Web Services Coming To Twitter

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twitter.pngEarlier this year we talked about the usefulness of a simple command line to query multiple web services via a set syntax. Yubnub, one of the web services we discussed, does just that. Enter “Weather 90210″ into Yubnub and get the weather from Weather.com. Or query thousands of other services with that single command line.


A subtle upcoming change to Twitter’s API will allow this kind of functionality, too. Twitter, which is a kind of social network around sms/text messages, has a rapidly growing community of users that spend hours each day sending text messages about what they are doing or thinking. To post a message, a user simply texts the message they want to post to “40404.” Anyone who cares to follow the meanderings of another user can do so. All messages from people you follow can be seen on your Twitter page and, optionally, delivered to your mobile device via SMS.


A popular feature with Twitter is a “direct” message that you send to just a single friend. The syntax is simple - you type “d [username] [your message].”


Until now, Twitter’s API hasn’t allowed you to access those direct messages though. With today’s API addition, you can now retrieve Twitter direct messages. What does that mean? A lot, quite frankly.


Users can now send a command (”direct message”) to a username which is just a name for a web service like weather.com. For example, there could be a Twitter username “weather”, which I could send a Twitter message of “d weather 14202″ by text, web, or IM. The Twitter username “weather” could get this command (er, Twitter “direct message”) via the API, run a process on a web server to retrieve the current weather forecast for 14202, and send that as a direct message back to me ( i.e. “d TechCrunch Currently: Partly Cloudy, 50F. Tomorrow’s Forecast: AM Clouds/PM Sun. High: 55 Low: 40″).


Or there could be a username “score”, which you could send “d score Yankees”, to immediately request the score of the Yankees game. Or another example could be “d 411 Starbucks 14202″ to retrieve the phone number of the closest Starbucks to zip code 14202.


Currently, it costs a lot of money to launch a start-up in the SMS/mobile space — you have to license a shortcode monthly ($500-$1000/mo), pay a SMS gateway provider, and then pay anywhere from $0.03 - $0.05 per inbound or outbound text message. It adds up. But now, if a start-up chooses to use Twitter as a command line to their web service, it’s free (until Twitter starts charging for it).


As you can tell, the one thing that is kind of annoying is prefacing messages with “d”, but Twitter is internally discussing use of “@” as possibly becoming the equivalent of “d” — I hope they do this. Currently, people are using “@(username)” to publicly reply to other Twitter messages — which can be annoying if you’re a friend of a user that is replying to what another user said (and you don’t even know what was originally said).


The updated Twitter API code should be posting live by morning and accompanying API documentation should be posted by the end of today as well.

(Via TechCrunch.)

The Filter: Instant Playlists for iTunes

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The Filter

The Filter, an ‘instant playlist generator plugin for iTunes’, just launched today. This little plugin, backed by Peter Gabriel, is a great way to build playlists of music on the fly.


The Filter

You can create playlists in a number of ways, but what seems the most intuitive and accurate for me is selecting a few songs that you’re in the “mood” for and then hitting the “F” on The Filter. The Filter then immediately creates a playlist for you with around two dozen songs based on factors such as your listening habits and the listening habits of other users.


This thing is freakishly good at creating playlists you’d like. I’m not kidding.


Setup was a bit clunky at first and it still seems to have a couple of moments where it feels slow, but otherwise this really is one of my favorite new gadgets for consuming music.


Be sure to check out the screencast that covers a lot of the functionality of it.


Oh, and did I mention it’s free?

(Via The Apple Blog.)

Impeach Gonzales

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The ongoing pledges of support for Gonzales from the White House are mind-boggling in their lack of political sensibility, lending some credence to the idea that Bush might just be losing it. Any sane person would have to look at this situation and see Alberto Gonzales as an anchor.  That includes Republicans:

"We have to have an attorney general who is candid, truthful. And if we find out he has not been candid and truthful, that's a very compelling reason for him not to stay on," said Specter, R-Pa....

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Gonzales has been "wounded" by the firings. "He has said some things that just don't add up," said Graham, who also is on the Senate Judiciary panel. And Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said the Justice Department has continually changed its story about the dismissals.

"You cannot have the nation's chief law enforcement officer with a cloud hanging over his credibility," Hagel said.

The White House certainly isn't going bow to pressure from the likes of these three, but given any rational observer can see how damaging this situation is, and that it's only getting worse, what could be going on in their heads? Only two possibilities come to mind, and I suspect only one is really the answer. First, Bush truly is so stubborn, so willful, and so stupid as to not see the danger that Gonzales poses to the already damaged presidency, and he isn't going to let his Fredo go. But what is much more likely, Karl Rove needs the distraction, the deflection that Gonzales provides. As long as he's catching much of the heat, the White House stays out of the focus.

But that game is unlikely to work for long. That Gonzales didn't cook up this whole scheme on his own is clear to everyone. As Froomkin writes:

It's no secret in Washington that Gonzales is not an autonomous player. His entire career has been as an enabler of George Bush. He does what he's told.... It's not as obvious who has been his minder since he became attorney general two years ago. But presumably either he or, more to the point, the staffers who write his speeches and draw up his talking points still get their marching orders directly from the West Wing.

