March 2011
1 post
Ostrich is being discontinued
Last summer when I was coding on a toy project for learning and for myself, I ended up creating an unsustainable prototype which gained popularity in a short moment.
The truth is: Ostrich was never meant for a large public.
It’s completely my fault. Not seeing it for what it was. I was stoked by the interest it got and kept on developing it.
However, due to recent events such as starting...
December 2010
1 post
Ostrich 0.3.0.1
Yes, it’s been months since the last update. Mostly due to the fact that Ostrich had been running sufficiently smoothly, but also because at some point you have to earn a living.
So here you have it. 0.3.0.1. Nothing major, just one bug fix.
Bug Fix: Constantly repeating mentions bug has been fixed.
I urge you to upgrade, go in you Safari Preferences, now!
Thanks for your patience as...
August 2010
3 posts
Ostrich 0.3
I’m hoping this one works as well for you as it does for me and all the beta testers :)
Features:
Direct Messages (Viewing and sending)
User Profiles (Basic info and stats, last tweets and Follow/Unfollow)
Image Upload
Bugs Fixed:
Connection to the server should persist or reconnect automatically if it dies;
When putting your laptop to sleep or losing the wireless connection, it...
Freak problem on the server. Solution underway.
Well it seems like I can be very unlucky with servers. This time, it’s something even the gurus at ubuntuforums.org can’t fix. I’ve called iWeb, my hosting company to have them take a look, however I’m doubtful they will come up with a solution.
Luckily I have access to the DNS server, therefore I can point ostrichapp.com to the old server. It should begin working for...
July 2010
17 posts
What's next? More of the roadmap.
With the server fixed (so it seems for now), I’m now able to work on new features. I could finally open up my project management software and check it out. So in the interest of transparency, here’s what it looks like:
Bear in mind this is not final. This is merely what I will try to work on in the next week. If I fall on issues, I might choose to develop other features. I’m...
2 tags
Your Guide To Occasional Fail Ostriches
*Imagine an hilarious illustration of a “fail whale” but with an Ostrich that I haven’t had time to do yet because of you know what!*
For general and personal help, you may post on Ostrich’s UserVoice or ask me directly on Twitter @ostrichapp.
Ostrich is greyed out, disabled, unavailable
Happens when:
You’re on an empty tab, top sites or an rss feed;
There was...
False alert. Ostrich still needs fixing.
First let me reiterate on why Ostrich needs a server at all. Connecting to Twitter with OAuth requires something else than Javascript. It needs a backend where the connection dance to OAuth can happen. It’s possible in Javascript, but I would have to supply the extension with secure information in an unsecure manner.
In the last two days, I modified Ostrich to fetch tweets (it’s...
3 tags
Ostrich Fixed + 0.2.2.1
Hey!
It’s been the hardest few days. After being featured on Safari’s Extension Gallery the traffic surged again. I thought I was ready, but my coding skills are way too amateur for this kind of deployment.
I seeked help to fix this. Big thanks to @jimiray, @wmoxam and @j_dan_williams for the big help they’ve been into fixing my server and making me a better developer...
3 tags
New ultra-powerful server + Ostrich 0.2.2 is out.
Since the fireballing and the blogging/retweeting that followed, Ostrich’s server was on its knees (or small cringing wheels). As I pulled my hair out with one hand and tweeted with my feet, I also happened to call my sales rep at iWeb to get a brand spanking new server.
While I had the excuse of the server being down for all those errors, I think there’s a big part where it was...
An Ostrich Got Fireballed
On July 25th at 6 PM, John Gruber tweeted. Afterwards, an unimaginable flow of visitors suddenly made it to the homepage, almost quadrupling the previous user count in less than 24 hours.
Dramatic isn’t it? It is. The server didn’t crash, but it suffered from extreme slowness for the whole day after.
As of this writing, 4240 users signed in with Twitter for Ostrich. Friday I was...
1000 users later in the life of an Ostrich
Fwu! It’s been a hell of a ride. From creating bugs to squashing them in a few hours, then creating features, replying to almost all mentions of Ostrich on Twitter and managing requests from my best users, I’m exhausted.
I never realized how much work it would be to keep a community up to date while developing the application. I’m especially happy with how users have been taking...
Ostrich 0.2.1.1 is out of the sand
After another week of relentless work, 0.2.1(.1) is finally out. Something always seems to go wrong. I now have a tidy checklist of things to do when deploying, I’m learning in the process. One time everything will go right! (This time it had to do with my git intermediaryness)
Changelog:
Bug Fixes:
Tweets not appearing when opening the Ostrich window. Seemed to happen when opening...
What's cooking for 0.2.1?
Because that’s the next version rolling out.
First off all, if you don’t follow @ostrichapp, you should. That’s where I shout all the new stuff first.
Secondly, here’s what I have in mind of 0.2.1:
Settings: You can now modify the refresh rate, show or hide the unread tweets count and decide if you want links to open in background tabs or in foreground tabs;
Sometimes...
0.2.0.1 Released. My bad.
Bug fix:
You can now tweet. Which is useful.
Thanks for bearing with me. I’m still devising the best way to have a development mode on my extension.
2 tags
A rough day at the office
Today, about an hour after releasing version 0.2 of Ostrich, Twitter announced they were experiencing difficulties with their API. More specifically, they had trouble with OAuth (the protocol needed to login).
Therefore, even though people were able to get their new version of Ostrich, if their session didn’t stick on the server, they couldn’t login anymore.
Before even thinking of...
Ostrich 0.2 Now Available
After a week of hard work, here it finally is. Much better than it was at launch, that’s for sure.
You can find this update in your Safari’s Preferences -> Extensions -> Updates (bottom left). I realize this is less than ideal, I’m working on a smoother way to push updates.
Features
Mentions
Favorites
Links open in a new tab
New tweet window now closes automatically...
5 tags
Version 0.1.1 Released
I’ve been fixing most of the encountered bugs with Ostrich.
For your information: Updates should appear in Safari’s Preferences -> Extensions -> Updates (bottom left column). It’s easier to turn on automatic update and never check that out again. I’ve planned a feature to make this notification much more apparent, probably in your twitter stream as a general...
Day 1: Some stats and some thanks.
Wow. I can’t find the words, but I’ll try my luck. I’m humbled.
Thanks for your support, everyone. Most of the responses have been highly positive, you’ve all caught me off-guard with those.
One of the good company/organization’s value I see is transparency. Therefore, I’ll make extra efforts to keep everyone following this blog appraised of the situation of...
0.1.0.1 is Out.
Changelog:
- Fixed the encoding issue. UTF-8 is now forced.
You should be receiving an update notification in Safari. If not, please advise: support@ostrichapp.com
It's launched.
Ostrich is, quite simply, a Twitter client for Safari 5. It’s making Twitter available on every website you visit while you’re browsing it, creating an integrated experience.
We’re all set. Bolts have been tightened, final touches painted and javascript rewritten.
This product was built by me and for my own needs, that’s why I think it rocks. Now it still doesn’t...