Yearly Archives: 2009

What the Twitter API Needs…

Do you know what the Twitter API is missing? A way to sync the last status you read.

I use a Twitter client on my laptop (Tweetie), and I use another (Twitterific) on my iPod Touch. And sometimes I might use either Twitter.com or Twhirl when I’m on another computer. Every time I move between devices, I lose my place in the stream of incoming tweets. Any good Twitter client remembers the last tweet you read. The only problem is that little bit of information (simply the numerical ID of a tweet) is locked down to one device.

I propose that Twitter add a new API method that accepts the ID of a single tweet, and stores it. Then any Twitter client could request that information and use it to display the tweets from where you last left off.

Something along the lines of statuses/last_read and statuses/mark_read perhaps?

It’s a little thing that bothers me, and something I’d love to see added to the API.

BlogBuzz June 27, 2009

Ow.ly: What’s You’re Take?

Ow.ly is a URL shortener that has gained a measure of popularity of late. It ties in with the HootSuite service, which allows you to schedule tweets, manage multiple Twitter profiles, and track link statistics. Ow.ly and HootSuite together are sort of like an…

Google and NoFollow

There has been some recent buzz about Google changing how they hande the NoFollow attribute, and how it’s the end of the world. SEOs are running around in circles, and there’s talk of moving to JavaScript and iframe commenting systems so Google can’t read…

Changelogs in WordPress Plugins

A new feature recently launched on WordPress Extend allows plugin authors to create changelogs in their plugin readme files, which will now show up in a separate tab on Extend, as well as in the dialogs that appear when you click the “View version…

Managing Widgets in WordPress 2.8

The new widget management in WordPress 2.8 is greatly improved. You can drag widgets from the available widgets area to any widgetized sidebar, and edit the settings with a click of the little arrow. There’s no more annoying “Save” button for you to have…

“Woo2″ Launches, WooThemes Moving Toward GPL-Compliancy

WooThemes just launched their second iteration, bringing with it several changes, including a website redesign and GPL compliancy on all themes moving forward. The themes still cost money, but there are no longer any restrictions on how many times you can use the theme…

Detect a Visitor’s Browser in WordPress

WP Recipes has a neat WordPress trick. Apparently WordPress has a few variables ($is_gecko, $is_IE, etc) that are set to either true or false depending on which browser a visitor is running. Coupled with the body_class hook, you can add a class of the…

BlogBuzz June 20, 2009

An Easier Way to Handle Plugin Options in WordPress 2.8

Write forms, collect data from them, validate, then store. That’s the routine familiar to most plugin developers, and one that could always be easier. Why should you have to waste your time writing boring form handling functions when you could be working on one…