I think the real value of these hacks is to understand how and they work rather than the possible efficiency gains they may give. Sure, sometimes you just have

I think the real value of these hacks is to understand how and they work rather than the possible efficiency gains they may give. Sure, sometimes you just have to get the gains, but these days, on modern platforms this is hardly ever the case. But man, if you think you know how to deal with the binary and bitwise operations, please take some time to go through all of the hacks and examine how they work. It's quite possible you learn something new and interesting, which may have surprising applications elsewhere.