Not really a web based hack but writing the functions to detect and decode a valid stream of manchester encoded data over a 433MHz link on a PIC microprocessor too me an age, mainly because I designed it to detect the baud rate from within the received data stream. The most irritating part about it all is that the encode part of the system is like 5 lines of code that took two minutes to write. The decode however is several timers, interrupts and about 5 weekends of work.
It works well enough but it's on breadboard so will never be perfect.