http://thebogles.com/blog Things I care about Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:33:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Picnik API makes it easy to add online image editing to any site that hosts images. For the benefit of those coding in Rails, here's a summary of how I integrated Picnik with iLike to allow our users to touch up photos after upload. I used the "pull version" ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/07/using-the-picnik-api-from-rails/ I wrote an earlier post on how to replace you're cellphone's voice mail with Google Voice. That was for generic GSM phones; happily those instructions work without change on the iPhone. I use Google Voice for my voice mail because it forwards text transcript of messages to my email, and ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/06/google-voice-on-the-iphone/ I have been a long time Blackberry fan, and even wrote Beyond411, a popular local search application for the Blackberry. But with the release of the iPhone 3GS, I finally reach my personal tipping point and bought an iPhone. My story is a common one; AppleInseder reports that 12% of ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/06/why-i-ditched-my-blackberry-curve-for-an-iphone-3gs/ Google Voice offers a really compelling set of voicemail features, much better than what US cellphone carriers offer. You can view, search, and listen to your voicemails from any phone or web browser, with textual transcripts generated using automatic speech recognition. Assuming you're lucky enough to be on ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/04/how-to-replace-your-cellphones-voice-mail-with-google-voice/ For my work, I've been looking for a good proxy in the UK so that I can test our geoip lookup. superproxy.co.uk is definitely to be avoided for most applications. First, it's not a proper HTTP proxy; instead it's a CGI script that you access via a web page. Second, it ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/04/avoid-superproxycouk/ The Beyond411 server went down and one of the mysql tables used by Beyond411 is in need of repair; I'll post when Beyond411 is back up. Update: Mostly back up, autocompletions are still not fully repaired but most will be served out of cache so you might no notice. http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/04/beyond411-downtime/ The Seattle PI is now America's largest online-only daily "paper". Going online only provides an opportunity that most newspapers don't have-- the ability to use a modern, link-rich writing style. But most of the articles at the PI are still written in a dead-tree, link-free style, unfriendly to both ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/03/modernizing-online-newspapers-borrowing-a-page-from-wikipedia/ A new version of Beyond411 for the Storm is now available at http://thebogles.com/storm/berry411.jad Version 4.31 should [*] enable Blackberry Storm users to use GPS. It also fixes a bug on the plugins settings screen in which buttons were not clickable. [*] I don't have an actual storm, so I have only ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/02/updated-beyond411-for-the-storm-fixes-gps-issues-v431/ Hot off the presses, I'm pleased to announce the first release of a version of Beyond411 for the Blackberry Storm. I don't have a Storm, so I've been able to run this under a simulator; it's possible that it won't work at all on actual Storm or that there will ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/01/test-build-of-beyond411-for-the-blackberry-storm-is-now-available/ GPS was 100% broken in Beyond411 for a while due to a change in the geonames.org API; I've updated the code and things are now working as before. (Unfortunately, I don't have a Blackberry with GPS any more so I don't notice things like this right away.) ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/01/gps-issue-resolved-in-beyond411/ I've gotten a number of requests for a Storm compatible version of Beyond411. I've begun work on this. The touch interface requires more changes than I expected, but things are coming along. I'll post again when an early version is ready to test. Update 1/31/09: This is now available, ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2009/01/storm-compatible-version-of-beyond411-in-the-works/ Update: We're back up and running again. Yahoo says that the actual expiration date was December 5th even though their site says otherwise. berry411.com is currently inaccessible due to DNS issues with Yahoo's domain hosting. This affects all users of Beyond411/Berry411. Although I am prepaid through January 2009, they ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2008/12/dns-issues-on-berry411com-courtesy-of-yahoo/ As the Mighty Mouse Repair Guide notes: After the release of Apple's Mighty Mouse™ many users found that the scroll wheel on the mouse easily became clogged and difficult to use - especially when trying to scroll down.  Apple's own site suggests using water to clean the scroll wheel but this method ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2008/11/apple-mighty-mouse-repair-using-purell/ I was encouraged to see this Washington Post story: Obama took a break from campaigning last week to call [...] leaders of the "Blue Dog Coalition," a group of conservative-leaning Democrats who are committed to balancing the federal budget. The group's 49 members already wield significant power in the House, and ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2008/10/obama-builds-ties-with-blue-dog-democrats/ Please register to vote and encourage your friends to vote. The Vote Facebook application gives schools a chance to win two free concerts by Jason Mraz, Will.I.Am and Wyclef Jean. Every student who takes the pledge to vote below counts as one entry in the raffle to win a ... http://thebogles.com/blog/2008/09/pledge-to-vote-tell-your-friends-win-a-free-concert/