Comments for Paul Hinks' Blog http://www.paulhinks.com/blog Politics, Technology, Food Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:00:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 Comment on Scraping iTunes part iii – reading the categories list by kreisel.ray http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/04/23/scraping-itunes-reading-the-categories-list/comment-page-1/#comment-821 kreisel.ray Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:00:14 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=350#comment-821 This tool grabs the descriptions with screenshots available http://www.appstoresdk.com This tool grabs the descriptions with screenshots available
http://www.appstoresdk.com

]]> Comment on Finding new iPhone apps by paul http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/07/31/finding-new-iphone-apps/comment-page-1/#comment-38 paul Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:52:39 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=867#comment-38 Hi Fiona. Thanks for the message, and thank you for writing your book, which I enjoyed reading very much. I've heard similar things about iUniverse in the past so I assumed that was the problem. You book is still circulating as a guilty pleasure among several of our ex-pat friends, who are all enjoying your more than accurate portrayals of life out here. We first heard about the book from someone who claimed to know someone who had been upset by what you wrote, but I don't know the details. You certainly wrote as you found - it rings very true. I'm trying to do my part to point out the idiosyncrasies of life here too, and if people are offended it's too bad - although they are more than welcome to post a response. My wife is American and she made some very cutting and equally true observations about England when we lived in London. It often takes a stranger to point out the obvious to the locals. People who get offended about such things deserve their bubble being burst. Good luck with the future editions, and thanks again for writing such an enjoyable book. Regards. --Paul Hi Fiona. Thanks for the message, and thank you for writing your book, which I enjoyed reading very much. I’ve heard similar things about iUniverse in the past so I assumed that was the problem. You book is still circulating as a guilty pleasure among several of our ex-pat friends, who are all enjoying your more than accurate portrayals of life out here. We first heard about the book from someone who claimed to know someone who had been upset by what you wrote, but I don’t know the details. You certainly wrote as you found – it rings very true. I’m trying to do my part to point out the idiosyncrasies of life here too, and if people are offended it’s too bad – although they are more than welcome to post a response. My wife is American and she made some very cutting and equally true observations about England when we lived in London. It often takes a stranger to point out the obvious to the locals. People who get offended about such things deserve their bubble being burst. Good luck with the future editions, and thanks again for writing such an enjoyable book.

Regards.

–Paul

]]> Comment on Finding new iPhone apps by Fiona Barrett http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/07/31/finding-new-iphone-apps/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Fiona Barrett Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:08:11 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=867#comment-37 Hey Paul, forgive me for only just discovering your blogg! I have just found your 'review' of my book, Living with the bunnies, a British family's exile to Marin County. Firstly, I am really glad that you enjoyed the book! Secondly, I wanted to address some of your comments. As for the grammatical errors in the book. No-one was more upset than me at the repeated errors within the book, iuniverse have been pretty awful to work with, seemingly finding it hard to translate the English way of spelling into the American way. I do hope that this did not detract from your overall enjoyment of reading the book. I am currently in negotiation with an international book publisher who are keen to re-publish the book under their own name and, I hope, correct all the previous mistakes! The newsletters have not been altered very much at all as I did not want to lose the 'reality' of what I felt at the time. They differ very little from the originals other than me changing the names of all those mentioned. My intention was never to offend anyone, the newsletters became a sort of diary in which I off loaded and shared all the experiences we had, good and bad. To over edit my rants, I feel, would have meant losing the impact of what I felt at the time. I do hope that I came across as praising the good parts as well as the bad, either way it really is a true account of our experience of living in Marin. Funnily enough, on Friday I picked Abbie up from Heathrow after she had spent a wonderful two weeks with Jenn. On August 19th we are back in the USA to holiday in New England! Anyway, my point is, I never meant to cause anyone any personal offence but I did write as I found! I would love to read of an American family's experience in the UK! In my six year olds son's class, there are several American children and several British children who have lived Stateside, most of whom seem to have shared some similar experiences to us! All the best, Fiona Barrett Hey Paul,

forgive me for only just discovering your blogg! I have just found your ‘review’ of my book, Living with the bunnies, a British family’s exile to Marin County. Firstly, I am really glad that you enjoyed the book! Secondly, I wanted to address some of your comments.
As for the grammatical errors in the book. No-one was more upset than me at the repeated errors within the book, iuniverse have been pretty awful to work with, seemingly finding it hard to translate the English way of spelling into the American way. I do hope that this did not detract from your overall enjoyment of reading the book. I am currently in negotiation with an international book publisher who are keen to re-publish the book under their own name and, I hope, correct all the previous mistakes!
The newsletters have not been altered very much at all as I did not want to lose the ‘reality’ of what I felt at the time. They differ very little from the originals other than me changing the names of all those mentioned.
My intention was never to offend anyone, the newsletters became a sort of diary in which I off loaded and shared all the experiences we had, good and bad. To over edit my rants, I feel, would have meant losing the impact of what I felt at the time. I do hope that I came across as praising the good parts as well as the bad, either way it really is a true account of our experience of living in Marin. Funnily enough, on Friday I picked Abbie up from Heathrow after she had spent a wonderful two weeks with Jenn. On August 19th we are back in the USA to holiday in New England!
Anyway, my point is, I never meant to cause anyone any personal offence but I did write as I found! I would love to read of an American family’s experience in the UK! In my six year olds son’s class, there are several American children and several British children who have lived Stateside, most of whom seem to have shared some similar experiences to us!

All the best,

Fiona Barrett

]]> Comment on Comcast Are Idiots by My Cable TV Sucks » Blog Archive » Comcast are Idiots http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/07/31/comcast-are-idiots/comment-page-1/#comment-36 My Cable TV Sucks » Blog Archive » Comcast are Idiots Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:01:47 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=863#comment-36 [...] published HERE by Paul Hinks’ Blog on July [...] [...] published HERE by Paul Hinks’ Blog on July [...]

