29
Anatomy of a Twitter Replacement
Twitter seems to be all-the-rage in the tech circles these days. When I was trying to find an easy way for Monica and me to update Katie Lynn’s website, I decided to give Twitter a try. It worked well usually, but I noticed the external javascript calls slowed down page load time dramatically. Additionally, customization ability is lacking. I loved being able to send a text message to update the site, but I wanted the ability to email updates as well.
So I set out to find a replacement. I thought that would be simple.
Boy was I wrong.
I searched for a long time and finally found some very basic framework. Luckily, I’m not too shabby with PHP and was able to write everything I wanted:
- Accept text messages, emails, and web submissions.
- Parse the text message/email into variables.
- Insert the variables into a MySQL database.
- Display records any way I want.
- Allow people to subscribe to receive an email upon a new update.
- Load fast!
I then wrote an extremely easy admin interface to be able to edit the entries.
There are five main files to the application:
- Parser – as the name indicates, it parses the text and email submissions.
- Admin – all admin functions including posting via web.
- Notifier – emails subscribers upon all new updates.
- Subscribe – as indicated, performs the subscription action as requested by the visitor.
- Unsubscribe – as indicated, unsubscribes a subscriber upon their request.
The beauty of my system is that it does not need a cronjob. Instead, I simply piped an email address to the parser script’s full path.
And voilĂ !
I have a nice, simple Twitter replacement.
27
Katie Lynn
I haven’t posted much here concerning Katie Lynn since we’ve been doing that over at katielynnsepper.com and tomandmonica.com. The updates on the top right-hand side of this site are the same as found on Katie Lynn’s website.
I wanted to take the time though to say thank you to my family and friends for their love, thoughts, prayers, calls, emails, chats, pings, and visits. I am extremely blessed to have absolutely wonderful family and friends.
While I’m at it, I also want to say that I’m so blessed to have Monica as my wife. She never ceases to amaze me, and I am thankful that she is the mother to my daughter.

16
My Solemn Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you for blessing me with an absolutely gorgeous and precious daughter. I pray that you watch over Katie Lynn, keep her safe, and work your healing power over her.
Thank you for giving the doctors and nurses the ability to heal others in need.
Please give me the strength to be the rock that Monica and Katie Lynn need during this emotional and rough time.
I ask that you keep my family strong during the coming weeks so that we can get through this together.
I look forward to the day that Monica and I bring Katie Lynn home after your miracles have been realized.
In your name I humbly pray,
Amen.

About
Tweets
- Had a great time celebrating Karyn's first birthday with family and friends. Thanks to all that came! #fb 4 days ago
- @Zac_Miller Unlikely story. in reply to Zac_Miller 6 days ago
- And TTU Athletics fans rejoice.. Gerald Myers Announces Retirement From Texas Tech University - http://is.gd/eFnQa #fb 1 week ago
- It's what Toyota does best! --- Toyota Recalls 1.13 Million Corolla and Matrix Vehicles - http://is.gd/eFjAa 1 week ago
- @Zac_Miller Ha! in reply to Zac_Miller 1 week ago
- More updates...
Archives
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003



