Archive for January, 2009

Facebook API and login for desktop apps

I was pretty disappointed today to discover the required login procedure for desktop apps using the Facebook API.

facebook api, desktop app login

Having a user go to a web browser to do the login then come back to the app is a whole lot of grunt work that could easily be eliminated by having login functionality in the API. Why is this not done? I’m not sure. Security may seem the obvious answer, but that’s assuming app developers are completely inept and won’t properly encrypt, store, or transfer credentials. Even if that is the case, it is the trust between the user and the app that is the basis for security here.

There is a workaround available in the facebook-c-sharp library. However, as explain in this thread, actually using the library will result in your app breaking Facebook’s Developer Terms of Service.

Cure for cancer

On the subway in NYC, you come across… um… eccentric personalities from time to time. On the F train last night, I was sitting a few feet away from a man who was muttering something to himself, he was loud but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. A few minutes later he yelled out across the train car, asking if the next stop was Union Turnpike (it wasn’t). A woman responded that she didn’t know, and he proceeded to explain to her that he was happy, very happy; in 2006 his doctor has diagnosed him with terminal cancer and told him he had 2 months to live. However, his cancer was now gone; he had cured himself by regularly drinking a mixture of green marijuana and ginger.

So there you go, cure for cancer = green marijuana + ginger