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Gaming Foursquare with 9 lines of Perl

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Re: Gaming Foursquare with 9 lines of Perl

#5

I'm only familiar with these services in concept, what incentives do businesses give their mayors? Anything unique or just XX% off coupons?

Often bars will offer a free beer to the mayor, and I've seen a few restaurants that offer the foursquare mayor a free appetizer when they buy a meal.

Re: Gaming Foursquare with 9 lines of Perl

#6
post #4

I always assumed these services had at least some very basic spoof protection, like an HMAC, with the secret obfuscated in their apps. I guess not, which means wireshark is all it takes to build a script like this.

Exactly what I was thinking. One of the first things that comes to mind when starting designing a new web service in my head is some minimal spoofing prevention. At least make them go to the effort of running a debugger.

Re: Gaming Foursquare with 9 lines of Perl

#7
post #6
post #4

I always assumed these services had at least some very basic spoof protection, like an HMAC, with the secret obfuscated in their apps. I guess not, which means wireshark is all it takes to build a script like this.

Exactly what I was thinking. One of the first things that comes to mind when starting designing a new web service in my head is some minimal spoofing prevention. At least make them go to the effort of running a debugger.

I sympathise, but I note that that wasn't the first thing foursquare did, and they've made a very popular service out of it, whereas you (I assume) and I have not.

When we don't have the resources to do absolutely everything perfectly, how do we decide what to spend our time on, to what standard - and what to let slide?

Re: Gaming Foursquare with 9 lines of Perl

#8
I use Foursquare but I rarely check in while I'm at a place. Or even right after I'm there. I MIGHT check in before I get there, if I'm bored or am waiting. But I usually check in at the end of the night or next morning. I know this doesn't help me meet up with people who might happen to be in the area, but none of my friends in DC use Foursquare. More useful has been seeing my friends who leave Google Latitude on by default.

So basically I would hate it if they enforced stricter checkins, unless they could find a way to let bars, restaurants, etc. verify checkins through a quick scanner or something.

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