It’s getting to be that time of year when pundits start making predictions about the hot technologies on tap for 2010. My favorite so far is less a prediction and more a reality that is happening right now. Mashable’s Peter Cashmore points out that Foursquare is the next Twitter-like social technology to break out, however I think his definition of the application programming interface (API) and its role in Twitter’s (and, eventually, Foursquare’s) meteoric success is even more insightful:

“This week Foursquare debuted the singular piece that launched Twitter into the stratosphere: an API. This application programming interface allows third-party developers to build anything they desire on top of Foursquare’s location-based social network.

It’s been shown time and again that once these ecosystems gain momentum, potential competitors face an arduous task. From Flickr to Google Maps to Twitter and beyond, it’s clear that early critical mass — having enough users and applications to make a service invaluable — sets the stage for a landslide victory.”

Microsoft has now united with a web tool on hailing as a rivalry to Google for providing the search results for its Search Engine Bing. Wolfram Alpha is a web tool that aims to provide the solution or answers directly instead of listing the links like a search engine. This search engine of computational knowledge search engine is the favor child of British physicist Stephen Wolfram. It is used for providing the Bing Search engine results for the areas such as mathematics, health and nutrition. The affiliation will begin rolled out in US. On the date from the launch of Bing in May, it gradually seizes the market share from other search engines. Statistics from Experian Hitwise mentioning that its market share in US is 8.96% in September has been raised to 9.57% in October. This figures puts the market leader Google in behind as 70.6% of the market.

Wolfram Alpha made itself unique from other search engines by answering the query directly without listing links like any other search engines. The tool used to answer many queries by grasping raw data from licensed and public databases. Professor Stephen Wolfram lectured about the working of search engines as people can use it to look the simple information such as Mount Everest height, or crunching the several data together and producing new results. The Wolfram group also said that the new affiliation with Bing would enable Microsoft to access massive amount of algorithms and pieces of data to consolidate it into its search results. Microsoft admit that the fitness and nutritional data in Wolfram Alpha could be expected to used by 90 millions Americans, who want to choose diet for each year. Moreover, the firm also stated that on searching for the particular food items from Bing, you will get the nutrition quick tab that let you to know more about it.

The user can also get a label of nutrition facts at down of the results page that describes all information of the food item in a very friendly and familiar format. The partnership has made successfully from the decision of Wolfram to offer an Application Programming Interface (API) in October. API’s are a set of tools and protocols that allows the third party developers to develop tools and services for a platform. Now it has drastically becomes the common among we firms such as Twitter and Facebook, who utilize this service to enhance their reach further for their own website.

There’s been lots and lots of talk out there about the next phase of communication, especially with the launch of Google Wave, which some people see as the successor to e-mail. Admittedly, I’m not terribly excited about Wave, but there are two factors at work here:

1. I’ve only had it for a few days.
2. Jonathan’s the only person I’ve sent Waves to.

I’m not dismissing it, certainly, but it seems like a tool I’d use for work, rather than completely overhauling my entire communication strategy. We’ll see how that pans out.

But then the other day I heard about Mozilla Raindrop. Now for those of you who only know Mozilla as the creator of the Firefox Web browser, you should know that the organization works on many projects. In fact, I like the Thunderbird e-mail client quite a lot. But in Mozilla Labs there’s a new project called Raindrop that is supposed to unify messaging from multiple protocols.

The Raindrop team’s blog post said that rather than trying to create a new type of communication technology, their service is intended to make different (and mostly incompatible) protocols for communication available in one place to make them more manageable.

Raindrop will have its own application programming interface (API) and will be open source. So it should be pretty easy to get everyone to work seamlessly with one another. I’m looking forward to learning more about it, though there’s no downloadable installer as of right now.

So we’ll see what happens.

If you’re interested in learning more about some of these technologies, take a look at these articles:

How Firefox Works
How Google Works
How E-mail Works

slide : http://give1get2.sourceforge.net/give1get2/support/docs/Give1Get2_Slides_EN.pdf

pdf : http://give1get2.sourceforge.net/give1get2/support/docs/Give1Get2_Guide_Dev_EN.pdf

The French version is the primary source for all translations.

Problems & Vision:

Creating a world without poverty to enable education, reducing disease and reducing mortality.

The paradigm shift

The existing paradigm solves some problems, so it was accepted in the past. However, at this moment, it does not meet the demand of everyone. So there was a challenge and a demand for change.

I studied the market for existing solutions. Not being satisfied (because if I was happy the issue was already resolved), so I decided to create this software. Because, in my opinion, we must phase out barriers to trade. (ref Treaty establishing the European Community, 1957)

The software “Give1Get2″ is designed to build an alternative trading market to existing financial markets. The software specialised in online fund raising. It facilitates free trade in the international economy. This software was created to meet the financing needs of economic agents in Europe and globally in order to finance, among other things, research, education and innovation.

Principles & Qualities:

– Freedom, Citizenship, Responsibility, Equality, Solidarity,
– Open, rule based, predictable, nondiscriminatory

Objective:

Make a pilot project (functional, no set-up fees, free to use, legal, available (7/7j, 24/24h) and based on a win-win strategy) for an international trading platform from a PSP payment API (Moneybookers) and the FreePay Trading System (FTS) to help raise account balance of participants. (+1 Euro each time)

Directed: The main objective has been achieved.

