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MobileEats 2.0

Awhile back I shared a pet project of mine called MobileEats aimed at taking Twitter geo-data and plotting it on a Google Map. It seemed like a no-brainer of an idea to connect mobile food vendors with customers by letting them know where they are. Since the first launch I have overhauled the look and feel of the site to be more conducive to a single screen browsing experience and learned a lot about building a "web app" along the way.

However, I have run into a very serious problem. Mobile food vendors in Nashville, apparently, don't understand how to use GeoData in their tweets. Of the 38 Trucks the site monitors, only two of them regularly post with geodata and one of those does so haphazardly. Without the geodata, the site is pretty useless. So, I'm left with two choices: re-code the site to send Twitter data through a series of hoops involving Google Calendar, GeoData Mapping and GeoLocation Requests (good looking out from Dale Liszka on that solution) OR just try the system out with a different city where the vendors are maybe a little more educated on how to press that "Share Location" button when they send out updates.

It's super disappointing that this didn't work as expected right out of the gate but given that it's a pet project not meant to generate any income, I can't be too bummed. So, I'm looking for another city to try this out on. I'm skeptical to go with a well established scene like LA or Portland but it's likely that those vendors know how to harness the geodata better.

TL:DR: there's a new looking version of MobileEats but the map plotting is fairly useless due to lack of geolocation data being included in tweets. What city should I try next or should I just ditch the whole thing?

How am I supposed to title these nerd links?

• dotjs - a Chrome extension that runs particular javascript files based on the domain you're visiting. i.e. it runs google.com.js when you visit google.com - giving you the ability to manipulate the DOM to your liking; including removing ads or even loading your own stylesheet. Seems like a handy, and particularly nerdy, thing to have at your disposal.
• 67Signals - Toke posted a link to this satirical burn on 37Signals the other day and it was totally new to me. I'm sure it's meant in a good ribbing nature but it really does seem perfectly scathing.
• Leaving Old IE Behind with Media Queries - a clever and tasteful method for serving up sites to people still using older versions of IE. There are plenty of them out there and this tactic seems to combine the best of both worlds - allowing you full use of contemporary coding techniques and serving a perfectly functional no-frills site to those on a legacy browser.

Seriously.js

If you ever needed an example of how Javascript and new browser technologies are taking over the web, look no further than Seriously JS. The site features realtime green screen video substitution (on an OK Go video) via WebGL and is one of the more impressive displays I've seen in awhile. At least worth a quick peek to click through the video filters.

Development Type

• ArcText.js - want your text to bend on a slight arc but don't want to use a PNG? Deploy ArcText javascript and you're good to go.
• A better way to use icon fonts - I'm a big fan of the proliferation of Icon Fonts these days but Eric Eggert has some great insight into how to deploy them even better than what most are suggesting. It's even super friendly to screen readers. Score.

Wednesday Morning Tech Link Dump

• CodeKit - looks to be a pretty slick application for managing projects, compiling all sorts of nu-tech like Less or Coffeescript and optimizing images. Potentially a one-stop shop for getting a project underway. via Madrid.
• OSX in CSS - while it doesn't do much you have to admit that this creation of OSX almost entirely with CSS3 is pretty impressive.
• Bootstrap 2 on the horizon - the new version of the Twitter developed framework is on the horizon (Jan 31st). I'm committed to building at least one project with this finally; looks to be even better the second go around.

Don't Be Evil Bookmarklet

Seems like there has been more than a little backlash when it comes to Google's new social results. So much backlash, in fact, that engineers from Twitter, Facebook and Myspace got together and made Focus on the User; a bookmarklet script that grabs the most pertinent social media information and replaces the, usually, irrelevant Google+ listings. The walkthrough video explains it with great simplicity. While I don't see myself actually using the tool I can't disagree with the point that they're making - there is a lot of trust when using Google to get the best results (and, usually, results are legit) but their pushing Google+ pages over more relevant results like Twitter or Facebook is not a good way to treat their enormous user base. Sure, it's their prerogative to do whatever they want with search results but if the benefit of the end user really is the end goal, they'd embrace true social results.

Pictos Font Server

Pictos recently launched their own Font Server service - ala Typekit - that lets you take advantage of using their servers to bear the brunt of any server load that may come from using a custom @font-face look. However, they took it two steps further. One, no Javascript required. Two, the icon font they are offering has 650 icons that you can mix and match into any keyboard combination you want - excluding any extras that you know won't be needed. Given that icon fonts are only going to integrate their way into the standard of web deployment I can't see this as anything except a great idea.

Photoshop Simulator

Your mind will be blown when you try out this pitch perfect Photoshop Simulator written in HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. Superb work from Visual Idiot.

Stop Sopa: The Javascript

For the most part, I think grassroots movements to show unity against a particular issue on Capitol Hill as expressed through the likes of the web, twitter, facebook, etc are fairly pointless. Sure, changing your avatar may create unity among like-minded friends or, potentially, spread the word to others about a particular issue but it doesn't have any actual impact on changing whatever it is the person may be trying to expose. So, with that in mind, I am a little hesitant to embrace this Stop SOPA Javascript that displays a pop-over on any site it is added to for the duration of January 18th (this Wednesday). SOPA is a quite important but Tweeting about it isn't going to do much - but contacting your representative may.

Long story short, awareness of SOPA is trying to reach the next level via this script. Consider implementation on your own.

Web Grab Bag

• Perfect Full Page CSS Backgrounds - previously this has been possible from a number of tricks; CSS markup workarounds or Javascript implemenation. Turns out there's a forthcoming CSS3 standard for "background-size" that covers the requirement. Exciting.
• The Google-Kenya ripoff - pretty fascinating story about some potentially underhanded tactics being deployed by Google's GKBO project. Was it intentional fraud or just some in-depth indexing?
• Tim O'Reilly: Why I'm Fighting SOPA - unsurprisingly, the tech book publisher is against the SOPA initiative. I wonder if the fact that the author of the bill is a copyright violator himself will carry any water in dooming the bill? Probably not but it helps that more and more folks like O'Reilly speak out against it.

Web Typography For The Lonely

The type tricks deployed at Web Typography for the Lonely are a mixture of "cutting-edge web standards and javascript." In other words, they push the boundaries of what most people think are possible with web type and create some impressive results. I'm personally prone to Punchout, Cluster and Coolinate but there's something worthwhile to learn from every undertaking.