Current Projects – Page 3 – Stay N Alive

Category: Current Projects

New Facebook Requests API Brings Less Flexibility, Ease of Use With Invitations

Posted on by jessestay

Facebook Invites Interface I am rather late on this news, but I haven’t seen anyone take this slant on it. As most of you are aware, Facebook has removed their notifications.sendRequest API method in favor of a more standardized invite interface for all their applications. This has several ramifications:

  1. You are pretty much forced to use FBML now if you want an invite interface. IMO this is a good thing, and especially good for Facebook, as it means they have more control over the content of the applications on their platform. You can say goodbye to most of the applications using iFrames in the future.

  2. All invite interfaces will pretty much look the same. Facebook has provided a few FBML tags that make creation of the friends list to select from, and form to send invites to very easy. I implemented this on all my applications last night and I have to say it’s quite slick. This also means more applications will have invite forms and will henceforth grow much faster. Expect to see many more invites in the coming weeks from various applications because of this.

  3. All your base belongs to Facebook. Facebook now has much more control over how invite forms look and are used. On the other hand, developers have much less flexibility on how the invites are used. I am having a huge headache trying to figure out a way to get an invite link below your friends profile pics if you have the app installed on a few of my apps. Maybe Facebook doesn’t want it. Some theorize it’s because many developers have abused this interface.

I have mixed feelings about this interface. On one hand, this makes it extremely easy to create an invite interface. On the other hand, this puts everyone at a level playing field, keeping some of the more creative developers out of the game. I’ve seen similar things with the limits Facebook puts on various API calls. I would love to have Facebook notify you of every new SteepAndCheap.com product on my SAC App, for instance. The Spammers have ruined it for some really good ideas to come forth.

In all, this is good for Facebook. More people will use their applications, a trend they seem to be moving towards lately. You see they’re putting a huge focus on this after opening their Apps Directory this last week. More exposure == more money for both Facebook and those developing their apps. In the end I think this is a good thing.

Facebook LDS App Acquired by LDS Non-Profit

Posted on by jessestay

I’ve been twittering for awhile now about a “big announcement”. I’m proud to say this is that big announcement! In my first successful exit from a Social application, a private, LDS Non-Profit has acquired the Facebook LDS App from my Social Apps incubator, Snaplicate. This is one of the first few apps to be sold on Facebook, so this is big news! Today we signed the final document and the news is official! I’m very excited for this, as it will mean immediate help for the LDS App and strong progress in its development. Managing this on my own has been difficult. I have high regard for the organization taking over, and I know they will do very good things for it. I’ll announce the name of the organization and more details as we finalize the press release (hopefully tomorrow!) and agree on what details will be released.

If you are a user of the LDS App, you have nothing to worry about. While I have no final control over what happens, the organization that has acquired the app is non-profit, which means it should continue to be free, without advertising or subscription charges. They have made it known to me that they have intentions to keep it this way, and hearing of their plans of where to take it in the future, it fits in well with where I was going to take it. If they let me, I will continue to volunteer my time in development on the app as well.

What will I do next? I have retained rights to the code, which is currently being used on the Catholic App, and will continue to expand to other religions as I enhance the code base. Feel free to tell your Catholic friends about the Catholic App! I am also focusing on some other big projects which you will hear of very soon.

In the next day or two we should have a press release finalized and more details should be released. Stay tuned!…

Twitter Launches Facebook Status Updates

Posted on by jessestay

I noticed yesterday that Twitter has officially launched the ability to update Facebook through your updates on Twitter. You just click on the Twitter app within Facebook, and you’ll see a link that says, “Want Twitter to update your Facebook status? Click here.” Click on that, the message will still be there (they say they’re working on that), but all your Twitter updates will now go to your Facebook status as well. Any Twitter replies (with @username in them) stay on Twitter and do not go to Facebook, resolving my previous concern.

UPDATE: Twitter doesn’t ignore just any post with an @username in it. The post has to start with @username for Twitter to ignore the post. I’d love to see it just ignore anything with @username, since Facebook friends won’t know who @username is anyway.

New Wave of Citizen Journalism on Twitter

Posted on by jessestay

Are you in Utah? Do you like getting the latest news, as it happens? Do you like giving back to society?

Well I may have something for you. I’d like to announce the new Twitter Bot, “SLCNews”. The way it works is if you see news happening in your area, you generally can report the news much faster than a News reporter who has to get to the scene. Citizens are usually the first reporters on the scene of a major event, yet the reporters always get the credit. With this Twitter bot, if you see news happening in your area, report it by direct messaging the Twitter user slc news, followed by a short amount of text describing the event happening. All people following the user slcnews will then get Twitter updates (usually on their cell phones) that share with them the news happening. The idea is if enough people pitch in, your news will be much more on time, much more accurate, and very on the scene. I can see this meshing with Twittergrams, links to Flickr photos, etc. all from your cell phone (on your cell phone, all you have to do to send a message to slcnews is to send a text message to 40404 that says “d slcnews accident on I-80” or whatever the news that is happening).