The software has been tested in real conditions with personal accounts for the 3 possible cases of purchase (less, equal and higher) and in each case, it worked perfectly.

Simple example: when 1 Euro was sent, are received 2 Euros (factor 2: 1 * 2 = 2). The motto “Give 1. Get 2.” was chosen in this way. The starting amount is chosen by the user and may use the system as often as he wants. Example: 1234 Euros sent -> 2468 Euros received.

Target:

Target User: This software is being implemented, primarily targeting users of the PSP used speaking French or English and have minimal skills in finance (Moneybookers saves 9 million customers, according to Moneybookers). The goal is not to limit it to this category but can reach the largest number of users.

Target Developer: Those targeted for downloading and installing the software are programmers (preferably web developer) and / or companies wishing to establish a trading platform.

The platform does not take a percentage of the funds it raises. In this sense, an organization that would use it could be a non-profitable organization.

Revenues

The link to the sponsorship program is here: http://www.moneybookers.com/app/referral.pl

There are over 9 million customers who use Moneybookers (Moneybookers depending). The target population is mainly covered that already included. The affiliate can not take commissions on those already listed. (he did not himself sponsored, implied)

For people who are not registered yet, they can apply directly to the url http://moneybookers.com/: in this case, the partner does not take commission.

Either option, register with the affiliate link (the URL provided in a footnote on the script) in this case, the affiliate will receive commissions on what wins the PSP (up to 30 % and limited to 100 Euros maximum) This is not an additional cost (30-70 division). It is therefore completely transparent to the user.

This incentive, I have put in place to increase the number of my partners on this project. I thought it was legitimate in order to pay the fixed costs (domain name) and variable operating costs (bandwidth, database) of each partner sites.

In addition, each user also has the ability to sponsor others in making requests for payments. I think it’s a fairness.

Interoperability: How do I know if the API electronic purse of a financial institution is compatible with FSX to FreePay?

Financial Institution:

1. It must be able to create an account.

2. Supply: The user can supply his account with different means of payment (check, credit card, bank transfer etc.) and remove.

3. It must have a minimum of funds in its account (balance at least 1 euro). (must also take into account the costs of financial institution)

Optional (but strongly recommended): Approval Financial: The financial institution must be approved by at least one regulator.

Separation of tests and the real: The customer transfers between normal and test client are prohibited.

On the FSX:

1. It must be able to pass an order on the FSX and get on the payment platform. (POST or GET)

2. B2B, B2C, C2B & C2C: Let the payment works in 2 directions (merchant-seller while being accessible client-customer, merchant-customer and customer-merchant), briefly allow P2P. The right of withdrawal depends on the status of persons making the transactions and all, it is defined on the site of PSP.

2a. (optional: but it’s better to do) should be able to enable process automation. (XML)

3. XML: It is necessary that the source site (merchant / FSX) to obtain a trace of the transaction from the payment platform. (xml sent and saved in the database tables in sql)

Existing: What is Moneybookers?

- Moneybookers is a payment service secure online that lets you send and receive money instantly from an e-mail. Opening an account is free, and loading and withdrawal of money is through a credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Diners, American Express, JCB, Delta / Visa Debit and Visa Electron) or by bank transfer.

- Moneybookers is translated into 12 different languages. (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Modern Greek, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, Czech)

- Transaction costs are low and the deals can be found in the account history at any time.

- Moneybookers is an issuer of electronic money that allows the merchant (or merchant company) to accept online payments from customers worldwide with no installation fees or monthly fees. (in English: Payment Service Provider)

- Moneybookers Ltd. is a company registered in the Trade Registry of England and Wales under No. 4260907. Headquarters: Welken House, 10-11 Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6EH. It is licensed under the laws of the United Kingdom and the European Union and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom.
Source:

• The Official Website of Moneybookers http://moneybookers.com/
• Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations’ – Legal Notice http://www.moneybookers.com/app/help.pl?s=ecrcpr
• Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom (FSA) : http://www.fsa.gov.uk/
• Registration Number with Moneybookers FSA: 214225 http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/firmSearchForm.do
• Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 : http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000008_en_1
• The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20022013.htm

Why a relationship with a PSP:

The division of roles: The software can be seen as a plugin that interacts with the main software (financial institution) to bring him a new feature. The software is an open system that sends information to the internal (history) and outside (order).
- The financial institution converts capital into e-money, make payments and make the conversion of checks.
- The software can place orders for payment, exchanging payment orders and can make claims.

Dependence: The software is towards simplicity as compared to the previous version (FreePay), he subtracted the processes needed to manage money. This software saves the cost of initial capital (1 million Euros) for the creation of a financial institution issuing electronic money (in: e-money issuer) within the European Union. (ref: Article 4 paragraph 1 of Directive 2000 46 EC).

Independence: Each organization that sets up the software Give1Get2 is autonomous from other organizations. It is dependent only financial institution which helps to make payments (1 to many relationship).

The trading system is based on a win-win. The trading platform is a place of confrontation in the supply of financial securities and the demand for money under the idea of laissez-faire economics. There are no goods exchanged on the system. It is a zero sum game in terms of the payment platform but not the trading system (1 euro securitized token issued for the initiation, exchange +1 +1 for each party to each transaction). It’s a virtuous circle. There is no entrance fee. It is a system of person to person (P2P) which further allows users to place trades on a payment platform. This was designed so that there is no risk of inverse proportionality. Since there is no order of sale, it may not be a stock market crash. All system users can get rich, but not at the same time. The user can then become, as it makes a trader. (en: Market Operator)

The gain is also adjustable (0 to 100% Sample: 25 euros become real to 100% -> 50 euros securitized). This allows the user to speculate whether or not to do so. This allows the user to transform its capital and more capital represented by shares. (And then convert its shares capital by the sale, eg 50 euros securitized -> 50 euro real). Finally: EUR 25 real -> 50 euro real. This was to be demonstrated.

Economic Explanation: The software is not intended to create inflation.

From what I know, there are two types of inflation:

– Inflation of prices: Higher prices for goods and services during a period of time. (source: Wikipedia) The income increases more slowly as rising commodity prices. → decrease in purchasing power. What is problematic. But what has Give1Get2 is to increase the income of players in the system, thereby increasing purchasing power. There are no services for sale on the platform and use is free. The “products” are selling financial claims payments. The purchase price is determined by the buyers themselves. If they decide to buy more expensive it is to earn more.

– Inflation of the money: When money suffers a global money creation. Money in circulation increases via interest rates. However, the software Give1Get2 not intended to increase the money supply or decrease it. There is no interest rate not in this system. For only the responsibility of banks.

The software allows the movement of money between players.

Financial Explanation:

Consider this example: Bob wants to send 10 cents to EUR Alice via Moneybookers.

Alice to a balance of EUR 10.82. Bob has a balance of EUR 78.19. Bob sending 10 cents to Alice. The balance of Bob becomes 78.09 EUR. The balance goes to Alice 10.92 EUR. This is without counting the cost variables (0.01) and fixed costs (0.29). Ultimately, the balance of Alice is EUR 10.62 at the end of the operation.

We note that the gain (10 cents) is less than the loss (30 cents). Bob was negatively charged (-0.10 EUR, which is normal). Alice was also negatively charged (total EUR -0.20). Thus a lose-lose situation.

For a win-lose, we can establish a minimum quota of money to be set in automatic settings for all purchases through the API. Test: Bob (balance: EUR 78.09), after mature reflection, wants to send Alice to 3 euros (balance: EUR 8.52) via Moneybookers. Bob now has a balance of EUR 75.09. Alice has a balance of approximately EUR 11.12 (8.52 +3.00 -0.10 -0.29).

What we are seeing? Bob was negatively charged (EUR -3.00), while Alice was positively charged (difference +2.60 EUR). This is a win-lose.

Download

The software is based on a policy of transparency and sustainable development. The chosen license is the GNU GPL. It is free software. Thus, it has been made freely available on SourceForge.net to be downloaded and installed on servers online.

* Download the complete solution directly (the most current):

http://give1get2.com/give1get2.zip
http://give1get2.com/give1get2.7z (requires software 7zip)

* Mirror full download (stable):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/give1get2/

* [Moneybookers] Demo in action:

http://www.moneybookers.com/app/help.pl?s=m_gateway_demo
https://www.moneybookers.com/app/test_payment.pl

* [Moneybookers] The documentation for free download:

http://www.moneybookers.com/merchant/en/moneybookers_gateway_manual.pdf
http://www.moneybookers.com/merchant/en/automated_payments_interface_manual.pdf (not needed)

Software Installation

1. Buy a domain name (mytradingplatformsample.com) at a Registrar.

2. Getting accommodation containing enough space (approx 50 MB) and sufficient bandwidth (several Giga) depending on the number of users expected. (and POP3, FTP, and MySQL included)

3. De-compress the files previously downloaded. (as above)

4. Edit the file ’scripts sql tables & champs.sql’: at line 85, replace the email (alice@give1get2.com) and the merchant id (6173206) with your email and your merchant id obtained from moneybookers at the opening of your account. Replace the email as per your email on line 108.

5. Create a database “mocha” (without the double quotes) in your administration panel (usually the URL http://mytradingplatformsample.com/phpmyadmin/)

Create a user and give access rights to the database for reading and writing. (if not already done automatically).

6. Click the SQL tab, paste the data file ’scripts sql tables & champs.sql’ in the textbox and click Run. No error message should appear.

7. Change the default values by those who have been provided by the host in the file ‘params.php’ (without the single quotes) line 31 (host), line 32 (user), line 33 (password), line 34 (database)

8. On the web server, copy and paste the modified source (with default settings) in 7z and zip. Also create a folder /give1get2/. Upload files via FTP (ex FireFTP, a Firefox extension) with the parameters of the host ( ‘params.php’) in the directory previously created.

9. Launch the browser http://mytradingplatformsample.com/give1get2/. The index page should be displayed without an error message. Sources (7z and zip) should be downloadable from a tab ‘literature’ or ‘download’.

10. Suggest your site on search engines (eg http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl)

11. Generate an XML sitemap and put it in the root (eg http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/)

12. Optimize your website (eg with Google Webmaster Tools)

Prerequisite:

The only equipment needed is a PC, operating system, Internet connection and web browser.

Designed in XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and SQL (CRUD). Requires MySQL, phpMyAdmin, POP3 for mail, FTP and a web browser. Has been tested and works with Apache (> = 1.3.33), MySQL (> = 4.1.9), PHP (> = 4.3.10), PhpMyAdmin (> = 2.6.1).

It’s a multitier architecture (data, business logic and presentation). The architecture is based on the project FreePay: http://freepay.fr/freepay.zip To deepen FreePay documentation is available. http://freepay.fr/freepay/nav_telechargement.php?option=documentation

The diagram of treatment processes the merchant side of the financial institution has been copied in an picture in attachment. “moneybookers_payment_gateway_api_details_interaction_diagram.png”

This script is also based on the API documentation “Moneybookers Payment Gateway – Merchant Integration Manual” (in English) – Version: <6.5>. http://www.moneybookers.com/merchant/fr/moneybookers_gateway_manual.pdf (43 pages) A new version may be out on time or you read these lines, which could cause problems.

The script takes into account that the fields by way of simplification. Regarding the optional fields: refer to official documentation.

The ISIN code is used again in this software (ISO 6166). The codification created the ZZ is to make a clear distinction and there have no ambiguity with the countries or territories with securities, according to ISO 3166-1.

The status of a transaction (statements):

2 : Processed
1 : Test // status added, not in the documentation
0 : Pending
-1 : Cancelled
-2 : Failed
-3 : Chargeback

The Stages of development (How)

Vision: The payment module FreePay and all of the modules below are replaced by the external API Moneybookers (financial institution approved by the FSA).

Consequences: The support payment module is outsourced. The project name no longer matches. The meta tags do not correspond. Menus no longer match.

1. Copy FreePay. All necessary modules are not removed unless the FSX. (+ Check that it works)

2. API Implementation Moneybookers (+ check that it works)

3. Mashup of two (Mashup)
creation of specific interface
creation of specific process
creation of the specific database (+ check that it works through a simulator engine of payment)

4. Re-factoring: Optimization Mashup (+ check that it works)

5. Publication on Internet

Architecture

The source code is in French. The source code comments are in French too. Except for the financial standards that are in English. The project is oriented towards internationalization (I18N).

All images are in a specific folder (/images).
All CSS (Stylesheets cascading) are in a specific folder (/style).
All that was attractive to user support is in the /support.
The documentation is in the /support /docs.
Everything concerning the internationalization is in the folder named “services/i18n.

The programming style is procedural: the methods are called in a specific order.

The visible part is composed of the main page of the history and documentation.

Restricting access is done through the sessions for the hidden part (payment process).

As a web project, the human-machine interface is based on an architecture is client/server. And the server to a 3-tier architecture (database, processing, presentation).

The database

It is composed of 4 tables per financial institution: ( “scripts sql tables & champs.sql” at the root)

-2 for the securities (already existing in FSX):

– List of past transactions carried on securities.
– List of securities for sale in their current states.

– 2 orders of payments (the before and after):

– List of past orders in the securities of FSX.
– List of payment orders sent by the API.

It is composed of 2 insertions in the tables corresponding to a title and its history.

The stages of payment for a user in FSX

The user has created and supplied a Moneybookers account. (https://www.moneybookers.com/app/register.pl)

1. The link to the login page is on the first page top right. The connection is with the email and digital identifier (Customer ID) associated with Moneybookers account.
(Visible beneath the menu in the interface Moneybookers). (No password is managed by Moneybookers upon payment to avoid external recovery)

2. The user goes to the purchase page and a ISIN number (defined as the value and benefit if necessary).

The purchase order is saved and accessible via the menu of the same name. It summarizes the status of the transaction (Active / Standby, Fails / Canceled or Finished).

3. According to the parameters ( “params.php”) defined by the administrator, the user is redirected either:
– On the test server (mb_test_payment.php) and valid
– Or Moneybookers ( https://www.moneybookers.com/app/payment.pl)

The redirection is done through a GET (passing all the required parameters). The solution has been chosen is a javascript redirect. (<script type=’text/javascript’>Code</ script>)

4. If the person given the right parameters, it falls just a password. Otherwise, it creates the account.

5. The payment is reversed or validated by the user. Moneybookers transfer money between the parties. Moneybookers sends a return code “HTTP 200″ POST only the status_url previously sent ( “Payment/pay/status_report.php”) and redirects the user to the platform FSX defined above.

– The software uses a coupling data (parameter passing).

if (isset ($ _POST [ 'mb_transaction_id'])) ($mb_transaction_id = $ _POST['mb_transaction_id'];)

– The data are then filtered for security reasons. ( “status_report_filtre.php”) Verifies that all fields are filled, they have the right kind, good length and good data (technical filtering whitelist).

example: checking that the original data (IP) is really from the financial institution to avoid any fraudulent attempt to send play money. (attack type “man in the middle”)

The amount returned by moneybookers be less than the amount indicated in the reservation (due to the taking of commission (fixed and variable) of the payment platform or GET parameters that can be modified en route by the user). The transfer of ownership of securities is based on new figures sent by the API only to avoid these problems.

6. Then, if all criteria are validated then the data are stored in the table of the api. (+ Current date) and displays as required by the file ‘pay_liste.php’ the customer reflected in his eyes when he returns to Give1Get2.