And now, with his central talking point exposed as clumsy dishonesty, it's clear that whoever prepped Gonzales and sent him out to face the media was more focused on White House interests than on telling the truth.

Josh reinforces that:

This isn't a case where Alberto Gonzales has fallen short of the president's standards or bungled some process. This is the standard. The Attorney General has done and is doing precisely what is expected of him.... None of this is about Alberto Gonzales. This is about the president and the White House, which is where this entire plan was hatched. Gonzales was just following orders, executing the president's plans. This is about this president and this White House, which ... let's be honest, everyone on both sides of the aisle already knows.

Gonzales's refusal to resign and Bush's refusal to force it are part and parcel of the effort to protect Rove, Miers, and ultimately Bush. Which is precisely why Alberto Gonzales must be impeached. It reflects why Gonzales is not and never was fit to serve as Attorney General of the United States. He has never been and never will be anything other than Bush's lackey, even as it means the complete and total destruction of his professional life.

That he is willing to put protecting Bush ahead of protecting himself isn't the issue. That he is willing to put protecting Bush ahead of his duties as the chief law enforcement officer in the nation, ahead of the Constitution, ahead of the rule of law makes him unfit to serve.

(Via Daily Kos.)

Seth Roberts: Why College is Usually a Waste of Time

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According to Bryan Caplan, "our [higher] educational system is a big waste of time and money." He is writing a book about this -- yay! He attended college at the place I know the most about -- UC Berkeley. Here is why it is a big waste of time. Professors can only teach what they know. All they truly know how to do is how to be a professor. At a research university, that mainly involves doing research. Berkeley professors can teach how to do research, sure, but that has little to do with what most Berkeley students will do after they graduate. So a lot of time is wasted. It is most unfortunate to (a) require all students to imitate professors and (b) to rank them according to how well they do so.

In response to Caplan, Catherine Johnson says her undergraduate education was useful. But she became a nonfiction writer -- very close, in the big world of work, to what professors do. That's one of those exceptions that prove the rule.

I think practically everyone learns well if any of three conditions are met:

1. Apprenticeship. You want to be good at doing X, you will learn by watching someone skillful do X. Effortlessly.

2. Guru. If you think of so-and-so as a guru, you will learn from him or her. Effortlessly.

3. Stories. Stories teach values. Things associated with the hero become considered good and desirable; things associated with the villain become considered bad and to be avoided. Effortlessly.

Most university classes, however, fulfill none of these conditions. On the face of it, university classes teach; but crucial details are missing. It's like butter and margarine. Margarine is supposed to be as good as butter but it's not. There is a superficial resemblance but margarine lacks crucial vitamins that butter contains. Because university classes lack crucial elements, they are forced to use grades, tests, and fear of failure as motivation. These motivators don't work very well, as Alfie Kohn among others has pointed out. Sort of for the same reason Humpty-Dumpty couldn't be put back together again.

(Via The Huffington Post | Raw Feed.)

Ten Ways Being a Geek Makes You More Attractive

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Being a geek in 2007 is nothing to be ashamed of, the stereotype that once existed is long gone and there are several characteristics of geek culture that could almost be considered chic. Consumating, Threadless, or even Apple are pretty good testaments to this fact.

The picture I'm about to paint is of the ideal, I'm not implying that every perl programmer or 15 year kid who plays WoW all day possesses all these qualities.

1. You're probably very smart.
2. It's hip to be geek. Everyone is familiar with the stereotype of thick glasses, a pocket protector, an obsession with star trek, and social skills akin to a sack of potatoes. Times have changed: geeks are often fashionable, hip individuals who are very aligned with the trends of their own generation
3. You geek out on more than just your computer. Ever seen the movie collection of a film geek? Ever had an automotive geek work on your car? Ever seen the body of a fitness geek? The tenacity of someone like us, when applied to hobbies outside computers and the like, can yield impressive results.
4. Geek humor is the best humor. This is perhaps a biased opinion, but I've never laughed as hard as I have while reading some of the random, funny things that came out of geek culture.
5. You listen to good music. Geeks have access to tools that allow us to hear music that extends well beyond top 40 radio. Want the entire discography of Aphex Twin by tomorrow afternoon? Ask a geek. Not only do they listen to good music, they can find just about anything you're looking for in a heartbeat.
6. You make good money. If there's one stereotype about geeks that usually rings true, it's that they rarely have trouble earning a decent income.
7. You fix stuff. Everyone loves a handyman, especially one that can fix one of the most frustrating devices ever conceived: a personal computer.
8. You've got your own stuff going on. You'll never meet a geek who runs out of things to do, they've got lots of hobbies and interests and are more than happy to dive head first into one of those when they've got some spare time. In other words: they won't rely on you to give them a life.
9. You're very articulate. Compulsively reading a few hundred RSS feeds a day yields a vocabulary that could put most college English majors to shame.
10. You're passionate. When a geek becomes interested in something, they tend to immerse themselves in it entirely. They'll strip a new gadget down to nuts and bolts and re-build it with an xhtml compliant grappling gun. This intense passion can extend to many areas of a geek's life, not just computers and hobbies.

Any others you can think of?

Via mingle2