Happy Father's Day & Other Stuff

My Behind-the-Scenes Recording Nightmare

• The Lost 40 Minutes: This is actually my second attempt at recording this podcast episode. I initially spent 40 minutes talking over at my radio station desk (where I run WRTO.fm), but when I went to edit it, I realized I that it didn’t record — not sure why.

• Three Years Sober: I recently hit my three-year soberversary on May 27th and today marks 1122 days of alcohol retirement. I wanted to record something back then, but life just got in the way.

The Coding & AI Projects Burning Up My Brain

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

I like to joke with my sons, Tyler and Devon, that I’m basically a toddler with a hand grenade when it comes to coding because I’m not a software engineer. My last real programming stint was back in the early 2000s using Visual Basic to write a work order app at CityNet. But lately, I’ve been having a blast using Claude (Opus and Sonnet) alongside OpenAI’s Codecs to build out some serious custom tech:

• Forklift Warranty Platform: I built a dealer portal for a friend’s forklift manufacturing company that handles dealer registration, warranty registrations, claims processing, and exclusive manual access. This might be my first AI-assisted project that I actually get paid for.

• BBS Emulator & Wildcat! Server: Back in 1993 or 1994, I helped run a two-line Bulletin Board System called Peach Online in Fitzgerald, Georgia, running Wildcat! software under OS/2. My wife and daughter recently found my original Wildcat! 5 CD-ROM, so now I’m running Windows 98 SE inside Proxmox to see if I can build a modern web front-end that connects via Telnet to a true, authentic Wildcat! server. You can see the emulator I already built at bbs.anairo.com.

• “Scope” Document Management: I didn’t care for the bulky document managers on the market, so I built my own. It runs in a privileged LXC container, monitors my Synology NAS shares, automatically OCRs new PDFs or image files, and passes the text to an Ollama container to generate summaries and suggest tags. I keep my public code over at git.knowthenerds.com.

• Radio Station Automation: I used Claude to redesign WRTO.fm’s web player widgets, integrate weather, and build a couple of automation scripts. One is a watchdog container that uses API calls to reboot my free playout software (Radio DJ) if it freezes, and another automatically scans new music to write intro cue markers.

• “Core” MSP Dashboard: I’m developing an IT management dashboard that connects securely to client endpoints (which I call “Sentries”) via Cloudflare tunnels. It features remote control integration via a RustDesk relay and can even image a PC to an ISO using WIM files.

• FreshBooks Alternative: FreshBooks has raised my rates from $25 to $38 a month over the years, so I’m building a custom billing proof-of-concept tied to my own Stripe account to see if I can completely replicate their invoicing functionality.

How I Spent Father’s Day

• Red Velvet Treats: Father’s Day yesterday was a nice, low-key day. My 29-year-old daughter baked me her famous red velvet sandwich cookies—she uses cake mix but reduces the liquid to get a perfect texture right between a cake and a cookie, then sandwiches buttercream icing in the middle. They are awesome.

• Pivoting the Menu & Movie Night: We accidentally bought the wrong vegetable mix for the Philly cheesesteak meatballs my wife wanted to make, which bummed her out. I told her not to worry about it, so we called an audible and had chili instead. We spent the rest of the day hanging out watching The Super Mario Galaxy movie and Alien: Romulus.

Keep in Touch

• Public Repository: git.knowthenerds.com

• BBS Project: bbs.anairo.com

• Email Me: podcast@bookofdonovan.com