So development on my android apps slowed down/stopped for the past few months.  I got stuck on a certain feature that i'd been trying to integrate into the apps and the coding got put on the back burner. 

Work, Life & adventures took over.  But im back.

After seeing how many installs my free "Northern Ireland Railways" android app is getting (nearly at 600, wahoo), I've now decided to set the "Belfast Metro" app to free as well.  I dont have figures, but im sure the number of people using the metro system in Belfast outweighs the number of people using the trains. Soooo. How many people will find the metro timetable app useful.

Just search belfast metro in the market or use this link to the app on the market website.

Anyway, back to the code.

Let me know how you find the app, and what you want me to work on next.

Mark

Quick update just to direct you over to the belfast telegraph website where @jasebell has written a piece on #code4pizza and opendata Ni and I get a mention.

That reminds me, get back to coding mark and finish the app.

Thats all

Enjoy your weekend.

Mark

After a couple of months of dabbling elbow deep in source code for an android app I wanted to build, I made the break away from my computer and on Tuesday night went to the code4pizza event in Bel fast.

What is Code4Pizza?
Code4Pizza is a group of developers, designers and inventors who gather together to work on projects for the public good. This can be to solve problems in society, provide better (more accessible) access to public services and also to provide some tech expertise where it is needed in non-tech sectors. It relies on people giving their time freely and on the principle of open source innovation.

I had wanted to have a usable application for Translink's bus and rail services in Northern Ireland and since I'm an android user this was the platform I wanted/needed it to be available on.  I sent translink an email way back last september asking if they had plans to develop anything mobile friendly but never recieved a proper answer.

I'm not the only one who finds the translink.co.uk website difficult to use on a mobile screen. During searches I had found a public service value group on the Digital Circle website which had posts by Matt Johnston (@cimota) about Freedom of Information requests to Translink for more access to their timetabling data and also information about the code4pizza group.

I read along in the background but never did much publicly as I was a mere novice when it came to doing any coding.  I research a lot of apps and read through a couple of opensource projects on google code to see if I could do something myself.

I found a project called sydtrans which was an opensource timetabling app for the bus and subway services in sydney.  The author had published his code so that it could be reused by any interested parties.  I started of by trying to botch together a database of some routes in Belfast that could be read by the app.  Databases were not something i was strong at but my job as an accountant has left me with a pretty good understanding of spreadsheets. Copying and pasting from the Translink website, then a lot of manipulating in the spreadsheet and finally I managed to import it all into a database that would work with the app.  I managed to get the one metro route that I used most day set up and functional.  The app nearly ended their with only the lisburn road covered.

I needed to find a way to scape the translink website and extract the timetable data.  Luckily David Wilson (@DavidBelfast) published the code that he used to create the nitimetables.com website, I couldnt get the code to build so I contacted David on twitter who promptly fixed the build file and I was able to get database of timetable data abet in a different format than that which I needed.  More spreadsheets later and I had a database of all metro routes (1-200).  Since then I have been working on the User Interface to see if I can make it more functional and easier to select routes.

So back to Tuesday night at #code4pizza, I demo'd where I'd got to with the app and got lots of positive comments about it. I have to thank all the guys there for being so supportive. I even got a couple of comments about why I hadnt published it on the Android market yet. Through the code4pizza group we will keep requesting more access to timetabling data before it goes on the translink website so that any necessary work can be done to get the data into a usable format and ideally to have a open connection to the data so that others can build their own apps using the same data. My app can be used as one of a few examples of how developers can improve the translink service even without the support of Translink.

One of the people at the code4pizza event was @david_crozier who wrote this thoughtful blog post.

"We saw a great demo of an Android application which was put together by a unassuming guy who is an accountant with no software development skills prior to getting involved in the group.....Anyone who has used Translink’s website knows that it generally sucks.  As a regular bus user he had, and thought he could do better.  The application rocks.  If he can do it why can’t you?"

On the back of the positive comments and a couple of requests on twitter to have the app I decided to publish to the Android market.

Its called "Belfast Metro by Markvader", just search belfast and you should find it.

or scan this barcode with your barcode reader on your phone

Lots more features are planned and I will be releasing updates regularly.

Let me know what you think in the comments or send me an email

Mark

Just a quick note to say my Cogne pictures are on my gallery. Still need to take the time to go through them and delete loads.  (I was messing with some settings and plan to animate some of the quick succession shots).  I also put up the other guys photos to show a bit of quality

Mark

Been back from italy about 10 days but havent got around to writing up a wee report and upload my photos; Just moved house so ive a bit to unpack before i can get distracted by something fun. It will get done.

The climbing around Cogne was amazing, really pushed my climbing and confidence leading routes on ice.

We climbed for all but one of the days (heavy snow) so the body was aching by the time I got home, lifting furniture all week hasnt helped.

About a month until the next trip when were of climbing in the Cairngorms in Scotland.

Might try and get some indoor training in soon, havent been regularly enough to get any fitter or get any benefit from my membership.

Mark

Flights Booked: check

Accomodation Booked: check

Leave from Work Booked: check

We are cleared for launch.

50 days and counting until i'm heading away to Cogne in Northern Italy for an ice-climbing holiday.

