iBot.tv Blog

I recently coded twitrcontest, which is a simple landing page integrated with Twitter via the API.

This is quickly becoming a trend: rather than ask for an email address, Internet marketers are now asking you to follow them via Twitter. It makes sense- rather than send you email that will end up in your SPAM folder, you can follow along via Twitter on your own schedule.

I recently assisted Chris Goodwin with his Aquanite: Aquatic Management Platform project, which required a complete modification of the WordPress system. Here’s what Chris had to say about the project:

Josh was a dream come true…Through the entire process Josh was EXTREMELY attentive and always there to answer questions, give great suggestions, and complete the work above and beyond reasonable expectations. If you are looking for PHP coding and more specifically WordPress back end customization look no further, Josh is you man.

- Chris Goodwin

You can read the rest of Chris’s testimonial here.

Have you ever wondered how social network sites like reddit, stumbleupon and del.icio.us rank content, and decide which stories to display on the home page? Me too.

SEOmoz has the scoop, and has published an interesting article exposing these famous algorithms.

As you would expect, most rankings are based on the number of votes, versus the time elapsed, and can be reduced to something extremely simple, such as the Hacker News algorithm:

(p – 1) / (t + 2)^1.5

Where p is the number of votes (points) from users, and t is the time elapsed (in seconds) since the article was submitted

Read the full article here.

Have you ever wondered why the Internet runs on open-source software? Have you ever wondered why free software is usually better than its proprietary competitors? Have you ever considered the benefits and risks of incorporating open-source software into your company?

If so, this documentary is worth your time. Providing a condensed history of the free software movement, it explains why companies like iBot could not exist without pioneers like Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds.

U.C. Berkeley has decided to host a series of free lectures on YouTube. Wonderful news for those of us stuck on the wrong coast, but still interested in these pioneers of the digital age.

From the series, enjoy this lecture by Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google:

Moonmilk labs experiments with some robotic tunes:





And for fans of Gnarls Barkley:

I don’t know about you, but I want one of these.

Our wonderful clients continue to keep me very busy; too busy to give this blog the attention it deserves.

In the meantime, please enjoy this lecture by Dr. Douglas Lenat from May 30, 2006. As part of the “Google TechTalks” series, Dr. Lenat discusses some of the practical applications of AI and semantic search.