{"copyrite":"© Ray Slakinski","generator":"Canopy","id":"https://slakinski.com/","items":[{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

Update: I was using the following models: deepseek-r1:7b and llama3:latest (7b)

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DeepSeek-R1 came out generally over the weekend, and a lot was talked about the cost to generate such a complete and capable model. I am happy to see that it is an open model that I could easily download and use with Ollama; it seems to generate good responses for general questions. But being a gamer, I wanted to test its knowledge using a question based on an old rule within the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (D&D 2E) ruleset.

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Explain in simple terms the ad&d rule for thac0

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THAC0 stands for To Hit AC 0. The rule is a way to calculate what you need to roll on a twenty-sided die to hit your target in the game. But to better explain, and to be more illustrative, here’s the llama3 response to the above prompt.

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Understanding Thac0 in AD&D

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Thac0 is a crucial concept in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) that determines the minimum armor class number your character can hit with an attack. It reflects the effectiveness of your attacks against enemies based on your character’s stats and the enemy’s armor class.

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Key Components:

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  1. \n

    Armor Class (AC): This is a measure of how protected an enemy is, with higher numbers indicating greater protection. For example, a +0 means you can’t hit them without armor, while a +5 requires a very strong attack to land.

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    2. \n
  2. \n

    Strength Modifier: This reflects your character’s strength relative to the game’s standards (determined by equipment and gear). A positive modifier means you’re stronger, making it easier for you to hit enemies with lower ACs. A negative modifier makes it harder to hit, even against weaker enemies.

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    3. \n
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Calculation Formula:

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Thac0 = 20 - (Character’s Strength Modifier) - (Opponent’s Armor Class)

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Impact on Strategy:

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Considerations:

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Conclusion:

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Thac0 significantly influences combat strategy by affecting how often you can successfully hit enemies based on your stats and the enemy’s armor. Lowering this number through better strength or equipment can make battles more favorable, while higher values present greater challenges. Understanding Thac0 is essential for effective character deployment in AD&D.

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Now, as you can probably expect based on the above, DeepSeek failed hard with this question, which shows that the data it was trained with was considerably limited, and thus its ability to answer questions like this one will be reflected accordingly.

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Alright, so I’m trying to understand this AD&D rule called Thac0. From what I gather, it’s something related to how characters attack each other in Dungeons & Dragons games. Let me see if I can break this down.

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First off, there’s a mention of “Thac0” and that it’s the minimum armor class number your character can hit with their attack. Okay, so armor class (AC) is like a measure of how protected a character is, right? The higher the AC, the harder it is for an attacker to pierce through. So if you have a higher AC, you’re more armored and thus less vulnerable.

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Then there’s this formula given: Thac0 = 20 - (character’s strength modifier) - opponent’s armor class. Hmm, that sounds like some kind of calculation based on your character’s stats and the enemy’s AC. Let me see if I can make sense of it with an example.

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Suppose my character has a strength modifier of +3, which means they’re pretty strong. The opponent has an AC of 15. Plugging those numbers into the formula: Thac0 = 20 - 3 - 15 = 2. So their Thac0 is 2. That probably means that to hit this opponent, I need to roll a number on my attack die equal to or higher than 2.

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But wait, how exactly does this translate into actual gameplay? Is it as simple as rolling a d20 and hitting if the result meets or exceeds the Thac0? It seems so. If my character’s attack rolls a 2 or higher, they hit; otherwise, they miss.

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Now, I’m thinking about what a lower Thac0 means versus a higher one. A lower number would make it easier to hit because you’re subtracting less from that initial 20. So if your character has a high strength modifier or the enemy has a low AC, their Thac0 drops, making it easier to hit.

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On the flip side, a higher Thac0 means it’s tougher to hit since you’re subtracting more—either because your character isn’t as strong (lower strength modifier) or the enemy is better armored (higher AC). So getting a high Thac0 makes your attacks less effective against them.

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Let me try another example to see if I got this right. If my character has a strength modifier of -2 and the opponent’s AC is 10, then Thac0 = 20 - (-2) - 10 = 12. That means they have a much higher Thac0, so it would be harder for me to hit them unless I compensate somehow.

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But wait, what if my character has no strength penalty? Let’s say the modifier is 0 and the opponent still has AC 10: Thac0 = 20 - 0 - 10 = 10. So they’re even less likely for me to hit them compared to the previous example.

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This makes sense because a lower AC means it’s easier to pierce through, so if my character is weaker (strength modifier negative), their effectiveness against an enemy with higher AC also decreases.

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I’m starting to see how this rule impacts strategy in the game. If you’re fighting enemies that have high AC and your characters aren’t very strong, you might need to find ways to bypass or reduce the Thac0 somehow, maybe by using better equipment or finding weaknesses in the armor.

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But I’m still a bit fuzzy on how exactly the attack rolls determine if it’s a hit. Is there more to it than just rolling equal to or higher than the Thac0? Are there other factors involved, like critical hits or special abilities?

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Also, does the Thac0 change based on something else, like the type of weapon used or the character’s class? The original explanation didn’t cover that, but maybe in more detailed rules, there are additional variables.

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I wonder how this compares to modern D&D games. Does AD&D have any unique aspects here, or is Thac0 similar across different editions?

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Another thing I’m curious about is the history of this rule. Why was it introduced in the first place? Was it part of an effort to balance certain playstyles or mechanics within the game?

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It’s also making me think about how important stats like strength are in the game. If you can boost your strength through better equipment, you could lower your Thac0 and make it easier to hit enemies.

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But I’m not entirely sure if this is all there is to Thac0. Maybe there’s more complexity in higher-level rules that weren’t mentioned here. For example, does attacking from a distance affect the calculation? Or does it involve any other modifiers like penalties for being behind cover?

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Overall, understanding Thac0 seems crucial for effective combat strategy in AD&D. It affects how often you can successfully hit your enemies and thus influences how the battle unfolds.

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Maybe I should look into some example battles to see how Thac0 impacts outcomes based on different character stats and enemy ACs. That might help solidify my understanding of how it all works together.

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I’m still a bit confused about how exactly the attack rolls interact with Thac0, like whether there are other modifiers or if it’s purely based on that calculation. It would be helpful to have more examples or maybe some tables showing different scenarios and their outcomes.

