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Na wat heen en weer testen heb ik onlangs een appje gelanceerd op WCWDH.com (short for WhatCanWeDoHere), die je locatie opvraagd en vervolgens op een aantal webdiensten speurt maar naar tips, bezienswaardigheden, optredens, recente tweets en google buzzes. Je kan de pagina ook op je Safari,…

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21/07 2010

The ‘@’ Sign in different languages is mostly related to animals

So here in Holland we call that little sign in the middle of an email address ‘the monkeytail’ due to its forms. To us Dutchies as common as the fact that water is wet.

Here are some common names of the ‘@’ - sign in other languages:

In the Czech Republic it is called the ‘Zavinac’: A rollmops.
In Danmark it is called the ‘Snabel’: Elephant’s Trunk.
In Finland it’s all cat related, they call it ‘Kissanhnta’: Cat’s Tail.
In French they sometimes called it ‘Escargot’: Snail.
In Hungary they call it the ‘Kukac’: A worm.
In Taiwan, Manderin Chinese, it’s the ‘xiao lao-shu’: Little mouse.
In Russia they call it the ‘sobachka’: Little dog.
In Turkey they call it the ‘kulak’: An ear.

Read more about the ‘Natural History of The @ Sign here

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13/07 2010

Three cool APIs I use

I love APIs. Thanks to them, information is unleash to the public, more public than it would initially reached. By doing so other people (developers) can enrich the data disclosed by the specific API with other sources or make views on top of the pile of information (i.a.w.: app’s).

As a small hommage, I present you three of the cool APIs I use for both Playlistify and projects for Open & Sociaal, in random order:

Freebase :: Freebase Developer Home

Freebase is a large collaborative knowledge base. It is an online collection of structured data harvested from many sources, including individual ‘wiki’ contribution.

source: wikipedia

I think Freebase is great because it contains so many topics on a vast variety of subjects. At the time of writing, according to themselves, the Freebase database contains ‘more than 10 million topics, more than 3000 types, and more than 30,000 properties’.

The API uses a nice JSON exchange format which you query with MQL, the Metaweb Query Language. They offer geosearch, and they have Acre, their own Application hosting platform in which you can run special build javascript driven Freebase apps!

Freebase also offers data submission via the API so if you have a set of constructive public data available, you can commit it back to the Freebase project.

I use the Freebase API for Playlistify.org

Flickr :: Flickr API Home

Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community

source: wikipedia

Flickr is home of quality photos and Flickr’s API exposes lots of data, including geo data. Flickr’s API has extensive search possibilities in which you can filter queries based upon tags, locations, date-taken. Flickr also exposes the EXIF data, if embedded in the original uploaded files, which consists of information about the camera model, shutter-speed used, flash, etc.

I’ve used Flickr API as a test in this ‘Flickr Spy thingie’ and for the Miniblue Helmets Project, in which Flickr actually hosts a copy of the project in a set.

Hyves :: Hyves API Home

Hyves is the biggest social networking site of The Netherlands and has been founded in October 2004

source: wikipedia

The Hyves API was publically launched in February 2008. Since its initial launch the API celebrated a few birthdays with new version releases. The API is so compelling, it has functions for almost everything visitors can do on the regular Hyves site. Which is smart, because they use it themselves for their numerous apps for mobile, television, psp’s, etc.

The Hyves API returns in XML, JSON and various libraries and classes have been written by the public, so you don’t have to start coding from scratch.

I have been using the Hyves API in various projects, which are listed at Open-Sociaal.nl

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05/05 2010