Robert Hayden made a joke back in 1993 or so, called the "Geek Code"; certain cypherpunks were including PGP public keys at the bottoms of all their mail messages, so he decided to make something similar but a little more revealing, essentially an encoding of your answers to a Cosmo-style multiple-choice personality quiz about what kind of a geek you were. It caught on, and there are now Geek Codes in people's .signatures all over the net.
More recently some people (whose names I unfortunately forget, but they're at <http://hackerkey.com/>) created a modernized version of the "Geek Code" called the "Hacker Key". Here's mine: v4sw7YCMSUPLhw6+8ln6pr7OFck4ma7u7+9Lw2Dm!g/l6Di6e0t1TMb9AGORDHMSen6g3a3Xs7MRr!p! If properly decoded, this tells you a great deal about my personality: some of my favorite programming languages, my aspirations, some of my favorite book authors, my sex life, and the kinds of TV I like. Some of it is even accurate. The hackerkey.com web site has a script that will decode this key for you. But I was in a hacking mood one day, and so I wrote this script. It would probably have been smarter to include a parser for the Hacker Key text file, rather than reformatting it into a Python data structure using Emacs macros. Oh well. Despite that shortcoming and some ugliness in the domain, I think the code is reasonably well structured. It probably suffers a bit from reinventing the wheel, though. Like everything else posted to kragen-hacks without any notice to the contrary, I abandon any copyright in this program, so unless anyone else owns copyright in it, it is in the public domain. However, in this case, you could argue that the program is largely a copy of the hackerkey.com textfile, so maybe the folks who wrote that have a copyright in this program. #!/usr/bin/python # parse the Hacker Key (hackerkey.com) v4 import re, sys # I bet there's a bug with + and / on ChoicesWithOther kragens_hacker_key = """ v4sw7YCMSUPLhw6+8ln6pr7OFck4ma7u7+9Lw2Dm!g/l6Di6e0t1TMb9AGORDHMSen6g3a3Xs7MRr!p! """ width = 80 def wrap(hanging, text, width): "Word wrap with a possible hanging indent." lines = [hanging] indent = ' ' * len(hanging) for word in text.split(' '): if len(lines[-1]) + len(word) > width: lines[-1] = lines[-1].rstrip() lines.append(indent) lines[-1] += word + ' ' return lines class Category: def print_banner(self, category, rest, indent): for line in wrap(indent, '%s: (%s%s)' % (self.name, category, rest), width): print line return ' ' + indent def present_val(self, prefix, char, val): for line in wrap("%s%s - " % (prefix, char), val, width): print line def parse(self, tail): groups = re.match('(?s)([-A-Z0-9/!+.]*)(.*)', tail) return groups.groups() class Version(Category): def explain(self, category, rest, indent): print "Version %s (%s%s)" % (rest, category, rest) class NotKnown(Category): def explain(self, category, rest, indent): if rest: print "%snot understood: %s%s" % (indent, category, rest) class Choices(Category): def __init__(self, name, choices, next = NotKnown()): self.name, self.choices, self.next = name, choices.copy(), next for char, desc in [ ('!', 'I staunchly refuse to participate in the category.'), ('$', 'I do this for a living.'), ('?', "I don't know anything about this category.")]: # setdefault to deal with '$': "I'm a prostitute.", self.choices.setdefault(char, desc) def __repr__(self): return '%s(%r, %r, %r)' % (self.__class__.