• Facebook announced to it’s developers that starting from October 1st, all apps must migrate to OAuth 2.0 for authentication and obtain a SSL certificate for use. Or else the apps would get disabled. Read more detailed explanation in the Facebook Developer Roadmap.
• Now this applies to Sri Lanka only. I got this SMS from Ada Derana today morning which has been the buzz for sometime. “Fastening of seat belts in front seats of all cars & dual purpose vehicles with English number plates is compulsory from tomorrow”. It’s a good move to make it compulsory, but I doubt for how long this will be enforced.
• Now into Cricket. As has always been the practice, changes to the playing conditions for Tests, One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) take effect from Saturday 1 October, the ICC has confirmed. Read More..

So what’s the deal with October 1st. Any other changes I might have missed?

Doing this using Legacy FBML code is very simple. The following code will display different HTML content based on whether the user Likes the page or not. If the user doesn’t like the page, a message to Like the page will be displayed. If the user Likes the page already, the full content will be displayed.

<fb:visible-to-connection>
    Show content to the user
    <fb:else>
        <div style="position:absolute; top:0; left:0;">
               Like the page inorder to view the content.
        </div>
    </fb:else>
</fb:visible-to-connection>

But the case is not that simple because Facebook has deperecated the use FBML since March 2011. This is what Facebook has to say.

While looking at alternate methods to get this feature working, I came across a very easy solution. If you are good with a server-side scripting language like PHP, this solution is for you. Of course you should build your own Facebook application and create a custom Tab in your application which could be added to a Page.

Goto the Facebook Developers Page and create a new application. Fill in the necessary fields and Save the changes. The URL entered on the ‘Tab URL’ field is the location where Facebook will fetch the content when the Tab is clicked. Technically this is where your script will be hosted. Now add the App you created to your Facebook Page. You will see the Tab visible on your page. Create a PHP page with a Hello World message in the URL you provided as Tab URL. When you cick on the Tab, if you see the Hello World message, then its time to write our script.

When Facebook requests our script, we need to extract the signed_request that comes along with the request. To do that we will need the Facebook php-sdk. Download, extract it and copy the src directory to the location where your script is. Here is the script that will provide content based on whether the user Likes the Page or not.

<?php
require 'src/facebook.php';
 
// Create our Application instance (replace this with your appId and secret).
$facebook = new Facebook(array(
  'appId' => '2324983201930103',
  'secret' => 'f5wjeu72hmxjf981da84jpwo02sdvge3',
));
 
$theRequest = $facebook->getSignedRequest();
 
if($theRequest["page"]["liked"] == 1){
    echo "The real content";
}
else{
    echo "Like our page to view";
}
?>

Happy Coding!

Replace the appID with yours.

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script type="text/javascript"> 
  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
        FB.init({appId: '123456789123', status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true});
        window.setTimeout(function() {
            FB.Canvas.setAutoResize();
        }, 250);
  };
  (function() {
        var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true;
        e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';
        document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
  }());
</script>

After more research, I realized that this problem isn’t specific to Facebook, but iframes. Since the iframe was loading a web page from a different domain, IE8′s default settings prevented loading of 3rd party cookies. To get this working, I had to setup a P3P Cookie Privacy Policy according to P3P Specifications. In PHP, this can be done by sending this header on top of the script.

<?php
header('P3P: CP="CAO PSA OUR"');
?>

That’s it. All problems automagically solved..

Yesterday morning I suddenly realized that there is a sudden flow of SMS from Twitter. It was not from the tweeps I have subscribed to receive SMS tweets. Only indication was the @ mention. This is when I realized that Twitter might have activated this long awaited feature. All the doubts were cleared when I read Twitter blog : Instant Notifications.

There were mixed reactions from the tweeps since this feature was activated. While there is an option to enable/disable this service, my questions were not limited to that.

Forget about receiving only @ mentions, some even consider subscribing to a user’s tweet via SMS quite frightening and annoying. For most of us, Twitter has become an important part of our day to day lives. We often see Twitter conversions even among the tweeps physically sitting next to each other. There are tweeps in Sri Lanka who actually tweet every 2 mins. How scary would it be to subscribe to their tweets via SMS? Similarly the users who engage in long conversations will find receiving @ mentions via SMS quite annoying. The not so conversation type user will find it useful since it’s in instant notification while even on the move.

