MindSuburbia

DreamHost guys started this nice API developers’ contest with crazy cash prizes.
The goal is to develope an App that uses the DreamHost Panel APIs.
I decided to create a Google Gadget that retreives your Private Servers stats and charts the data.
It’s not the best chart that i’ve ever seen, but it’s quite sleek and functional.

Here’s an example

If you would like to add it to your page, you may use the direct XML here:
http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/111847852952011179828/dhchartplugin.xml

Or use the Google Gadgets page: Add to my iGoogle

And I hope I can place in the top 5

I would like to add an update on my previous post about the shame on Ning.

Ning yesterday announced they are close to release Ning Apps: that is an interface to OpenSocial Apps for the hard to please Ning network-owners.

That is a very nice idea, which is exactly in line on what they announced when they disabled REST APIs in favour of OpenSocial.

Unfortunately, even if this is a great piece of news, I have to admit that, after a brief check they did not very much for the developer him/herself!

• They made it possible to install OpenSocial pre-made apps like a charm
• There is a new documentation page with a comprehensive and detailed example stack
• Now there’s even a Ning specific method, to call general Ning variables (readonly)

Yes, they’re making a nice job implementing more OpenSocial features as possible, but well no, there is still no way to access all the Ning data (i.e. profiles data, custom answers) or any way to edit them.

The only “write” funcions are:

• Write profile activities
• Send a message to another member
• Saving app-restricted persistent data

Something like a relief for Ning developers, but not that much after all.
You might be very enthusiastic if you’re getting all this for free, but I bet the paying network-owners are not that impressed after all