def main():
    client = DiscourseClient(discourse_powered_site,
                             api_username=API_USERNAME,
                             api_key=API_KEY)

    user = client.user(API_USERNAME)
    notification_count = int(user.get('notification_count'))
    print notification_count

    if path.isfile(file_path):
        # open the existing file and update the value if it has changed
        with open(file_path, 'r+') as notification_file:
            previous_count = int(notification_file.read().strip())
            print "Previous count: %d" % previous_count

            if notification_count > previous_count:
                notification_file.seek(0)
                notification_file.write(str(notification_count))
                notification_file.truncate()

                new_notification = notification_count - previous_count

                # send system notification
                system("notify-send -t 0 'FSFTN Discussion' \
                       'You have %d new notification\n<a href='http://discuss.fsftn.org'>View discussions</a>" % new_notification)

    else:
        # create the file for the first time
        with open(file_path, 'w') as notification_file:
            notification_file.write(str(notification_count))