Selected Projects

ItWillGetCheaper.com

Sale Alerts | AngelHack Toronto | 2012

The Problem

Sometimes people don't need a product immediately and would rather buy it when it gets cheaper.

The Solution

Together with John Piasetzki, we created a website that monitors the prices of products. Users enter a URL for a product page with any online retailer and the program determines where the price is on the page and then monitors that for a decrease. When there's a decrease in the price the user gets an email.

This service was developed in 24 hours for AngelHack Toronto.

PHP MySQL

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TweetDonate

Donation Platform | PayPal Developer Challenge | 2010

Twitter Yahoo PHP MySQL

Features:

  • Sending money by PayPal via Twitter
  • Donations prompt account creation
  • Twitter search monitoring application for "TweetDonate" keyword
  • Choice of currency
  • YQL for parsing Twitter search results
  • Automatic interaction with users (who aren't followers)

Won PayPal X Innovate Conference Hack-a-Thon | 2010 (San Francisco)

This was a modified version of the TweetDonate engine that was changed to work with PayPal's API documentation.

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techcrunch disrupt NYC 2010

Geocoding/Demographics | TechCrunch Disrupt Hack Day | 2010 (NYC)

Twitter Yahoo PHP MySQL

Features:

  • Searching all of Twitter's geocoded tweets using novel method
  • One of three winners, and presented at conference to thousands (live and streamed)
  • Distributes processing load across multiple servers
  • Converts lat/long into aggregate statistical information
  • US Census Bureau, Zillow and other data sources

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The Great Green Directory

Mapping Application | Environmental/Business | 2010

Google Maps PHP MySQL

Features:

  • Businesses, organizations and government
  • Product search
  • Cookie-based "data sheet" for user's to print out
  • Maps generated on the fly for previewing location
  • User voting

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Yahoo! HackU & Open Hack NYC Competitions

Web Application | Yahoo! Programming Competitions | 2008 (Waterloo) and 2009 (NYC)

RSS PHP MySQL

InsiderTrades.org - 2009 Winner of the North American Yahoo! Open Hack NYC 2009:

  • Built parser for SEC data
  • Real-time (<10 secs) alerts for SEC insider trading forms
  • YQL open tables
  • Email alerts
  • 1st Place

HackDemocracy - 2008 Winner of Yahoo! HackU Waterloo 2008:



  • Database of all speeches made in Parliament orgranized by MP and party
  • Search for words spoken in Parliament
  • Search for words spoken by your MP
  • Built parser for Hansard record
  • 1st Place

Nader for President 2008

Googledocs to Google Map | US Presidential Campaign | 2008 (Washington, D.C.)

The Problem

The campaign maintained a series of large spreadsheets updated by teams of people around the US. The spreadsheets had a variety of different people, offices and coordinators with contact information for each. The campaign wanted to let the public find out who to contact in a way that could be maintained despite rapid changes.

The Solution

I developed a program to automatically download the data from the spreadsheets using the Google Docs API, check appropriate values and then convert the data to a map. The map is a Google Maps map that has javascript filters and clicking on the items results in more information about that person.

Google News RSS PHP MySQL

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Environmental Communication Options

Press Release Platform | PR and Media Strategy | 2006-2008 (Toronto)

Google News RSS PHP MySQL

Features:

  • Google news listing
  • Postings listed in <15 minutes
  • Sophisticated statistics
  • Can monitor when government offices visit
  • 2.8 million page views annually

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Nader for President 2008

SMS/Google Maps | Political Campaign | 2008 (Washington, D.C.)

Twitter Google Maps PHP

Features:

  • Field staff text message in signature counts and location
  • No need for laptops with Aircards or internet cafes
  • Supporters can monitor progress in real-time
  • Twitter and Google Maps are free to use

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Noter.ca

Note-taking and Collaboration Application | Student Tools | 2008 (Waterloo)

Yahoo RSS PHP MySQL

Features:

  • Autosaves notes via AJAX - no data loss
  • Automatic tagging and organizing using Yahoo
  • RSS feed of notes for users and classes
  • Class note sets
  • 6000+ courses availables