Write texts

[Gi-lo]

• about me text
• timeline entries

[Gi-lo]

Released in August 2009, PocketPlayer was my first App Store application. It was developed to simplify the way you listen to your music. Especially if you do a lot of sports you get pretty much annoyed by putting out your iPhone or iPod Touch to change a song. With PocketPlayer you can control your music by simple gestures:

• Double-tap to play/pause
• Swipe left/right to change the current song
• Swipe up/down to change the volume

PocketPlayer was for about 15 weeks under the top 20 Music Applications on the German App Store. I have tried to update the application frequently as it contained themes. At a certain point I had to remove it from the App Store as there was not enough revenue to continue working on it.

Please note, that the video above is provided in German. Nevertheless it shows the main features in very good and understandable way.

[Gi-lo]

On the Fifteenth of december, 1992, I was born in the university hospital of Düsseldorf. The regional Capital of North Rhine-Westphalia has a variety of interest points. From big shopping boulevards like the KÖ (Königsallee) to the Kunstpalast (Artpalace) there are enough spare time possibilities without getting bored quickly.

I have lived in Düsseldorf for a couple of years before my parents and I moved to Kaarst. It is a rather small city with around 40.000 citizens. I have spend most of my live here. Although it might be not as big as Düsseldorf it is at least as beautiful.

[Gi-lo]

A friend of mine and I decided to build an application for the brand new iPad. As he enjoyed playing Etch-a-Sketch as child we decided to bring back some good old childhood memories. Though the application was rejected due copyright issue it was a still a great learning experience. Diving deeper in CoreGraphics and custom UIControls was a clever choice. EtchPad features two rotary knobs for vertical and horizontal line movement. There is also an undo function as well as the possibility to export and share your drawing.

[Gi-lo]

After building EtchPad I knew that I really love to develop iOS applications. And if you love something you always struggle to get better. By searching for internship on various platforms I quickly got an offer by grandcentrix. back then it was located in a rather small office in cologne. There were only around 10 employees.

My first task was to build a component which displays a navigation tree like UITableView. The requirement included that it is fillable via a remote server. After some initial troubles I got along pretty quickly and then could continue working on an Application for Sparkasse, a German bank institute. To my way of thinking the new task was way more interesting. I had to build a complete chat kit. This includes UI and data persistence, no network connections though. After my internship the grandcentrix team and I decided to keep in touch. It was a great experience and definitely a step towards the right direction.

[Gi-lo]

My final examinations took place during march and april, 2012. By getting my test results in May, I had the required education to enroll at a university.

My subjects included biology, geography, english and computer science. The two latter ones were a good foundation for what I do now. Studying computer science and communicating in english. Biology and geography where two other topics where I was interested in. Although I decided to not enlarge my knowledge about it.

[Gi-lo]

During the break till university started, I worked as a Junior Developer for grandcentrix. It was my first full time job. With all the good memories I had from the last summer internship I was very interested in getting and mastering more challenges. I worked on Apps for ROMA, RTL and Siedle.

Yet the most interesting application was for Loewe. A co-worker and I had the job to build a showcase application for IFA, an international multimedia fair, in Berlin. The application was something similar to a remote control. In addition it shows current telecasts data and you can also control your Loewe SoundBox with it. At the end my co-worker attended the IFA and presented some aspects of the application. It was an amazing feeling that the application you have worked on was showcased on an international fair. Later Loewe acquired us to build an App Store ready version.

[Gi-lo]

CKCrashReporter is a crash reporter class for your iOS application. It is very simple to adopt and easy to extend. Once a NSException is instantiated, CKCrashReporter will save it and other useful information on disk. The next time the user starts your application you can read out that information and e.g. send a mail with it attached via a MFMailComposeViewController.

CKCrashReporter was a side project based on a task at grandcentrix. I had to write a github wiki entry about iOS crashlogs and how to correctly analyze them.

[Gi-lo]

While studying computer science I reduced the time I spend working for grandcetrix. In my maximum 20 hours a week at the new shiny office in the heart of cologne, I mainly do bug fixes. It is amazing how much and fast you learn if you have that large variety of projects. You see others code, their code smell and there cleverness. You can always learn from it. 

Between the break of the first and the second semester I spent some more time working for grandcentrix. Luckily I got the task to rewrite the former IFA Loewe ShowCase application. My Co-worker and I started from scratch as it was clear that the showcase version was only be a quickly coded prototype. With the management team introducing scrum to our workflow we managed to finish the application just in time. Loewe Assist Media for iPhone will be submitted to the App Store very soon.

[Gi-lo]

After my final examinations I decided to study computer science at the University of Applied Science Bonn-Rhein-Sieg.

The first semester included subjects like theoretical computer science where we discussed complexity, automatas and language classes. For me a completely different yet interesting aspect of computer science. Besides that I had to learn Java and learn some basics of physics and math.

I plan graduating with a bachelor degree in two and a half year. Afterwards I may do my master degree which normally takes 4 more semesters.

[Gi-lo]

By enrolling at the University of Applied Science Bonn-Rhein-Sieg and my work in Cologne there was no reason to stay in Kaarst. I decided to join an apartment-sharing community as it could else be very hard to get along in strange city where you do not know anyone. My 3 roommates became close friends and we are just like a small family.

Besides the great people, Bonn also is a beautiful city. The image you see on the timeline view of this application was taken on sunset in Bonn. It shows the Post Tower which is the headquarters of the logistic company DHL.

[Gi-lo]

By enrolling at the University of Applied Science Bonn-Rhein-Sieg and my work in Cologne there was no reason to stay in Kaarst. I decided to join an apartment-sharing community as it could else be very hard to get along in strange city where you do not know anyone. My 3 roommates became close friends and we are just like a small family.

Besides the great people, Bonn also is a beautiful city. The image you see on the timeline view of this application was taken on sunset in Bonn. It shows the Post Tower which is the headquarters of the logistic company DHL.