Confreaks Courses

Making Music in Emacs - Implementing a Looping Composer

Explore creating looping music in Emacs with zmusic, delving into text properties, font rendering, WAVE format, and music theory.

• YouTube
• 10 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

The Brave Little Database - Adventures in Database Resilience

Explore database operations through a whimsical tale of resilience, indexing, and collaboration, enhancing understanding of infrastructure and data management.

• YouTube
• 11 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

It's a Picture! It's a Program! It's Piet! - Exploring Visual Programming Languages

Explore Piet, an esoteric programming language where programs are abstract pixel art. Learn its basics, see amazing examples, and discover how it teaches computing concepts through visual creativity.

• YouTube
• 15 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Hiding Messages in x86 Programs: A Steganography Trick - !Con 2021

Discover a unique steganographic technique to hide messages within x86 programs. Explore x86 architecture and learn a clever trick in instruction encoding for covert communication.

• YouTube
• 11 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Option Hack That 30 Year Old Oscilloscope - Unlocking Hidden Features

Unlock hidden features of a vintage oscilloscope through reverse engineering, exploring obsolete hardware, and firmware disassembly. Discover the journey of hacking and enhancing old tech.

• YouTube
• 11 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

The Lowest-level Programming Language is Unicode-aware - Implications and Solutions

Explore Unicode awareness in low-level programming languages, addressing challenges and solutions for better text handling in digital systems. Gain insights into improving inclusivity in software.

• YouTube
• 11 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Changing a Single Byte Saves Me Seconds Every Day - Hacking Tetris for Game Boy

Discover how hacking a single byte in Tetris for Game Boy eliminates an 8-second copyright notice, saving time and enhancing gameplay. Learn about reverse-engineering and game modification.

• YouTube
• 11 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Do Your Eyes Hurt? All You Need Is Cardboard and Motors - DIY Solutions for Work-From-Home Discomfort

Explore DIY solutions for tech-related health issues using cardboard and motors. Learn to create innovative fixes for work-from-home discomfort with humor and creativity.

• YouTube
• 10 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

NetMonster: A Trip Through Early 2000s Internet and the Monsters Hidden Inside Websites

Explore the forgotten world of NetMonsters, a 2000s web game where players collected digital creatures hidden in websites, and uncover the lost online communities it spawned.

• YouTube
• 10 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Nifty Weaving Tools - A Different Kind of Color Picker

Explore online weaving tools that predict fabric appearance, streamlining design and preventing costly mistakes. Learn to efficiently create beautiful woven pieces.

• YouTube
• 11 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Pulling Pictures Out of an Undocumented File Format - Let Me at My Data!

Uncover the process of extracting data from an undocumented file format, following a developer's journey to transform real-world exploration data into wall art through reverse engineering and problem-solving.

• YouTube
• 10 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Save Icons: The History and Technology of Floppy Disks

Explore the history, construction, and data storage of floppy disks, from nostalgic relics to modern art inspirations. Discover the magnetic magic behind these iconic storage devices.

• YouTube
• 11 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Mojibake - What Happened to These Strings and How to Fix It

Explore Unicode text corruption, its causes, and solutions using Python's "ftfy" module. Learn to fix and prevent mojibake without relying on machine learning.

• YouTube
• 12 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Building Weird Things With the National Hockey League Using Ruby

Explore quirky Ruby projects using NHL data, from car prep to automated goal announcements. Unleash creativity with undocumented APIs for fun and unique software builds.

• YouTube
• 10 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video

Beware the Dreaded Dead End - Exploring AI Solutions for Syntax Errors in Ruby

Explore AI-driven syntax error detection in Ruby, learning about community building, open-source contributions, and innovative problem-solving techniques.

• YouTube
• 11 minutes
• On-Demand
• Free Video