__name__, self.name, self.choices, self.next) def present(self, prefix, char): self.present_val(prefix, char, self.choices[char]) def explain_item(self, item, indent): if item in self.choices: self.present(indent, item) elif len(item) == 3: # x+y or x/y from_, mid, to_ = item fromterms = {'+': 'Currently: ', '/': 'Ranging from:'} toterms = {'+': 'Striving to reach:', '/': 'to: '} self.present("%s%s " % (indent, fromterms[mid]), from_) self.present("%s%s " % (indent, toterms[mid]), to_) elif len(item) == 2 and item[1] == '/': self.present_val(indent, item[0], self.choices[item[0]] + ' (Said trait is not very rigid, may change ' 'with time or with individual interaction)') else: return False return True def parse_items(self, string): return re.findall('.(?:[/+].?)?', string) def explain(self, category, rest, indent): items = self.parse_items(rest) if items: indent = self.print_banner(category, rest, indent) uncomprehended = [] for item in items: if not self.explain_item(item, indent): uncomprehended.append(item) self.next.explain(category, ''.join(uncomprehended), indent) def renamed(self, newname): return self.__class__(newname, self.choices, self.next) class ChoicesWithOther(Choices): """ Two categories have an 'Other' option that breaks the simple regex parser. This option uses 'O' and runs until a '/'. But 'pr', 'g', 'b', and 'u' have 'O' options that are just single letters. That's why the parsing belongs to particular classes, and this is the one that does it differently. """ def parse(self, tail): groups = re.match('(?s)((?:O[-A-Za-z0-9/!+.]*/|[-A-NP-Z0-9/!+.])*)(.*)', tail) return groups.groups() def parse_items(self, string): return re.findall('O[-A-Za-z0-9/!+.]*/|[-A-NP-Z0-9/!+.]', string) def explain_item(self, item, indent): if item.startswith('O'): self.present_val(indent, 'O', 'Other: ' + item[1:-1]) return True else: return Choices.explain_item(self, item, indent) class Age(Category): name = "Age" choices = { '[0-9][0-9]': 'Actual Age', '[0-9]X': 'I only feel like updating my age once per decade!', 'F': '100+ (Old Fart)', 'I': 'Immortal', 'N': 'N/A, or None of your business', } def explain(self, category, rest, indent): indent = self.print_banner(category, rest, indent) for k, v in self.choices.items(): if re.match(k + '$', rest): self.present_val(indent, rest, v) break else: NotKnown()(category, rest, indent) class Politics(Category): """ Renders the Politics category. For version 4, use the ratings from the Political Compass (www.politicalcompass.org) website. Just list your "Economic Left/Right" and "Social Libertarian/Authoritarian" scores with a slash between them, or round up/down to the nearest whole number to save space (preferred). Yes, the (-) symbol is not valid PGP, but at least the category is now somewhat useful. If you only list one number in this category it will be assumed to be the Social Libertarian/Authoritarian rating, as social issues tend to be more important to hackers """ name = 'Politics (www.politicalcompass.org)' def explain(self, category, rest, indent): if rest in '?!': return Choices(self.name, {}).explain(category, rest, indent) indent = self.print_banner(category, rest, indent) if '/' in rest: economic, social = rest.split('/', 1) else: economic, social = None, rest if economic is not None: print "%sEconomic Left/Right: %s" % (indent, economic) print "%sSocial Libertarian/Authoritarian: %s" % (indent, social) decoders = { 'v': Version(), 'sw': Choices('Software Hacking', { '9': "I'm Bill Joy, Eric Raymond or JWZ.", '8': "I am an uberhacker; I wrote my shell/debugger/editor/compiler in " "30 lines of code. Other people use and love my hacks.", '7': "Live to Hack, Hack to Live!", '6': "There is nothing better than an elegant hack.", '5': "Average, I've made a few software hacks in my day.", '4': "I've hacked code once or twice, software isn't my thing.", '3': "I don't hack software at all. I'm a structured programmer!", '2': "I'm not