New & Improved: Flash, at last! [updated x2]
Two updates from last week:
- Invitations/members are now merged (under the Supervise tab) — not sure why these were ever separate
- At long last, Corktop now has built-in Flash support***
***BIG CAVEAT: Wicker, our customized version of Ubuntu that runs on every Sign, does NOT have Flash pre-installed. Adobe has a licensing agreement with Flash that states:
Distributor shall not distribute any Adobe Runtime for use on any … electronic billboard or other digital signage, internet appliance or other internet-connected device…
So we can’t distribute Flash on our Signs, until we properly license it, which we’ve yet to do (it costs a lot of $$). Instead, you can install Flash yourself on your Sign. We’re going to make this process easy to do, but it’s really not that hard to begin with:
- Plug a keyboard and mouse into your Sign
- Run through the setup process (if you haven’t already) and connect your Sign to the Internets
- Right-click and uncheck the full screen option
- Browse to a website that requires Flash (for example, my alma mater, Goshen College)
- A message pops up saying you’re missing the Flash plugin
- Click the install button and run through the prompts
- Right-click in your Firefox window and check the full screen option
UPDATE2:
Alternate (simpler?) installation instructions:
- Plug a keyboard and mouse into your Sign
- Run through the setup process and connect your Sign to the Internets
- Hit Ctrl-Alt-F1
- Type “sudo apt-get update” (no quotes)
- Type “sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree” (no quotes)
- Type “sync”
- Reboot the Sign
- (or type Ctrl-Alt-F7 and quit and relaunch Firefox, whichever’s easier for you)
Now, you can add Flash files to your playlist and your Sign will play them back. It’s still in testing mode, so there will be bugs, but it’s been working pretty well for us for the past couple weeks.
UPDATED: Here’s a video of a Flash animation in action. Nothing more exciting!
