Just an update

I know that the blog updates have been a little slack this month, I was on vacation with my wife and daughter and then had to play catch up once I got back.

So far, August has been a busy month. Got some new updates for DBStract currently with some beta testers, and will be rolling them out shortly, as well, surveyti.me and foodizu will both see some new features coming shortly.

Otherwise, there hasn’t been a lot else to report, just been working a lot.

What I’ve been reading this week (July 31/2009)

Ok at long last, here is another list post before I leave for a week’s holidays.

Quick Function: Force iPhone redirection

I use one of my scripts to display a mobile version of my sites using the RSS feeds, but sometimes I have to redirect people automatically, so I usually use this piece of code somewhere:


$useragents = array ("iPhone","iPod","blackberry","palm","smartphone","iemobile");
$oniphone = false;
foreach ( $useragents as $useragent ) { if (eregi($useragent,$container)){ $oniphone = true; } }
if($oniphone){header("Location:/m/");exit;}

If I’m on a wordpress site, then the code is placed in my functions.php file for my theme. If I’m on another site, then I usually place it on a file I know will get called.

Generally, you can change it to look for a cookie if you choose to let people opt for the full version of your site, but otherwise, this code comes in handy.

proASM updated….

Over the weekend, I updated proASM to include support for Amazon’s new signed authentication request protocol that they are bringing online August 15th, 2009.

Amazon already enforces this protocol with their other AWS services so it was a matter of time til they enforced it with product feeds as well.

Basically, every request we send to Amazon, now includes an encrypted version of the URL request encoded with the user’s secret access key. On the Amazon side of things, it compares the certificate you sent with their encoded version and checks for a match. No match means no valid request.

A good lesson in Customer Service….

Ok, so I know this is getting posted everywhere, but being a fellow (originally) east coaster like Dave Caroll, I just had to post this video to show support for the experience he had with United Airlines.

I’ve flown quite a bit myself over the years, and this is one of the horrors you feel whenever you fly. With me, it’s usually laptops, with him, it was expensive guitars, and the feeling is still there for each of you who fly with an expensive belonging. I try to keep whatever I can with me, regardless what they have to say about it. But there have been times, when I have had to check an item, and had no hopes of it arriving in one piece. When it did, I was quite happy, and vowed never to check it again (and I haven’t).

You can listen to the song here, and read it for yourself on Dave’s website, but here’s the short and sweet version:

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world…

To get the full story, you can visit his site

There is also an interesting article about it on SEOMoz, which does get into the Customer Service lessons here.

Also, here’s a link to another youtube video, where Dave himself makes a statement regarding United Airlines quick response to his music video.

Finally, here’s United’s twitter replies regarding the incident, and showing that they have seemed to have settled their differences.

It’s nice if it’s all getting settled now, but it would have been even nicer if it hadn’t come down to having to take such measures in the first place. If United hadn’t dropped the ball like they did, things would have been over long ago.

Foodizu.com, new design online

Tonight, after many hours of long work, the new design for Foodizu.com is now online.

There are still some finishing touches to do, but it is coming along quite nicely so far.

Foodizu, a work in progress

Foodizu.com has been a work in progress of mine for the past 6 months or so, and I’ve seen it grow from a small cooking site to a site with nearly 200 members and over 4,000 recipes.

So to build on this work in progress, I am pleased to talk about some new changes in the works.

First of all, foodizu is getting a major facelift, and you will see that coming shortly. It’s a design that I’ve been working on for several months and happy with the result.

Second, some new features include the ability to add blog posts so you can write about your cooking experiences as well as adding your recipes.

The next new feature is that all users will receive a profile page that will list their recipes they have added, and blog posts they have made.

I am also almost finished the mobile version of foodizu, where you can find recipes from anywhere.

There are some other features in the works as well, but this seems like enough news for today.

What I’ve been reading this week (June 30/2009)

Ok,

I know I skipped a week for the list posts, wasn’t on purpose, was just really busy.

Anyhow, without further adieu, here you go:

Roger Stringer

Just an update

What I’ve been reading this week (July 31/2009)

Quick Function: Force iPhone redirection

proASM updated….

A good lesson in Customer Service….

Foodizu.com, new design online

Foodizu, a work in progress

What I’ve been reading this week (June 30/2009)

latest tweet

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