Category: English

Posted on

Paris – The Missing Post

We were so busy trying to find ways to get to Berlin that I didn’t feel like writing on the blog after so many computer hours. But now, just before leaving Paris for Dusseldorf, I can write the missing post.

My back was badly aching two days ago as we went to see The Prodigy for the second time. Rinat was a sick and on the verge of exhaustion. But still none of us wanted to give up on the experience. We decided to enjoy the show by standing and listening instead of frantically jumping around.

That plan failed miserably. You can’t be in a Prodigy concert and stand the entire time. It’s simply impossible. But it was a new experience for me to try, as I was standing there during some parts of the show just watching the stage listening to the music.

Yesterday we went to some antique market (I forgot which one) and then just walked the streets of Paris, which is my favorite pastime when it comes to cities II visit. Not being able to fly caused the rebelling child in me to really want to leave for Berlin. We went back to the hotel and started making calls to arrange rides.

Later on we went to a very nice international pub where a pub quiz was held. We provided a couple of local guys 2 answers and later on sat down with them and chatted for quite a while. It was a great experience and we had a good time.

Still recovering from the thrills that are a day in Disneyland and two consecutive Prodigy shows, we went back to the hotel for our last night in Paris. Now it’s morning – time to pack our stuff and start the ~1000 km journey to Berlin.

Posted on

Stranded In Paris

We’re stuck in Paris because of the volcanic ashes. Our flight to Berlin, which was supposed to go out tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, got cancelled. We scheduled two rides (one to Dusseldorf and the next to Berlin) over the next two days so that we can make our flight back home on Friday.

We spent half a day looking for rides so right now we’re going to a local pub to cool off.

Posted on

Paris – Day 3

Today we got up both aching from last night’s Prodigy show. I sprained my back and it is practically killing me. Rinat is just generally hurting all over.

Still, we wanted to walk around Paris, this time following a recommendation from our Paris tour guide, and went to the Montmartre, around which you can see how the day-to-day Parisians live. We went on a nice walk there, bought and ate some baguettes and generally had a good time outside the touristy areas of Paris.

Then we went to Le Marche des Enfants Rouges, where we ate some Moroccan cuisine that was very good. We tried going to another market after that, but quickly turned back when we discovered it wasn’t what we expected.

Our encounters with the locals have been very pleasant. Everyone we talked to was happy to help as much as they could. It’s a shame that were the tourists hang out there are many scamming attempts. We encountered three of the most common ones: the gold ring scam, the “do you speak English” scam and the string men of Montmarte.

We’re resting before our second Prodigy show tonight. Even though physically this is going to be pretty bad, both of us are unwilling to give up on the experience. It’s that good! :)

As for pictures, it’s going to have to wait at least until we get to Berlin, where hopefully there will be a decent connection that will allow uploads.

Posted on

Back From The First Prodigy Show (Paris)

You know what’s going to be written here, right? It was amazing, exhilarating, the most fun I can possibly ever have.

I didn’t see too many people filming the show, but I’m hoping a decent video will show up on YouTube or something.

My ears are still ringing… tomorrow no alarm clock for us. We’re re-cooperating and preparing for the next show…. tomorrow night :)

Posted on

In Paris

I know I haven’t been despite the fact that I’m in Paris and usually on trips I update daily. The reason is that there isn’t enough bandwidth to upload all the pictures and my stories without something to look at are quite boring.

Anyway, yesterday we went to Disneyland and had a great time. It was a day before the Easter vacation, so both the park and the studios area (these are two different parks) were relatively empty. The most we had to wait for a ride was 35 minutes, which isn’t a lot, but for most rides we stood in line just 15 minutes.

We got to do all the big rides, some even more than once. My favorite ride, one which I also did when I was 18 in Florida, is the Tower of Terror. The ride is simply a 13 stories free fall inside an elevator. The fear and adrenalin rush are simply overwhelming. Another great ride is Space Mountain 2, which is a crazy roller coaster with a twist – it’s in the dark, so you can’t tell what’s coming.

At some point all the excitement was just too much for me (I was feeling a little nauseated, too) and I had to rest when Rinat went on the last ride on her own. All in all – a great time.

Today we went on a 3-hour free tour in Paris. If you’re in Europe I strongly recommend the tours by SANDEMAN. Our guide, Tyler, was very knowledgeable and funny at the same time, the two qualities every tour guide should have.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to post pictures. Right now we’re going for our first Prodigy show. I’m very excited, even though it’s my 10th show.

Posted on

Should I Give Away Dindy For Free?

Dindy’s sales have been dropping lately. I believe the reason is that it got some bad reviews and the current rating on the app market (3.93/5). Being unable to test Dindy on all the different Android phones prevents me from knowing whether claims of it not working are real or a misunderstanding on the users’ end. After all, this app isn’t trivial.

What I do know is that I have some very satisfied customers on many different phones. Also, the app works great on all the Android emulator versions. Since phones don’t run the vanilla Android versions as the emulators run, this means I can’t be sure that successful testing on the emulator means correct operation on phones.

The Android app market has a lot of different phone silencer apps. Non of them has Dindy’s functionality, but in a way they are all competitors. A lot of them are free, too. I already tried dropping Dindy’s price to the minimum, which didn’t seem to help.

What’s really missing on the app market is an option to promote an app by giving it away for a limited time. Once you set the app as free on the Android app market it stays free forever. That’s a shame because I would have tried a promotional giveaway, had such an option existed.

People have suggested to give out a crippled (lite) version of the app. I’m not a big fan of this idea because what happens on the market is that users give lite version of apps bad reviews with comments like “add [insert paid feature here] to the lite version and I’ll give you 5 starts.” Kind of blackmailing the developer. When giving away a lite version you really need to think about the right mix of features in the lite version that will attract the most users to the paid version.

The way I see it I have two options:

  • Invest in marketing – advertise Dindy to get recognition of the app and create a better looking website.
  • Give Dindy away for free.

I’m not big on marketing and I need to think what’s Dindy’s sales potential, but how can I know that? I’m really tempted to give it away for free. If there was a way to back out of that I would have already done it.

Posted on

Creating A Transparent Activity In Android

UPDATE: This answer in Stack Overflow is more complete and correct. You better use that instead of what appears below.

If you want to create a transparent activity in your Android app, add the following style In your res/values/styles.xml file (if you don’t have one, create it.) Here’s a complete file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
  <style name="Theme.Transparent" parent="android:Theme">
    <item name="android:windowIsTranslucent">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@color/transparent</item>
    <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
    <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowIsFloating">true</item>
    <item name="android:backgroundDimEnabled">false</item>
  </style>
</resources>

(the value @color/transparent is the color value #00000000)

Then apply the style to your activity, for example:
<activity android:name=".SampleActivity" android:theme="@style/Theme.Transparent">
...
</activity>

Thanks to Mathias DESLOGES (aka FreakDev) for his posts on this thread in anddev.org.

Shameless plug: If you’re an Android user, check out my app, Dindy.

Posted on

Oh No… Not Another Smack My Bitch Up Video

As long as I’m going to live Prodigy shows there will be Smack My Bitch Up videos posted on this blog. One of the all time favorite live Prodigy tracks, there’s no wonder there are so many of those videos online.

Highlights:

  • 0:45 – Liam drops the beat and the crowd goes crazy
  • 1:14 – the crowd shouts the catchy lyrics in response to Maxim
  • 2:39 – Maxim shouts “we do this shit every day”, something I never thought I’d hear from a live performer :)
  • 4:08 – beat is dropped for the second time, crowd goes nuts again