Since the blog has been very quiet of late, here is the transcript of the twitterview I have just finished where I discussed social media, technology trends in the trading world and football with the CME…

CMEGroup: @tobybryans Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. Let’s start with you describing your role at Schneider Trading #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup It’s my pleasure! I have two roles: Technical Exchange Liaison and Strategic Technologist. #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup I make sure comms between Exchanges and ISVs & our technical departments run smooth & both sides are always up to date #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup I also keep an eye on current technology trends to see if there is anything of interest to our business #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans speaking of staying up to date – how do technology trends affect your business? #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup Technology immensely important for our edge. We’re always looking for better and faster solutions for all our systems #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup We talk to exchanges too about how they can help improve their solutions for us (just ask Mark!) #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans We won’t ask which one you like working with the most ;) #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup I couldn’t possibly comment on that ;-) #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans You are a busy man for sure. So when did you join Twitter and why? #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup I was at a BBC Backstage party when I first saw it in 2006 and I had no idea what it was but it intrigued me so I joined #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup Obviously #twitter has exploded recently and has become a far more useful tool than just keeping in touch with friends! #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans So how do you use Twitter for work/Schneider? #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup Keeping up to date with tech, following the latest news, keeping in touch with and building new relationships. #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans What do you think traders can get out of #Twitter? #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup Up to date and immediate discussion of latest news and market events from around the world often before the main stream #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans You mentioned technology trends – are there any you want to say that Schneider is looking at? #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup two big areas we’re looking at are virtualization and latency measurement with #correlix and #corvil #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans Two big trends for sure #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup absolutely, we’ve always been very good on latency but it’s got to the point where the old tools aren’t good enough #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans London is one of the world’s soccer/football capitals – care to admit who you support? #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup HA! I was born in Wembley and so I saw close up how some football fans behave. Put me off for life… #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans Last question: do you want to make a prediction for how traders will use Social Media a year from now? #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup It will bring new diversity to how they currently communicate and for brokers expanding and messaging their client base. #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup Given how pervasive access is becoming I think it’s going to be interesting for the regulators! #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans Great point re: regulators and community growth. We shall see #exchtalk

CMEGroup: @tobybryans Well you are a busy man & sure you have other exchanges to tend to. We appreciate your time and thank you again #exchtalk

tobybryans: @cmegroup Thank you! It’s been fun to be your second vict… er… interviewee! #exchtalk

UPDATE 2007-09-30: You can now make the twitter facebook application update your status, so this is now redundant!

UPDATE 2007-09-09 (Cribbed from Christian’s site as I couldn’t put it any better): It is with great disappointment that I must make this announcement. Facebook has requested that I remove the code from my website. They have also contacted everyone else who has found my code and publicly mentioned that they are using it.

I am saddened at this turn of events because the idea behind the code was to extend Facebook’s current service and fill in the gap that their API had. The API still does not provide a means for updating ones status.

I’ve been wanting to update my facebook status with my twitterings for some time now. Unfortunately facebook do not provide an API for setting the status so I have been thwarted. Until now. Yesterday I accidentally found Christian Flickinger’s blog entry where he has found a way to update facebook status using php. At the end of his blog he writes:

Anyone with some experience could easily use the above code to check Twitter and (if updated) push to Facebook. Happy mashing!

I know how the twitter api works and I’m a big fan of ruby so I thought I would pick up the gauntlet and hack up a quick ruby script to do just that.

You’ll need to install the json and curb gems for it to work. Then copy and paste the below code into a file called fbTwit.rb in a suitable place on your unix box (it writes state down so you may want it in it’s own directory), edit the variables so that they are correct for your accounts, run it by hand to check it works for you and then set it to run every (say) 10 minutes via cron with something like the following in your crontab:

00,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * cd [directory]; ./fbTwit.rb 2>&1 > /dev/null

1. Code removed at the request of facebook.
   

The quality of the code probably isn’t that great: it only took a short time to write, but it works (for me).

[2007-08-01] Yesterday this stopped working, along with the SSL login for m.facebook.com. I have changed it to use the http login which still works, although whether you want your password sent in the clear is up to you.

Published on 2007/07/13 at 11:50 by Toby, tags christian.flickinger, facebook, ruby, technology, twitter

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… watch the world twitter

US now wants full set of fingerprints on entering country

Are you on the US no-fly list?

BA Upgrades Corpse

Barry Beef interviews Guy Siner

Twitter BBC News feeds

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More information on the Blair Foundation

The mysterious case of media muff mania

Bill Joy’s greatest gift to man – the vi editor

AJAX May Be Considered Harmful: potential fundamental design flaw
… Subverting AJAX paper
… but being slashdotted at the moment

Despite the fact that I still don’t really grok what it’s for I am sure that it useful for something. Therefore I have created myself a twitter account. So, feel free to twitter me. A word to the wise: when setting up your mobile phone you need to use the full international dialling code with the plus.