A blog about tech news,programming and cool stuff
MatD
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Homepage: http://www.mat-d.com
Posts by MatD
Book Tip: The Visual Miscellaneum by David McCandless
Sep 24th
Do you like infographics? Do you like nice designs? Do you like numbers and statistics about everything possible correlated to the most curious facts? Then the book “The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World’s Most Consequential Trivia (Amazon Link) “ by David McCandless is for you. This book is a real must read, to be more precise a book to look in and admire the creatively visuals (pie charts, cutting edge graphs, charts, and illustrations) drawn by the author. More >
David Guetta – Renault Twizy ad in Where Them Girls At ft. Nicki Minaj, Flo Rida music video
Sep 5th
Last time I’ve watched MTV I was surprised to see this superb non-subliminal ad for the upcoming Renault Twizy in David Guetta’s Where Them Girls At music video:
Renault Twizy featured David Guetta's new clip
The car is running –ok,ok, dancing – to the rhythm of David’s beats. Not sure if the advertisement placed on the top of the building is translated in other countries or even censored/blurred when aired? More >
Convert FLV to MP3 with FFMpeg
Sep 5th
This is perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions on the web: you’ve downloaded a nice FLV (let me guess, from YouTube 
) and you want to convert it into a MP3 to be able to play it on your iPhone or mobile phone. How to realize this? Yes, there are tons of FLV to MP3 converters and media converters on the web. But seriously, why do we need something so sophisticated whereas a simple command line will do the whole work for us? More >
[Weblife]: Forza Motorsport 4 – Hockenheim Making Of
Aug 18th
Have you ever asked yourself, how game circuits are realized? The crew of Turn 10 shows us some details about the development of the upcoming Forza Motorsport 4 racing simulation. The following video shows how the track of Hockenheim was measured with GPS and how the track is then modeled into 3D. I’ve found it very interesting especially due to the fact that the real and virtual images can’t be really determined on the first sight. Let’s hope that the new Forza Motorsport 4 game will be as excellent as the previews in this video… More >
Top 5 must-have apps for creating and composing music on the iPad
Aug 14th
Do you want to compose some music, but don’t really know where and how to start? Here is a small selection of free and paid iPad apps that will help you to increase your musical creativity. Even the Gorillaz have produced a complete album only by using iPad and iPhone music apps, so now it’s your turn! More >
Using min3D for Android – Q&A session: Common texture issues and Blender import
Aug 12th
The previous post concerning min3D raised a lot of interesting questions and comments (thanks to all the visitors for their contribution!) concerning the usage of textures, the export of OBJ and the addition of features such as rotation listeners in min3D. I’ve decided to wrap up all of the comments and emails I’ve received concerning min3D. I hope you can find a solution for your problem, and don’t forget to post a comment if you can’t find the solution for your problem. I will edit and update this page with your input and your question, so don’t hesitate! More >
Bag Raiders – Music Review
Aug 6th
This group has made a very cool album for this summer, and their hit Way Back Home was already features in a Vodafone commercial. No, I’m not talking about a new auto tuned pop group re-featured à la David Guetta. I’m talking about Bag Raiders a very eclectic band coming directly from Australia. Their music Way Back Home started to be aired in Germany in April by Vodafone and now in complete Europe. More >
How to compile with AIR 2.7 with Flash CS 5 for iOS development with ADT Helper
Jul 24th
There is a lot of hype around the huge performance jump of AIR 2.7 towards AIR 2.5 when publishing for iOS and of course everybody wants to test it. Most of you have read how to overlay the inbuilt Flash CS 5.5 (AIR SDK 2.6) to AIR 2.7 (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/908/cpsid_90810.html) but what should be done when you are still using Flash CS 5 with the old IPA compiler? Here is the solution to discover the full power of AIR 2.7 on your iPad… More >
Panini Album FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011
Jul 10th
Here are some photos of my Panini album for the Women’s Football World Cup in Germany. Have you noticed that there is no weight indication in the player’s description frame? That’s the main difference between the men’s Panini album. It was the first time that Panini created an album for the Women’s Football World Cup.
