Just a reminder to everybody that I’ll be presenting at the Utah Facebook Developers Garage tomorrow (August 9th) evening at 6pm. The details are all on phil801’s blog (link above). I plan on doing a “Hello World” walk-through, where we’ll start with adding the application, work on setting it up, and actually write things for it. Hopefully we can cover a lot of the most useful features I’ve found to get you up and going. My preferred language is Perl, and the framework I use is Catalyst, so this might also be a good opportunity to get a glimpse into what the latest in Perl is doing, and how Rails’ up-and-coming competitor, Catalyst, is going to take the world. (okay, I’m biased - did I mention my license plate says “USE PERL”?)

Facebook just announced a new tag today, the fb:random tag. From their website:

“Fb:random allows the developer to input a series of tags, of which 1 or more will be shown randomly. Each item can have a weight and the tag can be specified to show more than one of the choices. Each option should be wrapped in an fb:random-option tag.”

You also have the option to assign a weight to any of the tags. So it looks like you now have the option to, with pure fbml, to include random items in your profile. Expect to see many more non-Flash 8-balls, dice, and random quotes in the near future on your friends’ profiles.

Today, Facebook announced they were releasing a new FBML tag for developers that would allow developers of Facebook Apps to track their applications via Google Analytics. Before this, because the code you put on your page is javascript, there was no way to track your apps. I tried to install this, but ran into issues, in that Google tries to look at your main facebook app page for the javascript (which isn’t parsed by Facebook), while Facebook gives an error if you put the raw Javascript on the page. I came up with the below solution, which works like a beauty - you put your javascript between your <fb:google-analytics> tags, like this:


<fb:google-analytics uacct="12345">

</fb:google-analytics>


Since Google reads the plain callback url it won’t interpret the fb:google-analytics, and Facebook ignores everything between the <fb:google-analytics></fb:google-analytics> tags. Works like a charm on mine.

I just realized I had a ton of comments awaiting moderation. In switching to Wordpress lately, I didn’t realize I had moderation turned on. In noticing I wasn’t getting any comments lately, I went and checked, and sure enough, there were over 50 comments awaiting moderation. My apologies to those who commented to get no response from me. I will go through all the moderated comments now and try to respond to any pending questions. I need to decide now if I want to leave moderation on or just turn it off and risk a little spam here and there.

Yesterday, I announced the release of a new feature of Came2Pass.com, allowing users to specify a Digg User ID in their profile, and have all their Digg-submitted and voted-for articles automatically appear under 2 new categories with other Digg users on their Pligg-based website. Today, I’m happy to announce the release of the code for that feature of Pligg.

Using the link below, you can install a module into your Pligg installation which will take the Digg User IDs of members of your Pligg-run site that also use Digg.com. Once they have entered their Digg User ID in their profile, feeds will begin to import into 2 pre-specified categories (be sure to edit your digg_users_settings.php beforehand to specify these categories!), of which will show all the Digg submitted stories, and Digg voted stories of your Pligg site’s members.

What’s the big deal, you ask? Well, the big deal is you can now bring smaller groups of Digg users into one location, encouraging them to use your site, while being able to congregate, collaborate, and continue in the great community that Digg.com provides. Consider it a grouping tool! This is only the beginning, too - in the future, I hope to add search features to look for particular digg user ids on your Pligg website. You’ll also soon, when adding users of your Pligg website as friends, also add them as friends in Digg if they have specified a Digg ID. The possibilities are endless! Also expect future similar grouping tools for other social bookmarking websites as well (delicous? flickr?).

So, to install, just download the link below into your modules subdirectory in Pligg. Untar and un-gzip it in that directory. Now, under your God/Admin user in Pligg, go to Admin, Module Management, and click on install next to the Digg.com User Feeds module. You’ll also need the “Profile Extra Fields” module by AshDigg for it to work. Good luck, and let me know if you have any comments or suggestions!

http://forums.pligg.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=37&act=down

I discovered a new site recently. I have to admit, among others, I have been one of the ones obsessed with finding the well-sought after Nintendo Wii. Well, there’s a new site out there called iTrackr.com. You pay them $2 for various products (per alert), and they go out and search various stores and send alerts to your cellphone and e-mail when they come available.

I have been obsessed with finding out how they do this, and I have noticed in several forums that others have as well. Well, I present to you the answer. I want you to look at the list of stores they offer notices for: CompUSA, Target, EB Games, GameSpot, and Circuit City. Now, go to those stores’ websites. Search for something on their site. Notice the little “check store availability” link? Bingo. Figure out how to get that link and you can check for store availability yourself on any item in their store.

So I spent some time tonight fishing around Target.com. If you notice, for most of the stores that list store availability, they cleverly don’t offer that option for the Nintendo Wii. You can, however figure out how to read that number by looking at the link for other items that offer the option. I was able to come up with the following URL that will tell you in the source code which stores in your area have the Nintendo Wii in their inventory:

http://www.target.com/gp/store-info/search-results.html/602-9935177-2156646?ie=UTF8&asin=B0009VXBAQ&zipcode=84118&fresh=1

All you need to do now is replace the 84118 with your zipcode, and the asin code with any asin code on the site, and you can get store availability for any item in the store. The above asin code just happens to be for the Nintendo Wii.

To find the availabilities, view the source, and look for the following:


tempData["storeName"] = trim(”Sandy South Towne”);
tempData["itemAvailability"] = trim(”Out Of Stock”);


There should be several of them - with any luck, one will say “Available”! As a side-note, you can also do this in the stores by entering the Wii sku for that target on the little red scanners. The above trick, and the scanners are usually right - even if it says they’re in stock and the employees say they aren’t, keep checking back and you will most likely see them on the shelves soon.

Now, I’ve helped you. This means it’s going to be harder for me to find a Wii. I ask in return if you happen to find one using this method that perhaps you could hold one for me so I can buy it for retail price! Donations of found Nintendo Wiis are also graciously accepted (hint, hint).

Stay tuned - I think I’m going to find the URLs for the other stores listed…