The Rune Goldberg Tracker is a useful tool in the popular online video game RuneScape. It is a feature that allows players to efficiently track their progress and maximize their rewards when using the Rune Goldberg Machine, which is a magical device used for converting unwanted runes into more valuable ones. The Rune Goldberg Machine is located on the top floor of the Runecrafting Guild and is operated by the player. It has the ability to transform low-level runes, such as fire runes or earth runes, into higher-level ones, like blood runes or death runes. This process can be time-consuming and requires careful manipulation of the machine's controls. That's where the Rune Goldberg Tracker comes in.
The data source I’m using, covid-api.com, only updates their data daily, so I only need to run this once a day to stay relevant. This sounds like a job for cron. But not on my desktop machine (even though that would be way simpler).
The Rune Goldberg machine is a daily D D that can be played in the Runecrafting Guild 50 RC required that gives as a reward Vis wax that can be used for a ton of useful things such as extending auras and extending daily challenges. And while my COVID tracker does require updated data to stay relevant, the data is just a simple JSON file and the chart is generated entirely in the browser.
That's where the Rune Goldberg Tracker comes in. It is a tool that aids players in determining the optimal combination of runes to use in the machine to achieve the highest possible rewards. By inputting the runes they have available and selecting their desired outcome, players can receive suggestions on which runes to use and in what order, saving them time and resources.
My New Rube Goldberg Machine
My last post was about my local COVID tracker tool. While it worked well, I found having to re-run the report.pl script every time I wanted an update annoying. Plus, I wanted to share this on Facebook, but I have non-technical friends who would not be able to run it for themselves.
So I decided to put up a hosted version, but I challenged myself. I wanted it to run entirely on someone else’s machines. And I didn’t want to pay for it.
So how to do it?
Well, the hosting is simple. I’ve been using Render for this blog, as well as my professional site and some other static sites 1 . And while my COVID tracker does require updated data to stay relevant, the data is just a simple JSON file and the chart is generated entirely in the browser.
So the trick was to make the data file available in a way that let me deploy it with Render every time there are updates.
Enter my Rube Goldberg machine.
The data source I’m using, covid-api.com, only updates their data daily, so I only need to run this once a day to stay relevant. This sounds like a job for cron. But not on my desktop machine (even though that would be way simpler).
Instead, I used GitHub Actions. It supports scheduled jobs as well as running on every push to the repo. But the trick is to then make the data available after each run. And then the trickier trick is to get that data as part of running the deploy job on Render. Oh, and every time the GitHub Action runs, I want to have the Render site deploy again.
This turned out to be not that hard.
My GitHub Actions workflow runs the report.pl script, which generates a summary.json file. Then the workflow uploads that file as a build artifact. This is all incredibly trivial, and by using caching for both my Perl prereqs and the intermediate data files, I can make it quite fast. When the cache is warm, a run takes less than a minute. When it finishes, it hits a webhook provided by Render to trigger a deploy.
Of course, GitHub has an API for artifacts like the summary.json file. So all I need to do in the Render deploy script is use the API to find the latest artifact, then download that and deploy it along with my index.html and chart.js files. With a little experimentation, I was able to create a Bash script to do exactly that. I could have written this in Perl, but the combination of curl , jq , and zcat (artifact files are always zipped) actually made this much simpler to do in Bash than Perl 2 . I had to use sed , which always seems weird when I know Perl, but doing this in Perl requires at least a few more characters.
The hardest part was figuring out how to securely store the Render webhook URL in GitHub and then access it in my workflow. I had to store a GitHub token in Render 3 as well.
And so I present to you covid.urth.org.
Also, you might note that the chart has changed a little since last time. I made the past 7-day average line thicker and the daily numbers line thinner. The average is much more indicative of trends then the actual daily numbers, which jump around quite a bit.
- See my previous writeup on moving all my sites to Render. ↩︎
- This happens every once in a while. ↩︎
- I guess I didn’t have to, but the GitHub limit on unauthenticated requests is so low that I figured it was best to use authentication instead. ↩︎
The tracker takes into account various factors, such as the current market value of the different runes and the player's desired outcome. It then generates a list of rune combinations that will yield the most valuable result. This helps players make more informed decisions and maximize their rewards. In addition to tracking rune combinations, the Rune Goldberg Tracker also keeps a record of a player's previous combinations and rewards. This allows them to analyze their past performance and make adjustments to their strategy if needed. Overall, the Rune Goldberg Tracker is a valuable tool for RuneScape players who wish to optimize their use of the Rune Goldberg Machine. It provides guidance and suggestions on rune combinations, helping players save time and resources while maximizing their rewards..
Reviews for "Simple Steps to Maximize Rune Goldberg Tracker Efficiency"
1. Sarah - 2/5 stars - The Rune Goldberg Tracker was quite disappointing for me. I found it confusing and difficult to navigate. The interface was not user-friendly at all, and it took me a while to figure out how to use it properly. The information provided was also unclear and not very helpful. Overall, I was not impressed with this tracker and would not recommend it to others.
2. Mike - 1/5 stars - I had high hopes for the Rune Goldberg Tracker, but it was a major letdown. The website was slow and unresponsive, making it frustrating to use. The instructions were also unclear, and I found it difficult to understand how to utilize the tracker effectively. I ended up wasting a lot of time trying to make it work, and in the end, I gave up and looked for another alternative. I was extremely disappointed with my experience using this tracker.
3. Emily - 2/5 stars - I found the Rune Goldberg Tracker to be quite underwhelming. The information provided was not accurate or up to date, which made it difficult for me to plan my in-game activities accordingly. Additionally, the website interface was not user-friendly, and it was challenging to navigate through the different sections. Overall, I was not satisfied with this tracker and would not recommend it to others who are looking for reliable and efficient information.
4. Jason - 3/5 stars - While I didn't have a terrible experience with the Rune Goldberg Tracker, I can't say it impressed me either. The tracker was quite basic and lacked some essential features that I was expecting. The layout and design could be improved to make it more visually appealing and user-friendly. Additionally, I found the information provided to be limited and not as comprehensive as I had hoped. Overall, it was an average experience, but I believe there are better alternatives out there.