The Stupid Shit No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon 2.0 | Hacker News Reader

The Stupid Shit No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon 2.0

stupidhackathon.github.io

265 pointsbahro64 comments

A couple of years ago I made a Chrome Extension that removes everyone's eyes: https://vimeo.com/90351144

🇬🇧 people: let's do a Stupid Hackathon in London. I can probably get the joinef.com offices but the FB folks have candy.

Alright that was actually funny and maybe useful to help detract from serious news. Now if it only had a googly eyes option.

Yep - first thing I thought too - maybe even googly xeyes following the mouse.

Yeah, make it so! (I've actually got myself a ticket for the SF stupid hackathon so I might try making that if nailer doesn't mind)

I built a version with googly eyes last year. Was the most successful "stupid" project I've ever knocked out. http://www.cnet.com/news/googlifier-chrome-extension-adds-go...

Do you know of any extensions that put googly eyes over spiders? I really want this, but ironically I am too squicked out by spiders to go acquire a training set and tweak it myself.

Absolutely. There must be a whole generation of people in British IT/electronics who just about remember It'll Never Work? off the BBC.

The only thing I remember about that show was that it used People are People by Depeche Mode as the theme tune! Remind me, what was the show about again?

various inventions from the chindogu company to solve 'everyday' problems. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chindōgu

Ah yes Chindogu, I remember them! Thanks!

I don't know if you're joking or not, but I'd totally be up for a Stupid Ideas Hackathon in London.

Hah. Similarly, I made a Firefox extension back in the day that replaced people's faces in photos with this face: http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/borderlands/images/5/59/...

My implementation was pretty hackathon-worthy, too, if I say so myself. The shoop face would be scaled and placed only while on Facebook, using FB's own facial recognition metadata on each page.

Nice! Would you at all be willing to provide the extension? This would make slow days so much better.

Unfortunately I never published it, and the hard drive with it is long gone. It shouldn't be difficult to replicate though, they still put that metadata in the DOM so that they can put the little boxes around faces.

Happy to help with organising one

Are you on Twitter? I'm @mikemaccana. I've run a bunch of events before, happy to handle web & some of the publicity.

I would love to help out with this. Just followed you on twitter

This would be brilliant - count me in!

Count me in!

can i remote in from manchester? or should we have a north vs south stupid hackathon?

Only last month I was talking to someone about one in Scotland ...

A Stupid Ideas in London sounds great - happy to help out!

You had the opportunity to turn all of the internet's eyes into googly eyes and you missed it!

This would have been much less creepy.

Would be good fun, let me know if you get something moving.

Count me in!

We just had one in Tallinn, Estonia, and the outcomes are here http://www.garage48.org/blog/the-16-seriously-hilarious-prot... I was working on the winning team http://placebo.works And we are actually going ahead with it :)

That is amazing. One of the most scientifically sound products I've seen in a while. Guaranteed 30% success rate :)

Are we allowed to turn up with stupid flashy well-polished projects that we've already been working on for 18 months to ensure that we win?

Six months later: https://twitter.com/internetofshit

There's been three "TerribleHack" hackathons similar to this at the University of Waterloo and they've been my favourite hackathons. Making stupid shit is so much fun. See http://www.davepagurek.com/blog/terriblehack and https://medium.com/@tau/terriblehack3-1164c2541c3f#.ottw76rt...

I love knocking out stupid things no one would ever need:

http://StanderOrSitter.com -- do you stand or sit when you wipe?

http://SwapAVote.com -- why vote when you can simply match with an opposing supporter?

Look forward to the next hackathon in NYC.

Yes! This is the hackaton I've been waiting for. Practical in its purpose, low key, and (hopefully) fun.

Wish I wasn't on the opposite side of the country ... Also wish I didn't miss the one that was on my side of the country

Dude, give yourself permission to have stupid ideas.

What other types of hackathons are out there? I remember reading about TSSNON & Terrible Ideas Hackathon back in the day.

Now that I see it in the spotlight. I wonder what other kinds of niche hackathons do you guys know about?

In the cities I've lived in, there have been quite a few hackathons put together with other industries such as Hacks & Hackers (Journalists and devs) and Music-related hackathons. Take a look on meetup.com, there are probably tons of other types.

There's also Comedy Hack Day [1], my personal favorite hackathon(s) of all time. I've been to 4 so far and have flown across the country just to participate over and over again.

[1] http://www.comedyhackday.org/

Is this actually a real thing or just a play on the dirty secret of hackathons?

It's real. Last year's entries: https://stupidhackathon.github.io/2015.html

I seem to remember this: https://github.com/diafygi/gnu-pricing

oh my god, zippable banana and gnu pricing are both genius. these things are always so far away! i need to move somewhere with a decent hackathon scene and employers willing to let you fuck about at them for a few days at a time.

I saw that and laughed. Made me want to build an orange with velcro so you can put it back together.

The "one dimensional CAD program" was my personal favorite. Screenshot: https://stupidhackathon.github.io/project-images/line-cad.pn...

And, the best artifact from the Gnu pricing repo: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/diafygi/gnu-pricing/master...

You mean there are hackathons that aren't just trying to get me to build something with (insert company X)'s technology?

A FPS bot that gimmicks a 14 year old gamer. It either camps or goes full on spray and pray, is constantly flooding chat with insults, accusing people of cheating and calling them fags, and team kills "4 the lulz!!!"

> "PRIZE" "CATEGORIES"

> Peter Thiel

I can only imagine.

The js on this page almost broke my chrome EDIT: works fine after disabling dashlane extension

Pretty fitting really

There's a Toronto version as well on May 28: http://stupidhacktoronto.com

On the end of the page you can see other versions (together with Toronto) too.

If anyone's looking for a teammate for the Toronto one, send me an HN PM. I know C++, Java (including Android), and PHP.

Funny how the sponsor is Nylas: give us all your email credentials and we will do something with it :)

I actually went to college with the folks who organize this, and we just sponsor it to support some arts/comedy. We've never sponsored a real hackathon.

Is it real?

I'm still not sure.

But I have a great idea for the Farm to BigTable prize...

Last year I made a stupid shit social website that no one used or cared about. Wish I had used this or a similar context. Could have been a softer fall.

I'll join your stupid shit social website! What's the link?

https://thelongestchain.com/

Oh man, I wish someone would do something like this in Portland, OR. I'd build an app that calls you every 5 minutes to play the Macarena. :)

Finally - an honestly advertised hackathon.

hmmm, I've been thinking about making a website to help recruit disenfranchised millennials into indentured servitude and I'll be free and in the area (I'm about to move to the bay area). Might be fun, but i'm not sure I should blur the line between satire and terrifying reality so much.

The original hackathon page is probably NSFW, by the way.

I sponsored last year's. It was a blast!

I read the title and thought it was about an article reviewing a real hackaton.

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