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In summary, I now know that Thac0 is a measure of minimum armor class your character can hit, calculated using the formula: 20 minus your strength modifier minus the opponent’s AC. Lowering this number makes it easier to hit, while raising it makes it harder. However, there are still some uncertainties about how exactly attack rolls determine success and other factors that might influence combat dynamics.

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This response was long, rambling, and extremely unhelpful. I really wish these models had an escape route built in so they could simply say that they weren’t trained on data that includes an answer to that question instead of just making things up. As we rely more and more on AI models, it becomes increasingly important that we understand gaps in history and knowledge within these models and whether any censorship was applied before training. I feel that this is probably one of the larger risks as we move into the AI age.

\n","categories":["software"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2025/01/28/to-hit-deepseek/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2025/01/28/to-hit-deepseek/","postedTime":"2025-01-28T00:00Z","summary":"Update: I was using the following models: deepseek-r1:7b and llama3:latest (7b)","title":"To Hit DeepSeek 0"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

Jason and I have been collecting data from the Ontario Government’s COVID-19 vaccination statistics and started to graph them in Grafana.

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You can find the graph at https://monitor.sdf1.net/dashboard/snapshot/ontvacstats which is updated every hour. The Prometheus agent that collects the stats was written in Go and can be found at my GitTea page

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Its been a fun little exercise in collecting the data, exposing it to prometheus, and then graphing it in Grafana as a side project. I do a lot of work with these kinds of tools in my day job but it was nice to do it with low pressure and be able to feel like I was doing something during these times.

\n","categories":["my dev projects","software"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2021/06/01/tracking-covid-19-vaccinations-in-ontario/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2021/06/01/tracking-covid-19-vaccinations-in-ontario/","postedTime":"2021-06-01T00:00Z","summary":"Jason and I have been collecting data from the Ontario Government’s COVID-19 vaccination statistics and started to graph them in Grafana.","title":"Tracking COVID-19 Vaccinations in Ontario"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

For a few years I’ve had this blog and The Thirsty Meeple blog. The former focused on tech, and our family. The other focused on our hobby of Table Top Gaming (Boardgames, RPGs) But both sites have not had much activity in some time so I’ve decided to combine their content back onto The Slakinski Log and shut down Thirsty Meeple.

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I also hope to be posting here again as I’ve for the most part moved away from Facebook as a way to share thoughts and talk about my passions.

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Blogging is dead, long live blogging ;)

\n","categories":["blogging/podcasting"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2021/01/22/untitled/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2021/01/22/untitled/","postedTime":"2021-01-22T00:00Z","summary":"For a few years I’ve had this blog and The Thirsty Meeple blog. The former focused on tech, and our family. The other focused on our hobby of Table Top Gaming (Boardgames, RPGs) But both sites have not had much activity in some time so I’ve…","title":"Combining Sites"},{"author":{"name":"Shannon Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/shannons/"},"body":"

I have just done something totally crazy. I have signed up to GM a game at Gen Con. I will be running No Salvation for Witches from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I think that going through the process of blogging about my experiences from now until after Gen Con will help me to flush out some of my thoughts and ideas and help me to stay focused while I prepare. Also, it will give me an opportunity to share what it is like to GM for the first time, GM at a con, and GM as a female. I think that might be useful to a lot of people.

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Like many of us, I have been playing games for many years. I loved the typical board games as a kid, my best friend Emily and I played Monopoly for days straight in the summers. In university I joined the Games Club at school….I hung out with a lot of people who played Magic instead of going to class. I never played Magic myself because I was afraid I would like it, and then I too would be playing Magic instead of going to class. I enjoyed being part of the club though and spent a lot of time hanging out on the comfy couch in our club room with some fantastic people, but I still never thought of myself as a gamer. Then I met Ray. Ray liked gaming but I don’t think he expressed to me how much he liked it…or maybe I just didn’t understand. I asked him to GIVE AWAY all his unpainted Warhammer miniatures in an attempt too purge “stuff” before we moved into our condo. He must have really liked me because he did it! Slowly but surely games started creeping back into our new life together. First we started to go to friends houses on the weekends to play Cranium and Trivial Pursuit, then we started to expand into new and different games like Killer Bunnies and Munchkins, then we bought Ticket to Ride…then Carcassonne…then we bought Arkham Horror! Yup, we were officially collecting games.

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As the years went on we collected more and more board games and card games, then we got into miniatures. I love history so my first year at Gen Con I bought myself some tanks for Flames of War (It was at this point I realized how much Ray gave up for me when he gave away all those Warhammer miniatures all those years ago…..miniatures are not cheap!). Our second year of Gen Con Ray subtly roped me into an RPG. He signed us up for a Scooby-Doo game based on World of Darkness. Who doesn’t like the Scooby gang?? I listed that show as the best show of all time when I was in grade 2, how could I not give an RPG based on Scooby-Doo a try?!? Since then I have played a few RPGs but all in all, role playing is still very new to me. I have to admit, I never, ever, ever, thought I would play an RPG…ever. Boardgames? Yes. Card games? Yes. Miniature games? Yes. RPGs? NO. I just felt like I “wasn’t the type”. I had only ever really heard of Dungeons and Dragons and that conjured up an image of greasy, overweight, nerdy guys in a basement somewhere (yes, I admit that I have been guilty of stereotyping). On top of that, I thought that all role playing games was fantasy-based, and when people talk to me about anything related to fantasy it sounds like they are speaking a different language. Lastly, I just thought it was too much work. Who wants to build a character and have to write “stuff” and play for hours on end….don’t they have better things to do??? Over the past 3 years or so I have learned that I was very wrong in my assumptions. My experience playing Velma in the Scooby-Doo game has since led me to try The Strange, Numenera, Savage Worlds, Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, Dungeon Crawl Classics and Pathfinder Society (note that Lamentations of the Flame Princess is not listed here…I will get into that in another post).

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A couple of weeks ago Ray told me that ConTessa was looking for female-identified GMs to run games on the Thursday night of Gen Con this summer. I think that ConTessa is a great organization that encourages and supports women to become more involved in gaming. Right off the bat I felt like this would be a great environment in which to try GM’ing. In a way it feels like signing up to GM was a crazy, spur of the moment decision but when I really think about it, I think it was a long time in the making. I was just waiting for the right time and the right venue. ConTessa allowed us,the GMs, to select any gaming system that we wanted. I liked that because it gave me the opportunity to choose a game that truly excites me. I don’t feel like I’m boxed into something that I may not like, and I’m not being told what I have to run or how to run it. I also like the fact that the players will be coming into the event knowing that the games will be run by women, and that for many of the women GM’ing will be a new experience. I am looking forward to the supportive and FUN atmosphere. I also want to support ConTessa, and encourage other women to get out and game. Gaming is for everyone!

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Now that I have officially signed up to run a game I am truly terrified, but in a good way. This will be such an interesting experience and I think it will only make me stronger in so many ways. I have just under 5 months…..now where do I begin….

\n","categories":["contessa","gen con","rpg","one shot"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2016/03/20/gm-gencon-contessa-1/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2016/03/20/gm-gencon-contessa-1/","postedTime":"2016-03-20T00:00Z","summary":"I have just done something totally crazy. I have signed up to GM a game at Gen Con. I will be running No Salvation for Witches from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I think that going through the process of blogging about my experiences…","title":"Gen Con 2016 - GM'ing with ConTessa"},{"author":{"name":"Shannon Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/shannons/"},"body":"

So where were we? Oh right, we were at the point where we decided to take the kids back to Gen Con this year. The kids were so excited to go that they started the count down as soon as we bought the badges.

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This year Gen Con Housing changed the hotel room booking process. Unlike in previous years where room booking was done on a first come first served basis, this year anyone who had purchased a badge was randomly entered into a queue for access to booking. Sadly, due to my place in the queue I was unable to get a downtown hotel this year. We ended up booking a place about 15-20 minutes away. I was generally ok with this since the room was cheaper and offered us more room, but Ray and I still kept an eye and open for anyone who might be looking to transfer out of a downtown room. Sometime around the middle of July Ray saw a post in a forum from someone who wanted to get rid of a room at the Crown Plaza. The Crown Plaza is great because not only is it downtown but it is attached to the convention centre by a hamster tube. Ray immediately leaped at the opportunity and was able to secure the room. Amazingly, it turned out to be a train car room! The Crown Plaza Union Station is an old train station that was converted into a hotel. They have a row of train cars that are still sitting on the old track that have been converted into hotel rooms. They are pretty awesome. They do tend to be long and very narrow rooms, but there was definitely enough space for a family of 4 and it included all of the amenities of that quality of hotel. The kids were so excited to be able to climb the metal stairs into an old fashioned train car every time they went to their room. It was such a nice bonus in addition to getting a room at a downtown.

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\"Crown \"Crown

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Rather than going through each of our 4 days I just wanted to outline the main highlights of our trip. Hopefully this will give you an idea of what you can do with your kids, you might be surprised!

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Meeting Tony DiTerlizzi

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Tony Diterelizzi is Aidan’s favourite author and illustrator. Aidan fell in love with Tony’s WandLa series and recently got a copy of his book The Realms. Aidan was over the moon when he found out that Tony was going to be a Guest of Honour. Luckily, Ray and I were able to score Aidan a ticket into Tony Diterlizzi’s seminar about “drawing the fantastic”. The age rating for this event was 6+ so we knew he would be allowed to attend, however we made sure that he understood that most of the people there would be adults, many of whom would be artists themselves. Aidan took his place in the class very seriously. I had the opportunity to sit just outside the door to make sure everything went ok and I got to witness just how supportive Tony DiTerlizzi was of Aidan. He was very encouraging and never talked down to him. He even got down on the floor.

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\"Tony

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\"Tony

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No Thank You, Evil

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This is an RPG aimed at kids and families that is based on the Cypher system. It was a Kickstarter launched by Monte Cooke Games (MCG) and we backed at the play test level. Were able to obtain the play test version just before Gen Con. We ran through part of it as a family but we were eagerly looking forward to visiting the MCG booth and get a demo. First thing Friday morning we headed straight to the MCG booth and met Zoa. She ran an adventure for Aidan, Juliana and another little girl. The other girl had tried the demo so many times that Zoa created a brand new adventure for the kids! The adventure involved the mysterious disappearance of “papples”, and illusions of giant pizzas. Zoa was fantastic with the kids.

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\"No \"No

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The Costume Parade

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\"Half

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Both of my kids really wanted to take part in the costume parade this year. Juliana dressed up as Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service and Aidan was a half-elf wizard. The parade was a lot of fun but next year I really need to take a costume for myself. Juliana got really nervous at the last minute so asked me to walk with her. It was a bit awkward being in the parade without a costume. At least I was wearing my new Doubleclicks t-shirt. Aidan had a great time wearing his pointy ears and robe and carrying his wand. About halfway through the parade I took his glasses off of him because everyone thought he was Harry Potter. I did warn him ahead of time that people might have trouble identifying him as a half elf but that is what he really wanted to be. He has decided that next year he will plan to dress up as a specific character.

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Doubleclicks Concert

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\"Doubleclicks Friday night we got tickets to the Doubleclicks concert. It was pretty awesome because on our way to the concert we ran into our friends James (Living 4 Crits) and Jen so we all got to sit together. Actually to be more precise, Ray and I sat together, James and Jen sat in front of us. The kids, having decided that James and Jen were pretty cool,  sat themselves down with our friends…Aidan right in between James and Jen. He was pretty enthusiastic about the concert so I don’t think they minded too much…at least I hope not! The Doubleclicks are pretty awesome. They are 2 sisters who sing pretty geeky songs but I really appreciate the messages that they try to convey with their music. There is a real focus on being yourself.

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Playing Disney’s the Last Parsec

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Sunday was our last day at Gen Con. We were starting to get pretty tired but we saved the best for last. We managed to get into the “Disney’s The Last Parsec” game run by James (the same James we sat with at the Doubleclicks concert). Ray and I met James last year when he ran the most amazing session of The Strange ever. We kept in touch over the past year and when we found out that he was running a family RPG session this year we thought it would be perfect for us. All four of us, plus another father and his son, joined James and Jen to play Disney characters trying to free Sonny Eclipse from a cave guarded by terrifying dinosaurs! It was great! Juliana played Stitch, I played Vanellope, Aidan played Baymax and Ray played Hero. We all worked together and Juliana saved the day!

