Another milestone July 4th, 2011: Desi and I complete our first “together” Mountain Bike excursion today at Cross Timbers in Mineral Wells, Texas. PHEW! It was blazing hot. No injuries on this trek other than our bikes. She started off with a flat. Took me about 5 minutes to fix. Now up and rolling. We [...]
Subway Art
Desi found something really neat online, called Subway art. People are taking special moments of their lives and putting them it into random styles of text in various different formats. This may be old news to many of you but it was new to me. Desi looks at me and says, “can you do this?” [...]
SASHA -The best things in life are free
So Desi and I picked up our new Akita one week ago. She was given the name Sasha Bear but comes to “NO!” and “STOP THAT!” Those words are most frequently spoken to her. Seriously, she is a wonderful fit. We bought the usual treats and toys but, like her, the best things in life [...]
Flash by Z voted SOTY by ONZCDA
The largest honor one could hope to achieve online is a SOTY (site of the year). We thank ONZCDA and their wonderful staff for granting this honor to Flash by Z.
“O.N.Z.C.D.A staff have completed assessments of FlashByZ and it gives us immense pleasure to be able to award you our 2010 Web Site of the Year award. We congratulate you on the excellent work you presented to us, encourage you in your endeavors and look forward to spending many hours surfing your web site in the future.”
Catcher in the Rye
What is the deal with “Catcher in the Rye” and serial killers? Mark David Chapman’s shooting of John Lennon (Chapman was arrested with a copy of the book), John Hinckley, Jr.’s assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, Robert John Bardo’s shooting of Rebecca Schaeffer, and other murders have also been associated with the novel. I just [...]
Geotagging and Twitter
In August this year Twitter changed the way you can add statuses to your timeline by using an external script. If you would like to use your own PHP script (for instance) to update your timeline (or to let users update their own timeline) you have to use the OAuth protocol to do so. OAuth is an authentication protocol that allows users to approve application to act on their behalf without sharing their password.
Less known is a feature of the Twitter API that gives only access to yourself to update your own timeline. This is called the “single outh token” method. You can use it to update your timeline everytime you add a new article to your blog. But, did you know it’s quite easy to add your geo-location to your post as well? It’s quite easy to pass on the latitude and longitude together with your status update. You would get something like this:
You will have to register a Twitter application on the Twitter Development Site but that’s quite easy and well documented. You can login here using your normal Twitter account. After having done so you can download the Twitter OAuth Class from Abraham Williams (@abraham). This PHP class does all the work for you. All you have to do is feed it with the information you want in your status update (remember the maximum of 140 characters)
Here’s the code you can use.
United Way Boo Run 2010
I reiterate – “Married life is bliss and it has really caused me to become rather lackadaisical about posting. We participated in the United Way Boo Run back in late October and I am just now posting… that is lax.” “I must try to be more diligent in getting local news and happenings out on the wire. Here ye, here ye… the run is complete and neither of us died.”
Clark Garden 5K and Fall Festival 2010
Married life is bliss and it has really caused me to become rather lackadaisical about posting. We participated in the Clark Garden Fall Festival run back in early October and I am just now posting… that is lax. I feel like a catholic stating, “it has been umpteen years since my last confession.” In my case, it has never happened but I must try to be more diligent in getting local news and happenings out on the wire. Here ye, here ye… the run is complete and neither of us died.
Sweet Potatoes – Sweet Carbs
Adapted from and inspired by Mark Sisson at Mark’s Daily Apple. My wife will tell you straight-up that one of my favorite foods is a sweet potato. I carry one to work nearly daily as part of a primal lunch. In Mark’s words, “Quick! What’s a suitable, Primal source of post-workout carbohydrates?” Primal enthusiast will tell you without batting an eye, “yams and sweet potatoes”. If, for whatever reason, you need some extra carbs “sweet potatoes and yams” are the answer.
ONZCDA Site of the Month award
Flash by Z has achieved another BIG honor! Laudation: “After achieving our Platinum award on 2010-10-11 the FlashbyZ web site has now achieved the O.N.Z.C.D.A Site of the Month award. As we have stated previously, FlashbyZ is an extremely user friendly, informative site splendid in its display of seeming simplicity however ‘under the skirt’ are [...]
