Alexander vanRossum

I have a bit of an addiction, and it’s called work.

On 09.01.10, In General Posts, God and Christianity, My Life, Relationally Speaking, By Alexander

In the morning, I wake up, and I go straight to my computer, where I check my email, and if necessary, respond or take action. Then, I get ready to go to work, which is a normal process, and then I get to work, where I – get this – work.

I am in IT, so there is always something to be done. Web sites have to be built, servers can be maintained, phones can be optimized, computers can be prepared for issuance to individuals. Even when I’m not working per se – I’m still working – reading tech journals, manuals, white papers and their ilk, and if not that, then I’m working on completely unrelated things, such as websites for friends and family or basic design work or photography, with the occasional hour or two of painting, when I’m not completely exhausted.

It used to be, I’d get done at work, and then I’d go home and play games – often with others – and I defined that as social interaction. You who haven’t actually seen me in quite a long time would be surprised to know that I spend a grand total of about one and a half hours a week playing video games now. This is a far cry from the three to four hours a day that I used to devote to that stuff. The only reason I play at all anymore is because I have a sort of “game night” with a bunch of guys from church where we deviate from our Christian values for a while to talk smack, insult, and fill each other with lead. I’ve even noticed that my time in those game nights is becoming shorter and shorter, much to the Scott’s chagrin.

Unfortunately, I have not replaced this wasted time with something amazingly constructive – I’ve replaced it with work. And it continues to get worse. (more…)

Works, both in Progress and Complete

On 08.20.10, In Art and Expression, Paintings and Works, By Alexander

Just wanted to share some of my works, both in progress, but mostly, complete.

They appear below

« Back Forward »

Please, if you have any comments or criticisms, let me know below! I REALLY hate the orange thing. It’s sloppy, and messy, but it’s a recovery from something else that I totally borked, so i guess I should be happy that I recovered the canvas at all…

Cheers

~/A\V/

Tagged with: art • expression • painting

Random TV Show Observations Stargate SG-1, Season 8, “Moebius”

On 08.08.10, In Continuity and Other Errata, Stargate SG-1, TV Shows and Movies, By Alexander

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS!
The contents of this post contains details relative to the plotline and story arc of the TV Show Stargate SG-1. If you have not seen this TV show and these episodes, and intend to see them, you should probably not continue past this point.
You have been warned.

Stargate SG-1, Season 8, “Moebius”, Pts. 1 and 2.

The whole of the two episodes is a gigantic contradiction. IF, by way of traveling back in time, getting their ship discovered by the Jaffa in ancient Egypt, and burying the ZPM and a video tape describing their plight in a tomb in Giza, SG-1 managed to re-write history from that point up to the current day, including having the original Stargate being removed from the planet by Ra, leading to the SGC having never been created in the first place, and therefore, preventing the creation of the team SG-1, then by doing so, that would have also caused the events that they had themselves done to not exist. Meaning that the alternate timeline in which Drs. Jackson and Carter are civilians who are then tasked with figuring out why, exactly, they are on said tape could not possibly have occurred, rendering those events also null.

All this to say, if, by altering history, SG-1 managed to prevent the formation of the SGC and thus their subsequent time-traveling mishaps then they would never have gone to the Giza area/time in the first place, meaning that the current timeline, with the nerdy and self-esteem lacking Carter and the just plain odd Jackson would be the ONLY timeline, albeit sans videotape, ZPM, ancient “gate-ship” and suddenly-discovered Stargate. In other words – this plot line makes about as much sense as does the fact that the scientists in the original feature film magically figured out everything scientific (wormholes, computer control systems, interface) relating to the Stargate before knowing what it actually was. Not to mention that when the new-timeline Jack, Sam, and Teal’C go back to ancient Giza a second time, the whole thing just completely unravels.

In the end, by re-creating the timeline, they cause themselves to cease existing in their current time (3000 B.C.), meaning that the future events cannot happen, meaning that they could never have gone back in time in the first place, meaning that they could not have caused the alternate timeline to occur. By re-writing time, they essentially delete all events relating to it. I, for one, believe that this would cause time to continue from the origination point as if they had never actually left their time in the first place, floating above earth in their green ship, assuming, of course, that the universe has a “graceful restart,” a la Apache (the webserver). Otherwise, i think the universe would just eat itself.