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\"Disney’s \"Disney’s

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Those were my key memories from Gen Con this year. We had a blast and did so much more than what I mentioned above. We had so much fun playing tons of games in the exhibit hall, seeing all the costumes, trying out the fantastic restaurants and meeting lots of people. It was truly memorable. I can’t wait to go back.

\n","categories":["cosplay","doubleclicks","gen con","kids","last parsec","no thank you evil","ntye","savage worlds","tony diterlizzi"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2015/09/11/gen-con-with-kids-are-we-crazy-part-2/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2015/09/11/gen-con-with-kids-are-we-crazy-part-2/","postedTime":"2015-09-11T00:00Z","summary":"So where were we? Oh right, we were at the point where we decided to take the kids back to Gen Con this year. The kids were so excited to go that they started the count down as soon as we bought the badges.","title":"Gen Con with kids? Are we crazy? - Part 2"},{"author":{"name":"Shannon Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/shannons/"},"body":"

Two weeks ago I was in Indianapolis with Ray and the kids attending Gen Con. This was our third year making the trek. Actually, Ray and I went alone the first year and then last year we decided to bring the kids. This year the kids insisted on going again…I don’t feel like we had a choice in the matter. I think we have a fairly unique perspective when it comes to Gen Con because there are not a lot of parents that take their young kids for the full 4 days of gaming. You do tend to see more kids on the Saturday, and even more on Sunday (Sunday is Family Day so a family of 4 can get into the Con for only $35) but a lot of those kids are only there for 1 day.

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As I mentioned, the first year that Ray and I went to Gen Con we decided to go alone. We didn’t really know what the atmosphere would be like, and whether it would be appropriate for kids. We knew that there were kids activities but our kids were pretty young so we just didn’t know if they would be able to handle it. Without the kids we had an absolute blast. We made a point of trying every different type of tabletop game (RPG, Board Game, Miniature etc) and we got to see a lot of the exhibit hall. We stayed up late, got to go out for some nice meals and even splurged on some big purchases…like a GeekChic table! Despite thoroughly enjoying our time together, we spent the entire time talking about how much the kids would have fun at Gen Con. We discovered that the people at Gen Con are some of the nicest people you will ever meet, the atmosphere is very family friendly, there are tons of kids activities, and there is even babysitting available. Before the con was even over we had already decided we would go back the next year and we would bring the kids.

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In the early months of 2014 when the Gen Con badges went on sale, we didn’t hesitate to buy them for the whole family. By the time we headed off to Indianapolis Juliana was 5, turning 6 (her birthday was while we were at Gen Con!), and Aidan was 8. We got a room at a downtown hotel a few blocks from the convention center, which was nice since the previous year we stayed about 20 minutes away by car. The hotel was fairly quiet and had a small pool, which the kids used for a quick swim before and after spending the day at the con. We bought tickets for a few of the kids activities at the Family Fun pavillion and also booked one afternoon with the babysitting service so Ray and I could play an RPG together. Although the kids had fun doing their scheduled activities, their favourite part was actually going around and doing the demos. Juliana wanted to try all the Mayfair games and collect all the ribbons and Aidan was on a mission to find a new game to take home. Although he was only 8 years old, Aidan was already heavily into gaming so he wanted something that would challenge him. I eventually lost him to the Privateer Press booth and he emerged with a couple of new Warmachine starter sets. He also spent a good four hours one day playing Pathfinder and his character actually survived. I was pretty impressed not only that he survived but I was impressed at how welcoming and patient the other players were. I’m sure they didn’t expect an 8 year old to show up at their table. Both kids really enjoyed all the costumes and the giant Cthulu made out of balloons, and just spending time together as a family. One of my most memorable events was the introduction to LARPing that we did as a family. It was only an hour long but I couldn’t believe how much fun I had running around with a foam sword and strategizing with kids and their parents on how we were going to achieve some imaginary mission. We all had a blast as we lost ourselves in our characters even if only for a few minutes.

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We may not have been able to stay up until the wee hours of the morning crawling through a dungeon, or attending parties, and we may have felt like we only saw a quarter of the exhibit hall floor and way more Mayfair games than anticipated, but we saw the con from a whole new perspective, tried some great games we would not have otherwise tried, and we got to eat and sleep! I don’t regret for a single minute bringing the kids along with us, which is why all 4 of us went back again in 2015….

\n","categories":["gen con","kids","larping","mayfair","rpg","warmachine"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2015/08/15/gen-con-with-kids-part1/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2015/08/15/gen-con-with-kids-part1/","postedTime":"2015-08-15T00:00Z","summary":"Two weeks ago I was in Indianapolis with Ray and the kids attending Gen Con. This was our third year making the trek. Actually, Ray and I went alone the first year and then last year we decided to bring the kids. This year the kids insisted…","title":"Gen Con with Kids? Are we crazy? - Part 1"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

This year was our first Gen Con, we got housing but only at a hotel by the airport. There is zero traffic so driving in was easy and parking if you got there around 9am was reasonable and available. I heard lots of complaints about the shuttle bus so if you are out by the airport if plan on driving in. Cost per night is way cheaper by the airport too, and there is always a game or five being played in the dining area.

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Ticketed events is the real meat of Gen Con, that said everything in moderation! Try not to plan more than 2-3 events a day, and try and have a day that is event free if possible. On event registration day pick lots of things for your wish list then prune it down once you get spots – you will not get all of your choices! That said not everyone shows up for a game so if you didn’t get in an event you wanted you might still be able to play on the day. The dealer hall has so many game demos that you will not see them all even if you spent all 4 days doing that alone, make time for it, because you’ll discover something new and fun.

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Gen Con is a lot of fun, just plan down time and enjoy yourself, plan on eating and plan snacks - no one wants to play with a grumpy gamer :)

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Everyone has their favourite con, if you want to go to Gen Con, then go and make up your own mind.