Hier ein paar Bilder von meinem ersten Panini Album der Frauen WM 2011 in Deutschland. Einziger Unterschied zu dem (Männer) Panini Fußball Album: Sie werden keine Angaben zum Gewicht sehen Ansonsten bleibt der Spaß gleich: sammeln, kleben und tauschen. Hoffen wir mal, dass Panini auch wieder für die Frauen EM 2013 ein solches Album rausbringen wird. More >
Tutorial: Load a 3D OBJ model with min3D for Android
Jun 23rd
When you want to visualize 3D content on Android phones you have several solutions and frameworks. While using Actionscript with Away3D (with GPU activated in AIR) might be the quickest solution to display low polygon models, what should you do when you want to integrate a more complex 3D view in an existing Android Java app? In this case you will probably think that you must use the complex Open GL libs of Android. But there is a more convenient solution: using the min3D framework to rapidly render OBJ, MD2 and 3DS models.
Here is a short tutorial on how to use and render a 3D object ( in this case a human face) using min3D for Android. More >
Moby – Destroyed reviewed
Jun 15th
Moby has released a new album called Destroyed. This album is a kind of back to the roots one. If you discovered Moby with 18 and Play you won’t be too much surprised to hear that this new album is a mix of pop and electro sounds. In the cd leaflet Moby explained that he wrote the tracks during nights while watching the empty cities. Moby also rediscovered the power of using choirs and powerful gospel singer to emphasize his tracks. Here are my first impressions concerning selected tracks. More >
Load a MD5 model with Away3D Broomstick and Molehill (aka Stage3D) for Flash
Jun 11th
Molehill aka Stage3D will be the next revolution for Flash and AIR. The new Adobe Flash Player will fully support 3D by allowing developers to use a set of low-level GPU-accelerated APIs. What’s pretty cool is that the 3D capabilities will be available also available for Mobile, TV and Desktop-based AIR applications. The best way to realize 3D visualization is to use a framework. My favorite one is Away3D. In this tutorial you will learn how to load a MD5 object with Away 3D 4 (Broomstick) with the Flex 4.5 SDK and the new Molehill.
More >
Check your air quality with the interactive European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register map
Jun 5th
“[...] Every time I breathe…”. These lyrics are very popular, but have you asked yourself what do you really breathe in each day? I can tell you: NOX from domestic aviation, emissions from domestic industry etc… Not really nice for the lunges, but now the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register has published an interactive Europe map of the values of pollutant releases by sector (domestic aviation, road transport, industrial releases). The map is pretty interesting but also alarming 
You can also check the air quality in your neighborhood and you will understand why it’s important to preserve your planet; so go out and plant some trees! http://prtr.ec.europa.eu/DiffuseSourcesAir.aspx
Calisto – a new terminal for Web 3.0 and the Internet of Services – Frisbee gesture with an Android phone to surf in the semantic web
Jun 2nd
Simon Bergweiler and I decided to continue our research in the field of interaction with the Internet of Services. The result is Calisto, a 40’’ multitouch terminal that can be used either over touch interactions or by speech. What’s pretty cool is that users can send (or let me say throw) picture they shot with their Android phone with a Frisbee gesture directly to the terminal. Once synchronized, the picture is analyzed and corresponding semantic annotations are attached to the media. At this point users can use Spotlet to access the semantic web – like in our other system CoMET (http://www.mat-d.com/site/web-3-0-innovative-semantic-interactions-with-spotlets/ ) – and retrieve interesting linked information over drag’n'drop or via speech input through their own Android mobile phone. More >
Metronome Plus review – iPhone – iPad Metronome Application for Musicians
May 23rd
Tick-tock, tick-tock: millions of musicians are following this sound every day. You guess it; the metronome is the musician’s best friend to stay in the rhythm while playing their instruments. For those who use a traditional metronome (also called mechanical metronome) you will notice after a while, that the beat won’t be accurate enough due to the pendulum and the internal mechanism.
The solution is pretty straight forward: let’s take a digital metronome or download a metronome app. This sounds simple, but not every metronome app is accurate enough to ensure no delays and accurate rhythms. I’ve found a pretty nice app called “Metronome Plus”
More >
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