Matt Brian, The Next Web:
It appears that within 30 minutes of Houston’s death becoming public, the price of the artist’s The Ultimate Collection album (released in 2007) rose from £4.99 to £7.99.
If only I could pinpoint why people hate the music industry.
Bill Dawson, writing for Texas Climate News, reports on hate mail and veiled threats aimed at Texas Tech University professor, Katharine Hayhoe:
Hate mail in the inbox has been an occupational hazard for climate scientists in the public eye for some time now. Something about their endorsement and explanation of the mainstream scientific view that humans are heating up the earth’s atmosphere elicits that sort of response from certain people who disagree very strongly.
The hate mail has largely been spurred by Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives, dismissing Hayhoe as a “climate babe.” Is this really a surprise? When facts threaten the financial agendas of people like Limbaugh and Jim Inhofe, willful ignorance and ad hominems prove great distractions.
They are like the kid who, when challenged by a classmate, resorts to kicking the shin and yelling “you are a poopy head!” Except now, we are all adults and the bully is threatening harm to those that challenge their way of life. Isn’t it time that we all stand up to the anti-science, hate-filled rhetoric espoused by these talking heads?
Noah Bierma profiles the childhood of prominent Oklahoman, Elizabeth Warren:
Warren returns to Oklahoma often to visit her brothers and her cousins. She would eventually buy a house for her parents, who are now deceased. But she has never been to a reunion, never visited the friends she had in high school, and has maintained only sporadic contact.
“It doesn’t make me happy to go back and talk about how great high school was,’’ she said.
Sam Roberts, writing for the New York Times, examines our country’s history of reaching out to alien life forms.
The Voyager’s record carried greetings in 55 languages, including a folksy one in Amoy, a Chinese dialect, which was translated as: “Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time.”
With a renewed push from SETI to find extraterrestrial intelligence, Roberts asks what one might say to alien if we succeed.
So what would you say? I would probably ask if they were familiar with Newt Gingrich.
The information here is largely out of date due to Facebook API changes. Please see here for an updated tutorial.
If you have a personal blog, it is only natural that you want to share your work with others. If you use blogging software, such as WordPress, then chances are plugins already exist that will automatically share your content. If like me, however, you use a static blogging engine - or simply like to tinker - then you will need to create your own sharing tool.
I use Second Crack as my blogging engine, which recently added the ability to execute post-publication hooks. I created two such hooks, one for Twitter and one for Facebook. I will focus on how to auto-post on Facebook. The method will be sufficiently generic so that you can adapt it to your particular needs. The process consists of three main steps: creating an app on Facebook, obtaining proper credentials, and using those credentials to post on Facebook.
To auto-post on Facebook, you must first create an app. Go to the Facebook Developer site to begin. Click on the “Create New App” button in the top right corner. You will be presented with the following prompt. Enter a name for your app and continue.
Next, you will be presented with a form to customize the app. The header gives important details about your app’s credentials. Write down the App ID and App Secret as you will need them later.
Next, in the Basic Info section, add your email address and the domain from which you will be posting. Below is how mine looked.
Finally, you have to declare how the app integrates with Facebook. In my case, and likely yours, content is posted from a website. Choose the website option and enter the URL of your site. Again, here is how mine looked.
Save the changes. You have now successfully created an app on Facebook.
Now that you have created the app, you’ll want to use it for sharing content on Facebook from your site. To do this, you need to authorize the app to post on your behalf. Generally after an app has been authorized, the user must be logged into Facebook in order to verify permissions. We can avoid this by requesting a long-term authorization token. The token is then accepted by Facebook as an alternative to an active session.
