Learning with the Fang

Just got the Adelaide BIG DAY OUT (BDO) TimeTable downloaded and running on my Nokia N80. It works a real treat but was harder than it should have been. Here are two tips that could make it easier:

1. Don’t put the download files (.xml and .swf) in a .zip
2. Work harder to make it easier to download FlashLite for old phone owners

This little app is by far the most useful think I have ever downloaded to a phone!  Ridiculously simple – for each stage pick the act(s) you wanna see and press enter.  This hilights the act and adds it to the ‘My TimeTable’ list.  Pressing 1 or 2 on yr phone toggles between the entire timetable and my timetable.

Better still, the data lives in an .xml file that is quite easy to hack.  Stay tuned for a future post on a timetable for Womadelaide coming up in March ;-)

So, onto the specifics. 

Putting the .xml and .swf files into a single .zip means that you cannot download directly from the phone – need to download to pc, unzip and transfer to phone – un necessary.

My old Nokia N80 doesnt have an up to date version of FlashLite which the timetable requires.  The ‘download’ page linked to from the triplej website is way to busy – I never did find a link for the FlashLite V2.1 software download for symbian S30 (required for my Nokia N80).  But after many googles I found a much better link here: which links to the actual FlashLite V2.1 download for the N80: that requires you to register with adobe before downloading.  The reason for all this kerfuffle – normally Flash players (like Adobe FlashLite V2.1) are simplly shipped with handsets.  Buy a new phone – get the latest flash player.  If, like me, you have a crusty old Nokia N80i and want to partake of the geeky goodness it is necessary to update the software.  This is not something that either Nokia or Adobe cater for at the end user level.  It is something they allow for developers.  So, to update the flash player on my phone I had to register as a developer (which was none too painful and just worked).  I would provide a link to the software from my own website but Adobe stipulate ‘no re-distribution’ when allowing the download.

So, there it is boys and girls – not as simple as one might expect but quite achievable.

Fang – Mike Seyfang

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