James Smith - Projects

One Hundred Months

2008-08-06T09:56:00Z

I just saw the One Hundred Months campaign, and decided it was ripe for a bit of automated Twittering. So, 5 minutes hacking and we have One Hundred Months on Twitter. Code (as ever these days) is available from GitHub.

I'm amazed by what computers can do sometimes. This one seriously took me longer to publish to the world than to write.

AMEE for Ruby

2008-07-10T21:29:00Z

In a fit of why-the-hell-not, I've just started writing my first gem for Ruby, which is going to be a wrapper around the AMEE carbon calculation engine. It's still in a very early incarnation, but more will be forthcoming soon. At the moment it can authenticate, and parse DataCategory nodes. DataItems and DataItemValues will be following after a short (UK-based) holiday. Source code and installation instructions are available from GitHub.

JabberStatus

2008-05-30T21:15:00Z

JabberStatus is an XMPP -> Facebook status gateway. It allows users to update their Facebook status by sending a message to a Jabber account. It now also includes support for Twitter.

It is implemented in Ruby using the xmpp4r and facebooker gems, and is Open Source under the MIT license. The code is available from GitHub.

Green Thing

2008-05-08T09:33:00Z

I am currently working with Green Thing as their Technical Product Manager, responsible both for day-to-day development of their website, and for managing additional contributions from external developers. Green Thing is aimed at encouraging behaviour change via the web using a very low-impact approach. By creating excellent video and audio content which supports a monthly green action, Green Thing aims to make being green a desirable and fashionable thing to do.

The Carbon Diet

2008-05-08T09:32:00Z

The Carbon Diet is a self-funded project aimed at creating an advanced carbon footprint calculation tool, intended to provide users with the level of information they require in order to produce effective behaviour change. Using accurate regular data, the site calculates a daily carbon footprint, so that users can see very quickly how their daily actions affect their impact on the environment. The site is developed using a "Getting Real" approach; the first version went online in June 2007, and additional functionality has been rolled out regularly since then.

Projects

2008-05-08T09:31:00Z

I am currently self-employed, and working on a number of projects, both my own, and for external clients. I am currently working on web-based projects with a focus on environmental and climate change issues, mainly using Ruby on Rails.

My latest projects are listed below:

CO2 on Twitter

2008-05-07T13:08:00Z

I read this article last night, about using Twitter to make machines talk, specifically Tower Bridge. "What a fantastic idea", I thought to myself. "Maybe I can do the same thing for climate change". Also, it would be a good way to flex my Ruby muscles a little and get some "fun" coding in for the first time since Amelia was born.

So, a couple of hours of Ruby later, and we have atmospheric CO2 updates on Twitter. The code is dead simple, and can be grabbed from GitHub.