To authorize the app, you will create a simple php webpage. First, you will need to download the free Facebook PHP API and place it in the same directory as the webpage. Once you have done that, create a file named fb_authorize.php, enter the following code, and then upload it to your site:
<?php
//-- Facebook API --//
require_once 'facebook-php-sdk/src/facebook.php';
//-- App Information --//
$app_id = 'YOUR APP ID';
$app_secret = 'YOUR APP SECRET';
// Create Facebook Instance
$facebook = new Facebook(array(
'appId' => $app_id,
'secret' => $app_secret,
'cookie' => true
));
//-- To Facebook (Notice we ask for offline access) --//
if (empty($_REQUEST))
{
$loginUrl = $facebook->getLoginUrl(array(
'canvas' => 1,
'fbconnect' => 0,
'scope' => 'offline_access,publish_stream'
));
header('Location:'.$loginUrl );
}
//-- From Facebook --//
else
{
$user = $facebook->getUser();
if($user)
{
$access_token = $facebook->getAccessToken();
echo "Your access token is: <br><br>$access_token";
}
}
?>
Visit the page in your browser1, which will forward you to Facebook. This is where you will grant permission to your app. Facebook will then send you back to your webpage, which will print out your offline authorization token. Save this token and put it with your App ID and App Secret. You now have obtained all of the necessary credentials to post on Facebook.
Now that you have created an app with sufficient privileges, posting to Facebook from your site is easy. Here is an example:
<?php
//-- Facebook API --//
require_once 'facebook-php-sdk/src/facebook.php';
//-- App Information --//
$app_id = 'YOUR APP ID';
$app_secret = 'YOUR APP SECRET';
$access_token = 'YOUR ACCESS TOKEN';
// Create Facebook Instance
$facebook = new Facebook(array(
'appId' => $app_id,
'secret' => $app_secret,
'cookie' => true
));
//-- Customizable options to send Facebook --//
$req = array(
'access_token' => $access_token,
'message' => 'Jeremy Gibbs is a handsome lad!");
//-- Send post to Facebook --//
$res = $facebook->api('/me/feed', 'POST', $req);
?>
I have shown you how to create a tool suitable for auto-posting to Facebook. You created an app, granted it permission, obtained all required credentials, which you then used to post content. The creation and authorization steps are only required once. After that, you can easily customize when, where, and how content is posted to Facebook.
If you enjoyed this tutorial or have any questions, feel free to contact me via email or follow me on Twitter.
It is important that this page be located on the server that you specified when creating the app. So if you chose http://yourdomain.com, then the page should be somewhere like http://yourdomain.com/fb_authorize.php. ↩︎
Patricia Cohen reports on an interesting case of historical fraud involving a famous painting of Mary Todd Lincoln.
The story behind the picture was compelling: Mrs. Lincoln had Mr. Carpenter secretly paint her portrait as a surprise for the president, but he was assassinated before she had a chance to present it to him.
Now it turns out that both the portrait and the touching tale accompanying it are false.
Nick Bradbury elucidates the problem posed by privacy violations, such as those committed by Path.
Repeated privacy violations will force mobile OS vendors to show more warnings, scaring customers away from trying new apps.
A big reason that Apple has been so successful in marketing mobile apps is that people aren’t afraid to use the software. Whether you agree with Apple’s closed app distribution system, the result is an environment largely devoid of the problems that plagued the PC industry.
However, if developers continue to play fast-and-loose with users’ data, then that environment will wilt. People will be inundated with permission prompts, fail to even read what is being asked, and eventually grow tired (or worried) about using mobile applications. The intimate relationship people share with their devices will be irrevocably damaged. Apple should address this - and quickly.
Zach Epstein, Boy Genius Report, reporting that Apple may soon release a 7" iPad:
Apple is once again rumored to be going against the wishes of late co-founder Steve Jobs as it prepares to launch a 7-inch version of its popular iPad tablet. While speaking with Computerworld, Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil said that Apple may be preparing to launch two new products following the imminent release of the iPad 3.