even a programmer, much less a hacker!", '1': "I'm a manager and/or work at IBM.", }, Choices('Favored languages', { 'C': "C(++)", 'B': "(Visual) Basic", 'L': "Lisp", 'H': "PHP", 'P': "Perl", 'J': "Java", 'G': "Prolog", 'R': "Ruby", 'Y': "Python", 'U': "Unix Shell", 'A': "Ada", 'S': "Assembler", 'M': "Scheme", 'F': "Fortran", })), 'hw': Choices('Hardware Hacking', { '9': "I am Steve Wozniak.", '8': "I have my own eeprom burner in the basement. I won't use what I " "didn't make myself.", '7': "I have had my hardware designs used in actual products.", '6': "I've toyed with a few hardware drawings, but never made my own hardware. " "I know PC hardware like the back of my hand.", '5': "I built every PC in my home from the ground up. Newegg knows me by " "my first name.", '4': "I've built a PC or two in my day. It's just easier to get them pre-made.", '3': "People ask me what USB stands for, I know a thing or two about hardware.", '2': "I know how to put my computer together without a diagram.", '1': "Dude! You got a Dell!", }), 'ln': Choices('Language Hacking', { '9': "I am J.R.R. Tolkien.", '8': "I've had my pet language used and studied by others.", '7': "People who don't know me have used words I've coined. I've written " "my own artificial language.", '6': "I am known for certain words or phrases, my friends use my linguistic " "creations regularly.", '5': "I've coined a phrase or made up a new word or two.", '4': "I'm a grammar nazi; people hate to talk to me because I correct them " "mid-sentence.", '3': "I hate people who don't follow the basic rules of $LANG, which I " "strive to speak properly.", '2': "I'm illiterate and/or can only speak IM: l8r sk8r!", '1': "I am a Slashdot editor.", }), 'pr': Choices( "Programming - Hey, some hackers think they're programmers ;-)", { '9': "I only program in ADA, and LOVE IT!", '8': "I'm currently programming my IDE-brain connectivity link.", '7': "I do a lot of programming, and spend a lot of time in my " "IDE of choice.", '6': "I'm definitely a programmer, not a hacker. I like it " "basic, a text editor and a compiler/debugger.", '5': "I'm your average programmer, I prefer to think I'm a hacker", '4': "I will sacrifice elegant design for performance or size", '3': "Comments are for sissies! If it was hard to write, it " "should be hard to read.", '2': "I can write hello world, but my programs don't do that much.", '1': "I can't program at all. ", }, Choices('Programming methodology', { 'O': "Object Oriented", 'S': "Structured", 'A': "Aspect Oriented", 'U': "Unified", 'R': "Rational Unified", 'P': "Procedural", 'F': "Functional", }) ), 'ck': Choices('Cracking (The malicious act of hacking into systems ' 'that gets all the headlines; what non-technical people ' "consider 'hacking')", { '9': "I work for @Stake or write for 2600.", '8': "I write the 'sploits that all the kiddies use. I would be a " "professional black hat except for this economy.", '7': "Black Hat - Cracking is old hat to me. I only compromise a " "system if it looks like a challenge. Script kiddies worship me.", '6': "Grey Hat - Some of my cracking is for good, some is for " "evil. It really depends on who benefits from what I do.", '5': "I try to break into systems occasionally. It's for educational " "purposes, that's it!", '4': "White Hat - I study exploits because I'm the one who has to " "patch the systems when they get released. I subscribe to CERT.", '3': "I've tried once or twice, but it felt wrong. I stick to warez.", '2': "I don't ever try to break into a computer, that's against the law!", '1': "I barely know how to crack an egg!", }), 'ma': Choices('Mathematics (highest completed Math course)', { '9': "Advanced