\n","categories":["life"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2013/11/05/gen-con-advice-from-a-first-timer/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2013/11/05/gen-con-advice-from-a-first-timer/","postedTime":"2013-11-05T00:00Z","summary":"This year was our first Gen Con, we got housing but only at a hotel by the airport. There is zero traffic so driving in was easy and parking if you got there around 9am was reasonable and available. I heard lots of complaints about the shut…","title":"Gen Con Advice From A First Timer"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

[Please also check out Part 1]

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In this new post about a modern programming operating system I’m going to comment on what a flood of people gave me in the comments on the post and on Hacker News. I’m very thankful for the overwhelming support and ideas that came from those comments and has inspired me to keep thinking about this topic.

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Running IPython with its shell seemed to be overwhelmingly a popular choice, though the shell needs some work I think its the closest match. I love using IPython, and I think it gives a decent interface for working with the code. With the shell option it looks like you’d get some OS commands as well, which may be more than what I want but I think its a solid starting off point. Python on Wheels (link removed) was the major contributor to this method and even got it running on a Rasbery PI which seems to be the most ideal platform to get a project like this running on – lots of people in the comments seem to agree as well.

\n

Some people talked about Python Notebook (link removed), and Although interesting, its still a webpage and with that comes all the distractions. Some others talked about Ruby and I like the idea, I’m not sure if a 7 year old needs to be concerned with indentation yet :) and Ruby is a pretty friendly language to code in, with lots of published examples and tutorials. Beyond that I’m unsure of what might be available to make ruby viable in this platform, does it have a IPython Shell equivalent that we can hack on to get the desired results?

\n

Some people said why bother, why? because I think it would be fun, and I’m glad that most of the community seems to agree with me!

\n

[HN Post, may have more comments]

\n

UPDATE: Just ran across Kidsruby (site defunct), which has a version that runs on a Raspberry PI, I think I’ll have to check into it a bit more.

\n","categories":["hardware","my dev projects","software","technology"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2013/02/27/a-modering-oper-pt2/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2013/02/27/a-modering-oper-pt2/","postedTime":"2013-02-27T00:00Z","summary":"[Please also check out Part 1]","title":"A Modern Programming Operating System [Part 2]"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

I was reminiscing about my childhood and computers in comparison to what my own children have. How booting up the Vic20 and later the C128 and being presented with nothing more than a blue screen and a flashing cursor prompting me to type in some basic code. I could save that code to floppy or tape and play it back later. I remember spending hours going over programming books typing in line by line the code to make something cool happen.

\n

Which takes me to what we have today, sure you can start programming on any modern day operating system, but I’ve always found creativity in constraints and I think a small OS that was dedicated to a programming language such as Ruby or Python would be good for kids to learn on and explore on. But nothing like this exists as far as I know.

\n

I was thinking of a linux kernel, with python 3.0 as the shell. I’d keep the login system as it gives users a place to save their files to. The python shell would have to be an abstract of the python shell as you would need load, save, and run commands to reuse your existing code.

\n

I there any interest in such a project, does one already exist?

\n

UPDATE: Some great comments showing up on the post comments and on Hacker News! Thanks everyone for the feedback and info! I’ll post a followup post in a few days.

\n

UPDATE 2: Follow up post can be found here

\n","categories":["hardware","my dev projects","software","technology"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2013/02/13/a-modern-programming-operating-system/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2013/02/13/a-modern-programming-operating-system/","postedTime":"2013-02-13T00:00Z","summary":"I was reminiscing about my childhood and computers in comparison to what my own children have. How booting up the Vic20 and later the C128 and being presented with nothing more than a blue screen and a flashing cursor prompting me to type i…","title":"A Modern Programming Operating System"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

Ive been seeing this in my local postfix log:

\n

Dec 10 08:46:50 totoro.local postfix/smtp[59905]: Untrusted TLS connection established to smtp.gmail.com[74.125.142.109]:587: TLSv1 with cipher RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)

\n

It wasn’t harmful, mail still is sent. But annoying, yes! The fix is simple, I’m on OS X Mountain Lion but the fix is fairly universal.

\n
wget https://www.geotrust.com/resources/root_certificates/certificates/Equifax_Secure_Certificate_Authority_DER.cer\nopenssl x509 -inform der -in Equifax_Secure_Certificate_Authority_DER.cer -out Equifax_Secure_Certificate_Authority.pem\nsudo cp Equifax_Secure_Certificate_Authority.pem /etc/postfix/CAcert.pem
\n

Next you want to check to make sure you have a line in your /etc/postfix/main.cf that points to the CAcert.pem file

\n

smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/CAcert.pem

\n

once this is done, you should just need to reload postfix using “sudo postfix reload” and the error should go away!

\n","categories":["software","technology"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2012/12/10/postfix-tls-errors/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2012/12/10/postfix-tls-errors/","postedTime":"2012-12-10T00:00Z","summary":"Ive been seeing this in my local postfix log:","title":"Postfix TLS Errors"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

Here are my top 12 albums for 2012, they are no in order as I consider them all great for varies reasons :) I also included a couple of bonus items that came out as an EP or a single.

\n
    \n
  1. Lana Del Rey - Born to Die
    2. \n
  2. Ben Folds Five - The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind
    3. \n
  3. Jack White - BluderBuss
    4. \n
  4. Tennis - Young & Old
    5. \n
  5. The Raveonettes - Observator
    6. \n
  6. Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror
    7. \n
  7. Grizzley Bear - Shields
    8. \n
  8. Purity Ring - Shrines
    9. \n
  9. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (III)
    10. \n
  10. Beach House - Bloom
    11. \n
  11. Best Coast - The Only Place
    12. \n
  12. Mumford & Sons - Babel
    13. \n
\n

Bonus:

\n
    \n
  1. Dum Dum Girls - End of Daze [EP]
    2. \n
  2. Wild Belle - Keep You [EP] & Keep You [Single]
    3. \n
  3. Icona Pop - I Love it [Single]
    4. \n
\n

What were your favorites?

