Interesting message from Gmail. Here’s the page it linked to.
Take Credit Card Payments with Square + iPhone
November 3, 2010 By 1 Comment
A few days ago my free Square card reader showed up in the mail, and I’ve been dying to use it ever since. Today, I got that opportunity
Robert, Andrew and I met up for a lunch PPC working group at Nicolitalias Pizza, and when it came time to pay, I put all three orders on my Visa. I owed Robert lunch, but not Andrew…so I thought I’d use Square to collect.
Could I have accomplished this for free with PayPal? Sure. But that wouldn’t have been nearly as fun.
Square Payments on the iPhone in 10 easy steps:
1) On our way out of the restaurant I plugged the Square card reader into my iPhone’s headphone jack.
2) Then I opened the Square app and entered in the amount owed–$8.00.
3) Then I added a note, including the restaurant name (Nico’s)
4) Next it gave me the option to take a photo of the item being purchased (I snapped a shot of the restaurant sign)
5) Then I clicked the “charge” button in the top right and selected the payment type on the next screen (card, in this case)
6) Then it took me to the Card Payment page where I was prompted to swipe Andrew’s card.
7) I swiped the card (took me 2 tries to get it to read, but that was probably my fault). Then it authorized…
8) After authorization, it proceeded to the signature page where Andrew used his fingertip to sign for the transaction via the touch screen (the photo below is a re-creation for privacy’s sake).
9) After clicking “continue” it asked if I would like to send an email receipt to Andrew. I did, so I simply entered his Gmail address where prompted.
10) Ta-da! Andrew gets an emailed receipt, and I can view mine when I log into my SquareUp.com account…with a cool map that shows where the transaction took place! (click to enlarge)
Grooveshark Widget
October 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I don’t know how these guys could possibly be above-board…but their service is awesome. Here’s a widget with three songs I’ve had stuck in my head lately.
Why I’m not really over Twitter
October 9, 2010 By 1 Comment
When I joke that I’m over Twitter, what I really mean is that my initial passion/overusage has dwindled since I first started using it back in 2007 with various pseudonyms. Back then I felt like an early adopter (sure, Twitter was launched in 2006, but c’mon, virtually nobody used it for the first year). Now every local mom and pop is trying to encourage you to follow them on Twitter, as if they had any idea why they’d want you to do that (for those interested, The Onion brilliantly skewers this practice)
So what value do I see in Twitter? Here’s a cool example that happened yesterday.
I was at my computer launching a website I’d built for a client, and wondering “why in the world does WordPress not allow you to export widget and theme configurations, like it does with content (via XML)?” I tried Googling it, but couldn’t find a solution or answer to my question. So then I went to Twitter and asked a couple WordPress savvy colleagues. When they didn’t have any answers, I thought “hey – might as well go straight to the top.” So I sent an @ to Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress. And you know what? He hit me back with a reply:
My initial reaction was excited that the founding developer of WordPress thinks I have a good idea about the development of WordPress, but also a little bummed that I probably couldn’t patch it on my own.
But more to the point: What are the odds that I could reach Matt on the phone? Think I could you schedule him to meet me for lunch? This guy is a jet-setter–and super busy. Yet with Twitter I can reach him, create a dialogue and get meaningful feedback. And I’d have the same odds if I were a kid at an internet cafe in inner Mongolia. Pretty cool, if you ask me.
Redirect a WordPress subdirectory and all its contents to another URL
October 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I looked all over for this code and it took me forever to figure it out, so I thought I’d post it here for anyone else that happens upon it (let me know with a comment!)
Why I needed it: I often create subdirectories on this domain to house mockups of new websites, each with a fresh WP install. Once the mockup is accepted and the site is published on the client’s domain, I can keep a keep a safe backup while ensuring that the backup files don’t get indexed by search engines.
What it does: This code goes in the .htaccess file, which is found in the root directory of a WordPress install. This particular code will redirect every page in that folder to the URL of your choice.
So, for example, if I installed WordPress in the directory: http://www.tommcconnon.com/test/, and wanted all the contents of the test folder to redirect to http://www.yourwebsitehere.com/ then I’d put the following code in the .htaccess file found in the /test/ directory.
The Code:
# BEGIN WordPressRewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourwebsitehere.com/ [R=301,L]# END WordPress
Hope that helps!
Square Up
October 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Today I finally signed up for Square Up, a (potentially) revolutionary service created by one of the co-founders of Twitter.
I’ll be able to take credit card payments with a card reader (provided by Square for free) that attaches to my iPhone. The rates looks great, and the convenience looks extraordinary. I hope this works, cause it sounds super cool. Please ship soon.
Read more about Square.
