Web Development Theme Park

Related to the work I was doing on calculatorbot, I just put together an application stub that implements login through twitter. It works great!

The process goes something like:

1. user clicks a link on your site to login
2. user is taken to twitter for login, if they are already logged in proceed to the next step
3. user is asked to allow your application access, they accept or deny (only happens once)
4. user is taken back to your site, where your site can ask twitter for information about the user (name, screen name, etc) and create a user-profile based on that.

Some helpful links I found:
First, a document on twitter’s site that describes their API and gives a technical overview of the login process.
Second, a document that provides php source code that you can test and read to learn about how to implement OAuth/Twitter login. Example in Php: using Twitter’s OAuth

Recently I saw a question on linkedin, where the person asked how to scrape some contact data off of thomsonlocal.co.uk. Several people responded that this was a straightforward thing to do and I agree. I thought it would be good to do a short demonstration of how to approach the problem.

I’ve done a short video series that follows me through the process. These were done “on the fly” as I worked through the problem. FYI – no source code will be provided for download, and please remember to review the terms of service for any site that you scrape.

Calculatorbot has received some updates in the last couple of days. Now in addition to handling math problems, it can look up the definitions of words for you.

For example, I tweeted “@calculatorbot define capricious” and calculatorbot responded “http://xr.com/d4es capricious: (2 defns) Adjective: determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason”

Calculatorbot includes a url to the word’s definition and the first definition of the word in its reply. Also note that the url returned is a shortened url.

The first version of calculatorbot is up. It can answer mathematical expressions for you by tweet. For example, I tweeted “@calculatorbot min(pi(),1000.0)” and it answered back with the correct value of pi. This is just an experimental project at this point, more updates to come.

Wow, twitter has got some really quick detection mechanisms to find bots. They have already removed my calculatorbot tweets from the search results. (It doesn’t hurt the operation of the account, it just removes the results from the public timeline and search results. Refer to twitter’s forum) That was amazingly fast!

I put together a really simple prototype of the calculatorbot and I’m working on improving the engine now. My first test was to respond to “@calculatorbot 100*60*60*24″ with the correct answer.

I’ve been searching for a project that I felt fit my strengths for a long time. I’ve tried many things, but along the way I’ve realized that it’s more about what you get out of it (personally) every day than anything else. You’ve got to enjoy it.

So with that in mind, I’ve decided to start working on the development of automated twitter “bots”, though I’m not sure I like the association of the name. Maybe “helpers” or “daemons” or “servants” or something like that would be a better name. It is a giant space, with lots of potential – the kind of problem I like.

I’m going to start simply, with the development of a “calculator” as a test run. Then as I go I will expand on the capability of the bot(s) to serve more interesting purposes. Maybe I could include a forum where we could discuss the ethical use of bots? Lots of things to consider, and a wealth of ideas.

I had an idea several months ago that I wanted to put some energy into, and with the recent completion of my last project, I had the time to take dig into it. So starting early last week, I began some initial mockups to flesh out my idea and take a look at what I had. When I completed the first round of mockups on Friday I realized – wait a minute – I’ve seen this somewhere.

Sure enough a few minutes on google revealed that there were competitors in the space and that they were already far ahead of me in both branding and user-base. So it seems that my idea has died before it was even born. I suppose that’s the way it is.

It’s interesting to me that only when I had mocked up the idea did I see how similar it was to existing solutions. Only once the idea was no longer only in my head did I see what it was. Seeing it on the screen, rolling through pages as a simulated user, revealed what all my thinking did not.

Update 12/4:
Add to that that I found a company just recently that received $70M in investment to solve a related problem. How’s that for intimidating?

I hear we’re getting a new entrepreneurship club at Clemson University for the fall semester of 2009.

Students, if you’re interested in entrepreneurship, in leading or being a part of emerging companies, you need to check this out. The format is focused on students, letting you practice your 10 minute pitch and getting honest feedback on your ideas from a panel of entrepreneurs.

For those of you located in the Greenville, SC area, if you aren’t plugged into Tech-after-5, you need to be. Ta5 is a great place to meet lots of talented people and especially to get to know other entrepreneurs. The event last night was a door buster and set a record for the number of attendees.

Sorry for not writing in so long, life changes around me too quickly to be able to write as things happen. The websnaps project that I discussed in the last post will be on hold for a while. I think almost as soon as I published the last post, a new opportunity arose that superseded it.  The websnaps project was one that I could take on, on my own. Now as my business continues to grow, I have more opportunities on better projects. And opportunities on projects with people that have skills very different from my own. It makes the ideas, the execution and the likelihood of success all higher and better.

I’m afraid I can’t discuss the projects at right now, but as they are released I will discuss each of them and give them a once-over in terms of what I think is good about them. It’s exciting!