Here’s some free advice to developers of new web apps that want their application to be adopted, spread, enhanced and embraced by third-party developers: do the API first.

Standard operating procedure with web apps these days appears to be “get the app released, write a blog post about how an API is coming Real Soon Now, wait 6 months, release API.” Sometimes the last step is never reached.

By following this timeline you’re losing 6 months of developer interest, and handing a 6 month leadtime to any competing app to become the standard platform for whatever world-changing thing your app does.

As you might imagine, I’m a keen follower of the YALBS space and at this point any app that’s missing an “API” link in the footer doesn’t interest me, as it means that the service is likely focused on building a walled garden, and doesn’t deserve my attention.

SkyeQuiKey is kind of like Quicksilver for your phone.

Two years ago Olle told me that I should turn off the “ding” sound in my email program that rang every time a new message came in. I did, and it’s changed my life for the better. Redirecting my phone to voicemail is a sister action that’s had a similar positive effect whenever I’ve done it. Merlin Mann’s Time and Attention story is as good an overview of why these were good ideas as I’ve yet come across.

Last August I announced the installation of some open Meraki wireless access points at 100 Prince Street, making free wifi available to my immediate neighbourhood. They’ve been running for a year now without problem, and although I’ve twiddled with the amount of free bandwidth available (turning it down when outsiders were sucking up enough to make in-home use sluggish), the free wifi has been flowing all year long.

Over the year, my Meraki management dashboard tells me, 371 users transferred 113 GB over the network. Although every one of those 371 has seen a splash page upon connection inviting them to send me an email if they find the access useful, the only person I’ve ever heard from is a newly-moved-in next door neighbour who thanked me for the access while he was waiting to have his own connection installed.

My rationale for leaving the access open to any anonymous wanderer-by is completely Marxist in nature. I think of it like I think of hitchhiking: I’ve used enough free wifi out there in the world that I feel I owe it to the world to serve up some of my own when and where I’m able.

Not everyone agrees with this approach, and, like hitchhiking, it has inherent risks. But I think, ultimately, the obivous good of sharing a useful resource outweighs the phantom bad of someone plotting the downfall of society using my bandwidth.

Last night after supper Oliver announced that he wanted to go out for dessert. We let him choose where, and he led us to Just Us Girls.

We arrived just before 8:00 p.m. We found a table for three and sat down; a few seconds later the waiter came over and told us that he was sorry, but the kitchen was closed. I took this to mean “we’ve stopped making food, but we’re ready to rock into the late nite hours.” What it actually meant was “we close at 8:00 p.m.”

In my fog of misunderstanding I asked whether, despite the closed kitchen, we could still get dessert and coffee. He thought for a second and said “sure.”

Oliver ordered the crème brûlée and I ordered something I read incorrectly as “flawless chocolate cake” on the menu which was actually “flourless chocolate cake.”

Regardless, when it came out a few minutes later it turned out, in fact, to actually be flawless, and is perhaps the best dessert you can get in a restaurant in Charlottetown:

The cake has the moist richness of cheesecake, and the perfect balance of chocolate and sweet. What takes it over the top, however, is the tiny pitcher of warm chocolate that’s served with it: pour chocolate over cake and the result is an orgasmic chocolate delight.

It wasn’t until we prepared to leave and found the doors locked and the cash being counted that we realized that they’d actually closed the restaurant a few minutes after we arrived; it’s a testament to our excellent server (and perhaps to my general dullardness) that we never felt unwelcome or rushed.

Nigel Armstrong, the web editor at The Guardian, has been doing some interesting experiments with Google Maps. This map, for example, summarizes the actions of Charlottetown City Council at their Monday, August 11, 2008 meeting.

When I was in Copenhagen in the spring my rented bicycle had a wire basket on the back. I found it very useful for just dumping stuff into and going: groceries, a newspaper, a bottle of water, a sweater. And it worked well because the bike had a low crossbar, so I didn’t need to swing my leg over the back.

Here at home I’ve had pannier bags over my back wheel for the past couple of years. And while they’ve been convenient for hauling things around, the need to unbuckle and untether them has been awkward; they’re probably more useful for long-distance cycling where strapping things in securely is more important than ease-of-access.

