For the upcoming documentary ”The Human Experiment” we’ve created a white list for chemical-free products. It’s simple to use, and helps you make better buying choices. Less chemicals = less risk of cancer (and other damaging side effects).
Our beta won “best prototype” at a recent PBS Hackathon!
Check out the demo. The app & movie (narrated by Sean Penn & produced by KTF Films) will be available in late spring. In the meantime, here’s the trailer.
WordPress: Step-by-Step is my attempt to expose the process of creating a WordPress theme.
Nothing is set in stone, but this is a reliable guide for getting things in order. “You have to know the rules to break them”, Well then… beginners can start here, and over time develop their own process.
This was for a WordPress workshop I taught @ General Assembly.
In this video, Rob Spectre of Twilio alongside Christopher Castiglione show you how to develop an app that hooks into the Twilio API.
In less than 1 hour we build something that every successful startup needs! What’s that you ask? A customer support line to manage all those support calls you’ll be getting. The Twilio Queue (a new feature from Twilio) is the quickest and easiest way to programmatically develop a call queue, and accept incoming calls from customers.
Dialing into the Twilio API from General Assembly on Vimeo.
In this project you’ll…
I love Stripe. They have an awesome API that handles payment processing for Websites. And it’s super easy to get started using it.
Saikat Chakrabarti (Product Engineer @Stripe), along with myself and the folks at General Assembly put this video together highlighting the first steps for getting started using Stripe.
Integrating Payments with the Stripe API – Archive from General Assembly on Vimeo.
This is a great class for developers who are interested in payment processing. Whether your client wants to sell something as simple as a t-shirt, or is in need of a fully customizable e-commerce solution, the Stripe API can handle it.
Questions answered:
-How do I get started with the Stripe API?
-What can’t I do with Stripe?
-What makes Stripe better than all the other payment options I’m considering?
-Is there a superior Stripe library I should consider when working with Stripe?
The tutorial files can be found on Stripe’s GitHub account: https://github.com/castig/wilde-things
Are you in a startup? Maybe you’re looking to break into the startup scene? Extra Credit is a 30 minute videocast for you.
Every Thursday @ 12:30pm myself, along with Sandbox’s Niamh Hughes, give advice, discuss the relevant news of the week, as well as interview various startup-celebs on how they got started starting up. I think Michael Jackson said it best, “If you’re gonna be starting something, you gotta be starting something”… no time to sit around and waste anymore time. So watch our show, get informed, and SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE @ extra.generalassemb.ly
Programming For Non-Programmers
Also, there are quite a few more PROGRAMMING FOR NON-PROGRAMMERS workshops coming up this fall. In NYC, Austin, SF, and LA. It’s been getting a great response here in NYC, and so we’re taking it on the road.
The Story Studio
Finally, I helped put together a really great business storytelling workshop @ THE STORY STUDIO. Worth checking out for sure. Hit me up with questions if you’ve got them.
Introduction to Web APIs w/ Christopher Castiglione
General Assembly put together this trailer for my Introduction to Web APIs online video series. Check it out!
This isn’t the typical argument that Expression Engine should be GNU and “free” because it is too expensive, rather my argument focuses on the fact that the EE pay wall slows its growth and inhibits innovation. As far as Content Management Systems go, Expression Engine is an efficient, functional solution for both developer and clients. But unfortunately, snappy functionality isn’t the only factor you need to consider when choosing a CMS. Compare EE with two of its “competitors”, WordPress and Drupal, and you’ll find that EE falls short on a number of other issues including: price, smaller community, less updates, and an unfortunate licensing situation. Continue reading
On December 4, the Institute of Network Culture organized the Urban Screens conference at Trouw in Amsterdam. The conference celebrated the launch of The Urban Screens Reader: the first book to focus entirely on the topic of urban screens. In assembling contributions from a range of leading theorists, in conjunction with a series of case studies dealing with artists’ projects and screen operators’ and curators’ experiences, the reader offers a rich resource for those interested in the intersections between digital media, cultural practices and urban space.
Thanks to all the speakers and participants for their great contributions to this event! The videos will be online soon, and many of our reports are already online:
Longitude and latitude coordinates are like the words we use to tell a story and only gain substance when we use them in context. With a list of resources to help teachers, Google Maps and Google Earth are helping us tell stories better and bringing geographic data to life in ways that make traditional maps look more like decorations on the wall. This blog post shows how teachers around the world are using Google Maps/Earth in ways that support new competencies like visualization, simulation and play.
Original Paper (PDF): Google Maps & Google Earth In The Classroom
Google Lit Trips is a site developed by English teacher Jerome Burg that experiments with teaching literature through maps. The site offers tips and tutorials for how teachers can integrate Google Earth into the curriculum of an English literature class. In addition there is a small library of existing KML files that other teachers have uploaded to share with the community. One example is a KML of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath that overlays placemarkers on the map of the United States, each representing a moment in time on the epic journey that the Joad family takes from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression. Additionally, the labels “Day 1, Day 2, etc.” provide a time based narrative of the trip and can be used to elicit discussion in the classroom. For example, “What events occurred between Day 2 and Day 3 and why did the family travel such a short distance?”
Looks like I won 3rd Prize and $500 in the UC Santa Barbara BlueSky Innovation Competition for my submission Anatomical Analytics. Here is the full announcement and some highlights from my entry.
