I wrote a script that uses the Twitter API to build a customizable twitter status badge. I’m pretty much a novice PHP programmer and this is the first piece of code I’m releasing. It should work fine on any PHP5 server. The script uses cURL to authenticate and grab the XML file from Twitter and then the XML is parsed using PHP5′s SimpleXML.

Enjoy -Rik!

Requirements:

PHP5 (*** Will Not Work in PHP4 ***)
Twitter Account

Directions:

Edit the badge_config.php file, supply your twitter username, twitter password, and how many status items you would like to show up. I think the Twitter API only allows a maximum of 20 items, but I could be wrong. Upload all files to your server running PHP5, then in a web browser goto your_folder_name/badge_template.php. If it showed up your good to go.

Demo:

My Twitter Badge

Files Included:

badge_config.php – Configuration file
badge_template.php – Sample Template
twitter.css – Templates CSS
TwitterBadge.php – TwitterAPI Class

Download:

twitterbadge.zip

I’ve also switched from using Safari to using Firefox exclusively. I’ve grown attached to a Firefox extension called Foxmarks. The extensions syncs bookmarks to all of the computers that you use. This isn’t revolutionary, but it’s a free service and it works seamlessly.

As more and more web based applications supplant desktop applications, it makes you think that the debate between Windows, MacOSX and Linux is irrelevant. I can also see hardware sales stagnating, with most of the data storage and processing off loaded to the network.

Are your computer habits changing?

• HTML Dog
• The Zen of CSS Design
• Stylin’ with CSS
• Designing w/ Web Standards
• Bulletproof Web Design
• CSS Mastery

On the surface Last.FM is a recommendation engine that tracks what you’re listening to with a little downloadable application, but it does a lot more. There is a Windows, Mac OSX and a beta Linux versions available for download.

The Last.FM application lets you play your own personal radio with songs that Last.FM recommends based on what you’ve played before. You can also play music based off of tag names. So you can play any song that was tagged “indie pop” by another user. The application has a bunch of other features including playing music that friends are playing and viewing there playlist history.

Each user get their own profile page that shows recent tracks played, weekly top artists, overall top artists, and overall top tracks. Like Flickr, it has the concept of groups and friends. You can join groups and invite people to be your friends. One of the cool features is Taste-o-meter, which compares your musical compatibility with another friend.

Last.FM also gives you access to all the data that they collect for use on your own site. So you can broadcast what you’re listening to, friends’ lists, and your own personal music charts. The site has a variety of ways of getting this data from a simple text file to XML. They also have a web API for realtime access to Last.Fm’s data.

I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s going on at Last.FM. If you’re a music lover and looking to discover new music this site is perfect for you.