First, don’t wait until the last minute!

Upgrading Applescripts: This was interesting. In basic authentication you could just use curl, but with oath this was not the case. It turns out the solution was (for me) to use twurl – source. The twurl site does a good job of explaining the process. Basically, install twurl (in terminal) with:

sudo gem install twurl

and then authorise twurl with:

$ twurl authorize --consumer-key the-key --consumer-secret the-secret

Where the-key and the-secret are obtained from the Twitter Developer site, and are specific for your Twitter account.

Once the-key and the-secret are added to twurl you are prompted for a pin that is obtained via the Twitter Developer site. All fairly straight forward.

To use twurl from the command-line you just type:

twurl -d "status=This is a twurl test" /1/statuses/update.xml

which will post ‘This is a twurl test’ to the Twitter account you used to set up twurl on the Twitter Developer site.

You can then use twurl in your AppleScript by using a ‘do shell script’. For example:

set results to do shell script "twurl -d " & twitter_status & " /1/statuses/update.xml"

where twitter_status could be ‘status=Testing twurl with a location&lat=37.7821120598956&long=-122.400612831116′, which would ‘geolocate’ (geocode) the Twitter post ‘Testing twurl with a location’ with the latitude and longitude coordinates 37.7821120598956 and -122.400612831116, respectively.

Upgrading the blogs: I use the excellent Twitter Tools By Crowd Favorite, these work great. Twitter Tools post tweets of new blog posts, and log tweets back to your blog. This all worked great with basic authentication and version 2.4 seems to work very well with oauth. Crowd Favorite have done a very good job with their instructions to walk you through the process of getting your site registered at Twitter Developer, and getting all the various keys and tokens needed to get oauth working. Thanks….

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The website was good. It had all the right information, i.e. you could find out about the group, when and where they were playing etc., but the site was full of technical errors and problems such as:

• Dark text on a dark background (even when some text was light coloured) which was impossible to read
• Lack of search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Lack of updates
• Guest book didn’t work

Now, the group is comprised of clearly very intelligent and talented people, and they even handed out postcards at the end of the show promoting the group and listing their website. But the website lets them down.

This isn’t the first website for a small company or group I have seen with problems.

So, the question is: why? Why do small companies/groups allow this to happen? Why don’t companies/groups look after their ‘primary’ means of communicating with the world? First impressions and all that…

My guess it is cost. The small company/group pays a small fortune (for them) to get the website up, and then feels they can leave it. They have done their job, and the site will do its job. Unfortunately it won’t…. It needs updating, and refreshing every once in awhile.

What MMISoftware can offer: Very reasonably priced ‘site overhaul’ and ‘update’ service. We will go in to your site and blow away the cobwebs that are preventing your good site from looking great. We will provide search engine optimisation (SEO) and advice, and carry out any changes needed to improve the look and feel of your site. (We will also make sure your site is register with the search engines, Google, Ask, Yahoo, Bing etc.) You will end up with a site that may not look radically different, but it will be up to date, easier to maintain, load better in to web browsers, and have a consistent look and feel across the site. We will also give you advice, and help, on promoting your site and helping you get the ‘word out’ and develop a relationship with your customers or audience.

What MMISoftware can’t offer: We are not a ‘design studio’. We cannot design your site. If you do a design, we can code (write) it so it appears on the web, and we can provide guidance on best layout etc., but we don’t do basic site design.

So, if you are a small company or group with a website that is feeling a bit old and tired please get in touch. Our contact details can be found on our contact page.

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With the release of iPhone iOS4 last week the following MMISoftware iPhone Apps have been upgraded for the new operating system:

chemCal – (download | more information) – a basic chemistry calculator for molarity and dilutions calculations.

bmrPounds (free) – (download | more information) – a basal metabolic rate (BMR) calculator that works using pounds (lb) for weight, and feet (ft) and inches (in) for height

bmrKilo (free) – (download | more information) – a basal metabolic rate (BMR) calculator that works using kilograms (kilos;kg) for weight, and meters (m) for height.

bmrStone (free) – (download | more information) – a basal metabolic rate (BMR) calculator that works using stones (st) and pounds (lb) for weight, and feet (ft) and inches (in) for height.

bmiKilo (free) – (download | more information) – a body mass index (BMI) calculator that works using kilograms (kilos;kg) for weight, and meters (m) for height.

bmiStone (free) – (download | more information) – a body mass index (BMI) calculator that works using stones (st) and pounds (lb) for weight, and feet (ft) and inches (in) for height.

bmiPounds (free) – (download | more information) – a body mass index (BMI) calculator that works using pounds (lb) for weight, and feet (ft) and inches (in) for height.

(Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the amount of energy your body requires per day to maintain current weight. If dieting, or training, you need to know this value so your calorific intake can be controlled. Body Mass Index (BMI) is an indication of whether or not your weight is ideal.)

Other MMISoftware iPhone Apps will be updated over the coming weeks.

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