Posted by Dan on Dec 27, 2009 in
Projects,
twitter 
I thought I should make a post to shout about the system I am currently developing (Currently in Alpha) which is an alternative SMS to Twitter system – eg. You text TW followed by your message and that gets tweeted out on your Twitter account.
Now firstly I will explain WHY I have made this because I know lots of people might think, why bother, twitter already have that!
But alas, not quite. Twitter does have a UK text number, however it has a rather irritating downfall, its a Isle of Man number… so on some networks – like mine T-mobile – which do not have any special deals for the twitter number it means texting this number isn’t included in your SMS allowance and is charged at International Region 1 rates, which is 25p/SMS last time I checked! Which is a lot more than the 3 – 10p PAYG customers might pay, and a damn site more than the cost of unlimited texts.
So now you know the reason, texting this number is cheaper for some people because its properly UK based.
Now for a little bit of tech.
The way the Alpha system is currently working is very bare-bones; there is currently no front end at all and it is purely based on 2 cron jobs working with 2 databases.
My aim is to develop the system so it has a SMS Api/Gateway core, which is the part of the system which interfaces with the actual SMS gateway I am working with, so this runs and grabs all new SMS messages on my account and stores them to the core database.
I then have the SMS to Twitter part or App which then interfaces with the core system, to retrieve and process SMS messages for tweeting.
So as the text system is based off keywords eg, SMS must start with “Tw” or “dansgalaxy” to be picked up, so I register all the keywords with the gateway, and then the core system picks up all the SMS for my account picks out all the info and dumps it into a database so i can easily find and process the SMS and then you have Apps which can interact with the core database to use the SMS.
So currently the SMS to Twitter system is based on a keyword of “tw” so the App authenticates with my core system, and is then able to retrieve the SMS messages which uses the keyword of “tw”.
The system then checks the information for the SMS, picks out the senders phone number, which is then looks up in database to and finds the account holder, and is then able to tweet the users SMS using Twitter Authentication details stored in the database.
Because the system is in Alpha, currently it is very basic however I have great plans for this system and hope I can develop it into a full system where users who wish to use it can sign up authenticate the system with their Twitter account using OAuth instead of the username/password combination and enjoy a simple tool. 
All thoughts and suggestions welcome.
Posted by Dan on Nov 11, 2009 in
Ranting 
Yes, I am sorry. This is a rant.
Recently I was recommended a site Vision2learn.com and thought I would take a distance learning/online course to build up the CV and gain a useful qualification.
Their website says about how courses are for 16+ etc so thought, great a free course! Apply online, got a huge wad of paper work in the post, after spending almost an hour, reading over and filling in all the registration forms, I called the number to check if I had to fill in one of the forms… and was told the course was only available for 19+… and the call ended pretty quickly after that.
Now me being extremely irritated that not only was I unable to do a course, which according to their website, I see no reason as to why I shouldn’t be able to do, and to have spent my time filling out a ton of paper work, much of it filling in the same thing 40 different times.
And now, it’s 2 days after I emailed them and still no response… and yet they can send me promotional emails telling me to sign up for courses!!!
Bottom line, Vision2learn which is run in connection with Somerset College suck.
Posted by Dan on Oct 7, 2009 in
General stuff I am finding it rather amusing how a it seems a group of webhosts which claim that they are not the same all have the same support staff and funnily just had a convo where they quoted an email for the other company…
| Chat Transcript |
info: Please wait for a site operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with ‘Russell’
Russell: Hello and Welcome to Live Chat Support.
Russell: How may I assist you today ?
Dan: can i get the root pass on my VPS reset?
Russell: Please send mail to vps@ANOTHERWEBHOST.com from your registered email address
Russell: we will reply your email with new password
Dan: Haha, nice slip up.. ok.
Russell: ok
Russell: for security reason you must have to send mail to reset your VPS password
Dan: No probs, although probs best I email THEWEBHOST right :p xD
Russell: ok
Russell: bye
Dan: ok. |
Is it just me who finds this massively amusing?
Posted by Dan on Sep 10, 2009 in
Ranting,
Reviews,
Web Hosting 
I run a small web hosting company, and work with multiple data centres and software suppliers etc to deliver my products, one of which is OVH.
Been using a server with them for almost 4/5 months now and, while the server seems fine the technical support is terrible.
A month or so ago i added an extra 10GB network storage to the RPS which now found I don’t need, so hey why not save a few quid a month and ditch it right? … No…
I called them up to ask about getting it removed before i renewed the service and paid the last invoice, something I consider to be reasonable, expected a few minutes on the phone and it to be done, however apparently they can’t do downgrades…
And if i wanted to downgrade i should have done it within the first 7 days… and I agreed to it… sorry… what?!