\n","categories":["music"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2012/12/05/my-top-12-albums-of-2012/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2012/12/05/my-top-12-albums-of-2012/","postedTime":"2012-12-05T00:00Z","summary":"Here are my top 12 albums for 2012, they are no in order as I consider them all great for varies reasons :) I also included a couple of bonus items that came out as an EP or a single.","title":"My Top 12 Albums of 2012"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

Decided to restart the ol’blog. I’m getting kind of fed up with Twitter and Facebook isn’t the right platform for posts on a technical level. I thought of using Google+ but the thought of maintaining yet another social network didn’t sound like the right thing either. So I imported my old blog that ran from 2003-2009 and picking up from where I left off. My flavors site is still live on this domain, but now located at social.slakinski.com (site defunct)

\n","categories":["blogging/podcasting"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2012/10/16/re-blogging/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2012/10/16/re-blogging/","postedTime":"2012-10-16T00:00Z","summary":"Decided to restart the ol’blog. I’m getting kind of fed up with Twitter and Facebook isn’t the right platform for posts on a technical level. I thought of using Google+ but the thought of maintaining yet another social network didn’t sound…","title":"Re-blogging"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

\"3000663196_47f2ddb0fc\"

\n

RIP Watson

\n

?-2009

\n

As some of you may or may not beaware of, one of our dogs Watson got very sick about 6 days ago and was not eating and we got very worried about him. The new Mahalo Answers community rallied around him when I posted a question (link removed) on wether or not I should take him to the vet or to wait it out for a bit to see how he does.

\n

Once we took him in they ran some tests, and we got the results yesterday afternoon. He had lymphoma, and had it bad. We opted not to treat it, and only keep him comfortable until such times as we felt that his quality of life was not good enough to keep it going. We had no idea that would be the very next day.

\n

This morning Watson, despite the pain medication he was on, looked bad. He had a hard time eating, walking, even sleeping. So we made one of the hardest decisions in our lives, to put him to rest. We just couldn’t see him in that much pain any more, and without the medication he would have starved because it hurt too much to eat… we just didn’t feel right keeping him alive just so he could be with us one more day, even if that one more day was painful for him, we much rather him go peacefully and as in little pain as possible.

\n

We called his vet, despite it being a practice Watson only sees one vet because he’s so good with him and Watson likes him. We got put in a special room, where he could lie with his head on my lap on a couch and we said our final goodbyes.

\n

We love you Waton, you will be forever missed and in our hearts forever.

\n","categories":["dogs","life"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2009/01/14/watson/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2009/01/14/watson/","postedTime":"2009-01-14T00:00Z","summary":"","title":"Watson :'("},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

On Saturday at 7:45PM Aidan buckled over in pain which we dismissed as bad gas pains and just watched him carefully through the night. On Sunday we took him into emerg where he didn’t react to any physical exam and blood, urine and xrays all showed up negative so we were sent home and told its a stomach bug and will develop into vomiting and fever soon. On monday that didn’t happen, instead the pains which came in waves started to separate and during the calm periods Aidan appeared 100% fine and then sever pain for a few minutes. We took Aidan back to emerge to be dismissed by nurses saying he was fine because he looked fine most of the time. When we finally got to see a doctor she thought it could be intussusception (link removed) and booked us an Ultrasound the next day.

\n

On Tuesday Shannon took him to ultrasound and the results were very surprising, while checking for intussusception the radiologist noticed that while scanning that Aidan was uncomfortable when they went by one area of his stomach, so they took a look at his appendix and sure enough it was inflamed. Also to boot he did have intussusception! So off to McMaster Children’s Hospital. At this point we had a highly skeptical intern, very friendly nurses and a great doctor! After a second ultrasound it was determined that the intussesceptoin reversed itself but we had to operate to remove the appendix though he wasn’t sure if it needed to come out – blood and urine tests still came back negative, but performed the surgery anyways based on a gut feeling that it needed to come out.

\n

After the operation, 3AM, the doctor came up to me and said we caught it just in time, that it was indeed ready to burst but had not. Moral of the story, trust your gut and keep pushing if something doesn’t seem right.

\n

Anyways, he is resting comfortably at McMaster right now, he may come home late today or early tomorrow morning.

\n","categories":["appendix","doctors","health","intussusception","life"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2008/12/10/poor-aidans-appendix/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2008/12/10/poor-aidans-appendix/","postedTime":"2008-12-10T00:00Z","summary":"On Saturday at 7:45PM Aidan buckled over in pain which we dismissed as bad gas pains and just watched him carefully through the night. On Sunday we took him into emerg where he didn’t react to any physical exam and blood, urine and xrays al…","title":"Poor Aidan's Appendix"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

The Canadian Liberal Party enters a Legal coup position, what I mean by that is by forming a coalition party with the NDP and with written support from the Bloc they can legally overthrow the current sitting Conservative Party Government for power!

\n

As far as I can tell this is a first for Canada, not to mention not what voters want… its purely a political play. What do I mean by not what the voters want? well, we just had an election and we voted for the Conservatives to lead our country but with a minority rule. We (Canada) did not ask the Liberal party (the party I voted for btw) to run our country, so if you - the Liberal Party - wish to run the government then you need to hold it to the votes to decide, you cant take our country like this, its simply undemocratic! and is why I’m calling this a legal coup!

\n

One thing I’m thankful for is that finally Canada’s politics are getting interesting :)

\n","categories":["canada","politics"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2008/12/01/canadian-liberal-party-enters-a-legal-coup-position/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2008/12/01/canadian-liberal-party-enters-a-legal-coup-position/","postedTime":"2008-12-01T00:00Z","summary":"The Canadian Liberal Party enters a Legal coup position, what I mean by that is by forming a coalition party with the NDP and with written support from the Bloc they can legally overthrow the current sitting Conservative Party Government fo…","title":"Canadian Liberal Party Enters A Legal Coup Position"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

It looks like we are all going to get Podcasts over the air via the iPhone/iPod Touch in the very near future and thats both good news and bad news. A while ago a 3rd party developer released an app to the app store that was denied that did a very similar thing.

\n

The device is a platform much like Windows, OS X, XBox, PS3, Wii, Andriod. When you write applications for the platform you should not be restricted from adding your app to the device because it conflicts with applications the platform supplier also makes.

\n

Lets say I’m a game developer, and I develop a game that is the next Halo killer and want to publish it on the XBox 360, MS says go ahead, we welcome your game with open arms. Same thing with all the other platforms, so why is the iPhone/Touch different? Why can’t I try to compete with Apple in software if its a decently written app that does nothing illegal?

