April 2012
1 post
Upgrade: some tweaks and things
I’ve given @whensmybus a few tweaks and upgrades this weekend. These include:
Two buses are better than one In case you miss the first bus, to save you resending the same request, @whensmybus will now show the time of the next bus after it as well - if there is a second bus listed for your route.
Better language understanding There were a few bugs appearing here or there for people whose...
December 2011
1 post
Now supporting multiple bus routes!
2011 is nearly over, so have a present to welcome 2012 in with. @whensmybus now supports multiple bus routes, e.g.:
@whensmybus 135 277 D7
You can ask for a maximum of three routes - you will get multiple Tweets back, one for each route. And of course it works with placenames too:
@whensmybus 135 277 D7 from Canary Wharf
Best of all, if you are making a request with a GPS tag or a...
November 2011
1 post
Direct Messages now supported!
Due to popular demand, I have added a new feature to @whensmybus: you can now make requests via Direct Message as well as @ reply. Just Direct Message in the same format you make ordinary requests, e.g:
d whensmybus 135 from Canary Wharf
However, there’s one big drawback of Direct Messages - they do not support geolocation at all (even on Twitter on a smartphone); so if you are using a...
October 2011
3 posts
@whensmybus gets a whole lot better
Wow. It’s been nine days since @whensmybus was released and the feedback has by and large been positive. It’s not all been plain sailing - the odd bug or two made it past my initial testing, and a database update I tried inadvertently corrupted it all. My thanks go to @LicenceToGil, @randallmurrow and @christiane who were all unlucky enough to manage to break it. As a result,...
Introducing @whensmybus
A few weeks ago TfL put all their information from Countdown, the service they use to provide bus arrival times, online. There’s a TfL Countdown website and you can enter a bus stop name, or ID number, and find out the latest buses from the stop.
But, it’s a bit fiddly. The main website doesn’t automatically redirect you to the mobile version if you are on a phone. If you type in a location,...
Hello world!
This isn’t much of a blog per se, but just a repository of information and updates about the @whenmybus Twitter app as I roll out new features.