For me to get an RPS server without the unneeded extra disk space I will have to order a NEW RPS and migrate everything over to the new one, now while I can move 1 of the 2 IPs on my current RPS over I would be unable to move the main one… the one I and my customers use for everything.
Now it is my understanding that the process of changing disk space allowance is simple, if i request a upgrade the system puts it through a tech sits there types in the commands to the network storage node and allows me more disk space. So logic dictates that the exact same system should work in reverse, they remove 10GB – end of.
I have now been forced to renew the service, and pay the extra few quid for unneeded, unwanted additional diskspace so as not to have to 1, loose an IP which is in use on multiple websites by many clients. 2, take a server which has been stable and online with NO issues for over 2 months offline disrupting many streams which support radio stations from bedroom operations to large commercial stations, dependant on them.
Not only did I find the outcome dis-satisfactory but also the technical support person on the phone was also, rude and unhelpful add on top of that he sounded like he was half asleep and mumbling does not equal good customer satisfaction.
When the person first answered, and I explained the issue, he mumbled about me emailing instead, to which I tend to think – Hell no, I’m paying for a service and you have phone support to get off your lazy arse and do it instead of trying to pass it off and delay me getting the information i need for another 12 hours – after I replied with “sorry? what.” he mumbles nevermind and spouts the spiel about how if i want a refund – which i don’t – it has to be done within 7 days of purchase. It appears OVH have no understanding that when your purchase addons etc you purchase them as a monthly product, as you do their servers, you pay for them on a monthly basis, and not as a buy and get locked in product, each item i pay for is monthly, and i should have the freedom to discontinue these monthly addons at will – WITHOUT having to completely reorder my server.
I can only conclude from my current experience with OVH is do not use them unless you are VERY experienced with servers, and require NO support with your products.
DO not use them if you are an end consumer, instead try a host which works with users – try XDnet Web Services
Posted by Dan on Jul 25, 2009 in
twitter 
Cool image made by friend @cj27yeah Cheers Chris!
Its now been a whole year since i first joined the Twitterosphere and dived into Twitter.com, now a year on and i am still hooked, which is quite an achievement as the only other site i am this involved with and has managed to keep me hooked is probably YouTube.
Posted by Dan on Jul 2, 2009 in
Reviews,
twitter Twitter has become a massive force on the Internet, I am wrapped up in it and tweet obsessively (@Dansgalaxy) as well as managing many twitter accounts and twitter bots.
As well as this other (bigger) businesses are taking advantage of twitter and using it as a way to communicate with their users, often it can be hard to tell which accounts are official here’s a list of companies / celebrities twitter accounts which are worth a look.
Microsoft:
- @Microsoft – Main MS account being run and managed by the corporate communications team
- @MSWindows – Announcing Windows 7
- @WindowsLive – Official Twitter account of Microsoft Windows Live
- @liveframework – liveframework
- @livemesh – Sync, share, and access the information you care about—wherever you happen to be.
- @SharePoint – The official tweetstream of the SharePoint product group – managed by @LLiu
- @bizspark – Microsoft BizSpark – Software, Support, Visibility
- @zunemarketplace – Zune Marketplace is a store for the way you love music, with brand-new releases every week and a huge selection of music in every style imaginable
- @wmdev – Windows Mobile
- @microsofttag – Microsoft Tag
- @ch9 – listen to the cockpit, help us fly the plane
- @ch10 – Channel 10 is Microsoft’s online community for the technology enthusiast
- @ch8 – Microsoft’s community for students
- @mixonline – Come check us out at www.visitmix.com
- @MIX09 – The Next Web Now, pre-empted by @MIX07, @MIX08 and @PDC08
- @SiteNamedDesire – Want a copy of A Website Named Desire? This li’l birdie will tell you how. Wait for the tweets.
- @MicrsftTech4All – News from Microsoft Accessibility team, which strives for technology to be usable by everyone & complements our physical & cognitive abilities.
- @MSDN – Updates from the MSDN site team.
- @adCenterBlog – News, Tips, Tricks & Best Practices From The Guys At Microsoft adCenter
[ Most Microsoft twitter accounts sourced from on10.net ]
Tech News:
Twitter can be a great place to stay on top of the latest tech news, and I often use it as a basic RSS system, and am often reminded to check out TechCrunch.com or the Guardians tech articles when i see their tweets.