\n

Since I can’t even be allowed to compete with Apple, or even be seen as something that is competitive or will be competitive to one of Apple’s offerings then why would I even bother when I can probably do just as well on Android or some other mobile platform?

\n","categories":["blogging/podcasting","development","hardware","iphone","ipod touch","my dev projects","podcasting","software","technology"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2008/11/06/podcasting-on-the-iphoneipod-touch/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2008/11/06/podcasting-on-the-iphoneipod-touch/","postedTime":"2008-11-06T00:00Z","summary":"It looks like we are all going to get Podcasts over the air via the iPhone/iPod Touch in the very near future and thats both good news and bad news. A while ago a 3rd party developer released an app to the app store that was denied that did…","title":"Podcasting on the iPhone/iPod Touch"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

We launched a new version of our homepage and overall site design today and are no longer in beta! Its a big day for us here at Mahalo HQ and I hope you all enjoy it. Below is a screenshot tour of the new layout.

\n

\"\"

\n","categories":["design","mahalo","my dev projects"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2008/10/10/mahalos-new-site-design/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2008/10/10/mahalos-new-site-design/","postedTime":"2008-10-10T00:00Z","summary":"We launched a new version of our homepage and overall site design today and are no longer in beta! Its a big day for us here at Mahalo HQ and I hope you all enjoy it. Below is a screenshot tour of the new layout.","title":"Mahalo's New Site Design!"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

Back in 2004 I wrote an email to all my Halton MPs and asked them 4 questions, this election I felt compelled to do it again! As with last time I will write each response below the question as I recieve them, here is the legend so you can easily follow who said what. I’m using the responses to help sway me in one direction vs another… I’m on the fence this time and I hope the responses will put me in one camp over another.

\n

Legend (alphabetical):

\n\n

* If I missed a party, please comment below with name and contact so I can send them the questions.

\n
    \n
  1. There has been a lot of talk of a Canadian version of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) Would you support this? and why? if not would you be in favor of any changes to our existing copyright laws?
    2. \n
\n

The Conservative government’s proposed copyright reform act is totally unacceptable, and does a horrible job of balancing the rights of teh creator and those of teh user. As a blogger and consumer of intellectual property, I believe passionately in the liberty of online information, but support protection of commercial and creative material which is meant for demand access only. In addition, however, our libel, slander and nuisance laws need to be toughened to ban the use of the Internet as a weapon of character assassintion, anther topic I am intimately familial with.

\n

In short, freedom must pervail, unless there is a public interest otherwise.

\n

The Green Party of Canada’s platform “opposes the ratification of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaties (WCT), recognizing both the imprecise definition of obligations and the incongruence with fair dealing. We would establish a copyright registry to facilitate tracking and protecting of copyrights where registration is optional for the original author, but mandatory upon the transfer of ownership or death of the author and remove the levy on blank audio recording media and replace it with private copying exemptions.”

\n

First, on the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act, I’m aware of that law and the European Union equivalent legislation. But I have to be honest and tell you that I have not yet spent time reviewing the issue from a Canadian perspective. I know that may sound like a political hedge, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving you an offhand response to what is an important issue in today’s digital economy.

\n

I can tell you this: I do believe in protecting the rights of artists and other creators of content, in whatever form, digital or not. At the same time, I do not want to see Internet Service Providers and others unfairly punished for innocent behaviour, and I do want to see fair access to certain kinds of digital content for organizations working in the public interest. What’s more, I think you’ve put your finger on an important question of public policy regarding copyright law in the 21st century, and I will study the issue in more detail. Does that sound reasonable?

\n
    \n
  1. What would you do to as our MP to make Halton a better place to live?
    2. \n
\n

The times are uncertain and volatile, and we need people in Ottawa who understand the economy, the markets and our endangered middle class.

\n

We also need politicians unafraid to say they represent the people first, and political parties and leaders second.

\n

Sadly, we’re further out on the edge of trouble than Canadians appreciate, and certainly more at risk than we’re being told. There’s no protective bubble over this country. It’s delusional to believe we will not be living out the drama we’ve all been watching on CNN.

\n

And while we can’t much change the events that may take place, we can do one thing. We can prepare. We can keep democracy alive.

\n

We can elect men and women who have pledged accountability to the people. We can ensure Parliament does not become the rubber stamp for one man’s clouded and questionable judgment. We can make sure if a storm hits, new laws and strong measures will receive full debate, proper consideration and reflect the will of the voters.

\n

I know I’ve been a controversial MP. Stephen Harper kicked me out for refusing to be just another silent Conservative caucus member. I have made choices I thought were in the best interests of the people I serve, and that will not stop.

\n

In this election, you can vote for a candidate who promises to represent a party. Or you can vote for one who will represent you. However you vote, I thank you for the honour you bestowed upon me.

\n

We need to ensure a sustainable economy for the families living in Halton. I would start by supporting investment in Halton-area companies that are creating green-collar jobs! Halton needs to replace the jobs that have been lost in the automotive industry, with sustainable, good-paying jobs. We need to lead the way and move forward to a Green economy based on sound environmental policy. The residents of Halton need to know that their jobs are secure. The only way to do that is to move away from an oil-based economy, and move toward a green economy.

\n

We also need a sustainable health care system. The growth we have had in Halton over the past 10 years in unprecedented! Our health care system has not been able to keep up. People are being denied access to essential services. I also believe that funding must be commensurate with need. Halton’s need has grown substantively over the past decade. Ontario continues to fund other provinces, while our own social safety net erodes. The federal government must stop taking from Ontario.

\n

A sustainable growth plan that provides an in depth fiscal analysis of the impacts of growth in Halton, works toward infill development first and asks the question ‘is this new house sustainable’ before building it, is essential to healthy communities.

\n

A sustainable environment is fundamental to the future health and well-being of all Canadians. We can readily see the effects of polluted air, water and land. Look up and see the smog, look around and see people drinking bottled water, look down and see litter strewn about. We are the custodians of the earth; if we don’t take care of it, it won’t take care of us.

