Introduction Comet is a technique to stream data, or “push” events to the web browser, instead of making the client poll the server every few seconds. This lets the client receive near real-time updates. If you want to read more about Comet, check out the article on Wikipedia, more specifically, the section about Ajax with long polling, as this is what our server will implement. I chose web based chat because it is a great “hello world” for learning how Comet works, and I really enjoy programming chat related stuff (see my very old implementation of GameRanger)...

AT&T is going to permit Loopt, a location based services vendor, access to exclusive background functionality on the iPhone. As the primary developer and owner of a free web based location services site, moostrax.com, I am absolutely infuriated with what is taking place. When I discovered the aforemetioned, I realized that the key to being able to take advantage of a closed platform(as a software developer, and in this case, the iPhone platform), is to strike a deal with the carrier and put some money in their pockets....

I just made a very basic MoosTrax location updater for the iPhone. Currently it just sends your location to MoosTrax when you press the Update Now button. I will be adding push notifications soon so that when someone pulls up the Live Tracking page on the MoosTrax website, you will receive a notification on your iPhone requesting you to update your location. That is really all I can do for now, as background applications are still not permitted....

I am currently working on adding MoosTrax for the Palm Pre. Is there anyone out there that is interested in this? Let me know!

I have been working with Apple’s Push Notification service recently and decided to make a library to send notifications with Haskell. It is very simple and has a few helpers to make notifications with an alert, sound, etc,. ApplePush Hackage ApplePush Documentation When using the library, you must use an SSL tunnel, because Haskell’s SSL support is incomplete. I use stunnel4, which works great, and offloads the SSL processing as well....

Három hét és ottleszek Magyorarszágon. Munkát keresek szamitástechnikai területen (szoftverfejlesztö, programazó). Email címem: chris@tech9computers.com

I recently traded my T-Mobile G1, with Android, for an iPhone 3G. I am hoping to get MoosTrax running on the iPhone, but unfortunately, even with push notifications, it might not be the same as the BlackBerry and Android versions. Here are some reasons why. No automatic location updates The iPhone OS does not allow applications to run in the background, which means MoosTrax cannot check your location and send it to the server at a fixed interval....

Haskell has been my favorite programming language in the past month, and for good reason. Its (purely) functional and has strong, static typing. The language feels more graceful to me, where design and function are key. It is a joy to program in and I would love to keep exploring it. On my path to learning a new language, I usually try to implement something to get some real-world experience. In this instance, I have chosen to implement an Open AIM client....

I picked up a T-Mobile G1 in December after my BlackBerry 8800 stopped charging (broken USB connector). After using it for the last ~6 months, I have to say that its one of the best phones I’ve owned. Disclaimer: This isn’t a “why the G1 is better than an (iphone, blackberry, etc,.)” post, its just some things I really like about the G1. This list is in no particular order, FYI....

Right now I’m currently looking for a new project to work on, if anyone is interested in recruiting my services, please contact me at xoclipse@cox.net. I would prefer to work on web, mobile, or desktop applications. I have experience with most major web frameworks (Pylons/Django, Rails). I have written quite a few mobile applications for various platforms (J2ME, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry). I’ve written desktop applications for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux....