Mesmotronic Blog

We’re pleased to announce that our unofficial BBC iPlayer plugin for DivX Connected is now open source and available on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/bbc-iplayer-divx-connected/

The plugin’s built using a mixture of MXML and JavaScript, so even if you don’t have a DivX Connected set top box, it could be a useful starting point for anyone looking to build an unofficial BBC iPlayer of their own.

Enjoy!

We’re excited to announce that ConnectedVNC, our free VNC client plugin for DivX Connected set top boxes, is now open source and available on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/connected-vnc/

Mesmotronic are proud to announce that, from December, NRICH TWILGO will be a regular feature of the mathematical games, problems and articles available for free at http://nrich.maths.org

Always on the lookout for new ways to enrich the experience of the mathematics curriculum for all learners, Cambridge University’s NRICH team chose TWILGO as the perfect way to introduce students of all ages to programming.

Can’t wait till December? The original TWILGO is still online and open to everyone at http://twilgo.com

What can you create in 140 characters?

If you’re developing apps for iOS (iPhone, iPod touch or iPad) you’ll need to generate a 2048-bit Code Signing Request (CSR) before you can create a Development Certificate and start testing your apps.

On OS X, you can use Keychain Access, but on non-server editions of Windows it’s a little less straight forward. Here’s how:

1. Download and install the latest version of OpenSSL
2. Once installed, you will need to add the OpenSSL bin folder to your PATH environment variable, e.g. c:\openssl\bin; if you’re not sure how, Google has the answer
3. Open a command line window by selecting Start > Run… and entering “cmd”, then pressing OK
4. To make sure you can find your CSR once it’s been created, type the following and press return:

   cd desktop

5. To create your CSR, type the following an press return:

   openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout request.key -out request.csr

6. Answer each of the questions
7. That’s it: your CSR should be waiting for you on your Desktop, ready for upload to the iOS Provisioning Portal

Once your CSR has been approved and you have your Developer Certificate, you’ll need to convert it to a P12 file: instructions are here

If you’ve got a DivX Connected set-top box, don’t forget that you can download all of our fantastic plug-ins from the DivX Labs website:

• BBC iPlayer for DivX Connected: Catch up with your favourite programmes using our unofficial plug-in (more info)
• UK Radio Player for DivX Connected: Listen to a wide range of radio stations through your TV (more info)
• ConnectedVNC: Control your PC from the comfort of your arm chair (more info)
• ConCast: Stream sound from your PC or listen to your favourite podcasts (more info)
• TWILGO Viewer for DivX Connected: See the amazing things people have created using tweets (more info)

A picture is worth a thousand words, and since a text can only contain about 20, here’s a quick reference to Android’s emoticons (case sensitive):

:-)		;-)		:-(		:’(
:-*		:-P		:O		O:-)
:-[		B-)		=-)		:-D
:-$		:-!		:-X		:-/
o_O

Introducing the UK Radio Player for Mobile

The UK Radio Player for Mobile is an experimental, web-based application that enables you to listen to a wide range of British radio stations on any mobile phone that support Flash Player 9 or above, including almost all Android and Maemo devices; radio stations include Absolute, Capital, Heart, Kiss and Magic to name but a few.

To start listening, point your mobile browser at http://bit.ly/ukradio, which will take you to http://labs.mesmotronic.com/ukradioplayer/mobile/.

Until Flash Player 10.1 is finally released in the wild, touch functionality is fairly limited, so you’ll need to use your mobile’s arrow buttons to scroll for now.

Can’t find your favourite station?

If your favourite station isn’t listed, and it’s available online as an an MP3 or AAC/AAC+ stream, let us know by adding a comment to this post and we’ll see what we can do!

Wherever possible, please post the URL of the feed itself, rather than a link to a website or M3U/PLS playlist.

Loads of new feeds have been added to the BBC iPlayer plug-in for DivX Connected, meaning you can  now choose from TV Highlights, Most Popular programmes, a wide range of genres and a selection of regional programming, together with content from all major BBC television channels.

If you are already using the plug-in, simply select BBC iPlayer from the Plug-ins menu on your set top box to enjoy the new features, otherwise click on the link below to get started.

Download BBC iPlayer plug-in from the DivX Connected plug-in library
Take a look at the DivX Connected set-top box

Recently, several people have asked whether it’s possible to create some kind of constructor for static classes in ActionScript 3, and the answer is: yes!

The solution is  a static initializer. This is a block of code, surrounded by curly brackets but no function or var declaration, that runs the first time a property or method of a static class is called. Static initializers are called before any property value is returned or function executed, in the same way a constructor always runs before you can access the properties or methods or a regular class.

package
{
    public class MyStaticClass
    {
        // This is the static initializer
        {
            trace("Running static initilizer!");
            staticInitializer();
        }

        // We're calling a secondary method so we can use local variables
        static private function staticInitializer():void
        {
            var now:Date = new Date;
            baseColor = now.hours > 16 ? 0x000066 : 0x0000FF;
        }

        static public var baseColor:uint;
    }
}

Although it’s not strictly necessary to call a secondary method, Flash Player will throw an error if you declare local variables within the static initializer itself.

To prove that the static initializer is running first, simple trace out the baseColor property:

trace(MyStaticClass.baseColor);

If it’s after 4pm, this will result in the following output in the console window:

Running the static initializer!
102

Mesmotronic Multiuser Server 2.5 was supposed to be a stepping stone to 3, but as development progressed it became clear that all the cool new stuff being added would go far beyond a simple point-release.

So, we’ve taken the decision to cancel 2.5 and continue development towards a new multi-platform release: Mesmotronic Multiuser Server 3.

More information coming soon…