7. continuing process of transferring ownership (the transaction on hold “pending” changes to “done”) with the transaction number recovered by Moneybookers previously sent)

Each sale of title, money is saved in the accounts of the financial institution. In a crisis (such as unavailability of the platform title), the money, it is always available.

8. The user can see his tracks and refresh the page (F5). It can also use the emailling to expedite the payment process, then:
– The seller receives an email notification informing the FSX the transfer of title and the reception of money. (Transmitter + Silver + currency)
– The buyer receives an email notification from the financial institution. (+ Silver + dollar + product code)

9. Disconnecting the trading platform (FSX)

Views:

The architecture views is common FreePay (header and footer together on every page).

Menu: (Home, History of titles, title Buy, Purchase Order (Confirmation is visible if the order was successful) Consult your titles, Contact Us, Documentation)

– The user can see the transaction history.
– The user can buy a ISIN number.
– The user can consult the list of purchase orders and click on the transaction number for details of the transaction (if it succeeded).
– The user can see his tracks.

Compliance with W3C standards: has been validated XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS 2.0 in Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Controllers:

These are the same as those of FreePay. PHP and Javascript for the client and server respectively.

Transactions that fail after 1 day were classified as having failed. (status to -2).

Security

The application has been designed and tested CAL9000 (OWASP) to be protected against attacks like Cross Site Scripting (XSS). In the Top 10 vulnerabilities in 2007 by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP).

Test and Verify:

The test accounts are opened at the initiative of customers. Funding test are given free Moneybookers.

Pass the following test series: Requires minimum 2 users. (Alice and Bob) Preparation: Note the financial position of existing users: “Balance in Euro” and “Balance of ISIN” for each.

Make a purchase and for 3 cases (less than, equal, higher), check:
– The balance of the buyer (Alice) has he fallen?
– The value of the security of the buyer (Alice) has she grown?
– The balance of the receiver (Bob) has he grown?
– The titles of the receiver (Bob) have decreased?
– The receiver (Bob) as been notified by email?

Next development platform:

FaceBook + Paypal

Legal

I think my system is legal because I am doing research in this direction before putting it free. I believe it is in line with the principles of the European Union. (http://europa.eu/scadplus/european_convention/objectives_en.htm). I joined in the “Support”> “docs” reference documents concerning the legislative, legal and regulatory framework that could be pertinent.

The website of the European Commission is very instructive on this issue. (http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/top_layer/index_24_en.htm) Category: European Commission> Internal Market> Single Market for Services> Financial Services. I am not completely agree on the choice of this category since the trading platform offers a free service (without compensation) and does not manage money (only confirmation that the money has been transferred).

Fund investments> Alternative investments: there is a Draft Directive on fund managers known as “alternative. The draft guideline can still be changed, and the final version will not necessarily apply to specific cases. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/investment/alternative_investments_en.htm

Payment services> E-Money: The trading platform does not change. So, this concerns only the PSP Moneybookers. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/payments/emoney/index_en.htm

Payment services> e-Invoicing: PSP is Moneybookers which manages billing (it may disable) Only one copy is kept for archive purposes by the trading platform (or nothing depending on the setting) http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/payments/einvoicing/index_en.htm

Financial conglomerates: Depending on the size of the trading system Give1Get2 and structure, it can enter or not enter this category. It is the selection of the contractors as opportunities for merger / acquisitions. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/financial-conglomerates/index_en.htm

Electronic Business: It depends on what is done by customers in return for money sent. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/e-commerce/directive_en.htm

Copyright:

My copyright is protected by the GNU General Public License. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

My creations are protected at European level by Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of computer programs. (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31991L0250:EN:HTML)

My designs are protected internationally by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (currently managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), specialized agency within the UN). (source: http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.html)

Disclaimer:

Using this application value of acceptance of the disclaimer as follows: The author assumes no responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of this application.

Script comes with no warranty.

If you have a problem of a financial nature relating to your moneybookers account, please contact Moneybookers customer service.

5 parties : Fournisseur, Consommateur, Concurrent, Partenaire et Soi-même.

Fournisseur :

- Les prestataires de services de paiement (PSP) ont un business model qui fonctionne par les commissions (partie fixe et variable) sur les transactions de leur clients (environ 2%). Pour que leur profit augmente, ils veulent augmenter leur volume de transactions et à ce que les clients envoient de plus grosse somme.

- Leur principaux partenaires sont les marchands et les plateforme de trading qui leur permet d’accroitre leur volume de transactions et les montants via les utilisateurs qui les utilisent. Ceci se fait par l’augmentation de leur nombre de clients qui est proportionnel à l’accès de leur système d’informations : l’API (Application Programming Interface) qui permet à quiconque d’automatiser les paiements.

- Leur fournisseurs sont une ou plusieurs banques. Les messages financiers sont géré électroniquement par la banque. Le PSP reçoit des confirmations via une API.

Consommateur :

- Les utilisateurs de l’internet veulent répondre à leur besoins. Les besoins de l’humanité sont récurrent (doivent être satisfait tout les jours). Ce besoin est soit un produit ou service, soit de l’argent. Les produits se trouvent chez les marchants en ligne (e-commerce). L’argent facilement gagné se trouve sur les plateforme de trading.

