For the last week or so, I have been looking for a good real time stock ticker to put up on a client’s web site since their feed with Yahoo kept failing intermittently. About 30% of the time, it would return an error that read “Received Failure” which while amusing, the client didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

So I spent a few hours going to different sites to see if they had a feed and none would give me what I wanted. All I needed was the current price, value change, percentage change and time last updated. Seemed impossible. Then I had the idea to just scrape data from Google’s Financial site and the rest is history.

I found this PHP project called PHP Simple HTML DOM Parser and used it in my code. Super simple.

include('simple_html_dom.php');
$tickerCID = '22144'; //This is Apple (AAPL) ticker ID on Google
$stockSymbol = 'AAPL';
$html = file_get_html('https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:' . $stockSymbol);
$price = $html->find('span[id=ref_' . $tickerCID . '_l]', 0);
$lasttrade = $price->plaintext;
$spanChange = $html->find('span[id=ref_' . $tickerCID . '_c]', 0);
$change = $spanChange->plaintext;
$spanPercChange = $html->find('span[id=ref_' . $tickerCID . '_cp]', 0);
$percChange = $spanPercChange->plaintext;
$rightNowDate = date("M j");
$quoteTime = $html->find('span[id=ref_' . $tickerCID . '_ltt]', 0);
$rightNow = $rightNowDate . ' ' . $quoteTime->plaintext;

Then when I need to access that data, I just have this DIV in the body:

<div id="stockTick">
	<p>NASDAQ: AAPL</p>
	<p style="font-size:10px;">$<?php echo $lasttrade; ?>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<?php echo $change; ?><?php echo $percChange; ?>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<?php echo $rightNow; ?></p>
</div>

It was that easy once I got the hang of it. Hope this can help someone with the same crap I had to go through.

These days you can’t really go anywhere without hearing of Twitter, Facebook or some form of social media. It’s everywhere and the reason is, because it’s instant and easy. What you aren’t hearing about as much is newspapers.

Newspapers used to be the only game in town and then TV but newspapers still had their place. Well in today’s “I need the news RIGHT THIS SECOND“, newspapers have been pushed out of the way but social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

I stumbled across this article from the The Independent in the UK about how people are moving away from traditional ways of getting news and moving more towards alternative means such as social media and various online resources. People, myself included, don’t have time to wait around for tomorrow morning to find out the news of today.

Some people say that they still get the daily paper for the coupons it comes with. Nowadays, you can type in “PRODUCT promo code” and get a multitude of deals on whatever you want. Plus Amazon is still pretty cheap if you’re okay with not going to a store to pick something up. Also, with the advent of Groupon, LivingSocial and other group couponing sites, this will only get better with time and further push the papers out.

Classifieds have moved aside for Craigslist and blogs have taken the place of Editorials. These are just more reasons why there really isn’t a need for newspapers any more other to cover my table with when my kids paint.

What do you think?

So later today, it’s widely expected that Verizon and Apple will finally team up and deliver the iPhone to Verizon. This is something that it seems everyone has been begging for since the iPhone was first released on AT&T. I have read several articles and the pros and cons about hopping on this bandwagon.

I’m excited that the iPhone is moving to another carrier. I think that this will be good for it. At the same time, it might be its downfall too. The main problem people have with the iPhone isn’t the device at all, it’s the carrier. While I am guilty for not going to AT&T solely based on what I’ve heard about their network, it might not be all their fault.

Think of it like this: there are so many phones consuming a ton of data and clogging the “tubes” so that their network is straining under the weight of its own success. I kinda think that Verizon will have some of the same issues although I’m sure they have known for a while this is coming and have adjusted their network in advance. At least I hope.

I recently moved from T-Mobile to Verizon and have a Droid X and I love it. I am curious to see if an influx of new users will slow down my connection and reduce my call quality.

Overall I think it’s a great move for Apple as now they have 2 carriers printing money for them. I do think that some of the issues with AT&T will show up with Verizon but only time will tell.

Okay it’s not that bad but I lately I have had the opportunity to get back into working with Facebook in several projects over the past few months. The good thing is that I’ve been able to work in almost all the ways you can interact with Facebook. I have worked on an external site using Connect and the Graph API, a page tab and a canvas page.

The bad part of doing things this way is that they are all done in 3 totally different ways. Just when I feel I’m doing well with one, another will come up and throw me in another direction. Good thing with that is that I’m getting the experience to figure all 3 methods out. Just with client timelines, it makes it fun when the same end functionality has very different implementation and I don’t have the time to make it perfect.

I do plan on posting some of my findings because I’ve personally had a tough time finding all the information I need online. Hopefully I’ll get a break in the action soon so that I can share.

Two weeks ago Facebook released their own C# SDK for developers to use. I downloaded it right off the bat but noticed that it had a few holes in it but did give a clean way to call their new Graph API.

One of the most glaring issues was that it can’t authenticate fully. I looked all over Google for it and finally found out that it’s an issue with the cookie that Facebook itself writes. The first key in the cookie is access_token and that passes the token from Facebook that allows you to make calls on behalf of the logged in user. Well the cookie’s value itself is one big string wrapped inside of quotation marks so the key is “access_token rather than access_token. This caused some hairpulling on my part but now that it is coded for it, it is working like a charm.

So the code should read like this if you’re using C#:

GetFacebookCookieValue("\"access_token")

Hope that helps anyone who ran into that as I did.