Calc/Theory", '8': "Differential Equations", '7': "Calc II", '6': "Probability/Statistics", '5': "Linear Algebra", '4': "Calc I", '3': "I finished HS Math and realized that was enough for me", '2': "Still in secondary school/high school & doing just fine.", '1': "I'm angry at numbers. There's like, too many of 'em and stuff.", }), 'u': Choices('Unix', { '9': "I am Ken Thompson.", '8': "I am a guru. Everyone asks me for help with their Unix " "machines. Unix is more than an OS, it's my religion!", '7': "I use exclusively Unix on all my computers. If it's not Unix, " "it's CRAP!", '6': "I really like Unix; I've installed Linux once or twice but " "primarily use Windows or MacOS for my daily needs.", '5': "Unix is okay, it's just a tool like any other.", '4': "Mac OS X is as close to Unix as I like to get.", '3': "I dislike Unix, it's too cryptic, and what's this shell crap! " "The GUI is far superior!", '2': "Unix is an abomination. It's one of those dead OSes that " "doesn't realize it's dead yet.", '1': "I am Bill Gates.", }, Choices("Most (least) favorite *nix OSes", { 'L': "Linux", 'I': "Irix", 'A': "AIX", 'S': "(Open)Solaris", 'F': "FreeBSD", 'N': "NetBSD", 'O': "OpenBSD", 'B': "Other BSD", 'H': "HP-UX", 'M': "MacOS X", 'T': "Tru64", })), 'w': Choices('Windows', { '9': "I work for Microsoft, they call me code monkey....well " "just monkey.", '8': "I install every beta build of the newest Windows release " "I can get off the 'net. I want to work at Microsoft.", '7': "I've developed my own Windows programs, VB and .NET 0wn me.", '6': "I really like Windows; I have my desktop theme and screensaver " "just they way I want them.", '5': "Windows is OK, I'm pretty indifferent about it.", '4': "When are they going to stop stealing other people's ideas " "and come up with something INNOVATIVE? I still run it though, " "what else is there?", '3': "I keep Windows on my hard drive only to test new hardware I " "buy. Linux rulez!", '2': "I have totally annihilated Windows off my hard and haven't " "looked back!", '1': "I've never actually run Windows, I am completely untainted!", }, Choices('Favorite Windows OS(es)', { 'D': "MS-DOS/Windows 3.x", 'N': "Windows NT", 'T': "Windows 2000", 'W': "Win95/98/Me", 'C': "Windows CE/Mobile", 'X': "Windows XP", 'U': "Windows Server 2003", 'V': "Vista", 'G': "I use Windows machines but only with Cygwin installed", })), 'm': Choices("MacOS X", { '9': "I am Steve Jobs.", '8': "I've written books about programming with Cocoa and Carbon. See you " "at the WWDC!", '7': "I love it! The power of Unix and a slick aqua GUI are the " "height of computing. I've written the occasional app or two.", '6': "I like the new MacOS. Finally stability AND ease of use!", '5': "MacOS X is okay. A nice GUI front-end for a Unix OS.", '4': "I don't like it. There's not enough emphasis on the CLI.", '3': "I hate it. The GUI takes up half my RAM and it still locks up on me " "even though it's UNIX based!", '2': 'I despise MacOS X. I miss "Classic" MacOS (<= 9).', '1': "I despise MacOS X. I miss the Apple ][.", }), 'l': ChoicesWithOther("Linux", { '9': "I am Linus Torvalds or Alan Cox.", '8': "I am an active kernel hacker/package maintainer. If Linux didn't " "exist, I might have to leave my house once in a while!", '7': "I'm a power user. I've developed my own mini-distribution on a " "whim. I can't count how many kernels I've compiled.", '6': "I really like Linux. I've tried a few distributions and am almost " "decided on one. Windows sucks.", '5': "Linux is okay.", '4': "I don't like Linux. It still relies too much on the command line.", '3': "I hate Linux. It's not really UNIX, it's a cheap knock off. This " "whole open sores thing will never work!", '2': "I despise Linux and its commie supporters. Thank God there's a " "great company like Microsoft around and a great OS like Windows!", '1': "I work for SCO.", }, Choices('Favorite distribution', { 'A': "Damn Small", 'D': "Debian", 'E': "(Open)SuSE", 'F': "Fedora Core", 'G': "Gentoo", 'I': "(Lin|Free)spire", 'K': "Knoppix (et al)", 'L': "Linux From Scratch", 'M': "Mandriva", 'P': "Puppy", 'R': "Red Hat", 'S': "Slackware", 'U': "Ubuntu (et al)", 'V': "Vector", }) ), 'i': ChoicesWithOther("IDE/Text Editor environment", { '9': "Xcode", 'A': "Anjuta", 'N': "Notepad (sick)", '8': "Visual Studio", 'C': "Eclipse", 'P': "Powerbuilder", '7': "CodeWarrior", 'D': "Delphi", 'T': "Textpad", '6': "emacs", 'E': "ee", '5': "pico/nano", 'F': "(v)FTE", '4': "jove", 'G': "GNUstep", '3': "jed", 'H': "HTE", '2': "vi (and clones)", 'I': "NEdit", '1': "ed", 'J': "jEdit", '0': "cat", 'L': "Idle", }), 'e': Choices("Education (highest level)", { '9': "I'm omniscient, you insensitive clod!", '8': "PhD.", '7': "Master's Degree.", '6': "Bachelor's Degree.", '5': "Trade/Technical school/Associates", '4': "Some college", '3': "High school diploma.", '2': "Currently in secondary school.", '1': "Elementary/Middle school.", '0': "We don't need no education.", }), 't': Choices("Television (most hackers don't watch much)", { '9': "I'm Max Headroom.", '8': "I've long since given up other things like a job, talking to other " "people and leaving my house. I have an IV and dialysis so I don't have " "to worry about pesky bodily functions.", '7': "I watch TV religiously. The television is never shut off on my house. " "I have a generator so I can watch TV even when there's a power outage!", '6': "I watch a lot of TV. I have a TiVo just so I can get every show " "of my favorite series!", '5': "I watch TV a few hours a day, and have a few favorite shows.", '4': "I watch TV once in awhile. There's just not much good on anymore.", '3': "TV is trash. I'd rather read a book or go for a walk.", '2': "TV is just the (Devil|Government|Big Business)'s tool of control! " "Throw out your TV!", '1': "I'm Amish", }, Choices("Hacker TV Series", { 'T': "Star Trek", 'N': "TNG", 'D': "DS9", 'V': "Voyager", 'E': "Enterprise", 'B': "Babylon 5", 'S': "Stargate SG1/Atlantis", 'H': "Xena/Hercules", 'L': "LEXXX", 'F': "Farscape", 'R': "Red Dwarf", 'X': "The X Files", 'M': "Monty Python", 'A': "Adult Swim", 'G': "Battlestar Galactica", 'W': "Doctor Who", })), 'b': Choices('Books', { '9': "I'm obsessed with reading. I actually write my own " "short stories/poetry as well as reading books.", '8': "I'm kind of a bookworm, I try to read a book a week/month.", '7': "I read actual books, not only technical references.", '6': "I pick up the odd book. I know my way around the local Borders.", '5': "I read books occasionally. You mean besides O'Reilly books? Oh, then no.", '4': "I don't read books, the web is enough of a reading outlet for me.", '3': "I haven't read a book since college.", '2': "I haven't read a book since high school.", '1': "I'm illiterate (See ln1).", }, Choices('Hacker Favorite Books and Authors', { 'A': "Isaac Asimov", 'D': "The New Hacker's Dictionary", 'G': "William Gibson", 'H': "Hitchhiker's Guide", 'I': "Illuminatus Trilogy", 'L': "C. S. Lewis", 'K': "Philip K. Dick", 'M': "Man/texinfo pages", 'O': "O'Reilly technical books", 'P': "Harry Potter series", 'R': "Request for Comments (RFCs)", 'S': "Neil Stephenson", 'T': "J R R Tolkien", })), 'en': Choices('Encryption', { '9': "I have my own encryption algorithm named after me.", '8': "I can crack Enigma in my head.", '7': "I use GnuPG for all email and have many