matt’s

Google has announced the second Android Developer Challenge and I’m seriously considering taking part. They have ten different categories with three attractive prizes each and one overall category with three even more attractive prizes. Given the facts that there were only 1788 submissions last year, that I have already gathered some experience in mobile device [...]

Während sich mehr als 80000 Menschen an der Petition gegen Internetzensur beteiligt haben, veröffentlicht die deutsche Kinderhilfe eine Umfrage, nach der 92% aller Deutschen sich für eine Internetzensur aussprechen sollen. Das haben Hacker offenbar zum Anlass genommen, die Seite der Kinderhilfe zu manipulieren. Aktuell ist die Seite nicht erreichbar, Google hat aber die gehackte Seite [...]

If I had known this earlier. Currently, On The Job is on sale for 50% off on mupromo.com. I already mentioned this software in a recent post on software I use. If you’re doing freelance work on your Mac, have a look at that one.

Want!

I’ve written plenty of book reviews, so why not try a little music review? This time, though, it’s a pretty objective one.
I love live music, I really I do. But I don’t really like German music. And normally I don’t have exceptions to rules. But… well… here’s one: If you ever get your hands on [...]

Since I enjoyed this beautiful spring Saturday, I thought I could blog something personal once again. Sarah and I finally visited the Schokoladenmuseum (Chocolade Museum). It’s one of the places in Cologne every tourist guide recommends, but eventually I didn’t find it that spectacular. We took a tour around and it was interesting to learn [...]

(via fscklog)

…one sophisticated opinion on the whole “killer game” discussion which is evolving again due to the recent killing spree tragedy in Germany.
Glücklicherweise haben Politiker bis jetzt darauf verzichtet, ‘Killerspiele’ zu verbieten. Nicht Spiele machen Jugendliche zu Tätern. Es sind Defizite in der Familie und in ihrem Umfeld, die sie in die Welt der Spiele und [...]

While I’m at it, I could also post a great wallpaper I use on my Mac.

Comes with multiple color themes.

People seem to like posting their favorite plugins and software these days, so I thought I could add my little list of useful stuff here, too. I’m open to suggestions for other good extensions, of course.
Here’s my list of Firefox AddOns I am using actively:

Adblock Plus
Firebug
A powerful debugging aid for web developers. Comes with e.g. [...]

It’s amazing to see that there are still so many fans active, even after 25 years after the original show was aired.

(Found in the German Tripods fan forum.)
I’m still looking for a keyframe- or bone-animated lowpoly version of a Tripod. If you ever come across one, let me know.

…to Wordpress 2.7 (finally).

One of my favorite game projects which started as an indie effort (afaik) is currently available for 75% off at Steam. Should I? Should I not?

I was searching for a nice 2D graphics library today, again, because I wanted to piece something together very quickly. My requirements were:

Should be available for the Mac so that I could code with my MacBook Pro (a.k.a. CodeWorm.local) on my lap. Currently I really prefer this way of coding. Screw dual monitors!
Crossplatform would be [...]

…in a row survived! Five more to go.

Now that ELFrun is finished and I’m on holidays, I’ve finally some more time to surf all the (indie) gamedev pages in my bookmarks again. One particular posting catched my attention and I nearly had to shed a tear when I heard Alec Holowka, one of the two people behind the highly respected Aquaria, playing [...]

mattin posted at mac-tv.de and one particular comment gives a quite comprehensive feedback. Also, there’s a pictured review on a Swiss site, apfelkraft.ch.
Oh, and btw., version 1.5 is in the store and we’re working on version 1.6.
Did I mention the ELFrun review on iphonegamenetwork.com?

Someone has cracked my long-time ELFrun highscore. Congrats!

mattin found ELFrun featured on “Englishtwist’s” Christmas Countdown for December 3rd. If you want to see the whole ELFrun intro video (because you don’t have an iPod/iPhone, of course, otherwise you would indeed buy the game to watch it), have a look at his footage starting at about minute 4 :-)
There’s another video from “ipodtouchlab” [...]

mattin created a new video which shows ELFrun from starting it up on the iPhone to finishing a level (and most of a bonus level). It’s one of the easier levels at the beginning (level 5), so there are not many obstacles and the speed is still pretty low. I guess playing a higher level [...]