mhp's musings

Mmm bacon at #pcto2010

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:28:24 -0500

Mmm bacon at #pcto2010

Connecting Google Buzz and Twitter

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:00:00 -0500

Sending tweets to Buzz

1. In Buzz click on “X connected sites” next to your name

2. Click to “Add” Twitter, enter your Twitter handle

3. And you’re done

Now there is no authentication going on here, you are just telling Buzz to pull in all the tweet from the screen name you gave it. You don’t have to enter your own, but why would you want someone else’s tweets in your Buzz feed?

Sending Buzz Posts to Twitter

This is a little more complicated, since Buzz currently does not authenticate to Twitter so it cannot tweet the Buzz Posts. Enter your Google Profile RSS feed. Notice how Google really pushed you to update that neglected profile page. Well that’s because it is going to become the entry for others into your world of Buzz and beyond.

If you go to your Google Profile (mine is http://www.google.com/profiles/mark.pavlidis) you will see that it has an RSS feed (different browsers indicate it differently, but usually it is indicated at the right end of the address bar)

That RSS feed contains all of your Buzz Posts. To push those Posts to Twitter you need to use a service that reads and RSS feed and pushes it to Twitter. There are many out there for automatically tweeting blog posts, etc. Unfortunately not many provide the filtering you need to prevent and infinite loop of buzz-to-tweet-to-buzz-to-tweet-to-buzz-to (well you get the idea, think of the sound of feedback in a mic the last time you were at karaoke and multiply that by how bad the singing was = how annoying the loop would be). Sorry to my followers, I found this out the hard way.

So how do you filter? Conveniently the Title of the Buzz posts indicate the source “Buzz by from Twitter”. So what you need is a RSS to Twitter service that allows you to filter the keyword “Twitter” from the Title. I tried several services but the only one I could get working correctly was dlvr.it. Dlvr.it is currently in invite-only beta mode, ~~so I am working on getting an invite code to share so you can set it up.~~ Use invite code: BUZZ

dlvr.it lets you setup “routes” for your RSS feed to Twitter and Facebook.

Setting up dlvr.it

1. Copy your Google Profile RSS feed URL and use it as the route’s source

2. Configure your update settings and item options. I prefix my items with “#buzz:” so my Twitter follower know where it is coming from. [dlvr.it guys, ~~the Item Options ought to be in the Destination only and not also in the Source (redundant and confusing)~~ Not so confusing after reading this, thx ^JP]

3. Filter out your tweets **** this is the most important step ***

4. Configure your Twitter destination. Don’t tweet the title, just the body and a dlvr.it link. Here is where you can also prepend or append text to the tweet.

Use the link so dlvr.it can show you metrics such as this:

Happy spreading your message to more people and annoying the @#$* out of people that follow you on Buzz and Twitter.

Kindle Xmas day sales is a story

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:02:00 -0500

It’s been interesting to read the reaction to the vague report of ebook sales for the Kindle http://mashable.com/2009/12/26/kindle-ebook-sales/ and the ensuing discussion. In particular, that it is a non-story.

The argument goes something along the lines of “sure all the books were bought before Christmas and the Kindle gifts drove up the ebook sales numbers”. This is a completely true statement - but misses the point entirely.

People are reading - more importantly - buying ebooks. Period. That is the story.

To all the ebook naysayers (how many of you actually read in the tub anyways), the game has changed. 2009 has been the year of the ebook:

Kindle 2 and DX, Kindle goes international
Barnes & Noble releases the Nook
Kobo (nee Shortcovers) launches as a global, platform agnostic ebook option with international backing (disclaimer: I spent the last year developing the Shortcovers/Kobo iPhone app)
Lexcycle, makers of Stanza iPhone eReader, partners with Fictionwise -> Fictionwise gets purchased by B&N, Lexcycle gets purchased by Amazon (and is now virtually dead - have you seen the latest update? second-tier new icon?)
seems as though everyone and their grandmother is (or is on the way) producing an ebook reader device
1/5 of iPhone apps approved in October where ebooks of some form

So the Kindle ebook sales out pacing dead tree sales on Christmas day is the last of a long list of ebook headlines this year. The printed word landscape is forever morphed by the tectonic shift that is digital media.

Now that we all agree on this, get over it, deal with it, shut up about it. What I want to know is who is going to step up and actually start innovating? Instead of replicating a dead tree format on the godawful eInk displays (poor resolution and the flicker drive me nuts), or worse on full colour, high powered, multimedia smartphone. The iPod Giga (my name for the iSlate = 1/nano) will kickstart this trend in early 2010, see you there.

smack416: Mick Jagger on commissioning art.

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:17:43 -0500

smack416:

Mick Jagger on commissioning art.

Most happening place in town = I’m going to get a lot of...

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:43:54 -0500

Most happening place in town = I’m going to get a lot of reading done.

The iPhone sucks for developers.

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:39:32 -0500

smack416:

I keep seeing this mantra repeated again and again, with the latest attack coming in Dave Winer’s “zealotry sucks” article where he concludes:

“I thought about returning my Droid and decided to keep it. Because while it is a piece of shit phone, at least it’s good for developers, and Verizon knows what it’s doing with its phone network. It sucks less than the iPhone. But it still sucks.”

So, people are switching from the iPhone to make a stand against it’s mistreatment of developers (and because of AT&T, but that’s another topic), but the only current serious issue Apple developers face is the patriarchal application review process. Which, based on a set of seemingly arbitrarily applied rules, has caused a very, very small number of uncool rejections and otherwise operated at a somewhat startlingly impressive pace given the volume of apps and updates Apple’s been pushing.

In the meantime, developers are cutting back development on other mobile platforms due to lack of sales or not bothering at all because the development platform is a fractured, bloated nightmare.

So, I wonder, is the multiple millions of dollars of heretofore unseen revenue for Apple developers really eclipsed by Apple’s management of the application approval process? (You know, other than the bullshit exclusionary policy.)

Aside from trying to compete with Apple on the platform it build (I’m not defending but it can be justified) with many millions of dollars, or submitting apps that will tarnish the expected user experience of the device (diminishing the brand - i.e., Android) approval is not that hard. And Lee brings up a great point for developers, despite a few but noisy delays, there is a billion dollar industry there.

"My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies."

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:02:01 -0500

“My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies.”

- Joe Hewitt, developer of the Facebook iPhone app. (via davidkaneda) (via balanon)

Beautiful fall day

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:21:03 -0500

Beautiful fall day

Testing Tumblr for iPhone

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:17:00 -0500

This is a test

Moving

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:08:28 -0500

So i never got around to resurrecting my old WP database to restore this blog so I’m starting fresh with tumblr and will possibly import all those old posts if I ever find the time.

I’ll be slow to start here, but expect it to pick up once it do. Twitter stream http://twitter.com/mhp has been my primary communication medium, but the 140 char limits the ideas I have shared.