So if you’re on Twitter and live in Utah, please do your part to the community and follow SLCNews! If you’re not on Twitter yet, please click on the link above and join! If there were ever a reason to join Twitter, this is that reason! If you like this and don’t live in Utah, let me know and maybe I’ll add your city next.

Jesse Stay is a Utah Facebook Developer and Consultant

Posted on by jessestay

Well, I’ve officially made the plunge! As of today I have announced my resignation at UnitedHealth Group and will very soon be completely self-employed, working on your business’s projects full time under my consulting business, Stay N’ Alive Productions. If you have a project of any caliber, I am giving short-term (that could become long-term) contracts first priority, but will consider anything.

I mentioned previously about my friend Thom Allen being a Facebook developer. Well, I’ve let him have the limelight for long enough and now it’s my turn! I am a Utah Facebook Developer. I currently have 4 applications written, one with near 10,000 users and growing. I also have been doing Facebook consulting since almost the launch of the Facebook platform. I have taught classes on Facebook and am definitely your man if you need some consulting or projects based on the Facebook platform.

So if you need any work, give me a ring via the GrandCentral “Call Me” button down on the right of this page and we can work on a bid or estimate for consulting work. You can also read through this blog to understand what I know and how I can help you. Feel free to blog or Twitter about me as well! I need all the help I can get to get this off the ground!

Apple – I Get It!

Posted on by jessestay

Many of my loyal readers recognize the strife I have with the iPhone. Its elegant, sexy interface is alluring, yet as it draws you in it immediately pushes you away like a magnet, turned the opposite direction in reverse polarity. My goal in buying an iPhone originally was to figure out how to write apps for it. With its AJAX browser interface it seemed not too complex an interface to actually use as a development platform. However, as I mentioned earlier, I bought it, and immediately returned it because I realized that first, I had no way of using my wonderful T-Mobile plan rather than being locked into a 2-year contract with AT&T, and second, the iPhone DOES NOT support 64-bit operating systems at the moment, and I’m not about to downgrade my OS for a simple phone.

So I just recently had the opportunity to buy a MacBook for my daily business efforts and Facebook development. I have owned Macs in the past, and find them ideal development desktop environments because I get the best of almost 3 worlds, the Mac, Unix, and Windows through Parallels. It’s an ideal testing environment for a web developer.

The same day I bought it (yesterday), it was announced that finally a free unlock solution was available to free yourself from AT&T. Finally, I was in an ideal situation to buy an iPhone, try it out, review it, hack it to my T-Mobile, without having to switch carriers or downgrade my OS to an inferior architecture. I know, I’m a hypocrite, but all along I’ve really just been trying to make this work and Apple just wouldn’t let me!

I’ve realized my belief in that is completely wrong. I now totally understand why Apple is locking people into AT&T (why no 64-bit support, I have no idea)! You see, Apple knew people would unlock their phone. They know us developers way too well. Yes, we would complain and gripe, but Apple knows we all secretly love their products.

The issue is, Apple needed carriers to embrace and support their phone to make it big and “cool” in the market. Scoble says all you need to be cool is a small group to promote the heck out of your product. Verizon actually turned them down in initial deals. GSM I belive is a better network worldwide, so I believe they started seeking out partners in the GSM market. AT&T was the biggest US partner so they worked out a deal with them, which was a huge bonus for Apple, as they had exclusive marketing rights at AT&T stores all across America.

You see, Apple knew people would complain about being locked into one provider. The thing most people are neglecting (including myself) is that Apple knows their customers. They knew developers would soon hack the OS – it is a UNIX OS after all, and while they would have to protect their agreement with AT&T and try to patch the hacks, developers would always get around that until AT&T caved and let them just leave it open to the hacks. The iPhone would expand into other markets, and voila, Apple has T-Mobile and other GSM providers without even trying!

I hacked my iPhone last night. I now run my iPhone on T-Mobile, no contract, and excellent customer service! I have a shell prompt into my iPhone. I can ssh and SFTP into my iPhone. It was actually unbelievably (with a few quirks) easy to set up! Will Apple update it in the future? Probably, but you can also bet hackers will quickly have a new hack to keep it unlocked – there is no way around it, and Apple knows this. They built the software to make working around the hackers hard! I find it very hard to believe this wasn’t part of their underlying business strategy.

