A few notes:

• This works just the same for OpenSocial development.
• I discovered I’m not the only person to have come up with this solution.
• Be sure to set your cookie domain if you need session to work.

One of the challenges of working on a Facebook or OpenSocial application is that two-way communications are required between the platform and the application server. This becomes a workflow hinderance because you have to constantly push your work out to a public server in order to test your changes. Here’s a simple solution.

• Shut down the web server on your public server.
• Configure your local machine to behave as if it were the public server.
• Create a reverse ssh tunnel from your local machine to the public web server on port 80.

That’s it. Requests for pages from the outside world will now be served transparently from your local machine. You can develop using your local filesystem and test without any unnecessary steps.

If you have multiple things running from a single web server, you can still do this. Instead of shutting down your pubic web server, create or modify your VirtualHost directive to use mod_proxy or mod_proxy_balancer to localhost:8080 or whatever custom port, then setup your reverse proxy from local port 80 to whatever custom port number your webserver wants.

But I’ll take it. Today, Apple sent out invitiations for a press event where they will detail the software roadmap for the iPhone including the iPhone SDK and “some exciting new enterprise features.” While it is a little late, I’ll let it slide since I don’t really have time to tinker right now anyway. Apple has been late on delivering several new software updates including the AppleTV and OS X 10.5 Leopard. Apple, what gives? Short staffed?

While working on a Facebook app, I’m finding it very difficult to create a local dev environment. Unless you want to build your app entirely in iframes, two way communication is required between your server and Facebook’s. This means I have to push my changes up to a dev server before I can see them in action. Has anybody come up with a good solution for this?

I have an iPhone. I have a .Mac subscription. My phone is always connected to the net. My contacts and calendars are on the net. What’s missing from this picture? Over the air syncing. Why the hell not do it? All the pieces are in place.

A colleague and I were discussing the Wiimote this afternoon. In my opinion, it is one of the most important inventions of the last few years. The array of sensors in that thing for the price tag is really impressive. And what’s better, Nintendo went with the Bluetooth standard for wireless communications, which means it’s easy to get this thing connected to a computer. There are Wiimote drivers readily available on the internet for free for most platforms.

For a budding computer scientist, especially someone interested in futuristic forms of user interface, the thing is an amazing playground, especially for the price. You get buttons, a microphone, a speaker, three gyroscopes and an infared camera for about $40. Plus, the thing is wireless and runs for a long time on two double A batteries.

This guy is a shining example of someone doing brilliant things with the wiimote.

Here’s a great article on differing design paradigms for displaying large amounts of data. Good concepts in there. Great presentation.