Monday, August 24, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Google Voice SMS pushed to Iphone using Prowl + Python
I have been using Google voice for sometime. I am having a hard time figuring out what it could be useful for however. I like their SMS feature and use it to shed load from my phone company's messaging plan. There is a major drawback to using Google Voice for SMS though. Google does not allow you to send email or other notifications when you receive an SMS. So you will have to visit Google Voice using your browser to check for SMS messages.
This is probably something Google left out so it does not anger phone companies. I can see how people will switch to using Google SMS if email notifications were sent when messages are received. It will literally provide you with a free unlimited texting plan with your own phone number.
Mikeyk came up with a hack to create a Google Voice client to send push notification to Iphones. In short, you will need to have a computer connected to the internet running a python script which will send push notifications to your prowl client. In this case, the prowl client will be installed on your Iphone.
Mikeyk's instructions are fairly self explanatory in setting up his client. I recently did this and it took less than 20 mins to set it up correctly. Having a little bit of python experience definitely helps.
A little more detail about my setup: I installed the scripts on my diminutive Ubuntu 9.04 workstation. I already had python installed so I just added the three dependency package that Mikeyk mentions. One thing that was a little interesting to me was that I didn't quite know how to download the scripts from github! Silly me! I later noticed that github provides a download option which basically creates a zip or tar of all the files the source author had published. So make sure to download Mikeyk's code from github unless you like copy pasting and indenting Python code.
I did run into a few small issues trying to run the code. When I run the script, it keeps telling me that it can't read the cfile (credential file) but it does extract the values. So no worries there. It was clearly getting some sort of exception trying to read the credential file and was printing out the general exception message. I was being lazy and didn't delve much into it.
The other issue I ran into was, python kept telling me it needed a float type variable to store the sleep time (loop interval) which I had set to 60. Again being lazy I just hard coded the value 60 into the script, as shown below which took care of it. To my defense, I had to meet my friends for lunch and I was running late!
Excerpt from mikeyk's code - these are the last three lines from the prowlgooglevoice.py script:
while True:
# uncomment below for debugging
# print 'sleeping...'
gv.check()
sleep(sleep_time)
Python was complaining about the sleep_time variable, so I replaced it with the value 60, lame!
It seems to working great for me so far. I received close to 20 texts through Google voice yesterday and got notification for all of them.
I can almost say good bye to my ATT messaging plan (which I won't) if I wanted to and just use Google Voice for SMS. Give it a try if you send a lot of text messages. It's not very convenient but does work for many. I am hoping that Fring will come up with a plugin to Google Voice which will make it easy to send SMS messages from smart phones.
Cheers!
Credits: Mikeyk
This is probably something Google left out so it does not anger phone companies. I can see how people will switch to using Google SMS if email notifications were sent when messages are received. It will literally provide you with a free unlimited texting plan with your own phone number.
Mikeyk came up with a hack to create a Google Voice client to send push notification to Iphones. In short, you will need to have a computer connected to the internet running a python script which will send push notifications to your prowl client. In this case, the prowl client will be installed on your Iphone.
Mikeyk's instructions are fairly self explanatory in setting up his client. I recently did this and it took less than 20 mins to set it up correctly. Having a little bit of python experience definitely helps.
A little more detail about my setup: I installed the scripts on my diminutive Ubuntu 9.04 workstation. I already had python installed so I just added the three dependency package that Mikeyk mentions. One thing that was a little interesting to me was that I didn't quite know how to download the scripts from github! Silly me! I later noticed that github provides a download option which basically creates a zip or tar of all the files the source author had published. So make sure to download Mikeyk's code from github unless you like copy pasting and indenting Python code.
I did run into a few small issues trying to run the code. When I run the script, it keeps telling me that it can't read the cfile (credential file) but it does extract the values. So no worries there. It was clearly getting some sort of exception trying to read the credential file and was printing out the general exception message. I was being lazy and didn't delve much into it.
The other issue I ran into was, python kept telling me it needed a float type variable to store the sleep time (loop interval) which I had set to 60. Again being lazy I just hard coded the value 60 into the script, as shown below which took care of it. To my defense, I had to meet my friends for lunch and I was running late!
Excerpt from mikeyk's code - these are the last three lines from the prowlgooglevoice.py script:
while True:
# uncomment below for debugging
# print 'sleeping...'
gv.check()
sleep(sleep_time)
Python was complaining about the sleep_time variable, so I replaced it with the value 60, lame!
It seems to working great for me so far. I received close to 20 texts through Google voice yesterday and got notification for all of them.
I can almost say good bye to my ATT messaging plan (which I won't) if I wanted to and just use Google Voice for SMS. Give it a try if you send a lot of text messages. It's not very convenient but does work for many. I am hoping that Fring will come up with a plugin to Google Voice which will make it easy to send SMS messages from smart phones.
Cheers!
Credits: Mikeyk
"District 9" - the movie
I went and watched "District 9" yesterday. Without giving away details of the movie, I have to say, it's one of the most genuine movie plot's I have seen in the last couple of years. The trailer for the movie, basically gave nothing away. Watching the trailer I thought this would be just another Sci-fi movie based on alien invasion. I, however, did not read the plot synopsis before going to the movie so it was a total surprise for me.
I suspect, the plot of the movie was taken from common human suffering and aliens were used as a metaphor. Many of the sufferings depicted in the movie, are experienced by humans on a day to day basis. After you watch the movie, you will be able to relate to some recent events in Darfur, Sudan and other places around the globe.
