Hacker News Reader

There are many benefits to projects like this. I would argue that this thread is the biggest benefit - people are sharing knowledge on shell scripting, and I'll bet you one hamburger that at least 5 people learn something new as a result.

That makes it worth it :-)

It also gets people thinking, being creative and doing something "fun". Sometimes you just have to do fun things and see where they lead.

"Yes, but", it's kind of unfortunate that at the time of writing your comment is placed next to a comment by y0ghur7_xxx, who is actually using a bash based web server to control lights with his iPhone. It's hard to argue that this is not 'real life'. On the other hand, you are right.

But real world doesn't need to mean production level, it's useful for another set of reasons.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.