LITERAL SHADOW CAST OVER C4[2] OPENING NIGHT

Twitteriffic's Craig Hockenberry has always been heralded as one of the tallest developers on the platform, but some at this year's C4[2] indie bash have found themselves in the shadow of what appeared to be an even larger man.

"Look at that, he's so freakishly tall! He's like, 3 feet taller than me," pint-sized Canadian Guy English confided.

Shushed as Hockenberry strode past, English was seen to actually be a full four feet shorter, which set a gaggle of programmers to chattering.

"Holy fuck, he's still growing," Skorpiostech's Ian Baird whispered once out of earshot of the formidably sized man.

After sniffing around, the MacNose discovered Chockenberry's rise to 12 feet (at the time of reporting) was the result of an attempted hit gone awry. The lead developer on Twinkle (a competitor to Twitteriffic on iPhone), was asked to ensure they had the top Twitter app, "no matter what it [took]," the MacNose learned.

Being a bit squeamish about actually doing the deed and executing the gentle giant, he instead sowed radioactive powder in Hockenberry's supply of his favorite breakfast cereal, Count Chockenberry O's. The scheme backfired, however, when, instead of weakening and dying of radiation poisoning, Hockenberry began to grow.

"It's like something out of Night of the Lepus or Them," said the shaken would-be assassin.

It is unclear if Hockenberry is aware of who is "benefactor" is, but he appeared to revel in his even more immense stature, tweeting "Neener neener. I'll be the tallest developer there. :-)," just before the start of the conference.

Some were a bit uncomfortable at the prospect of a man who could very well fill half the conference space all by himself by next year, but organizer Wolf Rentzsch said "Well, as long as he doesn't accidentally squish Buzz Anderson or something, he'll continue to be welcome at C4[3] and beyond."