Curated

News

These are news items I've curated in my Google Reader, Twitter and bookmarking using Pinboard. Sometimes I add a little commentary to each post.

I use many of these curated links in my research and writing. If you are interested in receivig data feeds of all my curated, please let me know.

Developers: Older HIW API versions to be archived

www2c.cdc.gov on 05/07/2013

Excerpt: Indicators in the HIW are categorized by the associated levels of data by topic, by geography and by initiative. Explore Indicators Helpful Resources The HIW contains several resources to help you better understand the indicators.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Healthcare

Goodbye, Web Servers. Hello, Parse Hosting!

blog.parse.com on 05/07/2013

Excerpt: Our goal at Parse is to help you build incredible apps without running your own servers. Often, even if you’re building a mobile app using Parse, you need to create a website as well. We ran into this exact problem while developing our open source AnyPic app. When we had to maintain web servers just to host a few files for a website, we knew we could make things even simpler. Starting today, developers can host static content like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS on parseapp. com. Along with Cloud Code and the Parse JavaScript SDK, this lets you build rich web apps without any servers. When you deploy Cloud Code, any content in your “public” directory is uploaded to Parse and becomes accessible at your-custom-subdomain. parseapp. com.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, BaaS, Cloud Computing

Instagram introduces new photo tagging feature

blog.viralheat.com on 05/07/2013

Excerpt: Sound familiar? If you love Instagram, you’ll love that it’s now borrowing a popular feature from Facebook – photo tagging. Late last week, Instagram announced that users can now tag friends in their photos. All photos you have been tagged in will be collected and stored in a wonderful repository called “Photos of You. ” The “Photos of You” feature is currently hidden from your Instagram profile however on May 16th, it will become visible to all unless you change your privacy settings. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, it’s no surprise that this measure is in place especially since users complain all the time about the photos they’ve been tagged in.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Images, Photos, Tagging

John Sheehan Wants You to Build APIs that Speak Human

apieconomist.com on 05/07/2013

Excerpt: John Sheehan is co-founder and CEO of Runscope, a brand new startup based in San Francisco focused on API tools. Runscope is building the future of developer tools for API-driven applications. John is a pioneer in API platforms having worked at both Twilio and IFTTT. He’s a frequent speaker and thought leader on the business and technlology of APIs. He also runs the API Jobs site, curates API Digest -- a weekly list of the best API links and co-hosts the Traffic & Weather cloud and API podcast. API Economist: Your article, APIs are Dead, Long Live APIs , created a little bit of a stir. What point were you trying to drive?... read the full post.

Tags: , API Economist, API-Evangelist, API-Stack

Now accepting payments by PayPal

www.elastichosts.com on 05/07/2013

Excerpt: We’re pleased to let you know that we’re now accepting payments by PayPal. Simply log in to your Account, go to Subscriptions or Billing, follow the instructions, under ‘Make your payment’ select ‘Pay with new PayPal’ or ‘Pay with PayPal one-off payment’. Pay with American Express in USD or EUR via PayPal You can also pay with American Express in USD or EUR via PayPal, to do this: 1. Log in to your Account 2. Go to Subscriptions or Billing and follow the instructions 3. Under ‘Make your payment’ select ‘Pay with new PayPal’, then select ‘Create a PayPal account’, then from the ‘Card Type’ drop-down menu select ‘American Express’. 3.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Payments, PayPal

Securing a Web Application with a Bluetooth Headset Adapter

www.codeproject.com on 05/07/2013

Excerpt: This article is in the Product Showcase section for our sponsors at CodeProject. These reviews are intended to provide you with information on products and services that we consider useful and of value to developers. It is becoming more and more accepted that passwords alone are not enough to secure an application. There is a need for "two-factor authentication" to more adequately secure sensitive data. Two-factor authentication is the notion that in addition to a password, some physical identifier must be presented that assists in identifying a user to a system. Typical implementations of two-factor authentication feature a physical token or a phone-based app that generated a unique serial number every 60 seconds.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Security

TechCrunch Mentions SlashDB in a Piece on Speeding Up Data

www.slashdb.com on 05/07/2013

Excerpt: “Speed” and “data” are loaded terms that can be hard to cover in one article. TechCrunch has recently published an interesting compilation of perspectives from several leading technology firms that operate in this space. Our founder and chief architect of SlashDB, Victor Olex was quoted about challenges with integrating traditional databases and web-scale information systems.... read the full post.

Tags: , API Management, API-Evangelist, API-Stack

What Makes a Good Developer Portal – The Story of DocuSign DevCenter

blog.programmableweb.com on 05/07/2013

Excerpt: Any company that makes an API knows that just having the API is not enough. A bare endpoint is probably worse than not having an API at all. To make your API and platform useful you need documentation, tools, examples and forums. If you are a successful API company you start developing a community of people that work with your service. The community shares ideas and helps each other out. Years ago when we at DocuSign opened up our API we created a space for developers to get resources and share knowledge. We called it the DocuSign DevCenter – www. docusign. com/devcenter/. Initially it was just one page with links to download the SDK and to see our API endpoints.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Digital Signature, Documents, Docusing

desktoppr/wbench · GitHub

github.com on 05/06/2013

Excerpt: WBench is a tool that uses the HTML5 performance timing API to benchmark end user load times for websites. It simulates users visiting your website for the first time, with nothing of your site cached. Installation You can install the latest stable gem by running: $ gem install wbench If you're running an older version (1. 8) of ruby, you'll need the JSON gem. $ gem install json You will need to install Google Chrome as well as the chromedriver utility. You can install chromedriver (on OSX) with homebrew: Alternatively you can install firefox and use it with wbench. See Running other browsers for more info. Usage Command Line Simply enter the URL of a website you want to benchmark.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, HTML5, Tools, webperf

Generating dynamic PDF documents using the Open Source Scryber library

www.codeproject.com on 05/06/2013

Excerpt: It has always been a chore to create dynamic PDF documents. And even harder to create good looking dynamic PDF documents. It usually involves reams of custom code, hard coded element placement, and at least a little knowledge of how PDF documents are structured. With Scryber, writing PDF documents has now become as easy as creating HTML pages. Cascading styles and data binding are supported along with generic layout components - page headers, lines, text blocks, columns, containers, images, fonts, etc. Scryber is an open source PDF Library, created by PerceiveIT Limited, and released under the LGPL license.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Code, PDF