# Projects I can't post about work projects, but here is a smattering of weekend projects that I've done on my own time. You can find more on my GitHub profile. ## Pinewood Derby Racing Web GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/racingweb This is a web-based tool for generating race schedules and running pinewood derbies. It's written in C++17 with [Web Toolkit](https://www.webtoolkit.eu/wt). ![Racing Web Video](/~c5n/images/racingweb.gif) --- ## Planning Center Tools These tools help with volunteer and calendar management using Planning Center Online. ### Calendar Notify GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/pco-calnotify On a recurring scheudle, this module will watch a Planning Center calendar for events matching a specific set of labels and will send notifications via. email and text message at defined intervals prior to the event's scheduled time. ### Team Schedule Veiwer GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/TeamScheduleViewer Presents a mobile-browser-friendly and printable schedule for voluneers using Planning Center Serviecs. --- ## University of Scouting GitHub (v1 - node): https://github.com/ckxng/universityofscouting GitHub (v2 - .net): https://github.com/ckxng/ClassPortal It's important to have trained leaders in an organization like the BSA, and 2020 brought some unique challenges. We took a virtual-first approach with University of Scouting, and this meant we needed a tool that provided schedule management, transcript viewing, and degree printing. Ben Spellmann and I built a transcript reporting system for scouters (adult scout leaders) in Longhorn Council. Using this system, scouters can look up their current schedule and prior registrations through University of Scouting. --- ## Chat Bots ### SoothBot and Invisible Sun Text Parser GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/soothbot GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/invisible-sun-text-processor This bot is a Discord chat bot, designed to facilitate online sessions of Invisible Sun RPG. It includes a dice roller, sooth deck and path of suns management, and a lookup for various spells and other game features. Since the Monte Cook Games license rules do not allow redistribution of game content, I wrote a text parser which is able to transform the Invisible Sun text reference files (a Kickstarter reward from the origninal run) into a structured YAML file which can be read by the bot. ![SoothBot Screenshot](/~c5n/images/soothbot.png) ### Adaptive Card CLI GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/acardbot-cli NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@ckxng/acardbot-cli I had a need to post text messages to Microsoft Teams channels, and it was somewhat challenging to find a simple API that would do what I needed, especially one that supported environment variables for the webhook URL (to make integrating with Jenkins and similar CI engines easier). This CLI sends text messages and an optional title to teams channels. --- ## Cypher System RPG Character Generator GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/cyphergen-web This simple Heroku-friendly webapp allows GMs to upload the world parameters for their upcoming campaign, and players may then use a special link to generate Level 1 characters. This is helpful, because Cypher is a system that is designed to be customized, and there is a lack of online tooling supporting this aspect of the RPG system. --- ## Standard Version CI Action GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/docker-standardversion Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/ckxng/standardversion I needed a convenient way to manage version numbers at merge-time in JavaScript and Puppet modules, and found that standard-version does the trick nicely. While integrating JavaScript modules with standard-version directly is convenient, it is less convenient for other other project types which don't already have node_modules present. To solve this problem, I built standard-version into a docker container and published it, for my own use in GitHub Actions and Jenkins workflows. --- ## 2-Lane Pinewood Derby Judge I made up two designs for this, one bare bones and one with a little bit more flash. Both are purposefully simple, and designed using the MakeCode block editor for the benefit of scouts interested in programming. ### Feather M0 Express GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/pxt-simple-pwd-finish-line-judge The first iteration is based on an Feather M0 Express, and includes only the absolute minimum features required to serve as a finish line judge. The only output is through the single onboard pixel. Blink once for a win in the first lane, blink twice for a win in the second lane. ### Circuit Playground Express GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/pxt-lightup-pwd-finishline-judge The second iteration is only slightly more complicated, and is based on the design from the first project. This version uses a Circuit Playground Express, mainly because it is a popular beginner board and because of the number of onboard features. Here, the 10 onboard pixels are used to a greater effect indicating a win by pointing left or right, and some musical tones are added for fun. Thanks to the addition of a servo motor, an onboard button now releases cars to start