With The Band

Standing on one leg, Facebook made a couple changes to its API, which is the way other developers (like me) can write programs that Facebook users can use.

That’s it. A couple API changes. Removing a couple minor features which were annoying end-users, discussing some future changes.

Putting my foot down, I’m left with nothing more to say. I’m not going to tell you what it means, because to me, it doesn’t mean much. As a current developer, and someone who plans on being much more involved in social media development in the future, it is what it is - an API update. If the blogging world were to talk about whenever there was an update to any API, you’d lose your mind.

What is interesting to me, however, is the amount of coverage this small change is getting. I could list dozens more posts, but I’ve read… and forgot… them all :-). The fact that Facebook making such a small change can generate so much in the blogosphere to me signifies that people consider Facebook a serious part of our every day lives. Or, it’s just the latest shiny object. Depressing how bloggers sometimes possess the same traits as the rest of the media.

Just set up a Roth IRA (in addition to my employer’s 401(k), my savings account, and my investment brokerage account).
My friends are starting to get married.
I have a full time job.
And loans.

What happened to the old me?

JD:  “And four years of pre-med, four years of med school, and tons of unpaid loans have
made me realize one thing… I don’t know jack.”
-Scrubs

That line above pretty much perfectly sums up how I felt on my first day of actual work. Years of education had taught me how to be a good writer, thinker, programmer. But my first day, I felt that four years taking swimming pool management classes would have helped just as much. I knew nothing about the specialty I would be working on full time. My co-workers at the time said there were no books that would help me. They said I would “just pick it up.” I thought they must have been pumping some kind of drug through the office ventilation system.

The other week was my one-year anniversary at my job. Coincidentally, we brought a new hire onto our project, who, like me one year ago, knew absolutely nothing. He started asking the same questions I did, and I realized that I was answering all of them. Within a year, I’d been able to absorb everything up to the point that I was able to flawlessly teach other people. Amazing.

The Great Iraq Swindle: : Rolling Stone

To travel to Iraq, would-be contractors needed permission from the Bush administration, which was far from blind in its appraisal of applicants. In a much-ballyhooed example of favoritism, the White House originally installed a clown named Jim O’Beirne at the relevant evaluation desk in the Department of Defense. O’Beirne proved to be a classic Bush villain, a moron’s moron who judged applicants not on their Arabic skills or their relevant expertise but on their Republican bona fides; he sent a twenty-four-year-old who had never worked in finance to manage the reopening of the Iraqi stock exchange, and appointed a recent graduate of an evangelical university for home-schooled kids who had no accounting experience to manage Iraq’s $13 billion budget. James K. Haveman, who had served as Michigan’s community-health director under a GOP governor, was put in charge of rehabilitating Iraq’s health-care system and decided that what this war-ravaged, malnourished, sanitation-deficient country most urgently needed was . . . an anti-smoking campaign.

In a city that already is a little bit too addicted to being connected, it’s nice to know our Mayor is ahead of the curve.

I forgot how absolutely awesome Lemmings was.

Why, of all the energy drinks (aside from the usual green tea that I drink), did I pick up TAB? Why am I downing them? Who knows..

I know the answer to exactly none of these.

I’ve made significant progress, to the point I can say that I have a working alpha of Metro Times.

To Check DC Metro Times on Your Cell Phone

1. Send a text message to metro [AT] skeevisarts [DOT] com (replace AT and DOT with the appropriate symbols).
2. In the message, include the first few characters of the Metro station.
3. Type enough of the station’s name so that it can’t be confused with anyone else.
4. For example: If you wanted Dupont Circle, typing “d” could be one of three stations, “du” could be Dupont or Dunn Loring-Merrifield, but “dup” works.
5. It is NOT case sensitive. Feel free to type in dUpONt if you feel like it.
6. For the full list of stations, check here.
7. You’ll get a message back… eventually.

Supported Services

• Email (Send the station name in the BODY of the e-mail)
• Verizon Wireless

Please try this on your own wireless provider. If you can send and receive a message, please e-mail me at skeevis AT skeevis DOT com with your provider!

In case you need a reminder, Metro Times is an application I hacked together in a few hours that allows you to check DC metro times via SMS (standard cell phone text messaging). Previously, the only way to check it via mobile is using wireless internet, which is still in the infant stage in the USA.

It’s not perfect yet. Right now, it’s done via e-mail. This works at least with Verizon, as you can text message any e-mail address from a Verizon phone, and all replies can be send to <phone number>@vtext.com. The SMS/email gateway is maaaad slooooow, but it works. I chose email because A) it works for me, B) I haven’t found a good, low-cost, two way SMS solution. Those 5 digit shortcodes that are used for SMS in the US are a whopping $500-1000 a month, just to lease! I’m looking into a shared shortcode service now, or other options. I don’t use twitter, but might be able to figure out some hack through that. I have no problem spending **some** money, but I am one guy :-).

Fun stuff

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