[Fabien Royer] has been playing around with Netduinos and he just came up with a really awesome project that will display the time and social media popularity. It’s a very nice build, and we’d guess that his social media influence is going to go up very shortly.
Klout is a service that connects to your Facebook or Twitter profile and tells you how much influence you have on a scale of 1 to 100 (possibly 10 to 100. see this). To build the Klout Klock [Fabian] used a Netduino Plus, a good choice because of the integrated ethernet port. The Netduino connects to the Klout API to either satiate vanity or admit prestige. The display is an adafruit TFT screen.
What’s really interesting about this build is the handling of the memory limitations of the Netduino. Not only does the project have to store 40kb for the display, but it also has to update the internal clock, fetch and parse the Klout metrics, and finally display everything. [Fabian] got around the screen buffer issue by using the SD card on the Netduino as virtual memory.
The data pulled down from Klout was another matter entirely – the standard .Net micro frameworks took up far too much RAM, so the project connects to the Klout servers with just a simple socket connection and stores everything to the SD card. [Fabian] couldn’t find a lightweight JSON parser either, so he ended up writing one of his own. Everything is coded to be as lightweight as possible, so the final build ended up as a C++ app that was written like a C program.
Check out the video of the build in action below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYyiglSI6iw&w=470]
It’s really sad when people start caring how much “influence” that they think they have on other people. What is the word for this type of self-centered thinking? It’s becoming more and more popular nowadays – this entire upcoming generation seems to think that it’s all about them. Makes me sad :(
Apparently, it is C# (.NET Micro Framework) application, not C/C++.
I’m with NATO, I use “social media” for very few things, though, mostly because I am required to for work. I track software updates/releases and a few other things.
When someone starts posting about how they made an awesome eggroll, or they took a big dump, or they are getting coffee I no longer follow them. Who cares.
The thing I like about my real social experiences is when I can actually look at my real friend, or my real wife and we can interact with each other… for real.
As for the project: at least this person is doing something.
@NATO: Agreed. But it’s business, not just egotism, driving it.
The social media companies are so popular and profitable because they’ve convinced a relatively small group of people that they need to aggressively market themselves, as if they were a product (by using their services, of course). This minority spends a disproportionate amount of time doing that, competitively accumulating hundreds or thousands of so-called “friends”. More importantly, they try to get everyone they meet to join up too. Some are annoying about it and will nag you endlessly, and I’ve even had people try to convince me I need to have a Facebook page if I want to find a good job, girlfriend, etc. Every person that joins, regardless of whether they pursue it with the same zeal, is still another customer for the social network company.
It’s classic multilevel marketing, using the labor of many individuals to generate profits for a few. Not much different than Amway. The individuals involved typically think it’s all about them, and don’t realize how they’re being used.
@NATO
You should have seen this coming when myspace hit the scene. Since then all similar services have followed suit :(
But I didn’t know about klout! So I’m gonna check it out. There are so many undiscovered net apis out there.
….Facebook?….Twitter?
@Chris
I laughed my ass off when you mentioned Amway… Why? Because I used to work there!!! Not as an “independant business owner” or whatever the hell they call it, but in the IT department. Those were the days. Good ol’ Ada, Michigan. Did you know that the speed limit on the company grounds is 19 miles per hour? If you go faster, dudes in chevy blazers (wearing aviator sunglasses) pull you over and have a “talk” with you. That’s how it was in the late 90’s and it probably hasn’t changed much. I loved it.