- Pour envoyer de l’argent, l’utilisateur à besoin d’un PSP. Et son PSP lui demande d’avoir un compte bancaire pour remplir son portefeuille électronique. Comparativement au PSP, l’internaute gagne plus par transaction si le profit est à sa valeur par défaut (maximum).

Concurrent, Partenaire et Soi-même :

- Le business model de la plateforme de trading est soit le même que celui du PSP (commissions par transactions), soit des frais d’entrée, soit des frais mensuels, soit des primes de parrainages (lien avec id) ou soit gratuit. (L’argent est gagné de la même manière que les utilisateurs.)

- Les fournisseurs des plateformes de trading sont les PSP avec leur API. (le logo est mis en évidence)

- Les utilisateurs consomment un service qui leur permet de déplacer de l’argent. La stratégie de déplacement de l’argent est définie soit par la plateforme de trading soit par les utilisateurs euxmême. (dépend de la politique interne de la plateforme de trading)

- La plateforme de trading est une couche logiciel au dessus du PSP. La conception et l’évolution de ce produit informatique peut être en partie externalisé auprès d’une ou plusieurs personnes qui s’occupe d’un logiciel libre de plateforme de trading ce qui permettrait de réduire les coûts et le temps de développement.

5 parts: Provider, Consumer, Competitor, Partner and Self.

Provider:

- Payment Services Providers (PSP) have a business model that works by commissions (fixed and variable) on the transactions of their customers (about 2%). To increase their profits, they want to increase their volume of transactions and that customers send the most money.

- Their main partners are the merchants and trading platform that allows them to increase their volume of transactions and amounts over the users who use them. This is done by increasing the number of customers that is proportional to the access of their information systems: the API (Application Programming Interface) that allows anyone to automate payments.

- Their suppliers are one or more banks. The financial messages are handled electronically by the bank. The PSP received confirmation via an API.

Consumer:

- The internet users want to meet their needs. The needs of humanity are recurrent (must be met every day). This need is either a product or service, or money. The products are among the online marketplaces (e-commerce). The easy money is on the trading platform.

- To send money, the user needs a PSP. PSP and asked to have a bank account to fulfill its electronic wallet. Compared to the PSP, the user earns more per transaction if the gain is at its default value (maximum).

Competitor, Partner and Self:

- The business model of the trading platform is either the same as the PSP (for transactions), or an entrance fee or monthly fee or premium sponsorships (link id) or is free. (The money is earned in the same way as users.)

- Providers of trading platforms are the PSP with their API. (the logo is highlighted)

- The users use a service that allows them to move money. The strategy of moving money is defined either by the trading platform or by users themselves. (depends on the internal politics of the trading platform)

- The trading platform is a software layer above the PSP. The design and evolution of the computer product can be partially outsourced to one or more persons caring for an open source trading platform that would reduce costs and development time.

MobileNews / Προσοχή σε spam μηνύματα / ΕΛΛΑΔΑ / News
Το τελευταίο χρονικό διάστημα παρατηρείται αύξηση περιστατικών spam μηνυμάτων προς αριθμούς κινητών τηλεφώνων. Συνήθως το περιεχόμενο μπορεί να αναφέρεται σε:

«Γνωριμίες», όπως:

Π.χ. «Σε είδα στην καφετέρια και μου άρεσες πολύ. Το τηλ. Μου έδωσε ο φίλος σου, είσαι ακόμα διαθέσιμος? …..»,«Σε είδα και σε ερωτεύτηκα….» κτλ. κτλ. , και να φέρει ως υπογραφή κάποιο όνομα (γυναικείο ή ανδρικό) ή να είναι και ανυπόγραφο.[next]

All listed websites are FREE and all of these are taken from internet.And feel free to suggest some of the websites in my comments

(1) Freezly – If you are always on a lookout for free giveaways then you should find Freezly very handy. It is a new Twitter application that makes easy to find free stuff (coupons, free contests, giveaways) on the web. It aggregates tweets with free stuff and shows their popularity based on the number of retweets.

(2) DailyMakeover – Virtual makeover site combined with information on hairstyles, makeup, fashion etc. Their main tool which is the one that does online virtual makeover is called Makeover Studio. By clicking on “start your makeover”, you can upload photos and apply a variety of effects using makeup materials from different beauty brands. The choice of hairstyles, cosmetics, looks, accessories available is quite extensive and you could completely transform the look of the picture.

(3) Hurl – Free web based tool that makes it easy to make custom HTTP requests, save them online or share with others. The application comes in handy for anyone who is working with APIs, the service is a great time-saver to quickly view responses & develop accordingly.

(4) Personas – Interesting website which lets you see a colorful representation of your online identity. It just asks your first and last name and then crawls the web to find out who you are and what you do online. As it discovers you, you can see the colors and the bars changing.

(5) WhereToWork – Online mashup tool that maps job listings from Indeed.com onto Google Maps. Enter any job title and the application will show its map distribution across the United States. Using this tool you can get an overview of where in the US the job of your interest is in higher demand.

