bit twiddling

bit twiddling n.  1. (pejorative) An exercise in tuning (see
   {tune}) in which incredible amounts of time and effort go to
   produce little noticeable improvement, often with the result that
   the code becomes incomprehensible.  2. Aimless small modification
   to a program, esp. for some pointless goal.  3. Approx. syn. for
   {bit bashing}; esp. used for the act of frobbing the device
   control register of a peripheral in an attempt to get it back to a
   known state.