My take on this feature

I’m quite in the grey area. I’m one of those who wanted this feature desperately. I’m not the type who gets involved in long Twitter conversations more often. So I would have this feature enabled. But when I do engage in a conversation it can get quite annoying. So its a mixed thing where a hard and fast rule cannot be implemented. So I will go for a test run and see what the outcome is. There is also an option to receive @ mentions only from the people I follow, which can eliminate the unnecessary noise, but again will be one of those features you would keep it enabled to see how it goes. Much thanks to Twitter for enabling this service. Let the fun begin…

The idea of using Twitter to share Traffic updates just spurred when @induNan posted this on Twitter:
“So.. Does anyone know? Is there a traffic update/alert #Twitter a/c or hashtag for Colombo or Srilanka??”.

I’m one of those daily victims of heavy traffic, so I was quite excited about it. “If there isn’t one, why don’t we determine one?”, chipped in @mack005. After a bit of tweeting among the rest of the tweeps, it has been decided that #TrafficSL hashtag will be used to update and track tweets related to the traffic situation around Sri Lanka, specially around Colombo.

I personally believe that this will benefit most of us despite where we are. We have a good Twitter community in Sri Lanka and TweetupSL was a clear indication of that. If we join hands and tweet whenever there is a traffic situation, everyone will benefit out of it.

If you are traveling on a bus, your tweets might not divert the bus, but will definitely help someone taking the same route. Same applies if you are even taking a walk. There will always be a time that you will divert your route coz someone tweeted about it. A word of caution though if you are driving. Using a Mobile Phone while driving is a serious offense. So you have to be extremely careful before you tweet. If its heavy traffic, make sure to tweet only while you are stopped in traffic. If you make your way out of the traffic and want to tweet about it make sure to stop on the side of the road and then tweet about it. It’s always your safety first, which also means the safety of others as well.

Traffic updates have been coming in already.. Most of the tweets are about spreading the word, but I saw few tweeting about the traffic status in their area. A search for #TrafficSL will give you all the updates. There will be a special segment about #TrafficSL in our next meetup of Refresh Colombo.

If you are new to Twitter or haven’t activated Twitter on your Mobile, you can read the post “Tweets via SMS: Now active for Sri Lanka” which I published some time back.

Tarffic updates on Radio

I listen to Yes FM Morning Show on my way to work, coz of the ‘Traffic Updates’ segment. Listeners send in their traffic updates via SMS to Yes FM. The RJs (Shaq and Shey) will read through them (obviously the ones that make more sense) during their show so that the listeners in that area can take alternate routes. It actually helps. But lately I have seen it fading away and there are hardly any updates flowing in.

My long story short

Colombo Traffic on Nazly's Photostream

I have a 15 KM drive home, and the traffic is worst as it can get. Without traffic I can get home in 20 mins. But if its during peak hours it takes about 1 hour and 15 mins average. There are about 3-4 main routes I could use. The best is always jammed and the less jammed are always long and bumpy. When I hit a traffic jam, I try to squeeze my way through by-roads to avoid traffic. It can pay off well but at the same time it can lead you to more trouble. It can always be better if I knew the situation before hand so that I can take the best possible route.

Recently a company here in Sri Lanka launched a GPS Satellite Navigation System at a very affordable cost. I was very much interested in it. It has most of the roads around Sri Lanka mapped and gives us directions while driving. The product is good. While it also suggested alternate routes, it didn’t have the feature I was looking for, traffic updates. Most of us know the roads and alternate routes. If we go to a totally new place, still we manage to roam around and ask a random bloke whether we are on the right track. So the solution we require is not static. It’s dynamic and requires real-time information.

Lets hope the Twitter community will contribute their tweets to a worthy cause which will save most of our time we spend on the road. Keep tweeting your traffic updates.. Don’t forget to add #TrafficSL

Most importantly you won’t receive updates to your mobile from all the people you are following. I really can’t imagine how scary that would be. You will need to set the option to receive updates via SMS to your phone from the person you are following on Twitter. Twitter Phone FAQs has all the answers to your questions. Check how To Turn Mobile Updates On and Off (via Web or SMS) page to subscribe/unsubscribe to receive updates via SMS.