I was exceptionally impressed with the lighting, mood and the general display of direction. Director of photography did an excellent job in creating the correct mood for the plots. I was engulfed in anticipation to see what would happen next. At no point during the movie, I could predict what to expect next. Even though the movie was about 2 hours, I didn't feel that any of the scenes were stretched to fill in time.
The movie was based entirely on Neill and Terri Tatchell's screenplay. Neill had shot a 6 minute long mini film in 2005, which had similar theme to it.
Wikipedia link to Alive in Joberg by Neill.
In conclusion, kudos to Neill Blomkamp for an excellent direction. It's a great movie and I recommend watching it =) .
I suspect, the plot of the movie was taken from common human suffering and aliens were used as a metaphor. Many of the sufferings depicted in the movie, are experienced by humans on a day to day basis. After you watch the movie, you will be able to relate to some recent events in Darfur, Sudan and other places around the globe.
I was exceptionally impressed with the lighting, mood and the general display of direction. Director of photography did an excellent job in creating the correct mood for the plots. I was engulfed in anticipation to see what would happen next. At no point during the movie, I could predict what to expect next. Even though the movie was about 2 hours, I didn't feel that any of the scenes were stretched to fill in time.
The movie was based entirely on Neill and Terri Tatchell's screenplay. Neill had shot a 6 minute long mini film in 2005, which had similar theme to it.
Wikipedia link to Alive in Joberg by Neill.
In conclusion, kudos to Neill Blomkamp for an excellent direction. It's a great movie and I recommend watching it =) .
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Weight loss program
A guy calls a company and orders their 5-day, 10 lb. weight loss program. The next day, there's a knock on the door and there stands before him a voluptuous, athletic, 19 year old girl with a sign around her neck.
She introduces herself as a representative of the weight loss company. The sign reads, 'If you can catch me, I'm yours.'
Without a second thought, he takes off after her. A few miles later huffing and puffing, he finally gives up. The same girl shows up for the next four days and the same thing happens. On the fifth day, he weighs himself and is delighted to find he has lost 10 lbs. as promised.
He calls the company and orders their 5-day/20 pound program. The next day there's a knock at the door and there stands the most stunning, beautiful, sexy woman he has ever seen in his life. She had a sign around her neck that reads, 'If you catch me, I'm yours.'
Well, he's out the door after her like a shot. This girl is in excellent shape and he does his best, but no such luck. So for the next four days, the same routine happens with him gradually getting in better and better shape.
Much to his delight on the fifth day when he weighs himself, he discovers that he has lost another 20 lbs. as promised. He decides to go for broke and calls the company to order the 7-day/50 pound program
'Are you sure?' asks the representative on the phone. 'This is our most rigorous program.'
'Absolutely,' he replies, 'I haven't felt this good in years.'
The next day there's a knock at the door; and when he opens it he finds a huge muscular guy standing there wearing nothing but pink running shoes and a sign around his neck that reads, 'If I catch you, you're mine.'
He lost 63 pounds that week.
Credit: lotustalk
She introduces herself as a representative of the weight loss company. The sign reads, 'If you can catch me, I'm yours.'
Without a second thought, he takes off after her. A few miles later huffing and puffing, he finally gives up. The same girl shows up for the next four days and the same thing happens. On the fifth day, he weighs himself and is delighted to find he has lost 10 lbs. as promised.
He calls the company and orders their 5-day/20 pound program. The next day there's a knock at the door and there stands the most stunning, beautiful, sexy woman he has ever seen in his life. She had a sign around her neck that reads, 'If you catch me, I'm yours.'
Well, he's out the door after her like a shot. This girl is in excellent shape and he does his best, but no such luck. So for the next four days, the same routine happens with him gradually getting in better and better shape.
Much to his delight on the fifth day when he weighs himself, he discovers that he has lost another 20 lbs. as promised. He decides to go for broke and calls the company to order the 7-day/50 pound program
'Are you sure?' asks the representative on the phone. 'This is our most rigorous program.'
'Absolutely,' he replies, 'I haven't felt this good in years.'
The next day there's a knock at the door; and when he opens it he finds a huge muscular guy standing there wearing nothing but pink running shoes and a sign around his neck that reads, 'If I catch you, you're mine.'
He lost 63 pounds that week.
Credit: lotustalk
Deer hunting
A man kills a deer and takes it home to cook for dinner.
Both he and his wife decide that they won't tell the kids what kind of meat
it is, but will give them a clue and let them guess.
The kids were eager to know what the meat was on their plates, so they
begged their dad for the clue.
Well, he said, 'It's what mommy calls me sometimes'.
The little girl screams to her brother
'Don't eat it, it's an a** Hole..
Credit: stole from lotustalk like many other ones here.
Both he and his wife decide that they won't tell the kids what kind of meat
it is, but will give them a clue and let them guess.
The kids were eager to know what the meat was on their plates, so they
begged their dad for the clue.
Well, he said, 'It's what mommy calls me sometimes'.
The little girl screams to her brother
'Don't eat it, it's an a** Hole..
Credit: stole from lotustalk like many other ones here.
A cruel little four liner joke
Three mothers talking about their sons:
Mother #1: My son is a rabbi. When people see my son on the street, they say "Hello, rabbi."
Mother #2: My son is a priest. When people see my son on the street, they say "Hello, father."
Mother #3 whose son weighs 400 lbs: When people see my son on the street, they say "Jesus Christ!"
Mother #1: My son is a rabbi. When people see my son on the street, they say "Hello, rabbi."
Mother #2: My son is a priest. When people see my son on the street, they say "Hello, father."
Mother #3 whose son weighs 400 lbs: When people see my son on the street, they say "Jesus Christ!"
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