I seriously love Geek and Poke, some of their cartons are just priceless and I’ve published quite a few here. Anyway, this week’s one is for the programmers, if you’ve ever programmed you’ll probably relate to this in some way, even if it’s when you headed up that team and go a new junior.
Hope you have a good laugh:
This is fantastic news for merchants, but more so for developers of 3rd party applications for FourSquare. If you’re not sure what an API is, simply explained, it’s a protocol which allows developers to send and receive information to and from, meaning that developers can request information from FourSquare to integrate in their own programs.
Any web application which launches a great API stands the chance of having many useful 3rd party applications built, which increases the usefulness of the web application. I think FourSquare is yet to capture the true value of having over 500,000 merchants listed with them and this is going to be one step closer to gaining that.
I’ve had a read over some of the documents for the API and right now it looks rather straight forward and most developers would be able to fairly easily find their way through the system.
If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to read the overview and definitely take a look at the endpoints, because that’s where things get interesting.
GitHub is a web-based hosting service for projects that use the Git revision control system. It is written using Ruby on Rails by Logical Awesome developers Chris Wanstrath, PJ Hyett, and Tom Preston-Werner. If you aren’t a coder you don’t really need to worry about this post, as this is geek stuff :)
Today, GitHub announced the release of their Mac version, which is exciting news for Mac users. I grabbed a bunch of screen shots for you to have a look through below, but be sure to read the official release if you want to find out more or grab a copy of the application. Continue reading →
There’s nothing more exciting when a social platform opens its API up, and lets developers around the world tap in. I’m a geek, so this gets me going off the bat, but if you aren’t, then what this means is that we can expect more exciting 3rd party applications as they’ll be able to tap into new features on FourSquare, so we essentially all benefit from this sort of thing.
These new API features include Explore, Leaderboard and post-check-in leaderboard information. What’s cool about this is that a lot of FourSquare users are all about the competition with their friends, so allowing developers to access leaderboards, means that more competitive applications will soon be available. Great move from FourSquare here, in my opinion.
As an example: If you have an application which shows bed and breakfasts, what this will do, is allow you to tap into the Explore area of the API, and do things such as suggest bed and breakfasts to the person who’s in a specific area. This is just one obvious example, but there are plenty, imagine the possibilities of the leaderboard API.
So, if you’re a developer or interested in learning more about this, head on over to developer.foursquare.com
WP Google Alerts is a really simple plugin that I put together. The concept is simple, WP Google Alerts allows you to display your Google Alerts on your WordPress Dashboard.
Simply download the plugin, activate it, visit the settings and set it up. Setup takes a mere 2 minutes and once it’s running you’ll be able to see where people are talking about you on the web. Alternatively, follow a term which relates to a specific topic and see where this topic’s being talked about on the Internet and create yourself some inspiration for your next post.
There isn’t too much more to it, it’s just a little something I felt like putting together and I know it will add value to your marketing :)
With the release of WordPress 3.1 came the new admin bar, which appears on the front end of the website for anyone who is logged in. In other words, if you’re logged into your website and you visit the front end, you’ll see a bar across the top which gives you information about your account. It’s a great idea, but I would imagine a lot of people would rather not have to see it, so naturally code has been released to remove it.
wp_deregister_script(‘admin-bar’);
wp_deregister_style(‘admin-bar’);
remove_action(‘wp_footer’,'wp_admin_bar_render’,1000);
Simply paste those 3 lines of code into your functions.php file and the admin bar will be no more!
[Hat tip Jonny]
I started using Instagram just the other day and have been thoroughly enjoying it; personally, it’s not about taking the photographs, it’s about seeing the photographs my connections are taking. At the time that I started using it, PicPlz was launched, which is essentially Instagram for Android devices.
Both platforms launched APIs today, PicPlz beat Instagram by a few hours, but that doesn’t really matter does it! As we all know, APIs open up the potential for awesome 3rd party applications, so for the Instagram and PicPlz fans, get ready for some awesomeness!
I’m off to go and have a read and look at how open the APIs are and hopefully strike some inspiration from them! :)
When WordPress sends out emails to users and administrators it automatically sends them from wordpress@yourblogname.com. Now, this isn’t anything bad, but wouldn’t it be better if you could change this From field to what ever you like? I think so, and this is how you do it:
At the bottom of your functions.php file, just add the following lines:
function res_fromemail($email) {
$wpfrom = get_option(‘admin_email’);
return $wpfrom;
}
function res_fromname($email) {
$wpfrom = get_option(‘blogname’);
return $wpfrom;
}
add_filter(‘wp_mail_from’, ‘res_fromemail’);
add_filter(‘wp_mail_from_name’, ‘res_fromname’);
Pretty neato piece of code from Keen Tricks.
The 2011 Facebook Hacker Cup registration is open and there’s a big prize up for grabs, $5000! Not only that, but imagine the fame of winning?! The Hacker Cup is a programming competition, so you need quite a brain in your head to compete. If you’re keen on registering, click here.
If you’re interested to see what it’s all about and try some example puzzles, click here.
Right, I’m off to register!
Apple has announced that the Mac App Store will be officially opening on the 6th of January 2011. From productivity apps to games and a lot more, the App Store will be available to 90 countries around the world!
“The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6.”
The Mac App Store lets you browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, view staff favorites, search categories and read customer ratings and reviews. Like on iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad™, you can purchase, download and install apps in just one click and start using them immediately. Purchased apps can run on all of your personal Macs and updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store so it’s easy to keep all of your apps up to date. The Mac App Store is available to Mac OS X Snow Leopard® users as a free download through Software Update.
Mac developers set the price for their apps, keep 70 percent of the sales revenue, are not charged for free apps and do not have to pay hosting, marketing or credit card fees. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit developer.apple.com/programs/mac.
This really is quite exciting for developers, but also for Mac users, I foresee a whole suite of new, useful applications popping up!
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