Pseudo Work (fwork)

joel gillman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:16:30 +0000

This script takes a text file (any text file should) and displays it one line at a time with short delays in between. In other words, you can run this script to make it look like your computer is actually doing something worthwhile.

I had searched around the internet a few times but never really found anything like this, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look. Maybe I’m just a bad internet searcher. Script after the jump.

#!/bin/bash

#####################################################

# Pseudo Work (fwork) Script - by Joel Gillman 2009

# lab.joelgillman.com/archives/159_pseudo-work

# 

# Please feel free to edit and change this as you

#  like! If  you do make any edits I would be curious

#  to see what you've done so drop me a line!

# 

# DISCLAIMER

# I am in no way a bash scripting expert. Most of what

#  I write is copy and paste and trial and error.

#  While this script shouldn't hurt anything in your

#  system don't hold me responsible if it does! Use

#  at your own risk.

#####################################################

## test if file (default or otherwise)

if [ "$1" = '' ]; then

    filename="$HOME/garbage.txt"

    if [ -e $filename ]; then

        sleep 0

    else

        echo "No file specified and default file '~/garbage.txt' not found."

        exit

    fi

elif [ -e $1 ]; then

    filename=$1

else

    echo "No file found at $1"

    exit

fi

## execute fakeness

while read p; do

    if [ "$(($RANDOM % 10))" -eq 1 ]; then

        let "R1 = ($RANDOM % 2)"

    elif [ "$(($RANDOM % 50))" -eq 1 ]; then

        let "R1 = ($RANDOM % 20)"

    else

        let "R1 = 0"

    fi

    let "R2 = ($RANDOM % 10)"

    echo $p

    sleep $R1.$R2

done < $filename

Download a zip’d version of the script.
You can download the (2.5MB) text file I’ve been using.

Let me know what you think! Any improvements or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Chess Clock

joel gillman — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:43:28 +0000

A friend and I have been playing Chess recently (neither of us are very good) and we decided we could use a chess clock to make the games faster and more stressful. We decided to make a game of it and see who could program a rudimentary (but working) chess clock. Here’s mine.

10 minutes per player is the default.
‘r’ to reset
’space’ to switch players
‘p’ to pause

Source 1 2 and 3

lab.joelGillman.com » clock

Pseudo Work (fwork)

Chess Clock