All posts in Personal

arcadiaCharts public alpha released

By On 12/25/2010 In Personal, Software Engineering With No Comments Permanent Link to arcadiaCharts public alpha releasedPermalink

The wait has come to an end and it’s quite a relief to finally be able to write about (and promote) something I’ve been involved in my spare time, mainly in 2009 and partly in 2010 as well.

In December 2008 I had the pleasure to meet members of the management board of element5, one of the world’s largest outsourcing partners for the software industry, who were just kicking off a new little project: a charting library for JavaScript and Java. My colleague Oliver created the GWT Canvas project which was used for the rendering and I designed most of the project architecture and laid grounds for the available chart types. Unfortunately I had to reduce my involvement in late 2009 due to other personal projects and more responsibilities in my day job and made way for Joern and Andreas as the current main developers, but I’m still part of the development team and a little proud to see the first alpha come to light.

The first public release is an alpha version for testing purposes, so if you’re interested in a flexible, yet easy to use chart library for JavaScript/GWT, have a look at arcadiaCharts.com.

Music Tip: Parov Stelar

By On 9/14/2010 In Music, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to Music Tip: Parov StelarPermalink

I got a bit lazy with my code music list to the right. However, I’m currently addicted to the great music of Parov Stelar (bought three albums at once on iTunes recently, sad I didn’t find him earlier), so I thought I could share some videos.

A live example:

(I’d love to have this unfortunately unreleased recording.)

And a studio mix:

Plenty of other tracks are available on YouTube.

We are our choices

By On 7/24/2010 In Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to We are our choicesPermalink

When you are 80 years old
and in a quiet moment of reflection
narrating for only yourself
the most personal version of your life story
the telling that will be most compact and meaningful
will be the series of choices you have made.
In the end we are our choices.
Build yourself a great story!

Jeff Bezos, founder of amazon.com, at a Princeton Graduation Speech. Via TED.

Android Game Development (Day 5)

By On 6/27/2010 In Game Development, Personal, Software Engineering With No Comments Permanent Link to Android Game Development (Day 5)Permalink

Day #5, Sunday, June 27th.

Here’s the rough concept for timed events I already mentioned in my last posting. It’s working for now, but I’ll do some more tweaks to abstract this even further and make it more flexible.

Android Game Development, Day 5: Timed Events

Android Game Development, Day 5: Timed Events

Android Game Development – Steps 4-5 from Matthias Gall on Vimeo.

Keep reading below if you’re interested in today’s progress. Comments are welcome! In case you missed it, also don’t forget to read the reports on my steps in Android game development: Steps 1-3 and Step 4.

Continue Reading →

Android Game Development

By On 6/26/2010 In Game Development, Personal, Software Engineering With No Comments Permanent Link to Android Game DevelopmentPermalink

I’m building rather boring enterprise applications at work and I love creating more appealing things in my spare time, so I do a bit of game development whenever I can. The main problem for a programmer is to get some graphics, but fortunately I have some nice renderings from my old Project E tutorial and the even older Project D game by sechsta sinn on my harddisk that I could put into use (all done by my friend and favorite artist Martin Ernst, btw.).

This is what I managed to do in three after work sessions so far, if you’re interested in the details, continue reading after the video.

Android Game Development – Steps 1-3 from Matthias Gall on Vimeo.

Continue Reading →

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

By On 5/2/2010 In Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.Permalink

This recording of Steve Jobs is “old” in terms of the Internet, but its message remains cutting-edge. If you don’t know it yet, it’s worth watching.

NB: When I watched that the first time, I was surprised that a versed speaker like Jobs told stories of his own life but still had to read them from his notes.

DVW Panorama

By On 11/22/2009 In Game Development, Personal With 1 Comment Permanent Link to DVW PanoramaPermalink

Christopher, one of my highly-paid sechsta sinn colleagues, has spent some of his expensive hours to compile a panorama screenshot of a DVW map. But it all pays off when the fans are happy.

Click here for the fully blown version.

Small version, follow link to see full version.

Things Have Changed

By On 11/5/2009 In Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to Things Have ChangedPermalink

One of the best things I did last year around this time was writing ELFrun together with Martin. It was great fun and I think we both really enjoyed it. This year, I have even more pretentious projects but I hardly find the time to sit down and work on them. Sometimes I really want to cocoon myself and eliminate any external influences for hours or days. I guess that’s why I love working at night.

I was always working on PCs before and bought my MacBook Pro solely for the purpose of writing an iPhone app. It’s funny how things have changed in the meantime: I bought an HTC Hero, which is an Android phone, meaning I eventually turned away from the iPhone, but I spend most of my time in front of the MacBook Pro and use my PC mainly for playing games. I even consider buying the new 27″ quad-core iMac – if it ever gets a matte screen.

Funny how things have changed.

Android Developer Challenge

By On 5/28/2009 In Miscellaneous, Personal, Software Engineering With No Comments Permanent Link to Android Developer ChallengePermalink

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 development and that I do work with several Google APIs for my freelancing job I consider my chances not too bad. Idea, anyone? ;-)

Great Mac Wallpaper

By On 3/5/2009 In Links, Miscellaneous, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to Great Mac WallpaperPermalink

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

OH FUCK I CAN'T SWIM

Comes with multiple color themes.

