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.

Setting the Right Incentives for Investment in Rural Broadband

www.fcc.gov on 05/16/2013

Excerpt: Today, the Wireline Bureau is seeking comment on a number of issues relating to broadband funding for smaller rural carriers, known as rate-of-return carriers. One of the problematic results of the Commission’s old Universal Service System was what we called the rural-rural divide: because the system failed to target support where it was needed and provided little accountability, some rural communities received world-leading broadband, while others, often right next door, were left behind. In part, this problem arose because of the different systems governing smaller, rate-of-return carriers, and larger companies, known as price cap carriers.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Broadband, Federal Government

StrikeIron Introduces Next Generation Email Verification

blog.strikeiron.com on 05/16/2013

Excerpt: StrikeIron has released Email Verification 6, the next generation of its award-winning technology and the most accurate email verification solution in the market. Building upon the past decade of experience, StrikeIron has developed an innovative solution that provides immediate value by boosting email performance. Improved accuracy and increased email deliverability. This means enhanced marketing campaigns and more effective customer relationship management for your organization. Like other StrikeIron solutions, Email Verification 6 is cloud-based technology. It works in real-time and does not rely upon database lookups as a reference, as these reference files can become quickly outdated.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Email, Email Verification

USDA Launches New API That Provides Developers Access to a Wealth of Farmers Market Data

blog.programmableweb.com on 05/16/2013

Excerpt: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has just launched the brand new USDA Farmers Market Directory API providing developers programmatic access to the USDA National Farmers Market Directory database. According to the USDA website, the National Farmers Market Directory has over 7,800 farmers market listings for all 50 states and provides consumers farmers market information such as market locations, directions, operating times, product offerings, and accepted forms of payment. The USDA Farmers Market Directory API makes it possible for developers to access market directory data using search and data retrieval functionality. The data can then be used in websites and third-party applications.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Farmers Market, Federal Government, USDA

Why Google thinks the GPU is the engine for the web of the future

gigaom.com on 05/16/2013

Excerpt: Summary: To make sure the response time for their increasingly interactive sites stays low, Chrome developers might want to look at ways to make use of the graphic processors embedded in consumer devices. For years, the internet provided users with static clumps of information stored and refreshed in databases on the back end. But as interactive games, animations and fancy scrolling have become popular, graphics have become fancier and screens richer. Throughout this evolution, hardware components on users’ devices have gotten more capable, but now Google seems to think the GPU is the best tool for the internet of tomorrow.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, BaaS, Gaming, Google, GPU, Story

mnot’s blog: Indicating Problems in HTTP APIs

www.mnot.net on 05/15/2013

Excerpt: Hi, I’m Mark Nottingham. I currently chair the IETF HTTPbis Working Group. I usually write here about the Web, protocol design, HTTP, and caching. Once in a while, I’ll write about economics, travel or living in Australia. Find out more. A common part of HTTP-based APIs is telling the client that something has gone wrong. Most APIs do this in some fashion, whether they call it a “Fault” (very SOAP-y), “Error” or whatever. Most of them define a new format for just this purpose; for examples, see Amazon’s, OpenStack’s, Twitter’s, Facebook’s, and SalesForce’s. Twitter's is fairly representative: Here, they associate a human-readable message and an error code with the error.... read the full post.

Tags: , , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, HTTP, Monitoring, Testing

paypal/PayPal-Android-SDK · GitHub

github.com on 05/15/2013

Excerpt: The PayPal Android SDK provides a software library that makes it easy for Android developers to accept both credit cards and PayPal directly within native mobile apps. For usage and integration instructions, see the PayPal Android SDK Integration Guide. For detailed reference, see the SDK reference. Older libraries PayPal is replacing the Mobile Payments Libraries (MPL) with the PayPal iOS/Android SDK. The PayPal iOS/Android SDK is currently available in the US, with more country support coming soon. US developers should upgrade now for more features and a better mobile experience. Non-US developers can continue to use MPL for the time being. Issues related to MPL should be filed in the sdk-packages repo.... read the full post.

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

Smartsheet API: developer tools and resources - Smartsheet.com

www.smartsheet.com on 05/15/2013

Excerpt:... read the full post.

Tags: , , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Collaboration, smartsheetapi, Spreadsheet

A fresh new look for the Maps API, for all one million sites

googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com on 05/15/2013

Excerpt: For nearly eight years, developers around the world have used the Google Maps APIs to build beautiful, powerful, and impactful apps. From the early mashups to today’s on-location mobile apps, these developers have continuously re-imagined the map. In fact, you’ve created more than one million active sites and apps, which now reach one billion unique visitors every week. One billion! That’s nearly half the Internet. As we celebrate your maps, we’re also introducing the largest visible change in our eight year history: a fresh new look and feel for the JavaScript and Static Maps APIs, in line with the launch of the new Google Maps. The new look is available for opt-in today, and is a simple one line code change: google. maps.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Google Maps, Location, Mapping

Boxfish Releases TV Discovery and Search API

blog.programmableweb.com on 05/15/2013

Excerpt: Boxfish, television discovery startup, released an improved TV discovery app this past week. With the new release, Boxfish decided to make its technology available to third parties via an API. Boxfish allows the use of natural language to search for particular topics currently discussed on TV, or users can find out what is currently most popular on tv. The thought behind the API aims to empower other providers. Boxfish CEO, Eoin Dowling, explained: Boxfish monitors over 1,000 conversations at a time to analyze key topics. The constant monitoring makes TV searchable.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, Media, Television

DevEx Day: Developing Innovation at the FCC

www.fcc.gov on 05/15/2013

Excerpt: We recently experimented with a new idea at FCC: giving a small team 24 hours to create something new on their own. We called this DevEx Day (referred to as either DevEx or FedEx Day). The name is a play on the brand name FedEx, where products need to be delivered in 24 hours, combined with a developer day. This innovative approach arose from the tech industry and has expanded into other sectors. The idea is that for 24 hours, participants work on something new and different from their normal work. It is a focused day of learning new skills or honing existing ones, guided only by the participant’s interest. The day starts with each team member explaining his or her project to the group.... read the full post.

Tags: , API-Evangelist, API-Stack, FCC, Innovation