cryptographic " "filesystems on my hard drive. If you want my data you're " "going to have to earn it!", '6': "I use encryption frequently. Want to sign my key?", '5': "I like and use encryption.", '4': "I don't use encryption. I have nothing to hide.", '3': "Encryption is needless overhead. If you use it, you must have " "something to hide!", '2': "Only terrorists use encryption. The government should have back " "doors to all encryption mechanisms.", '1': "Only the government should be able to use encryption to be able to " "keep its secrets safe!", }), 'g': Choices("Gaming", { '9': "I am John Carmack.", '8': "I've developed the occasional game. People consider me to be a " "gaming guru. People disconnect from servers when they see me " "log on.", '7': "I play all the time, when I'm not hacking, eating or sleeping.", '6': "I play often, I have a console or two and/or quite a few PC " "games.", '5': "I'll pick up the occasional game.", '4': "I used to play video games back in the 8-bit days, but not " "anymore.", '3': "I don't like video games, that's time I could be hacking.", '2': "I don't like video games, that's time I could be sleeping.", '1': "I suck at video games.", }, Choices('Genre Categories', { 'R': "Graphical RPG", 'A': "Action/Adventure", 'S': "Sports", 'Z': "Puzzle", 'T': "Text Based/MUD", 'O': "Shooter", 'V': "Massively Multiplayer games (how do you find time to hack??)", 'G': "Realtime Strategy", }, # XXX this nesting is suboptimal Choices('Console Categories', { 'C': '"Classic" (i.e. dead) systems - Nintendo [S]NES, Sega', 'M': "Modern systems (PS2/3, XBOX (360), GameCube/Wii).", 'H': "Handhelds (Gameboy/PSP)", 'P': "PC Gamer", }))), 'a': Age(), 's': Choices('Sex', { '9': "I'm Jenna Jameson.", '8': "I'm a nympho. If I don't have sex every 6 hours I get totally antsy.", '7': "I've had more than my share of sex. I'm a stud!", '6': "I've had sex more than a few times. Still out there in the dating " "scene so let's not get into numbers.", '5': "I've had sex. Next subject.", '4': "I haven't had sex, not that I haven't had the opportunity but I'm " "saving myself.", '3': "I haven't even gotten past second base. Once my face clears up " "I'm gonna get some though!", '2': "Sex is dirty! Save it for someone you love!", '1': "I'm a member of the clergy. None for me, thanks.", '0': "I'm a eunuch.", '$': "I'm a prostitute.", 'M': "Male", 'F': "Female", 'G': "Gay/Lesbian", 'B': "BiSexual", 'S': "Single", 'R': "Married", 'I': "Involved (dating)", 'T': "Transvestite", 'D': "BDSM", 'W': "Swinger", }), 'r': Choices("Religion", { '9': "I Am God, you foolish mortal!", '8': "Pantheist - The Universe IS God.", '7': "Pagan/Wiccan - I worship nature moreso than a deity.", '6': "Polytheist - I believe in multiple Gods.", '5': "Monotheist - There is only one God who exists.", '4': "Theist - God exists and interacts with the world and His/Her/Its " "followers.", '3': "Deist - God exists, but does not intervene in the world.", '2': "Agnostic - Unsure of God's existence.", '1': "Atheist - There is no God.", }), 'p': Politics(), } decoders['g/l'] = decoders['l'].renamed('GNU/Linux') def parse(key): while True: tail = re.search('(?s)([a-z/]+)(.*)', key) if not tail: break category = tail.group(1) decoder = decoders.get(category, NotKnown()) rest, key = decoder.parse(tail.group(2)) decoder.explain(category, rest, '') if __name__ == '__main__': if len(sys.argv) > 1: for key in sys.argv[1:]: parse(key) else: print "testing:" parse(kragens_hacker_key) print print "Done with Kragen's key; showing others" parse("v4l7OgNewSense/s7") parse("v4g/lOgNewSense/s6") parse("v4p-4.20/-5.10r3") parse("p-4/-5") parse("p6.10") parse("p6") parse("u5/")