Firefox AddOns and OS X Software I use

By On 3/5/2009 In Links, Miscellaneous, Personal With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Firefox AddOns and OS X Software I usePermalink

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. a DOM explorer and a JavaScript debugger.
  • Web Developer Toolbar
    A toolbar which offers many useful functions for web developers. In particular, I like outlining of block elements or enabling read-only form fields.
  • FoxyProxy
    Manage proxy configurations and use them depending on URL patterns etc.
  • ImageZoom
    Zoom images with RMB and mouse wheel.
  • Foxmarks
    Synchronizes bookmarks. I found it particularly useful to define synchronization profiles so that I can separate work bookmarks from private stuff.
  • Tabinta
    Ever tried to enter a TAB in textarea controls? Tabinta allows you to use TAB there.
  • Flagfox
    Shows the country flag of the server’s origin in the address bar.
  • Split Browser
    Splits the browser window into multiple areas.
  • Nuke Anything Enhanced
    Allows to remove any DOM object under the mouse. Useful e.g. to get rid of layer ads that Adblock Plus doesn’t catch.

I also found the following OS X software to be useful:

  • On the Job
    I bought this one to do my expense tracking and invoicing when I do freelance work. It can be tested freely for 20 days and I really liked it from the beginning, but I got convinced to buy when it offered me another 10 days trial after the first period was over – wasn’t that nice?
  • Cyberduck
    Great FTP client.
  • TextWrangler
    Powerful text-editor with FTP-support.
  • The Unarchiver
    Unarchiver which supports plenty of file formats. Good replacement for the native ZIP tool which is pretty limited.
  • LabTick
    A little tool which keeps the keyboard light on all the time, independent of the ambient light.
  • Little Snitch
    Firewall which monitors outgoing traffic and keeps programs from “phoning home” if you don’t want them to.
  • ChMox
    Tool to read Windows CHM files.
  • 0xED
    Small and fast hex-editor.

Some German comments on ELFrun

By On 12/20/2008 In Game Development, Miscellaneous, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to Some German comments on ELFrunPermalink

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?

ELFrun featured on YouTube channel

By On 12/10/2008 In Game Development, Miscellaneous, Personal With 2 Comments Permanent Link to ELFrun featured on YouTube channelPermalink

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” who is featuring ELFrun over here with two (simple) levels of gameplay. I’m really wondering whether someone will ever make a movie of the harder ones.

ELFrun gameplay video #1

By On 12/6/2008 In Game Development, Miscellaneous, Personal With 1 Comment Permanent Link to ELFrun gameplay video #1Permalink

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 through a camera is pretty much impossible.

ELFrun is also currently featured on TouchArcade.com, hooray!

I was a bit scared how fast ELFrun was pirated, though.

ELFrun available

By On 12/3/2008 In Game Development, Miscellaneous, Personal, Software Engineering With 8 Comments Permanent Link to ELFrun availablePermalink

ELFrun is available in the AppStore. Just follow this link.

And now, dear colleagues, please spread the word! Feel free to use one of the shots mattin posted and do some advertising. Greatly appreciated!

ELFrun submitted to the AppStore

By On 12/1/2008 In Game Development, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to ELFrun submitted to the AppStorePermalink

I nearly shed a tear when mattin finally made it after 12 hours of struggling with code signing and stuff. Imagine that: a 3D artist builds, signs and deploys a whole C++ application using XCode and command line tools by himself. I couldn’t do something like that the other way round. I’m really proud to work with so amazingly talented people.

Now keep your fingers crossed that the AppStore people like it as much as we do.

Oh, and here’s just a little update to mattins posting:

ELFrun Highscores

By On 11/30/2008 In 1984, deutsch, Game Development, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to ELFrun HighscoresPermalink

The ELFRUN developers are fighting for the highscore during their last tests with the game. mattin, here’s my reply.

MATTHIAS has taken the lead.

MATTHIAS has taken the lead.

Now I’m stuck in level 20.

ELFrun is coming to your iPod/iPhone

By On 11/26/2008 In Game Development, Personal, Software Engineering With No Comments Permanent Link to ELFrun is coming to your iPod/iPhonePermalink

Since mattin has let the cat out of the bag, here’s what we’ve worked on in the past weeks.

Head over to dermattin for more.

Crunch-time

By On 11/26/2008 In Game Development, Personal, Software Engineering With No Comments Permanent Link to Crunch-timePermalink

I didn’t talk to my girlfriend very much lately. I didn’t read many blogs. I didn’t watch any movies. I didn’t breathe much fresh air. I didn’t use my PC for anything more than listening to music or fetching mails. I didn’t sleep much more than four hours the last two weeks or so. I neither wrote a single line of code for DVW nor attended the last sechsta sinn team meeting. I have a new game on my desk right next to me but I didn’t even bother to install it yet. I get asked whether I’m sick because I look like a zombie when I creep around the office in the morning at noon. I currently drink so many energy drinks that my heart beats heavily when I finally try to get some sleep (so eventually I don’t get any). I’m sitting here with the MacBook Pro on my lap, big headphones with music on my head and two separate headphones in my ears, one connected to the MacBook and one to an iPod. I wrote about 15000 lines of code in the last eight weeks in my spare time, and there’s a deadline coming so close so quickly that I fear I will hit me like a bullet train.

It’s crunch-time, baby.

I am now a registered iPhone Developer.

By On 9/21/2008 In Game Development, Hardware, Miscellaneous, Personal, Software Engineering With 1 Comment Permanent Link to I am now a registered iPhone Developer.Permalink

Plus MacBook Pro owner since Saturday. Plus soon to become an iPhone owner. Plus a bit confused by Objective-C syntax already.

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