Scripting News

Since we're into puzzles today

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:12:23 GMT

Marc Canter and many other people think I'm full of it when I say the right number of identity systems for each user is 1. But I am right. And I know it.

It's a Zen puzzle, almost a riddle, one which a smart user like my pal Ponzi would never be confused by. You have to be a great geek tech genius like Marc to get it wrong.

Here's the puzzle. If all identity systems you use interoperate seamlessly, grasshopper, how many identity systems do you use?

Here's a hint. How many email systems do you use? RSS systems? Web systems? The correct answers are 1, 1, and 1.

Some of today's grams

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:06:41 GMT

200K turns some people into Haiku poets.

Shareski wants you to name that tune.

Or this funk classic. (On the tip of my tongue.)

Amyloo wants to know what movie?

Yes, it's an advertising medium, with just 200K.

And it's good for some things that are too painful to contemplate.

It's all every bit as pointless as Twitter itself.

Here's the RSS 2.0 feed, with enclosures. Try it in your favorite podcatcher, or iTunes.

The meme spreads nicely

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:26:05 GMT

Rafe: "Pownce an interesting alternative to Twittergram."

And everyone is invited to use Twittergram. If you dare!

Twittergrams, Day 5

We reach a new milestone today, now, in addition to a web service that developers can hook into, there's now a web app, that anyone can use to upload a small 200K or less MP3 to the TwitterGram service.

http://twittergram.com/

Enter your Twitter username and password, a title for your gram, and choose the MP3 file on your local system. Most people who have tested it have been successful. If you have any questions or comments, post them here.

An obvious next step is to include in the web app the ability to record the MP3, which will remove one more big step from the process. Anyone who can help with a Flash app that I can embed to do the recording, please post a comment. Thanks in advance!

Yesterday, Wired ran a very nice piece on TwitterGrams. Like everyone, including me, they say the jury is out on the idea. But they're willing to give it a chance. Excellent and thank you. Nice picture too, I like the glasses.

I recorded my own TwitterGram this morning to introduce the new web app.

Tinyurl has an API

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:16:06 GMT

Of course I'd like to do what Twitter does, and generate a Tinyurl in place of a longish URL for each TwitterGram. I had assumed all along that Twitter had a special deal with the TInyurl folks, but apparently not so. They have an open API that is simplicity itself. It's so simple it's almost hard to describe.

Try clicking on this link:

http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url=http://scripting.com/

It returns a Tinyurl. Copy it to the clipboard, and paste it into the address bar of your browser. it should take you to the home page of my weblog. Apparently it works for any URL you give it. And of course you can call it from a script just as easily as you click a link in a browser. Very nice!

I'm going to put this into twittergram.com, posthaste.

PS: It's in, and it works.

She nails it

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:24:17 GMT

Ponzi: "How do we decide how many social networks is enough? Are there any central tools that can load all our info for us into multiple sites?"

The answer to the first question, imho, is: 1.

To the second, no, not until we know which one is the answer to the first question.

White man speak with forked tongue!

PS: Yesterday's post on identity is required to understand my answers here.