I'm Mike Rubits better known in some circles as sponge.
I'm a web developer that ended up taking on a lot more than just web development.
Welcome to my personal website. After years of convincing myself otherwise, I've finally given up on the whole blog idea. Let's face it, nobody ever writes as much as they say they should, they're usually out of date, and are rarely interesting. That's why this site is a simple list of projects I've worked on in the past, and links to my social network presences. Join me in my one-man crusade against personal blogs.
Recent Tweets
Portfolio
Here's some stuff I've done, much of it in my spare time. Most of it isn't very good. Maybe some of it is? It is a mystery!
QUAKE LIVE
I'm the lead web developer for QUAKE LIVE, a free-to-play first person shooter that runs in the browser through a plugin. My tasks have gone far beyond the web, starting off with PHP and JavaScript, and moving onto Python, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, C/C++, and a veritable tech-soup of other software.
HTML5 ebclock
It's a clock. It has a picture from Earthbound. It fades from day to night depending on your system clock. The original Flash version is still occasionally posted on 4chan, despite dating back to 2006. It's HTML5 because it uses the audio tag. That counts, right?
StreamRoller
Scan and stream your music library to anywhere a web browser is available. Combines a database, a web server, and a web application into one self-contained package that is easy to setup and run. While mostly in a working form, troubles figuring out how to distribute it slowed down progress.
JSONTamer
A small Firefox extension that simply takes JSON blobs of any size and conveniently displays it in a foldable tree view.
Mobipics
Share photos taken from your phone to your personal website quickly. A small Python/MortScript package to launch a device’s built in camera app, and uploads any new photos to a configurable FTP site.
QL Twitter Bot
Very basic IRC Twitter bot, written in Perl. Spams a channel when a tracked Twitter account updates. Nothing fancy here!
dNoted
dNoted was a final project for a college course that uses a few different HTML5 and CSS3 technologies to create an offline web application for note-taking. Includes super basic revision support.
spongeStats Mod
A proof-of-concept experiment in visualizing the flow of shooters. Using coordinates and means of death, quickly spot large trends in map design or weapon usage.
ET:QW Stats Signature
Generated forum signature images containing up to the date statistics on a player's Quake Wars account. Uses FreeType to provide better typography than what is normally seen in similar projects.
ET:QW Mapper
Uses the Google Maps API to make ET:QW maps viewable from the web. Allows users to zoom, pan, and otherwise inspect 11 of the 12 built in maps that came with the game.
spongeShack
Personal image hosting service for quick/one-time use images. Database backed with a quick interface, it supports transloading from foreign URLs, tagging, imageboard style tripcodes, and metadata.
403 Forbidden
Coolest design on the web, bar none!
Old Stuff
A mix of older projects and other stuff, to pad out the site's content a little bit more!
spongeBusted
A discontinued service that server admins can sign up for to allow indexing, and searching, of players who have played on any participating server. A Ruby backend periodically pings and parses the response, from where a simple web-based frontend provided quick access to anti-cheat tools to quickly track down a player and all his identities.
ET:QW Server Notifier
ET:QW Server Notifier was a Windows application created to browse Enemy Territory: Quake Wars from outside the game. It also featured the somewhat unique functionality of being able to and notify the user if a server becomes populated with players.
Wii Newsletter
Wii Newsletter was a proof of concept application to allow administrators and other content providers to automatically distribute a newsletter that delievered specifically to Wii consoles. A Perl backend was responsible for incoming signup e-mails, and deliveries with optional photo attachment, Wii Newsletter was a creative use of the WiiConnect24 service.
GET Member Project
This mini-site was created to show the process of becoming a member into the Gamma Epsilon Tau nationals fraternity. The design is much more image heavy than most, as it was designed closer to a static brochure, allowing it to have a more unique look, and references the organization's printing background.
The Zombie Presidents
A simple text-based webpage for an Enemy Territory clan. The layout is almost entirely devoid of images, and works in all the major browsers. A basic content-management system is in place, allowing quick and easy access to updating the site.
Tower Mogul
This professional, but bright site was made for eSoft Interactive, one of the foremost developers for the PocketPC platform. Tower Mogul is all about building gigantic skyscrapers, and the website shows this. The cracked logo with the city in the background, along with an interior view of the towers you make in the game on the right, along with links to easily try and buy the game.
Contact
You're still here?
Mike Rubits
E-Mail: sponge@d8d.org
AIM: MikeRubits
MSN: sponge@captured.com
Yahoo: MikeRubits
ICQ: 4029304