"Laugh for the sake of": why you might need software tools that do not have a "combat" application
GitHub hosts over 100 million repositories. Some of them are applications that large corporations work with. In others, there are small libraries that developers actively use in their projects. But there are repositories with practically useless utilities.
We will discuss why they attract attention. Hint: Wednesday is a little Friday.
Photos - Pineapple Supply Co. - Unsplash
Imagine a situation: you just finished writing a new module and closed all current tasks. But until the end of the working day there is still an hour, and it is not customary for your company to go home earlier than the bosses. At the same time, management does not like when employees sit idle, and is always ready to throw additional tasks. Special applications will come to the rescue, which will help to depict the stormy activity.
One such application is HackerTyper . It turns any entered character set into a kind of program code. An example of the utility is on the project website . HackerTyper also has an alternative - GeekTyper . A Reddit resident used this tool when a local television station in his city filmed a story about his work in a game development company:
On GitHub you can find tools that will not be able to extend working hours, but, on the contrary, will help reduce it - for example, the Volkswagen application. When the code gets checked by the Continuous Integration (CI) server, Volkswagen reduces the number of errors so that the tests succeed. So, you can not worry about testing and pay more attention to other, “more important” tasks. The utility bears the name of the German automaker, since it was developed immediately after the scandal that unfolded around the automaker. Four years ago, in diesel cars, companies discovered software that underestimated the amount of harmful gases in the exhaust dozens of times during testing.
Also worth noting is the No Code utility. You can contact her if you do not want to touch the keyboard at all. Although it is quite difficult to call it a utility - in the repository you will not find a single line of code. To start working with No Code, just do nothing . According to the author, this is the best way to write reliable and secure applications.
In the GitHub repositories, you can find the πfs file system , which offers to save disk space by saving data in the Pi number. The operation of the file system is based on the statement that in π one can meet any sequence of digits. You can save data using the command:
The first parameter in brackets is the directory where πfs stores the metadata of the saved files, and the second is the mount point of the standard file system. If you know the file offset and its length in π, then you can extract it using the Bailey – Borwain – Pluff formula to find the necessary sequence of digits in the number Pi.
Photo - ozz314 - CC BY / Photo changed
There is a popular opinion that the Pi number can be used not only as a repository of known, but also as a repository of unknown data. Theoretically, from πfs you can extract unwritten books, unfinished photographs and films not taken - most importantly, get to their metadata.
In the IT industry, there is such a term as XaaS (Everything as a Service) - “everything as a service”. It describes all the services that use cloud computing. On the network you can find utilities that take this definition to a new level. For example, the booleans.io service, which provides "Boolean expressions as a service." This is an API set with which you can create, delete, and update Boolean objects. For example, on a request:
The service will generate the following response:
Another example is shoutcloud.io . This is ALL CAPS AS A SERVICE, which automatically converts lowercase to uppercase. It is enough to use the special API:
Of course, each of the described tools is unlikely to find application in production. But they give an interesting experience and can entertain in between work. If you know other utilities that were created as a joke, share them in the comments.
1cloud resource pools - what equipment we use to provide the cloud - its types, performance and other characteristics.
We will discuss why they attract attention. Hint: Wednesday is a little Friday.
Photos - Pineapple Supply Co. - Unsplash
When you don’t want to work
Imagine a situation: you just finished writing a new module and closed all current tasks. But until the end of the working day there is still an hour, and it is not customary for your company to go home earlier than the bosses. At the same time, management does not like when employees sit idle, and is always ready to throw additional tasks. Special applications will come to the rescue, which will help to depict the stormy activity.
One such application is HackerTyper . It turns any entered character set into a kind of program code. An example of the utility is on the project website . HackerTyper also has an alternative - GeekTyper . A Reddit resident used this tool when a local television station in his city filmed a story about his work in a game development company:
On GitHub you can find tools that will not be able to extend working hours, but, on the contrary, will help reduce it - for example, the Volkswagen application. When the code gets checked by the Continuous Integration (CI) server, Volkswagen reduces the number of errors so that the tests succeed. So, you can not worry about testing and pay more attention to other, “more important” tasks. The utility bears the name of the German automaker, since it was developed immediately after the scandal that unfolded around the automaker. Four years ago, in diesel cars, companies discovered software that underestimated the amount of harmful gases in the exhaust dozens of times during testing.
Also worth noting is the No Code utility. You can contact her if you do not want to touch the keyboard at all. Although it is quite difficult to call it a utility - in the repository you will not find a single line of code. To start working with No Code, just do nothing . According to the author, this is the best way to write reliable and secure applications.
When to save data
In the GitHub repositories, you can find the πfs file system , which offers to save disk space by saving data in the Pi number. The operation of the file system is based on the statement that in π one can meet any sequence of digits. You can save data using the command:
πfs -o mdd=<metadata directory> <mountpoint>
The first parameter in brackets is the directory where πfs stores the metadata of the saved files, and the second is the mount point of the standard file system. If you know the file offset and its length in π, then you can extract it using the Bailey – Borwain – Pluff formula to find the necessary sequence of digits in the number Pi.
Photo - ozz314 - CC BY / Photo changed
There is a popular opinion that the Pi number can be used not only as a repository of known, but also as a repository of unknown data. Theoretically, from πfs you can extract unwritten books, unfinished photographs and films not taken - most importantly, get to their metadata.
When you need an unusual service
In the IT industry, there is such a term as XaaS (Everything as a Service) - “everything as a service”. It describes all the services that use cloud computing. On the network you can find utilities that take this definition to a new level. For example, the booleans.io service, which provides "Boolean expressions as a service." This is an API set with which you can create, delete, and update Boolean objects. For example, on a request:
curl -X POST https://api.booleans.io --header "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"value": true, "label": "Hello world!"}' --header "Authorization: Token [token]
The service will generate the following response:
{ "id": "4ee4b8f7-8d31-4ae2-93b0-554e19af740d", "created_at": "2018-11-24 14:56:26", "updated_at": "2018-11-24 14:57:43", "value": true, "label": "Hello world!" }
Another example is shoutcloud.io . This is ALL CAPS AS A SERVICE, which automatically converts lowercase to uppercase. It is enough to use the special API:
curl -X POST \ -d '{"INPUT": "hello world"}' \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ HTTP://API.SHOUTCLOUD.IO/V1/SHOUT { "INPUT":"hello world", "OUTPUT":"HELLO WORLD" }
Of course, each of the described tools is unlikely to find application in production. But they give an interesting experience and can entertain in between work. If you know other utilities that were created as a joke, share them in the comments.
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