News:
- @BBCbreaking – Breaking News stories from the BBC.
- @Reuters – Reuters breaking news stories.
- @SkyNews – SkyNews news stories.
- @GoogleNews – Breaking news stories and updates from Google News
- @CNNbrk – CNN.com is among the world’s leaders in online news and information delivery.
- @NBCnews – NBC News — a leading source of global news and information for more than 75 years
Twitter Bots:
Twitter bots are becoming a fun part of the Twitterosphere (Twitter community). Twitter Bots can be like marmite, you either love them or hate them as with most things.
Personally I love some twitter bots (particularly the ones i run) and tend to take the view of don’t like it don’t follow.
Here’s a few of mine and others which I follow which are worth checking out.
- @JacksonBot – Picks up tweets about Micheal Jackson
- @LMAObot – Picks up anything with “LOL”, “Lmao”, “ROFL” etc in it picks up some random and funny tweets.
- @IsDeadBot – Picks up tweets about all things er dead. Which can be more interesting than you might think.
- @NoteRobot – Retweets “Note to self” tweets, very funny and some random laughs!
- @LuvOrHate - Picks up on what people love and hate, again some random interesting tweets – Created by @aaronbassett.
Celebrity Twitterers:
There is no doubt that celebrities have jumped on the twitter bandwagon, be it for self promotion or simply to tweet their life.
I wont go into an extensive list of Celeb twitterers, as there are lots so instead I will share my favourite picks and share with you some great celeb twitter stalker sites!
@StephenFry is one of my favourite twitterers with some interesting posts and insights into an interesting mans life as he goes about his day to day tasks, from visits to the apple store to ponderings a must follow for twitter users.
@lilyroseallen is one of my favourite artists (I know maybe a little sad) but i do love her, and from what i can tell she tweets for “real” and isn’t using twitter purely as a publicity vehicle, which i like you get to see Lily Allen the person.
One of the difficult parts about the web is you don’t really know if the person you are following is the person you think it is, this is where Valebrity.com comes in. Valebrity enables you to “validate” celebrities online so you know who your following is who it says it is!
Worth checking out if you want to follow your favourite celebs.
Also came across a blog post on Mashable.com which is worth checking it out which has 25 celebrities accounts from actors, musicians, politicians and writers which is worth checking out too.
So take a look, follow people and get involved in the wonderful world of twitter!
Don’t forget to follow @Dansgalaxy for updates and randomness from the world of Dan.
Tags: bots, celebrities, news, tech, tweets, twitter, twitter bots
Posted by Dan on Jun 27, 2009 in
General stuff Just posting a few basic bits of info about how the TwitterBot Service is currently running.
So the twitter bot is currently requesting the last 20 tweets fron the public timeline every minute (on a every minute cron) meaning at the moment the public timeline requests come out of the main server IP and are falling far below the 100/hr limit. However currently looking into ideas on how to increase the rate to catch more tweets! (Ideas welcome, please leave a comment or email me).
The tweets which get catched by the tweet grabber bot are saved into a database to be processed, I then have another bot “ProcessingBot” (I am immaginative with my script names i know) runs every 5 minutes and loops through each unprocessed tweet, and each bot in the system checking for matches to 3 phrases stored in the DB (I will be changing this part to make it more flexiable ASAP) and if it matches the tweet gets retweeted to the bot account in the format of (@SCREEN_NAME) TWEET as you can see on @JacksonBot which is currently retweeting tweets with the key phrases of “Jackson” “MJ” and “Micheal Jackson” and seems to be working very well (currently 500+ tweets in 12 hours and 32 followers – Yes I am hoping this doesnt hit the post limit and have applied for whitelisting).
For anyone who is interested 
Dan
Posted by Dan on Jun 27, 2009 in
General stuff Hello,
Wow i finally pulled my finger out and have been working hard today starting work on a twitter bot service, now so far i have some of the core done, and infact now have 3 bots running @jacksonbot which unsuprisingly (should) pick up tweets about Micheal Jackson, the second is a Note to self bot… appropriately named @NoteToSelfBot and then the 3rd bot i have going is the @IsDeadBot which while slightly morbit picks up tweets for things realted to erm dead things.
Now i will be working very hard on this system to get it all working nicely and there maybe bugs in the output (please email me if you spot any!) , and eventually i will be developing this into a full service which should enable users to simply signup and have their very own twitter bot!
I honestly can’t wait to get this going so see you tomorrow and will try and keep you all posted.
Will be fun to see how they go overnight.
Night all. x