Pligg Presentation Cancelled

Posted on by jessestay

I apologize to those looking forward to it, but I’ve had to cancel my presentation on Pligg modules at UTOSC this week. I’ve just got too much on my plate right now. I realized I needed to blog this today as the Pligg guys just gave me a really nice plug on the Pligg blog. I feel really bad for canceling now! If anyone is making a special trip out here for my presentation, please inform me ASAP and I might still be able to get back in as a presenter – I don’t want to put anyone out for this. I’ve just got a lot going on right now with about 3 businesses I’m trying to push off the ground, contractual obligations on the side, a full-time job, my wife being sick lately, and more. Again, please let me know if this puts you out and I’ll re-prioritize (and maybe take you out for dinner too!).

For those Pligg users and developers, I’m still planning on finishing my Email_Latest module, and also maybe a Facebook integration app (if someone doesn’t beat me to it – please, don’t hesitate!). I haven’t forgotten you guys!

NBC Screws Up, Again!

Posted on by jessestay

Recently, NBC made what many to believe a big mistake on pulling out their shows from iTunes. Well, yesterday, I discovered another big mistake. Recently, NBC started an ad campaign for its hit TV series, “My Name is Earl”, about Earl’s being booked into Jail while innocent entitled, “Free Earl”. They have scripted a musical and mockumentary taking on the likes of “We are the World” with all the characters singing. It will be released tomorrow, and they have already started advertising it.

Well, it appears while NBC has put together all this commotion, they forgot to buy the domain. I noticed while trying to find the video yesterday that “FreeEarl.com” was available on GoDaddy.com so I bought it, along with freeearl.net and freeearl.info. For legal reasons, I think I will intend to use it for a Fan Club, but NBC – hey, you might be able to change my mind with the right offer!

On those lines I discovered a new service by GoDaddy. It’s entitled “Cash Out!” and allows you for a monthly price of around $7 per month for 60% of ad revenue, and $10 per month for 80% of the ad revenue to get money back on the parked domains through GoDaddy that you are holding. If you have domains that might be frequented by lots of people regardless of content being there or not, this might be a good option for you. Of course, I might be able to make more money putting on some Google ads, adding a “My Name is Earl” or “Free Earl” theme, and maybe even streaming the video, but for a quick buck that you don’t have much time to do all that this is a great option. They do allow you to specify up to 4 keywords to theme your site around, along with selecting a few categories and themes for the parked page. In all, not too bad a deal!

Facebook – Now Javascript Friendly!

Posted on by jessestay

I’ve been following this for awhile now, and have been meaning to blog it. Soon after my Post last week on the fb:fbjs-string tag, I noticed that Facebook had added a new “FBJS” page to their wiki. On it, they revealed exciting new methods of incorporating Javascript into your Facebook Application. Then, yesterday a Facebook developer responded to a thread I had been participating in on the fb:fbjs-string tag that they were about to publicly announce the wiki page. It appears that now you can post javascript in your Facebook app, and that javascript will be parsed into a Facebook-controlled javascript environment. Today, this functionality was announced and released for all developers!

Almost all javascript DOM and event methods work, and you can even post javascript in the profile object! The only catch is that if it’s a profile object you must trigger the first “active” event, such as an onclick handler or onmouseover handler. Beyond that, it’s an open world! Not just that, but they provide their own AJAX framework and Dialog box framework for anyone to tap into. This is huge, as now you can pretty much have full Web 2.0 apps all inside Facebook, using standard FBML syntax. So if Social apps like Facebook are Web 3.0, what does this become – Web 3.2? Web 3+2=5?

Introducing the “I’m a Mormon!” Facebook App

Posted on by jessestay

I decided to challenge myself last night and see how fast I could get a Facebook App together. I noticed Facebook currently has no Mormon/LDS Facebook applications. There are a few I know in the works, but no one seems to have anything complete. So, following my post on the fb:random tag yesterday, and the “release early, release often” mentality I took a simple idea and pushed it out live. I call it “I’m a Mormon!”, and I finished it in a record 3 hours (and boy am I tired)! I have had some input that’s too “in your face” – I’m curious if others agree and what other names they would suggest for the app. Basically, the app randomly selects a quote from the 4 LDS Standard works (the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Perl of Great Price), and displays it on your profile for others to see. You can see an example on my profile page. I will definitely be expanding on this and making it more social, but at least there is now officially a working “Mormon App” out there. I encourage all to add it to your profile and share it with your friends! The url to add the app is:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4292630759&pwstdfy=a99fa523d33d482b392a82ce8468901e