Last chance to get a blink(1) for a while!

Our Kickstarter campaign ends in a few days. Once it ends, we'll be working hard on fulfilling all the orders and won't be able to take any new ones until we start shipping to our backers.  If you want to get a blink(1) (or five, they make great gifts you know :-), better do it soon.

Thank you to all of our current backers.  We are working hard to get blink(1)s finished and shipped in October.

Network events for blink(1)

The last update had a big section on APIs. These are great if you're a programmer or have a passing familiarity with the command-line. We'll post easy-to-follow recipes if you'd like to learn those low-level tools.

Most folks, though, will want to have their blink(1) alert them when something on the Net happens. For this, we'll provide a way to use IFTTT (If This Then That), a tool for connecting up the websites you use. Here's IFTTT describing themselves:

With 50 different sources of information ("channels") such as Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, IFTTT is a great way of binding blink(1) to your online world.  Think of blink(1) as a physical output of IFTTT.  You can even make actions out of a phone call to IFTTT or sending an SMS.  We are working with IFTTT to make blink(1) a channel of IFTTT, so we can end up having something like this recipe available for you:

How does IFTTT-to-blink(1) work?

Every blink(1) will have a UUID (universally unique ID) generated from the unique blink(1) serial number and a random number on your computer.  This number has no personally identifying characteristics, other than being tied to a particular blink(1) on a particular computer.  And you can generate a new one at any time.  Once you have a blink(1) UUID, stick that into your IFTTT recipes and when the IFTTT recipe triggers, your blink(1) will get updated.

How do I select which color pattern for an event?

In the blink(1) control panel, you can create color patterns and give them names like "important_email" or "tweets_about_gaga".  Color patterns describe the color, brightness, and timing.  It can be as simple as "steady red" or a complex sequence of flashes. In your IFTTT recipes, you specify the name of the pattern to use.  You also have the option of specifying short color patterns in-line as part of the recipe.

Mars Celebration

You may have heard that we humans landed a Mini Cooper-sized rover on Mars a few days ago. It's nuclear-powered, has a laser to burn rocks, can see with 17 cameras, many in HD.  Oh and it used a rocket jetpack to get to the surface.  It is amazing and is already returning great data.  Check out the "7-minutes of terror" ordeal it went through to land.

In celebration of Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity, here's a little lightshow made with a handful of blink(1)s and a circular USB hub.

Thanks again!

-=tod