The last time Ireland had some proper ice-climbing it looked like this

Cogne promises to be amazing, and all the reports I've read tend to agree

After a week or two back on a stock vodafone Rom (to test out their android 1.6 build), i decided to upgrade my vodafone htc magic to the latest and greatest (and now fully legal) cyanogenmod.

This is only for 32B versions on the HTC Magic (check which version yours is here)

Firstly I'd advise you to back up your current phone state before you upgrade as everything will be wiped.

BACKUP

1. I already had the android sdk installed on my machine. you will need to get this to get the fastboot program.

2. Download a recovery image that features nandrid backup to the tools folder, I used cyanogenmod recovery image (link in point 11 below)

3. put your phone into fastboot mode (power phone off, then power back on while holding back button, three android on skateboards will appear) then connect via usb (fastboot usb should appear on screen).

from the command prompt

4. cd to the tools folder

5. fastboot boot cm-recovery-1.4.img

6. your phone will change screens and one option in the menu will be nandroid backup. run this.

7. reboot phone

8. make a note of all settings (carrier APN is the main one),

9. look in the market for apps to backup sms messages etc.

10. backup currently installed apps, I use Astro file manager.

***The crucial steps - i take no responsibility for your phone, you do this at your own risk***

11. Downgrade from android 1.6 (vodafone stock image) to 1.5 and rooting using the guide at cyanogenmod.com [at step 12 in the guide i needed to enter the download address for the recovery image, i used http://n0rp.chemlab.org/android/cm-recovery-1.4.img)

12. Flash Android 1.6 & then CyanogenMod 4.2.4 (using same guide)

Enjoy the magic. lots of new things to explore

Future cyanogenmod os and theme upgrades

For future cyanogenmod os and theme upgrades the CM updater app in the android market has worked flawlessly for me.

USB Internet sharing

My computer had problems finding the necessary drivers for things such as USB Internet sharing

I managed to find all the necessary drivers using those that come with HTC sync

a.) Download and install htc sync (i used the new 2.0.8 from here) KEEP PHONE DISCONNECTED

b.) Backup the drivers folder (C:\Program Files\HTC\HTC Driver)

c.) uninstall just the HTC sync component (there are seperate uninstallers for sync and drivers)

d.) switch on usb tethering on phone, SETTINGS/WIRELESS CONTROLS/INTERNET TETHERING

e.) plug in phone, when you do this the computer will search for the drivers and should find them automatically, if not point the hardware installer at the backed up copy of the htc drivers.

f.) in network connections a new connection will appear, disable your default connection (Local Area Connection) and leave the htc NDIS based device enabled (in my case Local Area Connection 3).

g.) in my browser i had to chage the proxy settings from "no proxy" to "detect proxy settings authomatically"

Test the connection. Success

Grr, Last.fm feed is not pulling in to Sweetcron at the minute, will be restored when i can figure out what changed with the last.fm rss feed

Also had drafted a couple of posts on the wordpress app on my phone, but stupidly upgraded the OS and wiped my drafts before uploading them.

In other news I still need to do lots of things to finish of this site.

Mark

After 5 weeks of pretty intensive studying, exams are now complete and I'm now free to get back to enjoying my life. Let the Kayaking, Rock Climbing and general craziness recommence.

Few blog posts im going to write up soon about my brilliant HTC Magic android phone, messing about with the sweetcron install on my server and a few other geeky projects im trying to get finished up now ive got some free time.

The Beard's on its way back, its alot more ginger than the last time I had one, not that theirs anything wrong with gingers.

Mark

Just found a neat little cinema listings app on the android market from Damien Reilly called IRL Cinema Guide which actually includes all my local cinemas, great to see Irish developers getting interested in developing for android.  

Select your county, select your cinema.. get your cinema listing schedule for the current week. Option to call cinema if you need to pre-book tickets.

http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.irlcinemaguide - download links

http://damosapps.com - developers site

tried out NEXT Dart by Mercury Girl Inc, and even though its of no use to me living in the north of ireland its a very nice app, with great functionality uing the in built gps to locate your nearest station and also pulling in the twitter updates from the operator Irish Rail informing of delays etc. I wonder will the Northern Ireland bus and train operator Translink would move into the 21st century and release any form off app for their timetables. I might drop them an email.

Find out when the next DART train will arrive at your station in Dublin,Ireland.The application gives real-time information and timetables on all trains arriving in the next hour.NEXT Dart will also tell you where the nearest station is and guide you there with directions on a map.Travel alerts are also built in.100% Irish!

http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.iDart - download links

http://www.mercurygirlinc.com - developers site

I've had Sweetcron installed on my domain for a couple of months, not really worrying about it but letting it run away by itself. It is billed as a host it yourself, very moddable lifestreaming service, e.g. FriendFeed on your own server with as many mods as you can handle. You can chose to use a ready made theme or customise one of your own, im trying a few out and seeing how i can modify them. Sweetcron brings together all your feeds from your postings on social networking sites. On mine it draws down my tweets, flickr, google reader, picasa, qik, vimeo as well as blog posts like this one. I haven't worked out how to integrate my facebook updates as facebook withdrew the rss functionality from their site. Ive recently installed the Sweetcron Bookmarklet from http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20080902/5377/ which allows for quick bloging of any interesting stuff you find on the net. I'll let you know how it goes soon. Mark

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