README.md

buttond

this is a small daemon I rigged up to collect data from reddit's /r/thebutton social experiment. to run it, you will need:

• redis running on localhost
• to npm install needle redis moment ws

it should collect data like this:

• it will make a redis hash called clicks with participant number (with comma) as key and seconds left as value
• it will make a redis key called record with the lowest recorded amount of seconds left as value
• it will publish every click on thebutton.clicks and every tick on thebutton.ticks
• it will make a redis hash called rectimes with records as keys and unixtime of achievement as value.
• you can also telnet to it on port 5432 to get the current record, participant amount, and seconds left.
• sending it a SIGUSR2 will make it verbose; send it another one to toggle off again

the nice scatter graphs are generated using a separate file which takes data from the database. I might post that later; anyway, that part's quite trivial.

Regards,

• /u/eeeeeta

buttondv2.js

/*jslint node:true,esnext:true*/
"use strict";
var needle = require('needle'),
redis = require('redis'),
moment = require('moment'),
ws = require('ws'),
net = require('net');

console.log('~ buttond v2.5 by η (eeeeeta) ~');
console.log('INIT: Requesting http://reddit.com/r/thebutton');
needle.get('http://reddit.com/r/thebutton', {follow: 5}, function(err, res) {
    if (err) {
        console.error('ERROR: Failed to get thebutton html');
        throw err;
    }
    if (res.statusCode != 200) {
        console.error('ERROR: Got code ' + res.statusCode + ' instead of 200');
        return;
    }
    let addrRegexp = /"thebutton_websocket": "([^\,]+)",/i;
    if (!res.body.match(addrRegexp)) {
        console.error('ERROR: Failed to retrieve thebutton websocket URL');
        return;
    }
    let URL = res.body.match(addrRegexp)[1];
    console.log('INIT: got button websocket URL as ' + URL);
    console.log('INIT: connecting to redis (on localhost)');
    var rd = redis.createClient();
    rd.on('ready', function() {
        console.log('INIT: redis connection successful');
        console.log('INIT: getting record from redis');
        var record = 60;
        rd.get('record', function(err, rec) {
            if (err) throw err;
            if (!rec) {
                rd.set('record', record);
                console.log('INIT: no record set, set it to 60');
            }
            else {
                record = Number(rec);
                console.log('INIT: got record of ' + record);
            }
            console.log('INIT: connecting to thebutton websocket');
            var btn = new ws(URL);
            var cur = 60;
            var verbose = false;
            var lagms = 0;
            var microtime = false;
            var participants = 'error';
            btn.on('open', function() {
                console.log('INIT: connected to thebutton websocket');
                var tid = setTimeout(function() {
                    console.error('ERROR: no message from thebutton since 5 seconds');
                    process.exit(1);
                }, 5000);
                btn.on('message', function(data) {
                    clearTimeout(tid);
                    tid = setTimeout(function() {
                        console.error('ERROR: no message from thebutton since 5 seconds');
                        process.exit(1);
                    }, 5000);
                    data = JSON.parse(data);
                    if (data.type != 'ticking') {
                        console.log('Unidentified socket object: ');
                        return console.dir(data);
                    }
                    let servertime = moment(data.payload.now_str + " 0000", "YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss Z"); // shameless ripoff from the button monitor
                    lagms = moment() - servertime;
                    if (verbose) console.log('[V] Server lag: ' + lagms + 'ms');
                    if (data.payload.seconds_left > cur || (cur == 60 && data.payload.seconds_left == 60)) {
                        // it's a click!
                        if (verbose) console.log('[V] Click at ' + cur + 's (' + data.payload.participants_text + ' participants)');
                        rd.publish('thebutton.clicks', cur);
                        rd.hset('clicks', data.payload.participants_text, cur, function(err, reply) {
                            if (err) {
                                return console.warn('WARNING: failed to update database with click');
                            }
                        });
                    }
                    rd.publish('thebutton.ticks', data.payload.seconds_left);
                    cur = data.payload.seconds_left;
                    participants = data.payload.participants_text;
                    if (data.payload.seconds_left < record) {
                        record = data.payload.seconds_left;
                        rd.publish('thebutton.records', record);
                        rd.set('record', record, function(err, reply) {
                              if (err) throw err;
                              if (reply != 'OK') {
                                  return console.error('ERROR: got reply ' + reply + ' instead of "OK" setting new record');
                              }
                              console.log('[!] Set new button record: ' + data.payload.seconds_left + 's');
                        });
                        rd.hset('rectimes', record, servertime.unix(), function(err, reply) {
                               if (err) throw err;
                               console.log('[+] First ' + record + 's: ' + servertime.format("dddd, MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm:ss a"));
                        });
                    }
                });
                process.on('SIGUSR2', function() {
                    verbose = !verbose;
                    console.log('[+] Verbose mode ' + (verbose ? 'enabled' : 'disabled'));
                });
                net.createServer(function(sock) {
                    console.log('[+] server connection from ' + sock.remoteAddress + ':' + sock.remotePort);
                    sock.write('\n\nbuttond v2 by η (eeeeeta)\n');
                    sock.write('\nCurrent record: ' + record + 's');
                    sock.write('\nSeconds left: ' + cur + 's');
                    sock.write('\nParticipants: ' + participants + ' filthy pressers');
                    sock.write('\n\nHave a good day.\n\n');
                    sock.end();
                }).listen(5432);
                console.log('INIT: server listening on port 5432');
                console.log('Tip: send me a SIGUSR2 to enable verbose mode');
                console.log('~ buttond ready ~');
            });
        });
    });
});