Web 2.1

If you know about the Qwitter service, then you may also know what people say about it - that it plain doesn't work. So for my first Twitter app, I decided to make one that does.

I have been made aware since then that there is also Twitdiff, although I haven't tried it at time of writing.

If you don't know about Qwitter, it's a service that monitors your Twitter followers and emails you if someone unfollows you. My app currently tweets the notification instead, so everyone will know you've been qwit.

I'm not offering my app as a public service [yet] I knocked it up in 2 hours and if you know what you're doing with a LAMP set-up you can download it and run it yourself.

» Download qwitter 0.1.2
Requires PHP >= 5.2.x  + json extension, MySQL >= 5.0.45

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I've knocked up a really simple command line tool for interacting with the bit.ly API.

It's simple because:

1. The output is currently pretty raw
2. The bit.ly API doesn't actually do very much

» Download version 0.1.1

Requires PHP >= 5.2.x + json extension

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I'm not one to make predictions, but this one has been at the back of my mind for a while and the evidence is starting to rack up. In my usual style, I shall make my point through an unnecessary number of dodgy anecdotes and opinions rather than through citations and serious research. I hope you enjoy them.

Anecdote #1 - URLs in advertising

Over the past year or so, I have noticed a trend in television advertising where the viewer is prompted to search for a phrase, rather than given a URL to remember. This week I saw a billboard (for Streetcar, a primarily web-based business) that did not display a URL at all. Obviously relying on brand recognition alone to prompt people to Google "street car", which of course they will. And rather than their analytics showing a load of "direct hit" entries. They will have richer metrics showing how people searched and found the business.

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I've spent this morning trying to get ASDoc to generate code documentation for the JASPA APIs, with mixed results.
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I re-learned a few old lessons last week.

1. 1&1 suck like it's going out of fashion
   
2. The only backup is a full disk image backup
3. I am not a Linux sysadmin

And finally a lesson for 1&1 .. good customer service is about exceeding expectations not covering your arse*.

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When I block a commercial user on Twitter I hashtag it #dmblock, a few people have assumed [almost] rightly that DM stands for Direct Message. It could do, buy actually I intended it to stand for Direct Marketing - it could also stand for Data Mining. Read the rest of this entry »

After a brief exchange of tweets with @jsmag I discover this web development ‘podcast' : webdevgeekly.com, which appears to be run by the same people as jsmag.com. About 9 minutes into the following podcast there is a 2 minute discussion about JASPA. Conveniently just 24 hours after I rescued my site from a hardware crash.

> http://www.webdevgeekly.com/r/www.webdevgeekly.com/mp3/geekly6.mp3

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Disaster has struck and I have lost all my uploads on this blog. Lots of links to code examples, Flash demos and images will be broken. I may be able to restore some, but it's going to take a lot of work, and I may as well be honest - I'm probably not going to bother.

I'll post with the full, fascinating story of my epic fail later on. Read the rest of this entry »

I hereby give my support to .net's "Bring Down IE6" campaign

Microsoft slurs, geeks and bean bags

On Friday I was at PHP UK Conference 2009, thanks to my boss, and a charming discount from the Facebook Developer Garage. Here's what I thought.

The biggest presence here was undoubtedly Microsoft, followed at a distance by Adobe. Zend had a very small stand and don't appear to have been a sponsor. I found this a little odd from the outset, but I guess it's the big corporations that have the cash, and can ensure they don't miss a single conference. Microsoft bribed us with the usual toys: XBoxes, the magic table thing … you know the drill. I was of course there to hear about the future of PHP, particularly PHP 6, and why we're still just a cool as Python and Ruby.

To save you skim-readers the full breakdown, here's my conclusion up-front: All in all a good day, but I wanted more talk of PHP's future and could have done with less of the Adobe stuff. Most of the speakers were great, even if the subject matter missed a bit in places. Also, I know we're trying to save the planet and everything, but could Olympia please turn the heating on next time!

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