Hey Nate, I was curious, with Spine (using Scene2d in LibGDX), what did you use for converting the .jar into an exe?
Also, for checking for updates, do you just have a web server online it pings to check+download the update (which replaces the .jar), or is it totally different?
Awesome job on the recent blog post!
I used launch4j.
Yep, that is how updating works.
Thanks Nate! There was several posted in stack overflow questions, but curious about what you used.
Which hosting service did you use for the server? (I need to work on one just to have people check in, and populate when they are running a server, I think it would be fine with just a php landing+ storing in a mysql database).
Hope you're enjoying yourself in Croatia! I never really thought of it being a place with nice islands, and swimming 
In the picture it looks like it's a small island off the coast of a larger one? Is the island big enough to have a power plant, or are there lines going to it?
I've always wanted to live a bit off the grid- yet still wanting access to the internet (reliable power and internet). My old boss used to travel in an RV+ work, and used satellite internet, but he said it worked very slow when using secured pages, since normally it would buffer a bit of the site and send it over (and with secure it needs to validate every page).
And thanks again for all the work on Spine! Makes my life a lot easier, and am using it in all my current/ future games (just need to become a better animator so I can show off it's capabilities).
I use Linode. You have to admin the VPS yourself, but the Linode Library is great. I used a "stack script" and it set up LAMP on Debian for me. If you use this link then I get $20 off. 
Croatia is known for it's beaches (though they are rocky) and islands along the Adriatic sea. They draw lots of tourists from Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Slovenia, etc. Tourism is big here. The island is tiny, 5 miles around the edges, so I can run all the way around it (though some of it gets rocky). It is in the Šibenik archipelago, so there are many islands all around. Very pretty. Power and water comes from the mainland. There is one store with little selection, but it isn't a big deal to do a shopping trip to the mainland every other week. It's nice but I won't stay here indefinitely, I'll move to an apartment in Zagreb. Another pic:
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Hey, Belly! :yes:
Sorry, Belly has passed. 11 months ago I left her with family when I went on a 2 day trip, while I was gone they left a gate open and she was killed by a car. 
She was 2.5 years old. No worries, you didn't know. She was the same mix (tiny Puggle).
This is Moo. She is 13 weeks old now and super sweet. :love:
Awww...
Are they related somehow?
Hey Moo!
Nope, Belly was from Oklahoma. Her dad was a small Pug and mom a small Beagle. Moo is from Winnipeg, her mom was a Pug and her dad an Old English Pocket Beagle.
feels so racist against puggles now
Awesome, thanks Nate!
I might sign up with them soon then- their lowest hosting package is almost what I'm paying now for shared hosting (who keep blocking the Google crawl bot, claiming it's using 75%+cpu for requesting a page every 8minutes) + it would add more freedom for being able to install + run stuff.
Sorry to hear about your dog! 
I don't know why you'd ever want to leave living on an island where you can swim every day (Although would have to adjust to bi-weekly shopping trips instead of 2x/week 
)!
Sorry for resurrecting, but finally signed up for Linode using your referral code, so hope you get the $20 off!
Did you go with the cheapest plan, or have to upgrade?
On a different note(for spine), what do you connect to, to check for new updates? A php page, a socket server, ect?
I was going to have my game be able to connect to the server to check if it has the newest version, but wasn't sure the best option(was going to go with php page, maybe connected to a mysql database so I could update it from a different page/UI easily). Thanks!
I'll probably just end up connecting to a php page, but will probably test out some other options to be safe.
What did you base the automatic updates on? Java web start?
Sorry I missed your last post. Thanks for using my Linode link! I think it takes 3 months being with them before I see a discount.
I had the cheapest plan for a long time but upgraded to speed up these forums, then Linode increased all their plans and bumped me up a level which was nice. The cheapest plan is probably fine.
Awesome, thanks for the reply Nate!
