kai's blog

MongoDB has a geospatial indexing feature that allows nearby search. I was trying to get some sample codes running. But the example codes doesn't work as 'ensureIndex' doesn't seem to exist. The Ruby sample codes don't work either as db.create_index's parameters seem to have changed.

Peeking into the geospatial index test codes on the create_index method, it turned out that the first argument for create_index must be array of array for geospatial index(check out the documentation for the create_index method).

Tags: mongodb database geo

I wrote about Email as a platform one year ago. Now Gmail has finally allowed OAuth on IMAP which means you don't need to reveal your password to any app that accesses your emails through IMAP on your behalf.

Why would you want an app to access and act your emails? Because your email box is so overflowed. Here are a couple of uses:

• get alerts on important emails
• have an app scan through your order confirmation emails and keep a history of your purchases(this is how Blippy got your Amazon purchase history. I know Blippy sounds crazy. I don't think it'll ever succeed in consumer space. But for business users, there's a business case for auto-parsing out email order receipts and filling out expense reports.)

Tags: application platform email gmail oauth imap

Twitter is famous for its openness on its API and have a lot of tools built by 3rd party developers. But many 3rd-party tools are built/abused to add automated spammy tweets, robots to Twitter.

Last month, Twitter engineer Alex Payne tweeted “If you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client. (You will soon.)"

I'd love to see the niffy site features! Twitter's web UI is just way too simple. Example: Where can I follow conversations(aka: thread of retweets, replies) on a tweet?

Twitter should surely use its $160 million funding to beautify its web presentation and blow away all the 3rd-party clients(whoever builds its entire business model on features that are core to Twitter should have seen this day coming).

Tags: api twitter

Now days, it's getting easier and easier for criminals to decide who, where, what to rob:

• who to rob: pleaserobme.com
• where to rob: 123people.com
• what to rob: blippy.com, justbought.it

anyone wants to do a mashup of all these services + Google Street view so that we know who bought $X goods of what and is currently out of his/her home?

Tags: privacy people location robbery

I've meant to write about China Mobile's Mobile Market(aka "app store") Report for Nov, 2009 when it first came out.

I finally got the chance!

Mobile Market has a approval process. The approval rate in Nov is 49.66%. 40.17% of the rejection was due to basic functionality not working. 29.84% of the rejection was because of apps not conforming to Mobile Market's standards.

One of Mobile Market's standards is no advertising inside apps(see page 6 of the report). Chinese don't have the habit of paying for software & apps. So China Mobile just shuts down one possible revenue stream for developers.

Tags: china mobile china-mobile app-store

Once you sign in your Google account, you can check out Google Experiment for potential upcoming features. I've tried alternate views for search results and really liked the timeline view and the map view.

Timeline view Example: postgresql vs mysql I just want to see the recent comparison between postgresql and mysql. so I can limit the timeline to show only pages from 2008 to 2009. But Google's first result is definitely wrong as the article was written back in 2003.

Tags: google search timeline

The huge news is Google is planning to pull out of China. Is Google going to pull out every service? Here's the big picture of Google ecosystem in China:

Adwords

Lots of companies(eg: export/import biz) in China rely on Adwords to drive traffic and get leads from Google outside of China via Google search and Google's content network. There are companies/agencies in China that provide training/consulting/reseller services on Google Adwords.

AdSenses

Lots of small/personal websites in China rely on Google Adsense to generate a few bucks.

Google Analytics

Lots of sites in China use Goolge Analytics because it's free. There are companies in China that provide training/consultingj/reseller services on Google Analytics.

Google's nexus one is coming out this week. While most of attentions have been focusing on Android-based phones vs iPhone, Flurry shined some lights on the not-so-secret weapon of Apple - iPod Touch(which I own one): iPod Touch Downloads Explode on Christmas Day, Surpassing iPhone for the First Time!

iPod Touch is a great device for anyone that doesn't need a phone or can't afford all the expenses(monthly data/voice plans) associated with a phone. I am talking about teenagers/college students here. I bet many teenagers get their first tastes of apps through the App Store on iPod Touch. I am still waiting for companies to come up with a Andorid-based iPod Touch-like device(zii is supposed to be the one, but it's not yet ready for consumer).

Tags: google apple iphone android nexus-one app-store ipod-touch

Android Development - the good

• Easy to extend/customize existing functions - a few examples:
  • You can write a new dialer to handle calling - in fact, I am using StartContact because the default dialer sucks(no contact search function, need to scroll).
  • Add your application to contextual menu of native functions(eg: handling the calling of a number)
  • You can override the home screen lock. see FlyScreen
• With the backing of Google, Android SDK evolves very quickly( this is really a double-edged sword).

Tags: google android android-market apple-app-store android-development