Ismail Dhorat » Uncategorized

Python library for the foursquare API

Ismail Dhorat — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:06:50 +0000

I have just released some open source code over at GitHub, it’s a simple wrapper library for the foursquare API. You should be familiar with the official API docs before making use of the library, since most of the parameters required are the same as the parameters for the foursquare API.

The full source code is available over at: http://github.com/zyelabs/python-foursquare

Grabbing the code:

Download a zip file
Download a tar file
git clone git://github.com/zyelabs/python-foursquare.git

Installing
python setup.py install
Usage
import foursquare #get help help(foursquare)


# Instantiate a foursquare API class

api = foursquare.Api()
# Test if an API Request will work, returns True or False

test = api.test()
# Return a list of cities

cities = api.get_cities()
# Get the closest city for a given geolat & geolong

closest_city = api.check_city(-25.091874,27.057225)
# get checkins

checkins = api.get_checkins(username, password)

# get friends friends = api.get_friends(username, password)

All the methods for the foursquare API have been implemented, just use pythons help system to get the different calls and methods. i.e run: help(foursquare)

Also note, with regards to optional params sent to the foursquare API the keyword argument name is mapped to that of the foursquare API. for example the userdetail endpoint takes an optional param mayor=1 the method in the library takes the same argument.

The only exception to this is the set_pings method, since the param required by foursquare is ‘self‘ . To use this method:
# set pings off (Globally) for authenticated user api.set_pings(username, password, me='off')


# set pings on (globally)

api.set_pings(username, password, me='on')

# set pings on/off for a list of friends # friends must be a list of dictionaries # 1 to enable and 0 to disable change_pings = [{'uid'=123, 'ping': 1}, {'uid'=456, 'ping': 0}] api.set_pings(username, password, friends=change_pings, me='goodnight')

If you pick up any bugs or issues, pop me a message.

Good bye to the Golf MK1 / CitiGolf

Ismail Dhorat — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:00:07 +0000

So while the rest of the world had stopped production of the Golf 1, in the late 80’s about the only country where the CAR was still produced was South Africa. Now over 25 years later, production has stopped. Now i have always been a Veedub guy, every car i have owned except for my current one has been a VW! The car was often the first car people owned and many South African’s most likely have fond memories of it. I think the car will always be remembered as an Integral part of ZA culture.

My first car was one of the original MK1’s from the 80’s it was like 20 years old and was a beat up old crap but damn it was fun, and i have fond memories! If BMW’s motto is sheer driving pleasure, VW is definitely sheer FUN! I think one of the best cars and most fun cars to drive is the Golf V GTI.

People are currently bidding +- R 50,000 extra then the market value on one of the last cars off the production run.

You can say good bye to the citi golf as they are touring the country, you can also sign your name on the last one ever produced. The car will be in Johannesburg on the 16 November, at Kyalami… ill see you there!

You can say goodbye to the citi

The demand for Google Wave invites

Ismail Dhorat — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:33:49 +0000

So, i logged on this morning to my email, and finally i found an email from Google with aGoogle Wave Invite. Now i am not sure how i got this invite, i never asked anyone (If any of my friends added me thanks). However i did sign up for the developer preview and was put on to the waiting list. I also registered http://mywave.co.za when i signed up, which will soon be turned into a local .co.za wave server

Anyways, i signed up this morning for the account and found i had 8 Invites/Nominations.

I posted this on twitter, boy did i underestimate the demand for the invites. Within a few minutes i had a few 100 @replies, from people not even following me. So… who to send the invites to? I decided to be fair, and offer it to the first 7 people who Retweeted my last tweet. People already following me obviously had the advantage (since the last tweet was already on their timeline)

Aneways, most of the invites have been sent (Note: Google will not send out invites immediately, as and when they have capacity they will send out the invites, see above)

If you get an invite, play it forward and send others!

If you have a wave account and havent figured out how to invite people, just search for ‘Invite Others’ in your inbox window and the wave to invite people will come up.

If you are on wave, feel free to add me:
My email address:
Initial of my First Name+surname:
(i+my surname)(at)googlewave (dot) com

p.s I am out of invites, the 2 left have already been won by others see my tweets

Global Voices online & MS Action Aid – Mentor Project

Ismail Dhorat — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:57:53 +0000

As you may know, i also blog over at global voices online, they are currently in partnership with MS Action Aid Denmark, to provide mentoring to some of the students that are part of the Action aid, Education for social change programme.

I believe we will be mentoring students that are part of the New Communicator track.

About the Education for social change
Global Change is a brand new education from MS ActionAid Denmark. The goal is ambitious: Social and political change on a global level through education of young people in communication, new media and innovative organising. Global Change is a bi-annual 4 month education carried out from MS Global Platform Copenhagen, Denmark.

