Son of Franken-practical

Sun Feb 15 2004

Tonight's tinkerings have centered around the Mobile Web version of Practical, which I have just redone so as to make it less, well, evil.

One big change, which I'm sure will shock the all one of you who use my WAP site, is that I've switched from WML to XHTML1. I know, I know -- it's shocking. I can smell your pain and bewilderment from all the way over here. Like, dude, they sell deodorant for that.

In "practical" terms (HA HA HA HA HA heh), this means that Mobile Practical will work on rather fewer handsets than it did previously, but will work better on the ones that can still see it. As for which phones and handhelds can see it, I think any phone capable of taking or receiving pictures is probably up to the job. I've been using developer info from the Sony Ericsson website to work on pages, so I'm fairly certain that any SE phone with a color screen (definitely T68 and later) has it. Most/all recent Nokia and Motorola handsets too. Not so sure about Samsung, LG or whoever else -- again, if they can receive pictures, they can probably see the site.

Nextel users, however, are fucked. Your desire for that damned walkie talkie thing has just blown your chance at mobile goodness.

Gleaner 2.0 isn't currently up there, but only while I rework it to be a little more usable. My next schemes involve a wireless interface to the Oscars Game, so that you can make picks while on the john and get your scores in real time as I update the site that evening.2 Also, access to one's Practical e-mail (if they have such a thing), with optional SMS alerts3 when you get new messages.

As I think of other stuff to add, I'll surely let you know. Now back to your regularly scheduled program of t.A.T.u. in the original Russian. You know, I really haven't noticed any difference yet.

1 WML is the freaky XML dialect for use specifically with mobile devices, notorious because it looks so much like normal HTML but so isn't. XHTML is HTML ported to XML, which means that it looks exactly like the sludgy web code we've all been scratching out since 1995, but now there are these rules and you're supposed to be able to validate your code! Like, tscha!

Adding to the obscurity is that there's an XHTML dialect specifically for mobile phones, called (natch) XHTML 1.0 Mobile. The key characteristics of XHTML 1.0 Mobile are:

  • Still less robust than normal HTML.
  • Still more forgiving with most phones than WML.

2 Also, it will allow me to update the winners from my chair, so that I can maintain my reputation for obsessive accuracy in the face of extreme laziness.

3 Unless, of course, I can figure out how to do WAP push. That would rock the co--uh, sock.