Terms of Use

Effective date: July 25, 2026

These Terms of Use apply to h4ck3d.com, Patrick Clinger’s personal site. Newsletter subscriptions are handled by Substack and are subject to Substack’s terms and privacy practices. Nothing in these Terms creates an employment, consulting, fiduciary, or other professional relationship.

The Site shares personal perspectives, technical explanations, historical reflections, and practical examples. Content is provided for general informational and educational purposes. It is not legal, financial, investment, security, employment, medical, or other professional advice.

Technology changes quickly. A post may become incomplete, outdated, incompatible, or incorrect after publication. The Site does not promise that content is current, complete, error-free, or suitable for your situation.

Code, commands, configuration, prompts, architecture sketches, and other technical examples are illustrations, not ready-to-run instructions. They may omit production concerns, contain defects, rely on changing dependencies, or behave differently in your environment.

You are responsible for understanding, testing, securing, licensing, backing up, and monitoring anything you use. Review commands before running them. Never paste secrets into examples or execute unfamiliar code against important systems. Use isolated environments and qualified review when the risk warrants it.

Unless a specific repository or snippet states a separate license, publication on the Site does not automatically grant an open-source license to copy an entire work. Limited use may still be allowed by applicable law.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Site and its content are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind. That includes warranties of accuracy, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, availability, and security.

Nothing in these Terms excludes a warranty or right that cannot lawfully be excluded.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Patrick is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost data, profits, revenue, opportunities, goodwill, or business interruption arising from the Site or reliance on its content.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded, including liability for fraud, willful injury, or violations of law where applicable law prohibits that limitation. Where liability may be limited but not excluded, it will be limited only to the extent the law permits. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limits, so portions of this section may not apply to you.

The Site may link to or use third-party services, including for subscriptions. A link or service is provided for context or convenience, not as an endorsement or guarantee. Third parties control their content, availability, security, terms, accessibility, and privacy practices.

The Site is not responsible for third-party content or services. Review their terms and policies before relying on them or providing information.

Unless otherwise stated, the Site’s original text, design, illustrations, and compilation are owned by Patrick or used with permission and are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.

You may browse, link to, print, and quote reasonable portions for commentary, teaching, or discussion with clear attribution and a link to the original page. Do not republish complete posts, remove attribution, present Site content as your own, use the Site’s identity to imply endorsement, or systematically reproduce a substantial part of the Site without permission.

Trademarks, product names, screenshots, quotations, and third-party works remain the property of their respective owners. Their appearance does not imply sponsorship.

Contact is for ordinary correspondence. Please do not send confidential, proprietary, export-controlled, illegally obtained, or sensitive personal information. Contacting Patrick does not create a confidential, fiduciary, employment, or consulting relationship, and there is no obligation to respond.

Questions about these Terms can be sent through the protected contact method on the About page.

Read the Privacy Policy for the Site’s information practices.

The Site may change, remove content, correct errors, suspend features, or stop operating without notice.

These Terms may change as the Site changes. The effective date identifies the current version. Nothing here waives a right that cannot lawfully be waived.

These Terms and any dispute arising from or relating to the Site are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

Subject to any forum right that cannot lawfully be waived, legal proceedings must be brought in the Superior Court of California, County of Orange, or, when federal subject-matter jurisdiction exists, the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Each party consents to the personal jurisdiction of those courts and to venue in Orange County, California, to the extent permitted by law.

Nothing in these Terms limits mandatory consumer protections, a non-waivable right to bring a claim in another forum, or any other right that cannot lawfully be limited. Before formal legal action, the parties are encouraged to attempt a good-faith informal resolution where appropriate.

If a provision is unenforceable, it will be limited or removed only as necessary. The remaining provisions remain in effect to the fullest extent permitted by law.