Task Discussion

Bytemarks said:

Aloha, I am joining in from Hawaii. I am new to programming with APIs and hope the learning curve is not too steep.

on April 11, 2012, 4:03 p.m.
samawarad said:

Hi,

My name is Ashwini.I am very much interested in learning about the twitter APIs.

on April 9, 2012, 3:11 a.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

welcome ashwini :)

on April 9, 2012, 12:54 p.m. in reply to samawarad
LeJit said:

Hi,

My name is Jit. I am a undergraduate who is interested in studying social networks using Twitter and Facebook data, so learning how to program using APIs will be useful for me. I can program well in Java and Python.

on April 9, 2012, 2:03 a.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

hey jit, sounds great and welcome to the challenge!

on April 9, 2012, 2:09 a.m. in reply to LeJit
rodrigo said:

Hi

My name is Roxx Marino and I am original from Brazil. I had no idea I will became a web designer one day. Now I start from scratch, means I had no clue what I was doing because never went to school but whatever I was doing it was different amd it was right, I had the eye for this business but no structure and zero knowledge.

It wasn't easy in the beginning but still did a very good job but after two years I realize I wasn't gonna go too far with out knowledge, even if you good in something you still need the basic structure, so I start to study and here I am still studying. Plus if you really wanna be a "Amazing Web Designer" you have to study always, I learn something new almost every week. In the web world is always a new scipt, a new code.... and studying is the only way to be up to date in this business and be an Amazing Web Designer.

Cheers,

RM

on April 8, 2012, 6:28 p.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

totally agree roxx. great to have you on board. welcome!

on April 9, 2012, 2:08 a.m. in reply to rodrigo
andrelashley said:

Hey!

I'm Andre Lashley, after completing my psychology degree I started off as a freelance web developer doing mostly small sites with HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP (including wordpress). I later realized that I want to be able to do different types of development and make myself more marketable.

I decided to go back to college where I am now studying computer science. My motivation for taking this challenge is because I feel college assignments can sometimes hinder students' creativity. I'm the kind of person who is put off by the thought that 30 other students completed the same assignments, which means there is nothing to differentiate me from the pack. I think side projects are a great way to branch out and learn more.

on April 7, 2012, 5:48 p.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

hey andre! cool to have you here... hope this will be a fun outlet for your creativity! and feel free to "hack" the challenge to your liking, too :)

on April 7, 2012, 5:54 p.m. in reply to andrelashley
Luca92 said:

hey guys, ive tried learning programming a few times but i never really managed to get anywhere. hopefully i can learn here :)

on April 5, 2012, 6:43 p.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

hey lucas, welcome! was there anything in particular that didn't work for you before?

make sure you check out some of the other programming groups on p2pu as well! they might be helpful to learn the material needed for this challenge. and feel free to ask questions as you go :D

on April 5, 2012, 7:22 p.m. in reply to Luca92
Anonym said:

hi it me lorenzo. i got lot of plan for my future so i hope i can master programing here without going to university. bcause i want to bcome a geologist when i get to university. but i really need to master programming since it my dream

on April 2, 2012, 10:43 a.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

programming is a useful tool for a future geologist. welcome!

on April 2, 2012, 12:51 p.m. in reply to Anonym
RTheB said:

Hello, I'm Ross.

I am going to try and learn how to do this, because I was bored on a rainy day :).

on March 31, 2012, 4:17 p.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

hi ross, welcome!

on April 1, 2012, 2:15 p.m. in reply to RTheB

Newman5 said:

Hey Ross! You know I learned to do this stuff in much the same way. I was living in a rain forest and had many many rainy days. You don't, by chance live in the Pacific Northwest, do you?

So, here's to rainy days and high speed internet! Godspeed!

on April 1, 2012, 4:02 p.m. in reply to RTheB
Luke said:

Hi I'm Luke Carlson.

I know Python and I have used the Twitter API to make a bot that responds to single word tweets with the definition of the word. I am doing this lesson cause it seems fun and I want to expand my knowledge and maybe create another bot or work on adding twitter integrated into other projects.

on March 28, 2012, 5:18 p.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

sounds great luke, welcome!

on March 28, 2012, 5:31 p.m. in reply to Luke
ravish said:

hello everyone,

Ravish here, am totally new to this stuff and looking forward to learn a lot....

Thanks

on March 27, 2012, 12:49 p.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

welcome ravish! looking forward to your first task!

on March 27, 2012, 4:09 p.m. in reply to ravish
Arjolin said:

Hi:

I am totaly new to this.. I did't know what to do after my college due to lack of exposure to the world i am not that much good at programming.... But who knows EVERYDAY IN LIFE IS SOME EXPERIENCE AND LEARNIG......

I am Born To learn

on March 27, 2012, 9:24 a.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

indeed, we were all born to learn! welcome arjolin :)

on March 27, 2012, 11:02 a.m. in reply to Arjolin
Newman5 said:

Here we go!

I'm Newman, call me the Numerator. Or, just Newman, really whatever you like.

I've been learning to program for awhile and I think I'm doing it wrong. A few months ago I doubled down' on my efforts and started in with the CodeYear by Codecademy and then on to the Python CS101 class on Udacity. Before that, I was typing 10 PRINT "NEWMAN IS COOL" 20 GOTO 10 on Radio Shack computers at the mall. Also, I learned a bit of Fortran - I'm kinda old.

