This is a ruby quick and dirty Italy earthquake whistle. It gets periodically the last tweet from INGVterremoti feed and it requires rubygems and twitter gem installed. Also requires beep package installed on the host machine. Beep frequency depends on ma

quakewhistle.rb

require "rubygems"
require "twitter"
tweet_f = Twitter.user_timeline("INGVterremoti").first.text
elements = tweet_f.split(/Ml:(\d.\d) (\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{1,2}:\d{1,2}:\d{1,2}) UTC Lat=(\d{1,2}.\d{1,2}) Lon=(\d{1,2}.\d{1,2}) Prof=(\d{1,3}.\d{1,3})Km Prov=(\D*)/)
f_tstamp = elements[2]
while(true)
  sleep(60*5)
  tweet_s = Twitter.user_timeline("INGVterremoti").first.text
  elements = tweet_s.split(/Ml:(\d.\d) (\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{1,2}:\d{1,2}:\d{1,2}) UTC Lat=(\d{1,2}.\d{1,2}) Lon=(\d{1,2}.\d{1,2}) Prof=(\d{1,3}.\d{1,3})Km Prov=(\D*)/)
  s_tstamp = elements[2]
  puts ">>> #{tweet_s} tstamp: #{s_tstamp} <<<"
  if(f_tstamp != s_tstamp)
    puts "!!! New eartquake: #{tweet_s} !!!"
    freq = elements[1].to_f*1000
    Kernel.system "beep -f #{freq} -l 300"
    f_tstamp = s_tstamp
  end
end