Born January 9th, 1971. Raised in Dinslaken, Germany. Moved to Dortmund, Germany for studies of computer science in 1991, living here since. I really like it here.

Started programming in 1984 at the age of 13 with a Commodore 64. After learning basic and finding out that there was not that much one could really do with Basic V2 - despite filling loads of floppies with attempts at writing text based adventures - started programming in 6510 assembler and continued to do so for several years, this time filling loads of floppies with game trainers, intros and unfinished side scrolling games :-)
Coded demos and cracked games - the usual stuff. Got an Amiga 1000 in 1986 and - due to lack of a harddrive - continued programming in assembler, this time m68k of course. Lost interest in programming Vectorball demos and OCS related stuff for a while, instead developed an interest in girls … until in 1994 I made friends with people who owned some NeXT computers. Awesome machines!! Started to program in Objective-C on NeXTstep 3.x and instantly felt at home. Wrote first database applications as NeXT's came with Sybase - quite expensive stuff at that time, you didn't see that often outside commercial development. Today I own two Turbostations and one Colorstation (running Oracle 6!). A Turbo is still on my desk. That turbo is now in the basement, my new home government (a.k.a. Diana) didn't allow that any longer… ;-)

After moving into the Kult-WG (we had a 16.8k leased line in 1995 with permanent internet connection - highly unusual at that time!) worked part-time as a network administrator. After one year turned into a programmer again, this time working full-time for Object Factory. Programmed in WebObjects 2.x & 3.x there and wrote a couple of AppKit programs. In 1999 quit my job at Object Factory and moved on to Pixelpark, continuing to do WebObjects applications. In 2001 moved from Pixelpark to Codeon, doing some WebObjects but mostly J2EE stuff … worst technology ever hyped. Also did some .NET stuff in C# (which is by far more tolerable than J2EE stuff) (which basically is the same boring stuff as Java but with few notable improvements).

In 1999 Nat! convinced Erik and me to join his ongoing Open Source onslaught dubbed Mulle kybernetiK. Following my natural instincts as an (ex-)administrator I set up the Mulle kybernetiK computing facility™ and maintain it since. From time to time I also release some of the software I write in my spare time in the hope that somebody might find it useful.

What the heck is this "Tethpub ZNeK" thing?

Do you know fortune, the UNIX application? There's a special option -o which gives you offensive cookies. Because these are particulary funny, I wanted to read the database - but heck, it's encrypted. Ever seen pages full of ROT13 blurb? Well, there you got a chance to see. The funny thing is, some names (but not many) are still pronouncable and look like real names. Just like Tethpub Znek. :-) Just a few days after finding out about this fuenf created my first unix account outside University on the famous NeXT cube anarch. Instead of using my real name I remembered the ROT13 stuff I just saw a few days earlier and thus stuck with the handle znek … until today! *sniff*

Current projects

• iTunesFS, a MacFUSE based file system which lets you access your iTunes playlists via a file system mount - very nifty for making, err, backups for your friends! ;-)
• MulleSight, a tiny but incredibly useful application to capture images from your iSight (or other Quicktime compatible) camera
• OpenGroupware.org, probably the best Groupware server around to date. I'm particularly focussing on SOPE, the driving force behind OGo.
• WOEditor (not released, yet), an editor for SOPE templates (it's pretty useful in the context of XML and HTML as well). Sneak peek here.
• Bookmarker (not released, yet). An application for managing all sorts of bookmarks (namely URLs) - and for sharing them via Rendezvous Bonjour! Initially conceived as a testbed for a GNUstep implementation of Bonjour, but the GNUstep port is more or less abandoned now. Now it suits as a technology demo for a true AppKit driven SOPE application which provides DAV and XMLRPC services to its peers. Sneak peek here.

Past projects (inactive)

• MulleNewz, an RSS reader dockling. With my evergrowing list of RSS feeds the user interface doesn't work too well. I use NewsFire most of the time which works quite well for me.
• XMLRPC, a framework for programming XML-RPC clients/servers in Objective-C. I stopped development on that some time ago as SOPE has all the stuff built in. Although Mulle XMLRPC does some stuff better (signature mapped type coercion) this isn't too big a deal in practice.
• EDCommon/EDMessage frameworks, future development, bugfixing and porting to GNUstep. I abandoned these in favour of the SOPE stuff although ED* comes pretty handy if you need something really lightweight.
• Wrote CVI, a 30 minute hack which I still use every day! Pretty useful thing. (There's also a version for Subversion which I use far more often nowadays).
• Wrote a GNUstep compatibility framework for Mac OS X which makes it easier to port existing GNUstep apps to Mac OS X. This framework is now a part of GNUstep and is being used by Renaissance.
• Ported WordNet to Mac OS X
• Lamento, an open source bugtracking system for Mac OS X Server. NB: This project is dead now, as there are many good open source bugtracking tools out there which have far more people backing their development. During the course of its development Apple killed almost all underlying technologies which was a pretty funny experience for us at that time I can tell.

