If you are trying to install Qik software (or any other software for that matter) on your Nokia mobile phone and are getting "Certificate error - contact application provider", there's an easy fix. Here's how to do it...

Go to Tools -> Settings -> Applications -> App Manager

Change the setting for Software Installation from 'Signed only' to 'All'. This should do the trick, but you can also change the setting for Online Certificate Check to 'Off' as an added measure. If you are looking for a great tool for Qik videos, be sure to check out WorldTV's integration with Qik which is very cool.

I have tested this on both the Nokia N95 and Nokia E51 and it works great. The Nokia E51 (with camera) is a good more economical substitute for the N95 incidentally if you want to use Qik's service.

Posted by Alx Klive at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I really can't complain. Running a startup with such a great crew of people, and with real signs of positivity and traction is a dream come true.

I stood on the rickety balcony tonight overlooking our Eastern European appartment block with my friend and lead developer Eugene, and we wondered aloud on how far we'd come in three years of working together. A year ago even I wouldn't have thought it possible we'd be here now, working our socks off, living, breathing and eating/drinking together, all staying in the same building along with his family, relatives and in-laws - four studio appartments strong and counting. Forgive the romantic excursion but it's been a real rollercoaster of a day...

We got to work this morning, we were 5 steps into our building and Eugene exclaims "Oh shit" (only it sounded more like "Orh Zhit"). The power was out, which explained the two hardy looking men we'd passed on the way in, who were removing huge metal breakers, the size and shape of axe-heads - by hand - from a rusty metal box on the outside of the building. Each of those goliaths must have been designed in some early 20th century soviet metalworks for carrying the entire power of a city - only right now they weren't working one bit.

The power came back on within an hour, no doubt to the efforts of those wizened men, but then our ISP called us to let us know that the Internet would be going off in half an hour. They called us to let us know the broadband was going off. Even here, in a decaying faded former USSR city on the outreaches of a broken empire, the broadband provider calls you to let you know the Internet is going down... before it happens.

For the rest of the day we were on and off the phone with them as they provided frequent updates of what was going on and when we could use the Internet, for how long - 20 mins here, 40 mins there. Our Internet flickered on and off all day, but with predictability. It was frustrating that it had to happen at all, especially with everything else that was going on all day, but given that it did, it could not have been a more pleasant experience.

We had a real lift during the afternoon with the news that the Guardian newspaper had run a major article on us and that it was complimentary. Some hurried calls back home to get people to pick up copies were followed by the realization that we had a critical *bug* with the main subject of the article - our live mobile phone video integration. As we like to say round here... something from the 'bad news department'.

Working with Michael and Bhaskar from Qik we got to the bottom of it within 4 hours and solved it - but boy was it a rollercoaster ride of a day!

Posted by Alx Klive at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have just arrived at our 'Eastern' office and contemplating the last 24 hours.

The journey from London to Kharkov is not particularly far, but a little wearing. A 3am wakeup to get to Heathrow for the first flight out for Vienna, and then on to Kharkov with Austrian Airlines - who are the only western airline to fly to the Ukraine's second largest city. Arriving at Kharkov is like a step back in time, broken planes by the runway and a terminal that is straight out of World War 2.

I've done the journey a few times and it's always a 'roll-of-the-dice' - the connection at Vienna is tight (so luggage not making it is a real possibility), customs/passport control in Kharkov can be interesting to say the least. We had a brief scare when the customs found the Mac Mini that we were bringing in, but the language barrier worked in our favour this time and the guy couldn't be bothered it seemed to try and tax us (or bribe us). We were in.

We took two cars to the appartment for reasons I've not quite established. Cars here don't generally have seat belts in the back and the roads themselves are treacherous. Massive potholes everywhere and drivers swerve to avoid them with no hope of any warning. We saw one accident on the short drive and I've seen many others.

Our first order of business was to stock up on food and.... er... vodka! Four grown men heading round the supermarket each with their own trolley was a sight to behold. We got so much 'food' in the end that only two people could fit in Dmitry's rather diminutive car. Toby and Eugene walked home, I pulled rank.

We spent the evening settling in to our rented appartment, visiting our neighbours downstairs and generally catching up with our host and old friend Eugene.

This morning we woke up to... no hot water! I had a sneaky feeling this might be an issue. When in Rome...

Took the bus and subway into central Kharkov this morning. The bus cost 15p (30 cents) and the subway 7p. We worked out that the bus is 7 times more expensive in London and the tube is 60 times more expensive!

A short walk from the metro and we were at our new rented office. It's from here that we'll spend the next two weeks planning the next few months worth of development for WorldTV.

As mentioned in my previous post you can follow all these shenanigans on Twitter - my tweets are here, Toby's here and official WorldTV tweets here. I'm also doing live mobile phone videos using Qik and there's an archive of all the videos so far.

Am probably not going to do tons of blog posts since the above options are way easier. Funny how Twitter really is lowering the incentive to blog. Much less friction.

Incidentally, I still can't make up my mind about Qik's Twitter notification feature. At the moment I've got it on but it would be nice to set a custom default message instead of the 'I'm streaming live right now come chat'. I always forget to control it from the phone (which is possible).

Posted by Alx Klive at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's 4.55am and my colleague Toby and I are off on our way to the Eastern front for two weeks of hard labour development time.

I'll be blogging the trip through a combination of Twitter updates, live mobile phone videos and occasional blog posts. Hopefully the next one will be when I am slightly more awake.

UPDATE: To see archived videos from the trip, go here.

Posted by Alx Klive at 4:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)