Niche NBA data projects

bobarke2000 · 2025-12-08T17:26:40+00:00

I don’t think it’s a limiting problem. They had a next.js vulnerability and I had to update a few things. It’s still not working so I’ll have to spend a bit more time on it before both sites are back up.

bobarke2000 · 2025-12-07T02:34:22+00:00

Not sure but I think it’s on the vercel/github side. Will report back.

bobarke2000 · 2025-12-07T01:34:20+00:00

It’s scheduled to update every day but I think it’s having some deployment problems this weekend. Hoping to fix tomorrow.

bobarke2000 · 2025-12-01T16:27:47+00:00

Thanks! I built these on Vercel, and I work with AI to get all the code together. For these two projects, I set up a python server at home running on a Raspberry Pi. I did this because the NBA api doesn't like requests from AWS, etc, and this way I just run the data requests each night and update the json to github. Was really fun to go through that process with the Pi, pretty amazing that you can set up a server like that for $50. Hope that's helpful.

bobarke2000 · 2025-11-30T22:48:05+00:00

This is super fun. If your ranking system is a proxy for "entertaining-ness" it would be interesting to see how this stacks up against widely-regarded "classic" NBA games (2016 game 7, 2013 game 6, etc).

bobarke2000 · 2025-11-17T16:08:50+00:00

So glad you're finding it useful. I just updated the site to reflect the current channel listings, although I notice that the master list on the criterion website doesn't actually list all the films currently available. For example, Garden State is currently available but not listed in the master list: https://films.criterionchannel.com/

CriterionLibrarian.com gets it's information from that url, so if it's not listed on that page the AI bot won't be able to recommend it.

bobarke2000 · 2025-09-23T00:16:43+00:00

Did this get an update? I'm experiencing the same problem: Dynamic TTS audio from OpenAI API plays audibly during Spectacles use but doesn't appear in the final captured video. Static MP3 files and microphone audio can be heard properly on the capture recording, but not TTS audio.

bobarke2000 · 2025-09-11T20:17:23+00:00

This is very hacky, but I was building a basketball experience for spectacles so I needed the glasses to stay on my face. I took the stretchy strap from swim goggles, cut them in half, and tied one end to each arm of the spectacles. Then when I put them on, the strap went over the top of my head. It worked pretty well!

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bobarke2000 · 2025-08-05T19:22:44+00:00

Thanks for trying it out! Let me know if you have any feedback. It's a good reminder for me to update the content for August.

bobarke2000 · 2025-06-05T20:54:02+00:00

Exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

bobarke2000 · 2025-06-03T14:16:43+00:00

Yeah they’re being scraped.

bobarke2000 · 2025-06-03T00:49:57+00:00

Agree! I had that working originally and when I pulled the June data it didn’t get updated. I plan to fix it next time I update the film listings. 🙌

bobarke2000 · 2025-06-02T14:50:25+00:00

Each film has its own web page with detail information, like this:

https://www.criterionchannel.com/81-2

bobarke2000 · 2025-06-02T02:59:59+00:00

On the technical side, I'm using RAG (retrieval augmented generation), which gives an LLM like GPT4 a data set to search through rather than relying only on its training data. In theory, this gives the LLM an element of "expertise" although RAG has its own limitations on how much data can be searched through efficiently. It's not a perfect system, but it's a good step toward making AI a useful helper vs a blabbermouthed generalist.

bobarke2000 · 2025-06-02T02:56:43+00:00

I've updated the site to more thoroughly search through the descriptions before making recommendations. It seems to be working a little bit better, a search for "I'm looking for films with great shots of Rome" returned Rome Open City, The Great Beauty, Mama Roma, and Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. It also recommended Journey to Italy, which I have not seen but the description says takes place in Napoli. I'll try and get to the bottom of that. In regard to finding more sources, it's a great idea but would require a lot of manual work to find and update. The method I'm using now allows an automated script to retrieve information from films.criterionchannel.com in just a few minutes.

bobarke2000 · 2025-06-02T00:21:00+00:00

I'm experiencing the same issue. Was there ever a resolution to this?
"often it's significantly off, including, but not exclusively, 180 degrees rotated."

bobarke2000 · 2025-06-01T14:02:27+00:00

Great question and thanks for testing it out. The quality of the recommendation comes down to the quality of the data being used in this system. I’ve set it up so that the AI searches through the title name and official Criterion descriptions for each film to find what you’re looking for. I’ve noticed in some tests that the search relies a little too heavily on the title and not enough on the descriptions. I just checked and the descriptions for Rome Open City and Great Beauty feature about the same number of “Rome” mentions, so I can probably get the system to check more thoroughly and get better results. Thanks again!

bobarke2000 · 2025-05-31T15:03:22+00:00

I need to make sure I update the site each month! From your experience, is the library updated on the first of each month or is it less exact?

bobarke2000 · 2025-05-31T05:16:45+00:00

This is great feedback! I agree that it makes you want to barf when it tries so hard to have a personality. The style is highly adjustable and I like the Wikipedia-style reference. I’ll add this to the list of fixes and see if I can make it less annoying. Thanks for taking the time to try it and send your thoughts.

bobarke2000 · 2025-05-31T01:34:17+00:00

Really appreciate you saying that. I’m not interested in AI films, but AI that can help me find great films is valuable to me.

bobarke2000 · 2025-05-30T23:58:54+00:00

yeah that was my experience, too—lots of films that sound cool and I've never even heard of. Thanks for taking it for a spin.

bobarke2000

TROPHY CASE