]]> Comment on Comcast Are Idiots by Detreon Roberts http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/07/31/comcast-are-idiots/comment-page-1/#comment-35 Detreon Roberts Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:33:46 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=863#comment-35 Hi, I apologize for the horrible expereience and we'd like to help. Please email my team at We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com and we will see to it that this get's corrected. Please be sure to include a link to the original post, the telephone number linked to your account, and the best number to reach you to discuss a resolution. Best regards, Detreon Roberts Comcast Digital Media Outreach We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com Hi,

I apologize for the horrible expereience and we’d like to help. Please email my team at We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com and we will see to it that this get’s corrected. Please be sure to include a link to the original post, the telephone number linked to your account, and the best number to reach you to discuss a resolution.

Best regards,

Detreon Roberts
Comcast Digital Media Outreach
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

]]> Comment on Finding cool free on sale iPhone Apps by Finding cool free on sale iPhone Apps – paul hinks' blog | Mac Affinity http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/07/23/finding-cool-free-on-sale-iphone-apps/comment-page-1/#comment-32 Finding cool free on sale iPhone Apps – paul hinks' blog | Mac Affinity Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:44:15 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=832#comment-32 [...] View post: Finding cool free on sale iPhone Apps – paul hinks' blog [...] [...] View post: Finding cool free on sale iPhone Apps – paul hinks' blog [...]

]]> Comment on iTunes AppStore scraping – decoding the browse URL by paul http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/05/11/itunes-appstore-scraping-decoding-the-browse-url/comment-page-1/#comment-20 paul Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:47:42 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=457#comment-20 Hi Cyrille - yes both your points are correct. The 3500 was a finger slip (sorry) and the paging either stopped working or never worked. It just looked so logical - why else is that '/1' at the end there? There is a further posting about an alternative approach - see <a href="http://www.paulhinks.com/2009/06/15/appstore-scraping-the-front-door-method/" rel="nofollow">here</a>. You'll still need to use this method if you want to associate categories with an app as well as a genre though so it's not a total loss. Good luck!. --Paul Hi Cyrille – yes both your points are correct. The 3500 was a finger slip (sorry) and the paging either stopped working or never worked. It just looked so logical – why else is that ‘/1′ at the end there? There is a further posting about an alternative approach – see here. You’ll still need to use this method if you want to associate categories with an app as well as a genre though so it’s not a total loss. Good luck!.
–Paul

]]> Comment on iTunes AppStore scraping – decoding the browse URL by Cyrillus http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/05/11/itunes-appstore-scraping-decoding-the-browse-url/comment-page-1/#comment-21 Cyrillus Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:47:23 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=457#comment-21 Hi Paul, It seems that the page browsing does not work -- here's the output of my in-project AppStore crawler : Got category Business (#6000) Downloading page 1... done, got 2500 items Downloading page 2... done, got 2500 items (2500 duplicates) Downloading page 3... done, got 2500 items (2500 duplicates) Downloading page 4... done, got 2500 items (2500 duplicates) Downloading page 5... done, got 2500 items (2500 duplicates) And it goes on and on... Could it be that Apple disabled the page browsing ? (Also, the limit is set to 2500 and not 3500 as you say in the article) Hi Paul,
It seems that the page browsing does not work — here’s the output of my in-project AppStore crawler :
Got category Business (#6000)
Downloading page 1… done, got 2500 items
Downloading page 2… done, got 2500 items (2500 duplicates)
Downloading page 3… done, got 2500 items (2500 duplicates)
Downloading page 4… done, got 2500 items (2500 duplicates)
Downloading page 5… done, got 2500 items (2500 duplicates)

And it goes on and on… Could it be that Apple disabled the page browsing ? (Also, the limit is set to 2500 and not 3500 as you say in the article)

]]> Comment on AppStore scraping – back to the drawing board by paul http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/06/09/appstore-scraping-back-to-the-drawing-board/comment-page-1/#comment-25 paul Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:28:20 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=682#comment-25 Hi - yes indeed. Although scanning through a list of 2500 apps is hardly user friendly either. Well, actually all apps are reachable, but it may require a lot of clicking to find it. Basically once your app drops off of the front page you're pretty much on your own, which is I guess why so many 3rd party sites have sprung up. The problem isn't just for developers, as a customer I find using the iTunes store front incredibly painful. My favourite site right now is the <a href="http://appguide.com" rel="nofollow">MacWorld</a> one which has a lot of nice sort and filter options. Hi – yes indeed. Although scanning through a list of 2500 apps is hardly user friendly either. Well, actually all apps are reachable, but it may require a lot of clicking to find it. Basically once your app drops off of the front page you’re pretty much on your own, which is I guess why so many 3rd party sites have sprung up. The problem isn’t just for developers, as a customer I find using the iTunes store front incredibly painful. My favourite site right now is the MacWorld one which has a lot of nice sort and filter options.

]]> Comment on AppStore scraping – back to the drawing board by Dawgfather http://www.paulhinks.com/blog/2009/06/09/appstore-scraping-back-to-the-drawing-board/comment-page-1/#comment-24 Dawgfather Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:12:30 +0000 http://www.paulhinks.com/?p=682#comment-24 Paul - it seems that ITunes has a limit of 2500 in the browser, I haven't yet figured out which 2500 get into each category, but this is a real setback for app developers. Customers will have to know the app name to find it. Paul – it seems that ITunes has a limit of 2500 in the browser, I haven’t yet figured out which 2500 get into each category, but this is a real setback for app developers. Customers will have to know the app name to find it.

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