Eat Randomly!

[SineSwiper]

http://www.eatrandomly.com/

Website is up and running. Still pretty much an alpha version at this point. Everybody should try it out and share their randomize URLs. Here's mine as an example:

http://www.eatrandomly.com/randomize/doIEbsDlPvO*XUQh

[Shellie]

Cooool

http://www.eatrandomly.com/randomize/D*TWh-YN36hfkTJA

I had a hard time getting it going since I didnt know I was already registered. I know there's a bunch of todo's, but don't forget a forgot password, a way to add new list categories, and a link to your account info, etc to change your information.

[Mully]

I reg'ed but a verify email wasn't sent to me.

[SineSwiper]

2010-05-19 09:17:21 1OEj9F-0005eo-N5 <= noreply@eatrandomly.com H=localhost (localhost.localdomain) [127.0.0.1] P=esmtp S=4278 id=.****@gmail.com
2010-05-19 09:17:22 1OEj9F-0005eo-N5 => ****@gmail.com R=dnslookup T=remote_smtp H=gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [74.125.113.27]

Looks like it sent it. Check your spam folder.

[Mully]

Ah, gmail spammed it.

[SineSwiper]

Has anybody from Canada tried it out? I wanted to test out the international support.

[Mully]

I need to reset my password. lol. I can't find where to do that.

[SineSwiper]

Geesh. Already? I don't have that built yet. You're sure you can't remember it? You only registered today.

[Mully]

Oh, no, I'm sure I know what it is. when i type something that isn't my password like 12345689, it says "Done" in the status bar, but when I type in what I know is my password, it says "waiting on eatrandomly.com" and sits at 75%.

....

It finally worked.

[Mully]

I want to change my location to my street address (it's alpha, I know). I chose work since that is where i was during registration

[SineSwiper]

Only way to do that currently (since I don't have multiple location support complete yet), is to either blow away your current user, or create a new one.

A bigger problem is that I'm running into Google problems, as I am accessing the maps.google.com server directly for JSON information. Google was blocking me earlier for running automated queries. I've trying to use their AJAX Local Search API, since that's the preferred method, but the JSON dataset is greatly reduced. It's missing stuff like the categories and home page.

I'm asking their Google Groups help right now. I may have to resort to getting my script to switch back and forth between the two query types, so that when it can't get any results, then it can at least use the AJAX method and skip the categories. I don't like that solution, though. I'd prefer to just have the right data in AJAX, or have Google permit me to continue to use the maps.google.com server. Currently, I've added the Google API key in my queries, added the Referer header, and remote IP (as they requested for AJAX), so at least it looks like I'm making an effort to comply with their systems/ToS/etc.

[Oracle]

Seems to work fine for me.

[SineSwiper]

Spent half a day yesterday working on sorting, and now I'm spending half a day on make sure the postal codes work for every country.

I should be spending more time on the easier and more important things.

[Kupek]

Don't require logins. That is a site-breaker. People won't try it out if they have to sign up first.

[Mully]

Don't require logins. That is a site-breaker. People won't try it out if they have to sign up first.

That "can" be true. Just type an address in and get random. Simple.

[Kupek]

By logins, I meant don't make me register at all. I should be able to use your app without registering. Otherwise, I will probably never try it.

[SineSwiper]

Don't require logins. That is a site-breaker. People won't try it out if they have to sign up first.

That's a bit difficult. How do you "save" a list if you don't have a login? It would be like having the ability to comment anonymously on Facebook.

I would basically have to create some sort of temp database to save entries that they picked before they even sign up, and then throw that data away. I guess it could be put into the more permanent databases to help out with Google caching. It's an idea. I'd probably wait until I get some of the other bugs worked out first, as it would take some coding on most of the scripts.

However, the ultimate goal is to register. I'm just going to throw away the list (minus the good cache) eventually, since I can no longer prove who you are without some sort of session cookie. A loginless session cookie, which I need to be real careful about, security-wise.

[Kupek]

Ask for a zip code (or figure it out through IP address and ISP). Pull from a list of restaurants in their area. If you're good enough with this, many people would never need to register.

