

The Universe Is Programmable. We Need an API for Everything - hbe_
http://www.wired.com/2014/04/the-universe-is-programmable/

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sprobertson
Even though I already agree with the premise, this article seems to go on for
a long time without convincing anyone of anything. Needs some examples or
something.

And what we really need is a universal API consumer for when every
municipality and your toaster has an API in different format.

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manoq
Hey there, this is the author. I agree it's kind of a slog. It was tough to
balance bringing in non-programmers to the arguement and getting into the
weeds of what I'm talking about. You should see the scraps that didn't make it
in. I wrote some pseudo-code for my personal API, including how beers affect
the loudness of my voice.

Actually no, no one should ever see that.

~~~
sprobertson
To be honest, a little example like that might be perfect. Maybe I'm not the
right target audience but I was hoping for that sort of exploration of how
disparate information sources could be made to work together.

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alariccole
And on the seventh day, God RESTed.

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teddyh
It seems that the current attempt to do anything like this is SNMP with its
wealth of standardized MIBs.

Of course, we could ignore all that because it’s not new and cool, and instead
fight over what’s new enough to be considered. (SOAP! No, REST! Etc.)

Or, alternately, is this not what the _Internet_ is? I.e. a standardized way
for things to access other things, the exact protocols to vary depending on
the things in question?

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alariccole
Whoever decides to write this API, please don't do it in SOAP.

Seriously, though, that would be the issue with anything that tries to
standardize something so broad--eventually, factions would form and it would
self destruct.

It would be fun in the mean time, though.

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mikesname
Someone needs to tell this guy about the semantic web, though perhaps this is
another indication that it's never going to catch on.