This morning I wanted to 'Get Real' - it was Monday after all. Let's see, it was this youtube video that started the drive to dig into APIs. http://youtu.be/nb4gvrNrDWw from Brendan Kenny of the Google Maps Developer Relations group. Basically, the video shows the Chrome Developer Console and how it's used to troubleshoot a web development problem with some scripty, programming stuff. See the limits of my knowledge here.

So, all of a sudden, my Lynda and Udacity and CodeYear tuts begin to look like rehashed college courses shovelled onto the internet. I'm starting to hear my old professor, Elgin Fay, pointing at the actual chalk board about Fortran. Hmmm, I mean, I'm LIVING in all this data flying around and I can't even use it. It's like asking me to get out of the pool to study the proper swimming stroke.

I kid. I kid. The college courses and the new MOOC elearnings are great. Great swimmers need the proper stroke. But, I want to swim now and I'm in the fucking pool already, man! (FYI, cussing is my New Year's Resolution)

Additionally, I live in North Carolina by a river. I like to be lazy and wander around visiting with people. I chat with my buddy about UX and Web design and other topics on ABetterUserExperience.com. I'm looking forward to finding some folks to visit with and talk about programming with APIs.

Oh, I've never taken a challenge on P2PU so I'm scared shitless.

on March 26, 2012, 5:54 p.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

*grin* thanks for a hearty and smile-inducing intro. welcome to the challenge! feel free to try it with other APIs of interest, for example if it is suited to the maps API that could be fun.

on March 26, 2012, 6:01 p.m. in reply to Newman5
Jeroen said:

In recent years I have not been able to keep up with all the cool new things anymore, and where necessary I hired people to do the cool stuff for me. And I find it important to be able to communicate with suppliers, and staying on top of developments helps.

Done some web development in the past, done some programming in a distant past. Looking forward to learning to use new technology in creative ways.

on March 23, 2012, 7:15 a.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

hi jereon, welcome to the challenge :)

on March 23, 2012, 12:30 p.m. in reply to Jeroen
WingRider said:

This is the first time I am participating in an activity like this. Although I have solved many problems by brute force :(.. lets see.. programming with API seems like a good place to do something new

on March 23, 2012, 6:55 a.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

cool welcome wingrider! brute force can be a useful technique; we've all done it! also IMHO sometimes the brute force experience gives more context later on when learning different techniques.

on March 23, 2012, 12:28 p.m. in reply to WingRider
benjamin e said:

hello,

I'm excited to see what happens here. The thrill of the new is drawing me in.

on March 21, 2012, 11:30 a.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

the thrill of the new is a good place to be! :D

on March 21, 2012, 3:20 p.m. in reply to benjamin e
Anonym said:

Hi,

Ben here, just checking in. I'm a total newbee (and not overly intelligent at that) but they reckon the human brain's the most sopisticated thing they've found in the Universe to-date; so there must be something in mine somewhere. Anyway, this looks cool and we'll see how I go! Thanks:)

on March 20, 2012, 4:27 a.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

hey ben! welcome to the challenge. we'll be around to help when any questions arise!

on March 20, 2012, 12:36 p.m. in reply to Anonym
Philipp said:

Hello - I'm Philipp. I used to write software for web applications back in the days when cgi-scripts in Perl were cutting edge. I haven't done much programming since, and I don't have much hope to actually finish this challenge. But I figure that even if I just get started and make it through the first few tasks - I'll declare victory.

on March 16, 2012, 1:48 p.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

given that you finished the first few tasks before i could welcome you to the challenge, i challenge that you're setting your bar too low :p.

on March 18, 2012, 4:11 a.m. in reply to Philipp
lernantatron said:

This task is actually ridiculously simple using JavaScript and jQuery:

http://jsfiddle.net/dandiebolt/TFnQg/embedded/js,html,result/

If you return JSONP (JSON with Padding) by specifying the callback parameter the Twitter response will simply show up in a native JavaScript variable from which you can access any component of the response using array or object reference.

Whatever language you use, it will make your task a lot easier if you cut and paste your raw JSON response into an online JSON formatter or the JavaScript beautifier where you can explore the structure of the JSON response:

http://jsbeautifier.org/

on March 14, 2012, 12:18 p.m.

Jos said:

That's really cool!

Viewing the JSON reply in your browser should not be a problem if you use an extension such as JSONView.

For Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/jsonview/

For Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chklaanhfefbnpoihckbnefhakgolnmc

on March 14, 2012, 3:09 p.m. in reply to lernantatron

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

great links guys, thanks.

on March 14, 2012, 3:35 p.m. in reply to Jos

Newman5 said:

Here we go!

I recorded and annotated me wee learning right on the Youtube.

http://youtu.be/qRnY49PIRIg

Also, I got a chance to play 'round with the cool annotations features. Youtube is awesome nowadays.

on March 26, 2012, 7:10 p.m. in reply to lernantatron

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

thanks for the video :) it's a great demo of using jsfiddle. i hope others will make more videos too... i will try and make some myself if i get the time!

on March 27, 2012, 12:37 a.m. in reply to Newman5
Sudeep said:

looking forward to the task

on March 14, 2012, 7:08 a.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

hi sudeep, welcome :D

on March 14, 2012, 3:32 p.m. in reply to Sudeep
Jos said:

Hi all, I'm José, a software developer and researcher living in Ireland. Although I'm familiar with third-party APIs, I've never used Twitter's so this is very exciting!

on March 13, 2012, 5:17 p.m.

Jessy Kate Schingler said:

awesome! hi jose, nice to see you here!

on March 13, 2012, 5:22 p.m. in reply to Jos