michaelshamoon.com » Blog

PlusOne Scraper: a +1 Feed Generator

michael — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:47:31 +0000

After Google decided to ‘revamp’ Google Reader a lot of people are unhappy with the changes. The most glaring loss is removal of the human-curated aspect of the old Reader sharing as Google has removed ability to publicly share stories (unless, of course you are on Google+), replacing them with the questionable ‘+1′. That means no more public RSS feeds of shared items, no more open data from the Goog, troubling indeed.

In an effort to mitigate at least one deficit of the changes, I’ve written a crude scraper that will take any +1′d items from a public Google Profile page (that is set to show +1s) and spit them out into an RSS feed. It is designed to be self-hosted and will likely break soon and often as it is at the mercy of front-end changes to the public profile page. Hopefully the Goog will come around on this one, but in the meantime, this gets the job done (you can see it working on the homepage of this blog).

PlusOne Scraper on SourceForge

’84

michael — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:52:50 +0000

The Macintosh and I were born the same year and I have grown up with an Apple-logo-bearing device in my hand ever since (ahem, not including the ‘clone’ years). While I realize the internet doesn’t need another Steve Jobs post I just can’t let his passing go by without acknowledging his impact on my life. While it seems bizarre to feel connected to someone I’ve never everything I ever taught myself to do on a computer I taught myself on a Mac, because that’s what the Macintosh is about: fostering creativity. Certainly the Mac played a role in my career choices, and with the countless hours I’ve spent doing perhaps less-productive things on Macs, iPods and iPhones—as far as I’m concerned Steve and I go way back.

But really, since other people have said it much better, here are some of my favorites:
Stephen Fry’s brilliant take
Reactions from Gates, Woz, etc.
Here’s to the crazy ones: a farewell to Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs Remembered On the Front Page

Truly, his vision and inspiration will be missed.

There's always the hope that if you sit and watch for long enough, the beachball will vanish and the thing it interrupted will return.

All Of The Lights

michael — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:31:09 +0000

I’m sure it is some kind of sad commentary that it took a new iPhone 4 to get me making stuff again, but it’s 2011, Obama mentions Facebook in his State of the Union and creativity only costs 99¢ in the App Store. Anyway, I like the colors:

on Flickr
Oh, and since you asked, Camera+

Life In A Day

michael — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:13:07 +0000

Unbelievable. Just watched it live on YT but I guess it won't be (re)released until later this year. Look for it. Life In A Day

Kanye West — Runaway

michael — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 15:34:00 +0000

Epic Kanye short film "Runaway"

Cache Rules Everything Around Me

michael — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:41:59 +0000

Evan Roth, of throwies fame, has made a brilliant music video for Girl Talk that uses only meme-tastic animated GIFs. Nailed it.

Kanye West — Power

michael — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:34:23 +0000

Amazing painting-in-motion video from Yeezy by Marco Brambilla:

Upception

michael — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:40:47 +0000

I love me some Up trailer mash-up action: UPCEPTION

via gizmodo

Die Antwoord — Zef Side

michael — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:10:36 +0000

A taste of life on the Zef Side! Fre$h!

Kid Cudi — Pursuit of Happiness

michael — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:36:41 +0000

Trippy alternate version of Cudi's Pursuit of Happiness by French collective Megaforce:

via Fubiz