My searching led me to this page which gave some code for parsing an RSS feed into a compatible ICS file. After some heavy modifications I was able to set up an iCalendar file I could subscribe to. I used an online iCalendar validator to make sure everything worked when I finished.

Hope this might be useful to someone else until NC State decides to publish their own ICS file.

Update: For those interested in keeping track of the mathematics department at NC State, I used the PHP Simple HTML DOM Parser to generate their calendar as an ICS file that you may subscribe to. It simply scrapes the data from the mathematics calendar.

First, download the latest version of NuSOAP and put it in a folder on your server. Let’s say this folder is called ‘twitter’ and is located in the root of your server.

Now we need to create the php file that will generate the WSDL service. Let’s call this file mathematica.php. Much of this code was adapted by Scott Nichol’s tutorial on Programming with NuSOAP using WSDL.

[sourcecode language='php']
< ?php
require_once('lib/nusoap.php');
$server = new soap_server();
$server->configureWSDL(‘twitterupdate’, ‘urn:twitterupdate’);
$server->register(‘Twitter’,
array(‘name’ => ‘xsd:string’),
array(‘return’ => ‘xsd:string’),
‘urn:twitterupdate’,
‘urn:twitterupdate#Twitter’,
‘rpc’,
‘encoded’,
‘Provides the Twitter function to change your Twitter status using Mathematica’
);

function Twitter($status) {
if strlen($status) < = 140 {
$user = 'yourtwitterusername';
$pw = 'yourtwitterpassword';
$curl_handle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=$status");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$user:$pw");
$buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);
curl_close($curl_handle);
} else {
return "Your update must be 140 characters or less";
}
}
$HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA = isset($HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA) ? $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA : '';
$server->service($HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA);
?>
[/sourcecode]

Now to access the WSDL file generated by mathematica.php we can go to http://www.yourserver.com/twitter/mathematica.php?wsdl. This WSDL service provides the operation named Twitter which will update the status for the username and password provided in the php file. The Update operation takes a string as its only argument.

Now to access the Twitter operation in Mathematica we must first load the WebServices package and then install the service provided by automatically generated WSDL file.

[sourcecode language='plain']
In[1]:= < In[2]:= InstallService["http://www.yourserver.com/twitter/mathematica.php?wsdl"]
Out[2]:= {Twitter}
In[3]:= Twitter["I updated my Twitter status using Mathematica: http://tinyurl.com/mm2twitter"]
[/sourcecode]

In the future I plan on creating a persistent session so you can use the InstallService to input your Twitter username and password. I would also like to support TinyURL generation.

[sourcecode language='php']
if(!preg_match(‘‘, $item['description'], $imgUrlMatches)) {
[/sourcecode]

to

[sourcecode language='php']
if(!preg_match(‘/src=["]?(http:\/\/.*\/.*)_m\.jpg["]?/’, $item['description'], $imgUrlMatches)) {
[/sourcecode]

Source: Via chaosmaker at Google Groups

1. Mathematics: Strangely enough my entire life has revolved around the field of mathematics. Although some people might see this as a bad thing I would have to admit I enjoy doing maths for a living. Not only does it force me to think logically but it will open up many career opportunities in the future. I can only hope that something I do in the future will contribute to society (or at least have some application).
2. Computers: Without one I couldn’t make these blog posts! If I have to explain why I’m thankful that there are computers you clearly have not met me.
3. Bicycles: In a crunch a car is a great way to get from one place to another but bikes, although slower, are just as reliable and great for the environment. My aunt recently provided me with a “new” Fuji Palisade. I say “new” because it is 20 years old but still in great condition.
   

To create a vanity URL http://www.yoursite.com/vanityurl that links to http://www.somesite.com add the following to your .htaccess file.

[sourcecode language='plain']
Redirect 301 /vanityurl http://www.somesite.com
[/sourcecode]

For example, I have the following in my .htaccess file.

[sourcecode language='plain']
Redirect 301 /facebook http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Rohal/43202602
Redirect 301 /myspace http://www.myspace.com/jamesrohal
Redirect 301 /diigo http://www.diigo.com/user/jjrohal
Redirect 301 /googlereader http://www.google.com/reader/shared/14670748227574963949
Redirect 301 /citeulike http://www.citeulike.org/user/jjrohal
Redirect 301 /lastfm http://www.last.fm/user/jjrohal
Redirect 301 /flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjrohal
Redirect 301 /linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/jjrohal
Redirect 301 /thesixtyone http://www.thesixtyone.com/jjrohal/
Redirect 301 /youtube http://www.youtube.com/jjrohal
Redirect 301 /twitter http://twitter.com/jamesrohal
[/sourcecode]

1. Pets: Last Saturday, my dog Laddie passed away after almost 15 years. Although I was raised as an only child, I considered Laddie as a type of brother. Laddie is someone that would listen to me no matter what and would always be there to comfort me. He asked for little and lived life to the fullest. My parents gave me an article about what your pet can teach you. The article inspired me to write these weekly blog posts and to live a less stressful life. Being in the house alone without Laddie has been torture for the past week but I am finally coming to terms with it. I will miss him but he will live on in our thoughts.
   
2. Family: This seems like the easiest thing to write about because there are so many things my family does for me on a daily basis. Simple things like calling to see how I am feeling and inviting me over to keep my company are all things I am thankful for. My family is an integral part of my life and I am blessed to have such wonderful people near me.
3. Shelter: Days where it is blistering cold out make you realize how nice it is to have a roof over your head. Even being able to afford to have an apartment is something to be thankful for too!

BlB also makes it difficult to include RSS feeds into course modules. I am not sure whether the RSS module with descriptions is the solution to my problem or would even work on Miami’s BB server. The only reason I would want to implement something like that is so I could aggregate the course’s announcements and posts from the course’s brand spankin’ new blog. Currently I use Google’s AJAX Feed API to grab the WordPress feed and put it in a permanent announcement.