api regex twitter urls · 1 comment · 450 words
Summary Twitter's way of linking URLs is broken. It's annoying to users, and a pain in the arse to developers. This quick post talks about the problem and offers a solution. I've raised a bug with Twitter and I hope you'll star it as important to you. (more…) …
Continue reading →africa inmobi travel work · 15 comments · 350 words
Well, it's official. In a month I'll be flying down to Cape Town, South Africa. Then on to Johannesburg. Then up to Nairobi. Then west to Lagos. Four cities, three countries, two weeks, one massive continent. Africa. I'm flying down with InMobi, my employers (this blog post is personal and doesn't reflect company policy etc). We'll be visiting all the local mobile developers and researchers…
Continue reading →Apps appsforgood inmobi necropost · 350 words
This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer. Last night, InMobi attended cdi’s Apps For Good in London. What a wonderful event! Teams of school-children presenting their ideas for apps that could change their world. But this wasn’t just kids showing off drawings of theoretical apps, the Apps For Good course that runs in these schools get participants thi…
Continue reading →google Social Networks · 5 comments · 250 words · Viewed ~749 times
Google Plus has a serious flaw. It's summed up in this question: Why are you following me? I know who I want to share my "I hate my job" posts, and "Oh, my cat is so cute" pictures - but I talk about a wide range of things, not all of which you'll be interested in. At the moment, I've got nearly 150 people following me - and I don't know which circle to put them in! So I asked a simple…
Continue reading →3 comments · 550 words · Viewed ~1,193 times
Yes, yes, yes, the title is linkbait - but it's not inaccurate. Let me explain.... I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Linux user. All my machines run some variant of Linux, usually Ubuntu. So, when a new client asked me to to use Windows XP I nearly quit on the spot! But, after a week of using the ageing OS, it strikes me there are a number of things that XP does better than Ubuntu. I was able to…
Continue reading →hashtag mobile qr search twitter · 7 comments · 300 words · Viewed ~2,984 times
I spotted this poster today, encouraging people to search for the Twitter hashtag "#Transformers". Wouldn't it make sense to use a QR code as well? That way people could quickly scan, and be taken straight to the discussion, rather than have to fire up Twitter and do a manual search. As it happens, it's slightly tricky to make a QR code which searches for a Twitter hashtag. There are two…
Continue reading →ai weiwei china dabr · 2 comments · 250 words · Viewed ~597 times
I've written before about Dabr, the Twitter client I code for. Dabr helps people around the world and is used by some of Twitter's most influential users. Today, I am pleased to announce that Chinese artist, political prisoner, and sower of porcelain sunflower seed, Ai Weiwei uses dabr! On last night's Newsnight, as part of a package on Ai Weiwei's release, they showed him using Twitter. …
Continue reading →BBC Social Media twitter · 1 comment · 550 words
What happens to your social media profile when you change jobs? Recently, the BBC's Laura Kunessberg announced she was heading off to ITV. Laura Kuenssberg@ITVLauraKAs you've discovered I will become @ITVLauraK in September! Thanks for all the lovely tweets - Back in Westminster tomorrow❤️ 2💬 86🔁 013:31 - Wed 22 June 2011 Which got me wondering. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentWhy doesn't @b…
Continue reading →ebooks jasper fforde waterstones · 250 words · Viewed ~209 times
Four months ago, I wrote to Waterstones about an error in an eBook I purchased from them. I've finally received a reply... Dear Terence, Some time ago you contacted us regarding the following eBook title, "One of Our Thursdays is Missing (eBook): Thursday Next Series, Book 6" (ISBN: 9781444713039). We have had our eBook supplier investigate the content issue of this eBook title in conjunction…
Continue reading →ergonomic evoluent HowTo linux mouse mouse buttons review ubuntu · 24 comments · 1,450 words · Viewed ~26,736 times
New! Read my 2018 guide to setting up the Evoluent in Linux The Evoluent Vertical Mouse 4 costs close to £100. Let's get that out of the way. This is a pretty expensive mouse. Considering they give away basic USB mice with cornflakes, why would anyone spend the cost of a Kindle on a pointing device? Let me explain... "The two things you've got to spend your money on in life are your bed …
Continue reading →business cards HowTo moo moo cards moo.com qr QR Codes · 1 comment · 550 words · Viewed ~973 times
An edited version of this paid-for post appeared at Moo.com on the 7th of June QR codes are awesome! I mean, you may think your moo mini-cards are pretty funky - but they're nothing without a QR code. Why do you hand your card over to someone? You want the recipient to plug your contact details into their address book, right? So you give them a bit of card and then you expect them to tap…
Continue reading →api code dabr HowTo mobile php twitter · 3 comments · 200 words · Viewed ~1,909 times
Twitter has announced that it will soon open up a native photo sharing service. Rather than using an external service like Embed.ly to retrieve thumbnails, all the data is embedded within Twitter Entities. So, if you request a status using "include_entities=true", you will be able to grab the image and display the thumbnail using the following code. function twitter_get_media($status) { …
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