API ย่อมาจาก Application Programming Interface มันคล้ายๆ กับ library  (function/module/utility) ซึ่งเป็นส่วนที่ช่วยให้นักพัฒนา Application พัฒนางานของตนได้ง่ายขึ้น ไม่ต้องเขียนโค้ดใหม่ ให้ยุ่งยาก ซับซ้อน เช่น เราต้องการจะสร้าง application นึงขึ้นมา เราสามารถ นำ API มาใช้ ร่วมกับ Application ของเราเพื่อให้สะดวกและง่ายขึ้น เพราะ เพียงแค่รู้ว่า API นั้นๆ ใช้อย่างไร และ ทำงานอย่างไร เท่านั้น แค่นำมาใช้และให้มันทำงานร่วมกับ Application ของเราให้ได้ ก็เป็นพอ

ตัวอย่าง Website ที่ใช้ API เช่นพวก Social Network ทั้งหลายทั้งปวง

Amazon.com , eBay, Facebook (เป็น Social network ด้วย),Google Maps, Hi5 ..และ เว็บ อื่นๆ อีกมากมาย

API ORGANIZATIONS IN CALIFORNIA UNITE TO DEMAND FAIR & HUMANE IMMIGRATION REFORM

August 20, 2009 -LOS ANGELES, CA – In Historic Filipinotown, Asian and Pacific Islander (API) organizations called on the Obama Administration and Congress for enact fair and humane comprehensive immigration reform.

In simultaneous press conferences held in Los Angeles and San Francisco, community leaders and members kicked off the National API Week of Action, shedding light on how the immigration system affects API immigrants and their families. This week of action (August 17 to 22) uplifts API voices in the national debate on immigration reform.

 Family reunification is the primary reason APIs come to the U.S., but API families suffer some of the worst immigration backlogs. “Filipinos must wait up to 22 years for an immigrant visa to join their family members in the U.S.,” said Sherwin Shakramy, Program Development Coordinator of the Filipino American Service Group, Inc. “This long separation of families is unacceptable – we want efficient and timely processing of visas that facilitate the reunification of families.” 

 Eileen Ma of API-Equality, Los Angeles, also states, “We need to provide a pathway to legalization for the 35,000 bi-national same sex couples currently living here. U.S. immigration policy is largely based on the principle of family reunification, allowing for the sponsor of spouses and other family members for immigration purposes. But because of a limited definition of family and the failure to recognize same-sex marriages, same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and green card holders are not considered as family. API couples are more likely to be kept apart, torn apart, or forced to stay together illegally, because of high numbers of foreign-born individuals in the API community.” 

  [click here for the full press release in PDF].

Everybody tweets now-a-days. Even cats tweet(@sockongton). A tweet is a burst of 140 characters from all those interesting ‘characters’ around the globe, describing ‘what they are are doing’. I wonder why just 140 characters. why not 130 or 150. So I started digging and the search lead me to check the technical anatomy of a tweet. And it gave some interesting facts about twitter. I will put the tweet anatomy examination report.

• Number of charactr in a tweet is 140
• Total content length(XHR request) when a tweet is 140 exactly(maximum length) – 262
• Minimum content length(XHR request) when a tweet is one char long – 107
• Meaning XHR header content length is 106 byte- a constant

So I checked for an answer with twitter API response

We can check a users’ status using User/show API – http://twitter.com/users/show.xml?screen_name=anandcv

The response is an xml file( given below is the response of my user id @anandcv when my last tweet was 140 char long)

Twitter user/show API respone

Ther response got an interesting field in the status – <truncated>false</truncated>.

Probably a remainder of early implementation, which allowed more than 140 characters. Currently twitter web interface allows only 140 chars.

The other fields are

<created_at></created_at> – the time stamp
<id></id>  – the unique message id
<text></text> – the tweet itself
<source></source> – source of the tweet (from web or other tools etc..)
<in_reply_to_status_id/> – Replying to some tweet?
<in_reply_to_user_id/> -  Replying to somebody user id?
<favorited>false</favorited> – favorited?
<in_reply_to_screen_name/> – screen name of the user.

No clues yet. The search continues…

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Saw the first pass of our Apple coding effort yesterday.  It’s looking awesome.  It is always a big thrill in software when you first see what started as an idea, morph into a design document, then into code and finally into something that you can actually see on the screen.  And in this case the screen is on an iPhone, even a bigger thrill.  Fun to be on the cutting edge again.

We are still dealing with an issue related to the iPhone and accessing certain areas within it with our code.  If Apple support is not able to give us a satisfactory resolution we have begun work on a plan B for that part.  Plan B would allow us to do what we had originally planned to do within the iPhone,  we would just be doing it outside the iPhone app, and it would add a fixed cost component we otherwise would not have.  On the positive side Plan B would give us some technology that we can use to piggyback with some other projects we are developing.  Yin-Yang

Also making progress on our other project code named “Iowa” (always wanted to be able to say that) (code named that is, not Iowa). We’re dealing with some third party technology in that one too.  Unfortunately their API doc looks as if it were written by Ph’ds for Ph’ds. Oh wait it was.  Lots of read, re-read, re-read and re-read with it, followed by head scratching and hmm wonder what they are trying to say.  But we’re plodding our way through it.  Should be starting our live field testing with our first beta tester next week.