People hate registering. If your basic functionality is behind a register-wall, most people will never see it.

[SineSwiper]

If I wanted to do that, I could go to Wheel of Lunch. The problem is customization. There are no sites that customize your results. The idea is to be able to use this on a day-to-day basis, or whenever you decide to eat.

That's not to say that I won't do it. The easier it is to bulk up my cache, the less I have to bang on Google for everything else. And with the limitations I've finding, that's more and more important. I'll see what I can get away with in terms of the amount of freedom a non-registered user could do.

[Flip]

I think you need a graphic of some kind for it to be more fun. The wheel spinning in your link is great. I have an urban spoon app for the blackberry that has 3 slot machine type spinning guys that will pick a category (chinese, american, etc), a location, and a price then generate a restaurant name. Its cool.

[SineSwiper]

A location? Do you want that to be here?

Anyway, I do plan on making it mobile friendly. It's just going to take some time with that and the 50 other things I have to do.

[Flip]

I guess the location is more like a neighborhood. It knows i live in DC so there is Dupont, Georgetown, Adams Morgan, Chinatown, etc. Its pretty detailed.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/spin-widget

[SineSwiper]

I dunno. Just seems like a toy. I've been using my small little Perl script for a few years now, and it helps out trying to sort through all of the possibilities in the area where I work (where there are literally hundreds of places to go to).

This site is just an extension of that script. A very involved and more detailed extension.

[SineSwiper]

Okay, Kupek, I have that anonymous "Try It Out" functionality implemented. Go to the index page and click on the "try it out" link in the wordage.

[Lox]

Tried it in Chrome:

ERROR: Illegal division by zero at EatRandomly/Common.pm line 252.

[SineSwiper]

Tried it in Chrome:

ERROR: Illegal division by zero at EatRandomly/Common.pm line 252.

Should be fixed. Try it now.

[Kupek]

Avoid making the user fill in as much information as possible. If they just fill in a zip code, you shouldn't also require an address and a country.

But something's also wrong when I do put an address in. I put in "100 s main street, blacksburg, va" as the street address, 24060 as the zip code and USA as the country. But it kept using 1500 N Main St in Blacksburg as the street address. That's not Google Map's default street address when I just type in "Blacksburg, VA", so I'm not sure where that's coming from.

[SineSwiper]

I need the country, as some zip codes aren't immediately obvious to where they are, and some countries don't even have zip codes. I guess I could make the address or zip code optional (requiring one or the other or both). Actually, the zip code need to be required, since "main st" could be anywhere in the US.

I think I also need to specify that cities aren't required as the street address. I'm not sure where it's getting the mistake from, as this is the URL it's looking up (only in JSON format): http://maps.google.com/maps?q=100+s+mai ... =1&mrt=loc

[Kupek]

If I go to, say, movietickets.com, all I need is a zip code.

[SineSwiper]

If I go to, say, movietickets.com, all I need is a zip code.

I can't get Bollywood movie details at movietickets.com, though.

[Tessian]

A bit soon to be trying for international support, isn't it Sine? If you want it that badly I'd say just make a separate version for non US/CA countries. Or... why not just grab the country from their source IP?

I have to agree with Kupek, most people won't want to sign up and they won't want to give too much info either. Your main goal may be customization which requires registration but if you don't have a way to use it without registration it won't get off the ground. Registration should unlock a few more features and make it more convenient for me, it shouldn't be the only option.

[SineSwiper]

Well, I'm planning on implementing an IP to country look up. I found a good database for it. I guess I'll have to find a way to not make street address a requirement in the database.

As far as international support, if you don't plan for it from the beginning, it'll end up biting you in the ass later on. Besides, the source data (Google) is already international-friendly, so why not just make the whole site capable of being used in, say, France or Scotland or Australia? Sure, it'll start off in English, but there are plenty of English-speaking countries out there. So, there would be a lot of value in making the site I19N friendly from the beginning, and it would certainly increase the popularity.