Although it seems that I'm totally focussed on doing computer related stuff that's simply not true. In fact I'm also a pretty active musician. Originally I wanted to play drums (who doesn't want to?) but my parents didn't really support that … still don't understand why not? :-) That put my desire to learn an instrument to rest until puberty set in and I tried to learn the guitar, aged 16. I really sucked as a guitar player, so I started playing electric bass aged 17. Despite starting so late I caught up very quickly with that instrument and soon gained some reputation as a (metal) bass player. I used to play in a couple of bands over the last 19 years (Rotten, Nameless, Shred in seconds, Fatal Charme, Noise `R' Us, Counterparts, Karibow, SORE PLEXUS, Elke Porn, Moshcircus, GOD2B), embracing styles from Westcoast Rock to total metal mayhem.

One of the most outstanding bands in my personal history to date was complex power metal band SORE PLEXUS… just follow the links and read some reviews to get an impression how cool that was. I still like to listen to our old albums - they still sound fresh and cool despite some particular shortcomings in the recordings. Nevertheless I'm still thinking quite a lot about that time and about the unnecessary split up. If only I could turn back time *sing* …

I'm currently playing in 2 bands. In 2003 I joined Stromzähler GOD2B, consisting of ex-Daily Reign guitar player legend ;-) Marco Stützer and nontheless insane drummer Michael Sticken. In late 2005, after receiving a distress call (thanks Reina!), I joined the local heros to be *g* Moshcircus… really some fun and kickass band!

Upcoming gigs

See me play live with either Moshcircus or GOD2B.

Fri, September 12, 2008	New Hope Tattoo Party
Sat, November 08, 2008	HBMH6

Equipment

I own a total of eight electric basses, three of which have been handcrafted by Siggi Jäger of Human Base. They're worth every single cent. Ok, 'nuff said … some photos!

Human Base 6 string fretless

Human Base 6 string fretted

6 years later … still playing that stuff :-)

Still got the funk…

Diabolic Infernal Fretless™

I also use an outdated Hartke top … it was pretty cheap when I bought it in 1996, it also had a lot of useful features and the sound was pretty good. I don't know whether it's still state of the art, but I still like its sound. The only effects processor I currently use is a Digitech Whammy pedal … funny little thing! ;-)

When sending emails, it's probably not a bad idea to use encryption, escpecially since - as a matter of fact - your email is at least read by the Echelon system. Fortunately encryption is not illegal in most countries, so try GnuPG (The GNU Privacy Guard) as an example.
Having said this, here is my GPG key:

