Not Maintaining This Site

Over the past several years I’ve posted content all over the web on various platforms like WordPress, Tumblr, Google+, Twitter and Facebook. In my current situation, I need to consolidate. Mostly, I don’t make money on my websites, never have, just wanted to share content and ideas. Facebook gives me all I need at the moment; a forum, followers, media storage and discovery. So, that’s where I’ll be posting, probably for ever. http://www.facebook.com/ThomAllen http://www.twitter.com/thomalle...

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Hire Me Facebook

I was watching the video in this post and at time index 3:03, Mark Zuckerberg says "Our policy is to literally hire as many talented engineers as we can find." Zuckerberg goes on to say their system limits are in part due to lack of resources to help the build what their products. Sounds like a good problem to have. He mentions lack of training as a reason they aren't able to find enough engineers. And I'll give him that, many of our schools aren't teaching the critical skills people need to build the technology of the future....

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Sources: PopCap In Late Stage Acquisition Discussions With EA For $1 Billion+ PopCap Games is in late stage acquisition discussions for a sum of over $1 billion — we’ve now heard from two sources that the buyer is Electronic Arts.2. Google Invests $102 Million More Into California’s Alta Wind Energy Center According to an official company blog post today, Google is increasing its investment into California’s Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC) by $102 million, bringing its total investment in the renewable energy facility to...

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Five years from now, there’ll be no such thing as a webpage Every time Facebook changes its interface, an outcry erupts in my News Feed. Without fail, my network transforms into a village and Mark Zuckerberg is our Frankenstein. Minor tweaks send us into an outrage, and we want Facebook’s head on a platter for our momentary confusion. But then a few days pass, and instead of anger, we see adaptation. The voices of dissent subside and we’re back to business as usual. After all, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who can...

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Favorite iPhone Apps Of 2010

I'm installing and buying more apps for the iPhone than ever befor. A couple of reason for this, but mostly, I'm eating my own dog food as it were. Paying for great apps instead of always looking foe the free alternative.As a software engineer, I want people to appreciate my work, and I hope they find it valuable. One way thy can show me that value is to pay me for it.That said, I installed a few apps last year that totally rocked. I'll share my three favorite apps of 2010. They are SpringPad, Camera+, and Mormon Channel.SpringPad...

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Facebook Pushes Out New iPhone App

A long awaited update to the very popular Facebook iPhone application was pushed out to the App Store today. This new version has several new features which you may or may not like; Push Notifications, and contact syncing.The contact syncing is a great new feature that pulls data from your Facebook friends, and adds or updates there information in...

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Book Review: TwittFaced

Twitter is something I know pretty well. I've been a user for 2 years. While I don't have tens of thousands of followers, I understand the power of Twitter. When I learned Josh Peters wrote a book out on Twitter, titled TwittFaced, I thought I would give it a read. I gave Josh my money and off I went.It's not a long read, 156 pages or so, but man,...

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CNN And Facebook Team Up To Bring Live Inauguration Content

This morning, CNN Live and Facebook have teamed up to bring viewers and interesting mix of video and chat. The layout shows the CNN Live video stream and right next to that your Facebook status updates. This gives viewers who are Facebook members the ability to chat with each other while watching the event. Very cool.One of the issues facing online...

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Facebook Alters Beacon System

Changing the way Facebook handles the Beacon system was inevitable based in user concern. While they are trying to calm the waters with this change, they still need to take a few more steps. At the very least they need to provide a page of companies using the Beacon system and let Facebook users choose who they want to share data with. This is what...

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Do You Know What Facebook’s Beacon Project Is?

I really don't like this Project Beacon from Facebook. Even though I spend time developing applications that use services like Facebook, this one is personal. Take for instance these entries from the main user feed in Facebook:While I appreciate the ability to advertisers to make connections with customers and their social networks, people have to...

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Communities Do Matter For Developers

The guys over at Lonely CEO pointed to a blog post of mine where it mentions I'm a Utah Facebook Developer. First, as I've said before, there was a reason I mentioned I develop Facebook applications and I live in Utah. But second, it is extremely important people know what community you live and work in. Do I expect being from Utah will make a difference, perhaps not, but I am trying to help build a community and I want people to know where I am. Does a company in New York or Florida care I'm in Utah, probably not, but companies...

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Hosting Designed For Facebook Applications

Joyent has announced a new hosting service specifically targeting Facebook applications. Facebook doesn't host third party applications, that's up to the responsibility of the application developer. If an application becomes popular that can really put a strain on the applications server and the developers pocket book. Joyent, a start up web hosting...

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Facebook Pages Get You Noticed

Facebook recently launched a new feature to their fairly closed site called Pages. Everyone is hung up on the advertising part of pages. But, a savvy networker can create a page as an external profile. Unless you are a Facebook member you really can't see much. But now with a Page you can create something everyone can see. Let's try it out:As you...

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Excellent Utah Facebook Developer Garage

Yesterday was the second Utah Facebook Developer Garage and we had a decent turnout. We talked about a couple new features of the Facebook API, Mobile capabilities and the new Invitation screen. I want to thank Tim Stay of Know More Media for letting us use his conference room at the last minute. We had munchies, discussed the viability of Facebook and Social network applications, and future Garage events. I think fun was had by all. I posted a couple of pics on the Facebook group, but I also posted them here...

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Facebook Opens API To Mobile Developers

This is a very exciting addition to the Facebook developer platform. One major application I'm writing will definitely take advantage of these new features, specifically SMS. I use Facebook via my mobile device most of the time. I'm exciting this new addition to the API will bring richer applications to market.Reading more about the SMS feature of the API it seems there is a throttle on the number of messages that can be sent out. That makes sense seeing how there is a cost to send out messages. However, I can also see this...

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Utah Facebook Developer Sells Popular LDS Application

Facebook is fast becoming a platform that Micro ISV's can make a serious amount of money writing and selling applications. Facebook has an established developer program and the API is well documented. This openness makes it very easy for developers to write applications and get it into the hands of Facebook users quickly.The Facebook phenomenon is unique because it has a very tight nit group of users. When one user recommends an application, group or event, its pretty likely anyone connected with that user will follow. That's...

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Facebook application development and living in Utah

Jesse Stay asked if he was the only Facebook developer in Utah. And one of the comments he got on his blog asked "why is that important?" The statement was framed around the notion that anyone anywhere can develop applications, why is geographical locations important. From my perspective its mostly for support and networking. When I am looking to refer work to someone I naturally look to my close local associates first. It's just natural. If no one there can help then I look to my extended network. I've just always done this....

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SplashCast goes Facebook

If you're a SplashCast and Facebook user *bling* you're in the money. By adding the SplashCast application to your profile, you can build media content right in Facebook using video, audio and images. Check it ou...

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Facebook Applications zuPort for Flickr and YouTube

If you use Facebook, Flickr and YouTube, you will want to try the Facebook applications zuPort: Flickr and zuPort: YouTube. I was looking for a way to share my Flickr photos without having to upload them to Facebook, or send a Friend to Flickr just to view the pictures. zuPort does all I wanted. New photos show in my mini-feed, and if you click on one of the thumbnails in the feed, it takes you to a viewer in Facebook, not Flickr. Seamless in my view. zuPort: YouTube accomplishes the same thing, seamlessly integrating...

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