

ChesSMS: Using Unicode to play Chess over SMS - chadrs
http://www.twilio.com/engineering/2012/11/08/adventures-in-unicode-sms

======
chadrs
(Author here)

Sorry guys, it appears the traffic accidentally caused my balance to go too
negative and my account got suspended! D'oit! Fixed now!

~~~
rubyrescue
so great! can you open source the erlang part?

EDIT - sorry just found the link at the bottom - www.github.com/twilio/chessms

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the1

        &\&^&]&[&Z&]&^&\ 
        &_&_&_&_&_&_&_&_ 
          %?  %?  %?  %? 
        %?  %?  %?  %? 
          %?  %?  %?  %? 
        %?  %?  %?  %? 
        &Y&Y&Y&Y&Y&Y&Y&Y 
        &V&X&W&U&T&W&X&V
    
    

This is what I get.

~~~
chadrs
ah! I'm guessing you're on Sprint/Virgin/Boost.

Sorry... there's literally nothing I can do to fix that. Sprint simply just
doesn't support non-GSM characters. You can send from AT&T to Sprint and see
for yourself :(

If you're not on Sprint, send me a message at chad át Twilio.com and give me
some more details.

~~~
the1
Yes, it is Sprint :(

------
debacle
For those who want the TLDR:

> You can play ChesSMS by texting "PLAY" to +1 (415) 494-8454.

Working with SMS is a very interesting space because of the limitations of the
protocol.

~~~
twilsher
good summary, though I would claim another takeaway from this is that SMS is
also more capable than most people realize.

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dsl
The SMS interface appears to already be overloaded. (FYI, standard phone
numbers can send a maximum of 1 SMS a second, this limit is enforced by the
carriers and applies to everyone even Twillio)

~~~
chadrs
What you say about rate limiting is true, but actually you weren't getting
responses because my account was suspended for about 15 minutes.

I don't think even the frontpage of HN would be capable of getting enough
chess players for 1 msg/sec to be too slow.

~~~
sneak
The top of the frontpage would certainly be.

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dsr12
This is the work of a true hacker! Every programmer should have the attitude
to look beyond the obstacles and strive to find solutions to the problems that
they face.

------
dsr12
I sent an SMS to play but haven't received a response yet. Can it be played by
people from outside the USA?

~~~
chadrs
It should! Is your carrier listed on <http://www.twilio.com/sms/pricing> ? If
it is, send me an email, chad ät twilio.com

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patrickod
Such a great use of SMS. Brilliant article too. Really enjoyed reading through
your thought process.

~~~
jmoverley
+1 i've been a messaging sms/mms core network architect for many years (for a
uk operator), was a good read! nice work chad!

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Tipzntrix
That is some fancy stuff.

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chriwend
This is so awesome

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jmoverley
chad: gsm 03.42 might aid your final problem :)

~~~
chadrs
very interesting. My understanding was that most handsets didn't implement
compression but I think it's worth a try.

------
pla3rhat3r
+1

