for one night only, and nobody will ever use it again.

Meanwhile, it's setup in my bathroom, because it makes me giggle when I go.

It's the little things.

I do have a timing problem, as for now the sound is triggered no matter the direction I walk.

For the same party, I made a "loot generator". You scan a QR code, and go to a page that asks you to enter some info. Then it generates what your own cadaver would loot to heroes if they killed you. Used that as an excuse to try Cloudflare workers:

https://loot-generator.drax2industries.workers.dev/

(It's in French and can get pretty politically incorrect)

Again, it's one-time use software, mostly for drunk people to have a giggle. Then it will disappear like tears in the rain.

Last year, it was a light-speed effect on a fake spaceship cockpit:

https://www.bitecode.dev/p/light-speed-with-python-and-js?ut...

Ephemeral software for the fun of it.

replies(1): >>41935144 #
1. lesostep ◴[24 Oct 24 13:09 UTC] No.41935144[source]▶
>> the sound is triggered no matter the direction I walk

if you use it in a bathroom, the easy fix would be to only trigger sound on odd detections. Unless you are in the habit of going in a bathroom with company or if there is another way out of the bathroom.

Your projects look like they bring delight into this world!

replies(1): >>41935652 #
2. BiteCode_dev ◴[24 Oct 24 14:09 UTC] No.41935652[source]▶
In the party, it will be used at the main entrance, but there will be multiple secondary ones so it won't work.

What I need to do is to move my ass and fix the timing.