Color me extremely skeptical. I would bet the farm that Apple won’t release a 7" iPad - at least not anytime soon. Why? Firstly, Steve Jobs made it quite clear that Apple wasn’t interested in shipping one:
The reason we [won’t] make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit that price point, it’s because we think the screen is too small to express the software. As a software driven company we think about the software strategies first.
He later expounded on the point:
One would naturally think that 7-inch screens would offer 70% of the benefits of a 10-inch screen. But remember screen measurements are diagonal, so in fact it is only 45pc as large. That’s not sufficient for great tablet apps, in our opinion. It would be meaningless unless they included sandpaper to sand down your fingers to quarter their size. We’ve been testing interfaces and understand this stuff. There are limits before users can reliably tab, pinch or flick on a screen. Ten inches is the minimal space you need to create great tablet apps.
Despite analysts’ claims that there is large demand for mid-size tablets, the devices haven’t exactly taken off. Analysts further claim that Apple must now make a 7" iPad to compete with Amazon. In fact, the most successful 7" tablet thus far is likely Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Despite Amazon’s success, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the Fire had no noticeable effect on iPad sales.
We’ve looked at the data on a weekly basis after Amazon launched the Fire. There wasn’t an obvious effect on the numbers either plus nor minus. We’ve heard from customers who looked at the Fire and decided to buy an iPad, but whether that’s happening on a large basis, I don’t know. Looking at our data in the US, there was no obvious change in the data for what it’s worth.
Finally, analysts think that Tim Cook will steer Apple away from Steve Jobs’ vision for the company. One must only read Cook’s latest response to the possibility of a 7" iPad to see that isn’t true. In fact, he restated exactly what Jobs said two years ago:
The ecosystem for iPad is in a class by itself, we strongly believe in optimizing applications from day one to take advantage of the larger canvas.
Apple isn’t going to release something for the sake of entering a particular market. They have been clear that it doesn’t feel tablet software is optimized on screens less than 9.7". They have been clear that testing showed a degraded user experience on these in-between devices. The market has shown that there really isn’t high demand for mid-range tablets. Most importantly, they have been consistent in their message amidst a leadership change.
It is true that Apple has often stated one thing (not making an iPad) while doing another down the line (making the iPad). However, I have a feeling this isn’t one of those times. The analysts who claim Apple has to release a 7" iPad are likely the same ones who said Apple had to release a netbook. In both cases, the devices simply do not match Apple’s goals as a company - namely to make great products and big profits.
All of that aside, what is the biggest indicator that one isn’t on the horizon? They already made one - in 2010 - and chose not to ship it.
The fact is, Apple already has a 7-inch iPad. They have had one of the smaller devices since they started making the 9.7-inch iPad that we have now.
[ … ]
The next time someone says they believe Apple is beginning work on a 7-inch iPad, you will know they are wrong because it’s already done.
For Apple, size matters.
Yesterday, Jason Kincaid caught VEVO with their pants down. Remember, VEVO - the consortium comprised of the RIAA’s most prominent members - the ones who backed SOPA so that the U.S. could catch the big bad digital pirates?
Today, their CEO responded to claims that VEVO illegally pirated ESPN content during the Sundance Film Festival. M.G. Siegler offers a spot-on translation of the apology and examines how the company proved why their industry is so messed up.
Why would VEVO pirate content? Because it was easier than getting it legally. This is the actual root cause of piracy online. It’s not shady, masked individuals at swanky events commandeering computers to pirate for the hell of it. It’s VEVO employees. It’s everyone.
Dan Rowinski, Read Write Web:
In 2003, Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto created a time-lapse video map of every nuclear bomb explosion in the world between 1945 and 1998. There were 2053 explosions in that time, including the tests that the United States made during the “Manhattan Project” and the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ostensibly ended World War II. The 14-minute long video (below) is a beautiful and terrifying look at the nuclear era that defined world politics, warfare and humanity for more than half a century.
The video is elegantly disturbing. For a country that has constantly decried the nuclear capabilities of other countries, the United States was responsible for over half of the 2053 explosions.