\n

Second, how would I work to make Halton a better place to live? Mr. Slakinski, I have a long list – longer than I can get to in this note. But I’ll tell you what I’d put at the top of the list today: the economy and infrastructure. The economy affects all of us. I am very concerned about the effect of the US economic crisis on Halton (we can see it in things such as Ford eliminating a third shift at the Oakville plant). I’m very worried about the carbon tax some of the opposition parties have proposed. I want to make sure that Canada’s government makes smart, sound decisions, reducing our taxes, and investing in helpful, efficient programs that support families, seniors, students and businesses.

\n

Infrastructure – especially transportation infrastructure – is something else that’s a priority for people in Halton. You can understand why. Traffic is getting worse, as Halton grows so quickly, and we need forward-looking ideas for our roads. More people are relying on GO Transit for commuting, so the Conservative government’s credits for GO users are very welcome (essentially providing two free months on annual transit costs), but we need to do more. And I’ll fight for more, together with our mayors, the Halton Region and the province of Ontario.

\n
    \n
  1. How will you make sure that your voice is the voice of Halton while you are MP?
    2. \n
\n

I’ve had no trouble so far.

\n

Halton has been my home for over 10 years. I was actually born here and went to high school here. When our first child was born, my husband and I decided to return to Halton because we wanted our children to grow up in a community-based neighbourhood, where they would have the opportunity to participate and the freedom to grow. I think it was one of the best decisions we have ever made!

\n

I am passionate about Halton. I am an active member of several community-based organizations, and I have been the voice of North-East Burlington regarding school accommodation issues for several years. I am a born leader, and I know how to get results. Thinking “outside the box”, and coming up with creative solutions that meet the needs of all involved parties, is second nature to me.

\n

The Green Party does not dictate how a Green MP will vote. We are not the puppets of our leader. Our leader, Elizabeth May respects her candidates, and expects us to vote according to our conscience.

\n

My voice will be heard, and for the right reasons; I will represent the needs of the people of Halton honestly, fairly and with integrity.

\n

Third, how will I make sure Halton’s voice is heard? I don’t even need to think about that one, and here’s why. My job, if I’m elected, is to put the people of Halton first - always. I chose to run with the Conservative party, and I respect this party very much, for excellent reasons. I will always work respectfully with my Conservative colleagues, as well as with colleagues from other parties. But under our system of government, I will be responsible to the people of Halton and I will promote and defend their interests and needs above all

\n
    \n
  1. This one is just for fun, If you were able to vote in the US presidential election, who would you vote for? Obama or McCain?
    2. \n
\n

John McCain does not stand a chance, since he is part of the Washington-Wall Street establishment problem which has helped cause the meltdown of America. President Obama, however, will not have a happy time in the White House, since the empire’s best days are now in the rear view mirror.

\n

OBAMA!!!

\n

Now, as to whom I would vote for in the US, either Senator Obama or Senator McCain… nice try! I’m chuckling, because I imagine it could make big news if Canadian politicians stated preferences in the US election. But it wouldn’t be responsible, or fair. Americans have the right to make their political choices without undue intervention from outsiders – just as we have here in Canada. I’m actually glad American politicians haven’t been trying to influence our own election. That’s a sign of respect for a neighbour, I think.

\n

Even more important, it’s vital that Canadian elected officials stay out of the American elections, because we’ll have to work closely and in cooperation with whomever wins. But as someone who’s running for election for the first time, I have to tell you – I have a new perspective on what candidates both in Canada and the US are experiencing. And I wish them all the best of luck!

\n","categories":["2008","canadian","halton","politics"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2008/10/09/election-questions-for-local-halton-mp-candidates-2008/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2008/10/09/election-questions-for-local-halton-mp-candidates-2008/","postedTime":"2008-10-09T00:00Z","summary":"Back in 2004 I wrote an email to all my Halton MPs and asked them 4 questions, this election I felt compelled to do it again! As with last time I will write each response below the question as I recieve them, here is the legend so you can e…","title":"Election Questions For Local Halton MP Candidates (2008)"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

I’m starting to look at doing a Nucleus 2.0 which will be designed around getting online content into the Apple TV

\n

What it will need to do is the following:

\n
    \n
  1. Fetch torrents from an RSS feed based on keywords
    2. \n
  2. Download said torrents (should this be multithreaded)
    3. \n
  3. Detect file type of media file and convert video to h.264/mp4
    4. \n
  4. Fix metatags
    5. \n
  5. Import into iTunes
    6. \n
\n

Do you see anything else the app should do? I’m going to yet again do this in python, and probably will not have much in the way of an interface as it should just run as a background task on your computer. Thoughts and comments welcome, is there similar apps already in the wild that I need to know about?

\n","categories":["my dev projects","python","rss","software","technology","torrents","video"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2008/09/12/nucleus-2/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2008/09/12/nucleus-2/","postedTime":"2008-09-12T00:00Z","summary":"I’m starting to look at doing a Nucleus 2.0 which will be designed around getting online content into the Apple TV","title":"Nucleus 2"},{"author":{"name":"Ray Slakinski","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/author/ray/"},"body":"

I have a different take on what Web 3.0 will be. Some think its an edited version of wisdom of crowds (the basis of web 2.0), and that’s already happening especially at the company I work for Mahalo. If you look at some of the projects that Make Magazine has been doing, as well Fitbit which was just launched at TC50 this week (link removed) you might be starting to think - as I do - that the web interacting with real world and the real world interacting with the web may very well be the next big frountier!

\n

Any other examples of hardware meets web? please comment and let me know :)

\n","categories":["hardware","misc.","software","technology","web","web 3.0"],"id":"https://slakinski.com/2008/09/10/what-i-think-web-30-will-be/","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/2008/09/10/what-i-think-web-30-will-be/","postedTime":"2008-09-10T00:00Z","summary":"I have a different take on what Web 3.0 will be. Some think its an edited version of wisdom of crowds (the basis of web 2.0), and that’s already happening especially at the company I work for Mahalo. If you look at some of the projects that…","title":"What I think Web 3.0 Will Be"}],"lang":"en","permalinkUrl":"https://slakinski.com/","postedTime":"2003-01-20T00:00Z","subtitle":"Now if it's all the same, I've people to entertain.","title":"The Slakinski Log","updatedDate":"2025-01-28T00:00Z"}