Displaying articles with tag news

DC Commuting Information on Twitter

Posted by joe, Sat Oct 06 15:03:00 UTC 2007

I speak from experience, when I say that commuting in and out of Washington, DC can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are many routes in and out of the city. Unfortunately, you don't often know where the traffic jams are until you're in the middle of them.

Now, there are two new Twitter-based tools to help commuters get in and out of our nation's capital more efficiently:

  • For drivers, there is Twitter: thebeltway, which lists up-to-date traffic alerts from Traffic.com and Yahoo! Maps.
  • And for commuters who take public transportation, there is Twitter: WMATA to let us know when there are delays on the Metro.

All you need is a cell phone and a Twitter account, and you can adjust your trip in or out of the city, accordingly.

0 comments | Filed Under: API Featured Integration | Tags: news

Integration between Twitter and Facebook Status

Posted by joe, Sun Sep 30 11:01:00 UTC 2007

You can now update your Facebook status via Twitter.

After the launch of an official Twitter application on Facebook, observations on several blogs noting the similarity between Twitter updates and Facebook statuses, and even a quickly-silenced hack for integrating the two services, blognation Japan reports that the much-anticipated integration of the two platforms has begun.

Previously, you could update your Twitter through Facebook; now the communication goes in both directions.

Facebook has also taken steps to solve the problem of Twitter updates flooding the already-crowded News Feed on its homepages:

Please be aware if you Twitter often, the updates are NOT automatic. The Twitter app in Facebook updates approximately every 30 minutes or so which means if you Twitter often, every update may not immediately appear right away.

Note: I think it does update both Twitter and Facebook status immediately if you post your update via the Twitter FB app itself, instead of Twitterrific or the like.

It appears that the only way to disable this new feature, once you've enabled it, is to go to the Facebook application settings page, edit your settings for Twitter, and uncheck the box that says "Status Updates: Application may update my status without notifying me." To re-enable it, you have to go back to the Twitter app itself.

Also, this does not solve the problem of updates that would be nonsensical outside of Twitter (e.g. direct messages to your Twitter friends).

Definitely a work-in-progress, but updates that fit within the vanilla "status update" paradigm will work well.

For example, my latest update — "Going to Hard Times Cafe for chili and to meet some local entrepreneurs." — fits seamlessly into both Facebook's "Joe is ..." and Twitter's "What are you doing?" contexts.

7 comments | Filed Under: API Integration News Twitter.com | Tags: news

Weather via Twitter, but not for DC

Posted by joe, Sat Sep 22 15:01:00 UTC 2007

There is a feed of New York City weather updates (Twitter: wxnyc), and other cities get one too. But, alas, nothing for Washington, DC. Even little Austin, Texas gets one (Twitter: wxaustin).

I tried guessing the account — wxdc, wxwashington, wxwashingtondc — to no avail. And there is no contact information or blog URL. Does anyone know who does these weather Twitter accounts?

0 comments | Filed Under: | Tags: news