When I joined Twitter in 2007, we had the option to send and receive updates to Twitter via SMS through the International number (long code). But when time moved on and more people joined, Twitter limited this functionality by allowing short codes only to few countries which supported two-way (sending and receiving) text-messaging. Rest of the countries only had the option of using long codes which supported only one-way (sending only) text-messaging.

I’m sure this is a big news to the Twitter addicts in Sri Lanka. This move will also make Sri Lankans to start using Twitter  in a more fun and efficient way. The Official Twitter Text Commands page will be guide you to get going.

While I have most of my friends on Twitter and have also have got connected to new people, some of my friends actually don’t really get it. For them Twitter is less interactive than Facebook and most of the time they get confused with the two. A lot of them join Twitter and post updates for a couple of days and thats it. They go missing completely. In my opinion Twitter and Facebook have two different models and they must choose one or use both in a selective manner to serve their purpose. Facebook is a way to communicate only within your friends you know on a close environment but Twitter can be used to communicate to the rest of the world. Search Engines and other tools pull off your Tweets and do wonders with it while Facebook model doesn’t allow this. Twitter too has protected accounts but it really doesn’t serve the whole purpose of using Twitter. So as I said earlier, it all depends on how you use these services to serve your purpose.

Here is a video that explains the whole Twitter thing in plain English. Hopefully it will encourage few of you to start Tweeting.

I think its high time to move on. I’m planning it to make it a portal for the Sri Lankan geeks. The aggregator will remain but just be a part of the site. I won’t spoil things up but you will know when it happens. When I launched lkgeeks.org, my initial plan was to keep it limited to FOSS Blogs. But with the revamp it may change. So all the geeks who represent Sri Lanka will get equal opportunity to get listed and share their Blog posts and Tweets. Also there would be some sort of filtering that will take place. Non-technical posts/Tweets have to be filtered while @ Replies will be taken off from the Twitter feed. I haven’t really figured out this process yet but I’m just trying to plan things out and you will also know what you can expect. Its a mixed thought and I welcome your feedback on this.

Since Twitter has introduced the Lists feature, I have created a List for lkgeeks.org and once the site is revamped, the Twitter aggregator will be based on this list. I made a tweet about this sometime back. If you are not listed, send me Direct Message on Twitter to get listed.

Also I will be adding a News/Events section. This way everyone can track events around Sri Lanka. Its something I can’t do alone so any voluntary help is much appreciated.

The good thing is that I have a lot of ideas but executing them doesn’t really happen most of the time mainly due to lack of time I get to work on these ideas. You will see changes happening soon. Would love to hear your thoughts as well.

Early this month I put up lkgeeks.org a Blog Aggregator for Sri Lankan FOSS/geek Blogs. This site is not intended to compete with other Sri Lankan Blog Aggregators but its goal is to let everyone read Blog posts only from the Blogs of FOSS/geek Bloggers. I'm a fan of Kottu, but it consists of Blogs from various categories and its too crowded. Its difficult to filter out Blogs that sounds more technical. So that kinda influenced me to start this site.

If you fall into the category of a SriLankan FOSS/geek Blogger send me the URL of your blog to nazly dot ahmed at gmail dot com. There is a review process and once its approved it will be added to lkgeeks.org.

But then there are few other services I use on a day-to-day basis to share news, photos and articles on the Web. I use Flickr to share my photos. I Digg. I share news and articles on Google Reader. I share my bookmarks at del.icio.us and the list will surely grow. I already have the Twitter badge on the blog. I was displaying the Flickr photos but removed it for now coz the Flickr API was giving some problems. I surely can incorporate the rest of the services into my blog using the APIs, badges or feeds provided by them. In fact I was in the attempt to do that but have second thoughts and wonder whether it distract the main blog itself.

Now I have a problem. There are too many services I'm using. I need to syndicate all of them in one place. If you are one my friends in Facebook you could easily track all my updates coz I have added all the necessary applications for all the services I use. But then you need to be my friend. There is a bit of an urgency to get everything in one place. So I started working on building a Website for this purpose.

In the process I came across FriendFeed, a service that will grab all my updates from the services I use. You can check my FriendFeed page to get all the latest updates on all the services I use. So I guess I will settle with this for now. But it doesn't mean that I will stop the development on my Website. It will be up soon.

My current situation reminds me of a saying I found in an article that I read.

Are we nerds just making solutions to solve problems created by our own solutions?

I guess the answer is Yes based on the increasing number of Web 2.0 services. Any thoughts?