Because my home bicycle has a high crossbar, a Copenhagen-like solution, with a full wire basket tethered to the rear carrier, wouldn’t work, as I’d always be banging my leg into it. Dan suggested I look at the Swagman Phatt Folding Basket from Mountain Equipment Coop; it looked promising, but I wanted to get something locally, and so I ordered something similar from MacQueen’s on Queen Street in Charlottetown. It arrived yesterday, and it’s exactly what I was looking for. Here’s a short demo video Catherine and I shot this morning that shows why it’s so great:

Now that Brightkite has an API, I took a few hours tonight baking Brightkite support into PresenceRouter, and I just released version 2.93. Brightkite has a somewhat different object model than Plazes does:

• Communities, street addresses and “places” all map to their own Brightkite location ID; for example:
  • Charlottetown
  • 100 Prince Street in Charlottetown
  • Reinvented Office at 100 Prince Street in Charlottetown
• You “check in” to a Brightkite location, which is simply a geopresence timestamp without accompanying text or status message.
• With or without “checking in” you can “post a note” to a Brightkite location, which is like setting a Plazes status message when you plaze yourself.

As such, the PresenceRouter-Brightkite connection grabs the current status message and Plaze from Plazes.com, then searches for the applicable Brightkite location ID, posts a check-in, and then posts a note with the Plazes status message.

Because this is all done in AppleScript I haven’t, for the moment, attempted to use Brightkite’s OAuth support (PresenceRouter does use OAuth for Fire Eagle authentication, but Fire Eagle supports the PLAINTEXT signature method, whereas Brightkite only supports HMAC-SHA1, which requires some signing voodoo that requires some additional heavy AppleScript lifting). Because of this, and because Brightkite doesn’t seem to support HTTPS, for the time being the Brightkite username and password are sent using HTTP Basic Authentication.

I have a few Brightkite invites available if anyone wants to experience the wonder of all of this first-hand.

Over the course of a month I accumulate a pile about 6 inches thick of postal mail consisting of bills, statements and junk mail for home and business. It takes me about 30 minutes every month to sort through it all, separating the few pieces of wheat from the endless mountains of “hey, shouldn’t you sign up for our Cardmember Protection Service” chaff.

Other people I know pay all their bills by automatic payment from their bank account or credit card, but I’m not trusting enough of corporations or banks to let it all flow that easily — I’m afraid that the phone company will take $1000 out of my account one month and it will take me years to get it back. It’s also a good exercise for me to go through the monthly bills to get a general sense of what I’m actually spending.

However I could do without the 6 inch mountain of paper, and Canada Post’s epost service has always held out the promise of allowing me to do this. The last time I checked, however — probably 4 years ago — only a selected few of my monthly payees could send their bills to me by epost, and I set it aside. Today I decided to take another look, and here’s what I found:

• Canada Revenue Agency (corporate and payroll taxes, GST): No
• CIBC (business Visa): No
• Charlottetown Water and Sewer (home water): No
• Co-op Fuels (home oil): No
• Canadian Tire (personal Mastercard): Yes
• Eastlink (business phone, home phone, Internet and cable TV): No
• Grant Thornton (accountant): No
• Hyndman and Company (home and auto insurance): No
• Maritime Electric (home electricity): Yes
• Message Centre (alarm monitoring): No
• Province of PEI (property tax): No
• Workers Compensation Board (business premium): No

So that’s 12 bills, two of which I can get through epost. Guess I’ll take another look in four years.

Circumstances conspired to leave you eleven days to read my update from Boston. In the interim:

• Johnny and I returned from our trip to Yankee after a brief stopover in Boston that facilitated the purchase of 4 pounds of Catherine’s favourite coffee in the North End.
• We hosted Ton and Elmine for dinner at the tail end of their month-long trip to Canada.
• Oliver and my Mom and Dad and I took a short vacation to Louisbourg at the far end of Cape Breton. It rained the entire time, but we had a good trip nonetheless, touring the Fortress of Louisbourg (in driving hard rain that soaked us all to the skin; still impressive and fascinating, though), catching a musical revue at the Louisbourg Playhouse (which has an odd history) and eating well every night at Grubstake. We rented a two-bedroom cottage at Peck’s Cottages: inexpensive, clean, and well set up.
• We made our first visit to Harmony House in Hunter River to take in a Bruce Guthro show. A great night in a wonderful new theatre (check out their calendar of upcoming shows; it’s a wonderful new venue).
• I somehow missed a few months in there somewhere and forgot to pay for the fire insurance for our house, to register my car, and to pay off my Mastercard bill. Just now catching up.

At the end of August I’m back to Yankee for two days, then up to Thunder Bay for a family wedding, then back on the Island for the start of school. At the end of September we’re taking a 7-day family vacation in Iceland, at the end of which we’ll hook up with Olle and Luisa in Reykjavik (en route from Copenhagen) for the start of their Prince Edward Island adventure. In mid-October there’s Zap Your PRAM, which is shaping up nicely. And then Christmas.