pub 1024D/AC9F5A3C 2006-02-28 Key fingerprint = 759A 3D8D 3FBB B9A3 1F55 183A 5C5C 42A4 AC9F 5A3C uid Marcus Mueller <znek@mulle-kybernetik.com> sub 4096g/291F6EA8 2006-02-28 -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (Darwin) mQGiBEQEdRERBACW0WDmx9gup5hExAKt5ZigkmDSDEWmBUkO3gSt3pSfqW2bZjLf rPtmSlmnQKtYO8vSwEpzx9TD81r9g6ws/JD9kHwvEmPOc2o46IVep98yzpck5jxj WE//lok1eOYdAy+vvcWcSsV2veujwnQilkuDm/iwgkiEpW3/gqopjtHsVwCgqV9Y ipSbMuM/lxIK/zsZpU0D4qsD/2vvbV/robWElK4jsSElKJj2SGDnowHvBiUxANZA 0fkPXNap7ZjhIfTREyugC0pOBjfAVMTbjIKV7YhVKOL5JpAE+BwtZ9aYF6kjXtoz BTTeMoAie3iYnozfB1X1gRW0LoW419KzS222fyy5NdQi9p/AumRNFrlLTw04fZJp FCfGA/9tbdt7aZtbS21lEdafFEt9bK+vANmrJwQteXv90CucjWEB4eFFBaNj6jxQ S4wdNKf+eeciRQD5+fKx6UOr3RvbMMqgS9G7SvatCGkJihME/RpNdMHdf0Vqptx1 PenrowWZp9ANb242Hvre8aQrMibSrNpkZsahCS71WaK6gD7OtLQqTWFyY3VzIE11 ZWxsZXIgPHpuZWtAbXVsbGUta3liZXJuZXRpay5jb20+iFsEExECABsFAkQEdREG CwkIBwMCAxUCAwMWAgECHgECF4AACgkQXFxCpKyfWjzuwgCfWl05v0VZ6O3R6Kkw 3bTvERywAb0AoIjyU2uYlQhmTKlpMSxTGNkSczsPuQQNBEQEdUQQEAD3YO3y0UXT ZQstC749G7RBJV/U0uGENOz2scEH4XKG9Kb692SRnU85eVxsYrfTxsG0GhBi+d8f e2aih6D0vU9rbExf6//FUkTqIpafSALNB6S0yjWQj/tMr+2BJOhfLvhDxlvebwzJ h4rKoG/NmPnj4wwcwG7xL2vwMQycv7DiXlhbdG6QIMIKc/DJYPSQOtxNAVt+sfdA YH80niVDRWBt4LNgeQ8lIfEcR8Ny3B3WqffwiBqZBdKpH2NZakr3FVviU02Zpv2F BAcf8gBx/EiD+RlKT1sUw9xjpW775qzyEgOTCIU3d9xTFvo++rOinVUClmfUZEi1 uaJWJAem8eMwCloOvXaMQ2fOtZvPllfWYbnWnkP2Fd3StCJxBjmfJIsfAZoMy3G1 DvQn590GkH32aFk5l+FtfoThk87+9Z6tpgdkzekuK6Z1ioaZkcQ47C0pqUc49zzd oEDGhp+re9E4gr9CB8G/GJWKbkpICQwnCQhFwxBF3Wb4ySUK9oO7bUoakffujG5V yV5lUHfbdkdDgnuGX2faGjybzX+joUbixXeUSUUNa8IKi9YPniQgh7cJiZOyqsD/ tUhVdgoeGfad8bFoqGg2i6vgdo9xvyVTNkpd2SNivFZAKbLVNNuekZURxyFftQwJ qmtOIXLeyoZKKNuFuce/0Nlgc5PwfKmtlwADBQ/8DsAiOyUW+MEu+9gBde8JBol1 yqOt45OSNlkBSr3F67+9bDleY/3c+DbMTSD7OHm6NQnCq14XxQohjJCtt8TjO5ZM pcq/BN48otj2FPNWExBV2/Ec1NwJyWgyAumBGU3ZAVdWn1qJw6Ccrg09IcW27vHe KWVTRo/EMsoYD1F7GDIraIHczUYqsLc1933UQIEFIKim3kDLjiDqkq6kM+C1CUC/ QzSGdNad1wbgWokgLJOZED2U+VjYO1h+j/PSLNByuevPGDN8wATHo2mT2mpNun9x wdVkArP3iIfXurkcT7CVdv5gcno5ZFB3S5ZUkc/YQEj4Gp/TFC0WTMtEStyQzlV7 wLiBk8bDX98Wn4T24I1yK9Pt6p7n5T52DalUBGyrSYFFNcWvCHISoe17inQn0s8j QT3eUgoopbO20KX3uFoKRa3KS/Wvs+3H7gvPfEe3QHFbLel10krMapf/pKWfrNI7 1vqXjv2fbFqrIo1pPjYYJwbi5CQP77SfZk20WOXKlRbfwLwD9tW9+AsMobX+BXvG OpmpNEdfrHvKVC2mUv6CSUNRHz75/TAU/ao8kL1NTpHTGDYUela+4i9VCutt6pnm Y9UYNfdwK/Yv2z4DX8ZHB6YbtXx7sSPZX8I3cPcIFpZGdHy8/uCtaXHK30FkTv+N c+o1QKwkM52v5QZ+qc6IRgQYEQIABgUCRAR1RAAKCRBcXEKkrJ9aPLf/AJ9BkVM+ CgME1oLtTJVT/Zs2wvcdGwCbBcPxn23RpD0d03OazUgc0u0aQjU= =PoyI -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----