Filed under: cellphones hacks
Twitter users often have trouble explaining just exactly what the service is for. The site specifically asks "What are you doing right now?" A simple interface and multiple ways to update means people have started hooking it to different real world objects... objects that aren't reporting what they had for lunch. After the break, we'll cover a couple devices that have interfaced Twitter to the real world and how you can update from your command line. Justin Wickett was looking for a way to control his room lights via his cellphone. By using Bob Paauwe's iLink INSTEON software and Twitter, he was able to control basic functions. Now he can SMS text like "bedroom lights off" and the software does his bidding. Of course, in the time it takes to send and process this request you could just as easily walk over and shut of the lights. We're sure he's planning more features than just that.
Adafruit Industries is selling an interesting device called the Botanicalls Twitter kit. It will post directly to Twitter when your plant is in need of water. Using a moisture sensor and built in Ethernet port it just requires some basic soldering to get started.Pictured above is Ninja Networks' Shoutwall from Defcon (photo: pinguino). It receives and displays direct SMS messages and Twitter updates. It also does reverse number lookups on Dodgeball to get user icons. An Ericsson T39m with a data cable is used because it provides an easy SMS interface. Take it to a party and your service provider is sure to wonder how you managed to receive 4000 inbound txt messages in one weekend. curl --basic --user "$user:$pass" --data-ascii \ "status=testing123" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json
If you want to strap twitter to your own project, it's probably best to learn how to update from the command line. Dave Thomas with Linux Journal posted how to do it using cURL. It's definitely an easy way to get your feet wet with the Twitter API.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
