So, assuming anyone’s still reading this blog after the criminal neglect of the last month or so, I’ve been doing some tinkering.
See, in the real world, I’m a Javascript programmer, mostly making user interface dongles for web pages and that sort of thing. I thought it was about time that I gave my blog some love.
In the sidebar you’ll notice a new Twitter gadget that I’ve written. It pulls in stuff I’ve done tweeted and stuff wot other people have twutted at me. This way people can follow the sort of inane conversations that take place, because, you know, that’s what we do in the Web 2.0 world apparently. It’s been tested in Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer 7 and on Mac and PC . If you’re using something else then I’ve basically got my fingers crossed. Let me know if you spot anything weird.
For the technical people who read this blog (everyone else look away now!), it works using WordPress Cron, which pulls in my twitter and mentions feeds every ten minutes and stores them on my server. When someone visits this blog, those feeds are pulled in by the browser, then the HTML is generated automatically by the Javascript in the web page. It makes use of my own custom animation & javascript library – no jQuery – so the whole thing weighs just 4k.
I am, as always, available for third party contracting. 
Mark Reckons said...
12 Jul 09 at 5:29 pm
That Twitter thing is KEWL!
Stu said...
12 Jul 09 at 5:38 pm
Very nice, AND it works! It’s a much better idea than the normal Twitter widgets which only show your own feed – by showing other people’s replies you’re putting the emphasis on the conversations you have with other people, rather than just ‘microblogging’.
Couple of thoughts: you’ll almost definitely want a way to block certain usernames from appearing – at the moment anyone can just add ‘@charlottegore’ to a tweet and it’ll appear on your site. You might also want to filter out ‘RT @charlottegore’ and ‘via @charlottegore’ so it doesn’t end up being all repetitive
Secondly, you should add your ‘favourites’ feed to it as well, so that when you see a tweet you really like from someone else that, you can just click the little gold star and have it appear on your site. I reckon that would work really well.
And lastly, of course, you should so release it (or a cut down version of it) as a wordpress plugin. Although I can see why you wouldn’t, what with the whole open source GPL thing getting in the way…
Anyway, go you! Awesome stuff.
Charlotte Gore said...
12 Jul 09 at 6:11 pm
Cheers guys
I will definitely see about blocking the Retweets (good plan!). Don’t know about replies. I mean, anyone can write anything on this blog anyway assuming they get past the spam filter.
Like the favourites idea too.. hmm so many ideas, so little time!
Oh, for fun, run your mouse up and down over my blog roll for niftyness
Niklas Smith said...
12 Jul 09 at 9:18 pm
As Mark says, it’s cool! Not sure whether the glowing red eyes are an improvement though….
Bryan said...
13 Jul 09 at 2:47 am
Ummm… Interesting, Charlotte. Now please go and fisk something, which is why we all drop by here.
Andrew said...
13 Jul 09 at 3:19 pm
Works on Chrome and Iceweasel on Linux as well. You win the internet.
Ex-SuperiorLibraryAssistant said...
14 Jul 09 at 4:43 pm
I understood not a word of that posting, but if I was not already married…
Ex-SuperiorLibraryAssistant said...
14 Jul 09 at 4:46 pm
PS: I, for one, like the “evil” red eyes…it’s like something from Stephen King or Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica…*sigh*…