the race. This allows the program to track the time of the winning car, though it is only reported by serial. ![Pinewood Derby Finish Line Just Wiring Diagram](/~c5n/images/pwd-finishline-judge.png) --- ## Pregnancy Timer GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/arduino-pregnancy-clock For one of my kids, we announced my wife's pregnancy by creating a tiny little count up clock. The board was an Arduino Nano connected to a real-time clock module and a SSD1306-based OLED display (the bar accross the top was yellow, and the remainder of the display was blue). The whole thing was wired as closely as possible and jammed into a tiny project box which was almost exactly the right size to hold it all. The GitHub repo has build photos. --- ## Diceware My "Hello World" lately, has been to generate diceware passwords. Here are a few projects where I explored new languages or patterns. ### CLI (Go) GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/diceware I wrote this simply to play around a bit with some specific go patterns, such as test coverage, concurrency, interfaces, and error handling. While this tool seems to work fine for me, use it for your own passwords at your own risk. package main import ( "fmt" "diceware" "flag" ) func main() { var num = flag.Int("d", 8, "number of dice") flag.Parse(); dice := diceware.New() if result, err := dice.Generate(*num); err == nil { fmt.Printf("%s\n", result) } else { fmt.Printf("error: %s\n", err) } } ### Web (JavaScript) GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/diceware-web Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/ckxng/diceware-web Live: https://ckxng.github.io/diceware-web/public/ Diceware Web is a static, JavaScript site with no external resources that generates 8-word Diceware passwords. ### API (JavaScript) GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/dicewareapi If you would like to generate a diceware password in the least secure way possible, feel free to click the links below. - https://diceware.azure-api.net/api/1/generate - https://diceware.azure-api.net/api/1/generate?length=8&sep=%5E&upper=1&digit=1 (The initial API call may take up to a few minutes as Azure boots up the container that hosts the API code. Subsequent calls will be much faster.) Please don't actually use these passwords for anything important. I'm sure Azure is run by perfectly nice folks, and their SSL is plenty secure... but this is not a safe way to generate passwords. It's more of an Azure API "hello world" than anything else. ### API (Python Flask) GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/diceware-flask - https://protected-atoll-19813.herokuapp.com/api/v1/passphrase?words=8&sep=~ A second API-based implimentation, equally ill-suited to generate your personal passwords, demonstrates a single Flask-based web API endpoint. ### API with Observability (ASP.NET Core) GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/diceware-netapi I wrote this in order to run through the Hello World paces with the new ASP.NET Core libraries, and to demo metrics observality within a simple API. --- ## Very Small Web Publishing Tools GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/tinysite GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/microsite-php GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/microsite-golang GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng/microsite-ruby GitHub: https://gist.github.com/ckxng/5fba350bc22e8dd981d7d5a01b5b1daa#file-microsite-cgi These small webapps wrap static pages in a simple HTML template. The TinySite project includes it's on WYSIWYG editor, while the others expect the user to update the filesystem directly (for example, via. FTP). I also wrote a version of this in C, but it has been lost to the depths of time. All of these except the golang version run within the context of a web server. The golang version runs an embedded web server using http.Handle. --- ## ECC Docker Repo GitHub: https://github.com/ecc12/docker In 2014, I created a somewhat standardized set of Docker images based on CentOS 6 which I used for both personal and professional projects. Since then, best practices for Docker have come a long way and the Dockerfiles I created no longer even build (since the centos:6.4 base image is no longer available). Recently, I moved all of these projects to their own repos, with hopes of someday revisiting them. Until then, you can find them here: https://github.com/ckxng?tab=repositories. I am leaving the original repo in place for the time being, as that is where dockerhub is pulling from. Ultimately, the community has come a long way since 2014, and these Docker images are likely no longer of use to anyone anymore. --- ## Other Misc Projects GitHub: https://github.com/ckxng?tab=repositories I've tinkered with a lot of different ideas, some good, some bad. For every repo that's pushed here, there are several more that I never got around to uploading (usually because I forgot, then later lost the code). You will find a mix of finished and unfinished projects (plus a few forks) in the cobwebs of my GitHub profile. I tend not to delete code, no matter how ugly or unfinished. Half-baked ideas have a way of being useful years later. (The file edit dates on these are especially unreliable, as some of them were pushed to GitHub years after they were written.)