About the partnership with GV & My involvement
A few global voices bloggers were selected to act as mentors for the students on the course. The goal will be to inspire these students in blogging and how it could be used for Advocacy. We also hope to discuss things like how to build a blog and develop your own voice, style and subjective approach to this medium; how to attract and build a relationship with the readers and do outreach to other bloggers in the blogosphere; how to link your blog with other social media.

Basically, just being there for the students, and responding to any queries and having regular chats with them to ensure they are getting the most out of blogging.

I will also attempt to use what little free time i have to post some of my experiences on this from a mentor perspective as well as linking to my mentee.

Ramadan.co.za Stats 1 year later….

Ismail Dhorat — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:14:50 +0000

Last year some of us bloggers launched a project for Ramadan, the project was actually a relaunch of a website i had done in 2002 (original site).

Here are some stats of the increase in Traffic:

Blogging for a Cause – Global Voices

Ismail Dhorat — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:33:25 +0000

This blog post is part of Zemanta’s “Blogging For a Cause” campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

I fully support global voices, and like the initiative so much that i have signed up as a contributor. Why? Because Global voices gives people who’s viewpoints may never be heard a chance to tell their stories on a global stage.

I think often, in the blogosphere sometimes voices get drowned it, its not that they dont have important things to say, its just that these bloggers may be new or not very familiar with things like SEO. Global voices changes that. The initiatives like rising voices, is also one of my favorite projects.

Not sure if this post has come to late, but hopefully it counts!

Direct Fin solutions & Metropolitan life are Spammers

Ismail Dhorat — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:06:41 +0000

Arent you Sick of getting calls on your PERSONAL mobile number offering you insuarance, policies or new cell phone contracts? Well i am too! I get at least 1 call a week, and to be Honest i am SICK of it.

I just received a call from Direct Fin Solutions who are representing Metropolitan Life.

Who the HELL gave them the right to call me on Personal Number? As a rule i NEVER grant permission to anyone to contact me. So what Direct Fin Solutions and Metropolitan Life are doing is ILLEGAL and SPAM.

Refer to the following post

The Protection of Personal Information Bill

The rational behind the Protection of Personal Information Bill in summary is to ensure that…

* Personal information must be obtained fairly and lawfully and disclosing the purpose (purpose driven)
* Personal information must be used only for the original specified purpose
* Consent is obtained as far as it is practical and offer an opt-out option (consent)
* Personal information must be accurate and up to date and deleted if requested (control)
* Personal information must be accessible to the subject
* Personal information must be kept securely and destroyed after its purpose is completed

(Hat Tip to Noto)

So here’s the deal, If anyone else has received calls from Direct Fin solutions, respond back here. Its high time SA companies stop abusing our information and do some REAL marketing (See: Inbound marketing & social media marketing). Companies that insist in intruding in the lives of potential customers are going to FAIL! in the future, it will not work! Lets take these guys to task!

Stalking on twitter?

Ismail Dhorat — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:14:32 +0000

This was too good not to share, was posting a support request to twitters get satisfaction page and came across this beaut of a comment (LOL!)

Funny as hell, though it got me thinking. In this age when we broadcast our lives to the world… on Facebook, twitter, Friendfeed etc. what are the risks? Its very easy for an Ex or someone else to obsess. 14 Years ago, when i started on the net i never would have dreamed about giving my real name up. I always used handles on IRC/Forums/MSN etc. Actually i have only started using my real name in the last few years…. what are your thoughts? Is there a danger to it?

Nokia really getting into social media

Ismail Dhorat — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:12:37 +0000

Nokia have been recently doing a whole lot using social media, Nokia music South Africa is running a twitter account where they regularly hold competitions.

I was lucky enough to win a voucher (yes you have to be quick with these things), a Nokia n97 will be awesome with those vouchers, what do you think?

There are a bunch of folks hosting competitions on their blogs to win an N97, check it out at Paul, Imod, Nafisa & Simon ….

You could be 1 of the the first 97 people in the world to get the phone…

Why @NMS_ZA (Nokia Music Service) Fails on twitter

Ismail Dhorat — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:24:51 +0000

So i have been tweeting about @amawheelies project for the last few days, and they just hit 100 followers and i won a voucher for Nokia music services. Now i must say i really appreciate it, and would like to say thank You.

However, out of integrity i have to call out an issue i see with the service. Upon going to the site i was faced with the message below.

Apparently the site is only supported on Windows, and the only browser supported is Microsoft Internet Explorer 6!

I am not sure who is assisting Nokia with their social media strategy, but it clearly shows a misunderstanding of twitter and the community.

Why? Well worldwide Internet explorer has the most market share, but on my site StartupAfrica the most common browser is Firefox. I also wrote a post which clearly shows that early adopters favor Firefox. The same early adopters that are on twitter!

Lesson: If you are going to play where early adopters are, make sure your website and systems cater for them.