A few days ago I was working on a project for a client here at work. I had a situation where I just needed to create a simple web service that made a call to ExactTarget’s API. Was pretty easy and had it working flawlessly on my local computer within a couple of hours. I pushed it up to our site on GoDaddy to test and received an error. I found out that there is an assembly that the ExactTarget code needs to work and that it needed to run with elevated trust. Well apparently GoDaddy doesn’t allow for that.

So in my nerd rage, I posted to Twitter that I was upset:

Is @GoDaddy really an ASP.NET host or do they pretend to be? Anything I try to do mildly difficult, their shared hosting fails on.

I had seen that GoDaddy was pretty quick on their responses that day but not with my message. The next day, I did receive a message from them asking what my issue/question was and I promptly responded. I still haven’t heard back.

But what was interesting to me about this was that not long after my response to GoDaddy, I received a message from WinHost:

@digijustin What was it that GoDaddy had issues with doing?

I was pretty impressed and responded quickly and they even responded back saying that they could in fact do with GoDaddy couldn’t. Cool. Score one for them and hang another zero for GoDaddy.

Right after my response to WinHost, I received another Tweet. This time from DiscountASP to tell me that they too support what I was trying to do.

I was really impressed with these 2 hosts that they would jump in to help me out while GoDaddy left me hanging. I didn’t end up needing a Windows solution as the PHP option I was chasing ended up working but still time after time, GoDaddy fails me every time I try to do something that deviates from easy.

Next time I need a Windows host, I will have an easier time looking in the direction of WinHost and DiscountASP before I even think about GoDaddy.

I consider myself a decent programmer but I know that there is a ton more to learn and no one programmer will ever know everything as programming is evolving all the time. But occasionally, programmers come across a decision on how to program a certain site/job. As a C# developer, I always prefer to code in C# but does it make sense to not always do what you’re comfortable in?

For example, if I have a site that I need to create and server isn’t an issue, do I do it in what I’m good at with C# or do I try coding it in PHP?

I guess my question is “would you rather be better at one thing or pretty good at a few things?” What is better for you?

Well there it is. The iPad is born and while I’m impressed with the product, it’s still just what I thought it would be, a big iPod Touch. I was really disappointed in that they didn’t really go over anything that I wanted in terms of the iTunes update, AT&T exclusivity, 4.0 update.

They have made a great new product that will be really useful in schools I feel. But I have a hard time thinking that most people with an iPhone or iPod Touch will find it necessary to get an iPad. Seems like one extra thing to carry around and it won’t even fit in a pocket.

I absolutely loved the MLB app as well as the Need for Speed game demo. They both looked solid. The video quality on the MLB app seems like a must have for any baseball fan.

I also liked the iBook app. While I’m not that much of a book reader, I can see that this is Apple’s answer to the Kindle and will probably cause Amazon to make some changes. The book store is really nice.

But I still can’t get over the disappointment of really nothing else coming out. I don’t have iWork so I’m a bit biased there as I don’t care about that. But I guess most of the rumors other than the iPad were just that. Cool stuff but nothing materialized.

So today is the big Apple announcement of the super, over-hyped Tablet, iSlate, iPad, iHypeMachine… I’m actually less concerned over that as I already have an iPhone and an iPod Touch. What is super interesting to me is the iPhone exclusivity coming to an end. As a iPhone jailbreaker with T-Mobile, I would love to hear that I can’t unjailbreak my iPhone and not have to worry about it bricking anymore.

I am also curious as to the rumors of the iPhone 4.0 software being announced. I’m hoping that it includes the ability for apps to run in the background. That is something huge and I’m okay with taking a hit to the battery if that’s what it takes. I have a charger that I use everyday.

There’s also the tablet. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not really all that interested in it but I am curious as to what it will be other than a huge iPod Touch.

So as to my rumors about the event:

• The tablet of course will be announced. It will essentially be a huge iPod Touch with at data plan and GPS. I agree with the other rumors that it will need a contract with Verizon for 3G connectivity. I don’t think AT&T will be a provider for this.
• Apple will move away from AT&T and open its iPhone to multiple carriers but only announce a partnership with Verizon today for the iPhone and the tablet.
• Announcement of iPhone/iPod 4.0 firmware update. This will include background apps and better memory usage.
• Twitter will go down about 28 minutes into the announcement. Facebook will soon follow.
• New Macbook Pros will be announced using the new Intel i5 and i7 chips. Usual upgrade of features while staying at current prices.
• Updated iTunes.
• Updated Apple TV firmware update.

Those are a few of my ideas/wishes. I guess I’ll find out if I’m right or wrong in an hour or so. What do you think?

Lately there has been a lot of talk about whether or not to have web sites support Internet Explorer 6. Personally I think we should get rid of it NOW. Out with the old, in with the new is how the phrase goes. Well in my mind, there is only one way to make users who haven’t yet switch to make the switch: force them.

We can easily get the browser info when a visitor comes to your site so I say if it’s IE6, tell them they can’t view the site until they get a real browser *COUGH FireFox COUGH* and try viewing your site again correctly. Or if that’s a bit too harsh, still code for something better than IE6 and give visitors a message to upgrade and show them the crappy version of your site.

Nothing will change until it is forced onto people. They will stay with IE6 because they are scared to upgrade, too lazy or some other asinine reason. Well enough! If everyone stops making sites that work in IE6, people will change. Plain and simple. Please join me in my crusade to rid the Internet of this horrible beast. Then maybe we can move to get rid of IE in general but that’s a rant for another time.