Good thing is we’re learning there is a lot we can do with the technology we’re using in Iowa.  Both straight “out of the box” with our third party API’s (when we can figur them out) and even more so in conjunction with our own engines.  Bad thing is our technology partner is a startup with non-existent, or at the very least woefully inadequate support.  Yin-Yang

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your journey in getting involved with Revit API

My journey to the API was that I was the Quality Assurance Manager for Revit Architecture and Revit Structure for several years, starting when Revit was a small startup company with no customers and before our first release. I always tried to use scripting techniques with languages like Perl to improve our testing efficiency and completeness, and was excited when a member of our QA team was able to use the API to greatly expand the range of programmatic testing that could be done far beyond what could be tested if we were limited to manual interaction through the user interface.

 In 2008 I transferred to a software development position in the API group and have been helping design and test new API functionality (such as the Family Editor API and Conceptual Massing API in the 2010 release), teach other Autodesk employees about the API, work with the writers for the API documentation, design and write API samples, and more.

  ‘ I think an interesting future for this might be what www.guru.com has been doing to match freelance developers with potential customers. Not every Revit user will want to code their own Revit API applications, but having access to a worldwide network of developers interested in doing big and small projects might work well for both groups .’ – Harry Mattison    (May 2009)

Here is a great Revit API summary compiled by myself with the endless help and patience from Harry Mattison & Guy Robinson.

RTC 2009_ API Summary_M Louw

Guy Robinson is an authorised Autodesk Developer who is based in New Zealand and works on a diverse range of international projects. I have been lucky enough to be able to get some of his time and advice on my quest to understanding what the Revit API is all about.  Guy’s innate insight and candour has been helpful on my quest and I have jotted down some of his responses to my countless questions, in the hope that you may hopefully benefit from the insights and advice given by Guy Robinson himself.

 NOTE:

Guy Robinson is not informed about what changes Autodesk might be planning for the API in future releases and these comments are his opinion, to date, as things presently stand. As such the following comments reflect his current outlook and could be subject to change as new information comes to light or as Revit evolves as a product.

I will post each question that I asked Guy Robinson about Revit API’s seperately

I would like to acknowledge Guy for all his patience, advice and encouragement. His feedback has been very useful in assisting me to share information in regards to Revit API that is relevant, accurate and responsible. In my communication with Guy it has been clear that he is always thinking of the best way to approach to solving a problem. He has also been quick to highlight any short-term and long-term pitfalls on any given solution. I can’t imagine that Guy could ever create any API solution that was not robust or really well considered. Many Thanks.

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 Guy has his own blog [ http://www.redbolts.com/blog/] and is a .NET software Developer providing custom applications and commands for architecture firms exclusively working with Autodesk Revit and integration with any associated applications.

An interview with Guy Robinson

 http://www.redbolts.com  has all my contact details so feel free to email or call to discuss. 

Guy has his own blog [ http://www.redbolts.com/blog/] and is a .NET software Developer providing custom applications and commands for architecture firms exclusively working with Autodesk Revit and integration with any associated applications.

An interview with Guy Robinson

I firmly believe every Revit firm should be using the API just not via traditional methods necessarily. In the past I have consulted to firms trying to help them in achieving this. However it is my experience that with the exception of enthusiasts, most API work is currently done for large firms that can spread the cost over x number of employees.  I just don’t think in it’s current form the API is economic for custom applications for anything except large firms or firms that will accept minimal UI’s or basic functionality. Also even via ADN it is impossible to plan long-term for firms as no information is posted on planned releases until they enter alpha or beta. So for some applications which have been large projects, they have not got past planning stage because firms haven’t been prepared to take this risk that some feature in the next release will break their application or become redundant in the next release. This is what I mean by the API being young. I have about 5 large applications that are sitting waiting for the functionality to be exposed via the API. For some applications it’s a waiting game.

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Guy has his own blog [ http://www.redbolts.com/blog/] and is a .NET software Developer providing custom applications and commands for architecture firms exclusively working with Autodesk Revit and integration with any associated applications.

An interview with Guy Robinson

In broad terms a lot of API work in AutoCAD was about automating common documentation tasks within AutoCAD. In Revit and BIM/IPD the API shouldn’t be about this so much because that is what makes Revit unique in the first place. IMO, the API is as fundamental as drawing a wall with BIM applications because BIM is about managing data. For that reason company standards are critical, and which the API should play an important role. This is a moving target of course but Revit 2010 does offer a big step up with the new family API.

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Guy has his own blog [ http://www.redbolts.com/blog/] and is a .NET software Developer providing custom applications and commands for architecture firms exclusively working with Autodesk Revit and integration with any associated applications.

An interview with Guy Robinson

Q: Can you tell us a little more about yourself and your vision or hopes of api-solutions in the future in regards to Revit?

Regarding visions, that is all in the hands of Autodesk and where they take Revit and the API. So I try and avoid visions on the API’s future A, I’m moving to developing applications to sell rather than custom development for now. Not the future I think is right for the API but for now the most appropriate given where the API is currently and likely to be in the immediate future A move to .NET3.5 with the R2010 API represents additional expense in development but also immense opportunity. Of course were someone to ask me to develop a large custom application for them then of course this would still be my preference.

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 Guy has his own blog [ http://www.redbolts.com/blog/] and is a .NET software Developer providing custom applications and commands for architecture firms exclusively working with Autodesk Revit and integration with any associated applications.