Granted, the show manages to explain it all away, in a rather winding method (hence the name Moebius I assume) but the underlying event of the burial of the video tape in the tomb should not have happened.

This sort of paradox pretty much guarantees that time-travel cannot possibly be possible.

Don’t mess with time. It makes my head hurt.

Tagged with: paradox • SG-1 • Stargate • TV Shows • unlikely

Random Art Moment: “ARTISTIC EXPRESSION, GRAFFITI STYLE”

On 07.30.10, In Uncategorized, By Alexander

Random art moment. I tend to dabble in Photoshop and Illustrator when i need to relax or unwind a bit from the constant plugging at code, and when I do, sometimes I come up with something that I actually find definable as art. I will be sharing the technique used to manufacture this effect in the future, I figured it out when I had to make a temporary place holder album cover for AmberSky 2. This piece is the first in a series, that will actually encompass canvas and various types of paints and other medium, all of which will eventually be for sale, in case you were wondering =).

ARTISTIC EXPRESSION, GRAFFITI STYLE, 1 EACH

Here’s the piece’s explanation:

ARTISTIC EXPRESSION, GRAFFITI STYLE, COUNT 1 EACH is based, mostly i think, on my Military history – I have a weird happy place when I think of the drab, bland, unfeeling and generic manner in which the military expresses what something is.

I thought to myself one day, what if art were approached in the same manner? Where the artist expresses himself in a way that doesn’t expose any immediate emotion, but at the same time, you feel as if the work itself has a purpose, much as the object in the box that the military has designated “MISSILE, GROUND TO AIR, STINGER TYPE, ONE EACH” contains within it something far more powerful and inherently useful than it’s utilitarian description would have one believe?

Perhaps I’m grasping at straws, perhaps not. Either way, I feel as if this actually means something, at least to me, despite all outward appearances.

Not actually painted on a wall, because I find computers far less illegal to tag.

You can buy prints of this at my deviant art page, should you so desire, here: deviros.deviantart.com, natch.

Cheers,

/A\V/

Tagged with: art • design • Photoshop • text manipulation

Back soon – Work has me busy

On 07.29.10, In General Posts, By Alexander

Just a quick note – I see a lot of people have come to this site, based on many theological and technical search queries through search providers, and I apologize for the delay in new posts.

I’ve got quite a few theological articles, Photoshop techniques, PHP nifties, Flash hacks, and CSS tricks to share, and once I’ve finished with AS2.0 (the site I’m currently building for work), I will be thrilled to share what I have learned during that process. All the new material I’ve been developing is outlined in one of my Moleskines (no IP, of course, don’t be ridiculous 8] ), as are the theological passages in another Moleskine.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some PHP to get back to…

Actually, I should probably go to sleep… =/

Tagged with: actionScript • AS3 • Flash • God • hiatus • Photoshop • PHP • web programming

iSSH – When you’re stuck and need access to your server

On 05.18.10, In Business, Product Reviews, Software, iPad/iPhone Apps, By Alexander

With all the apps that I have downloaded for the iPad and iPhone, there are very, very few that truly stand out in being able to do exactly what I need, with no fuss, no errors, and no trouble. iSSH(iTunes Link, Universal Application, $9.99) is one of those applications. With an extremely simple, yet intuitive interface, it allows you to access a server via SSH (or even VNC over SSH!) while on the go or when you need to restart a service or even the whole box and you aren’t near a computer or (heaven forbid) a dedicated internet connection and using a 3G connection.

The Login Screen to the iSSH application

iSSH, in all respects, is a very basic app. It’s not flashy, it’s not glamorous, and it’s certainly not about to blow you away with amazing graphics – but, then again, it wouldn’t do it’s job very well if it were overloaded with all of the new shiny-buttony things that developers seem to think will make their app amazing these days. Sporting the ability to store multiple connection profiles organized either singly or within folders, and allowing you to log into a server with one tap, it gets you to where you need to be rapidly and without hesitation – there is no noticeable lag when using the app (except for the delay when connecting to the server, of course). Each connection includes a convenient indicator light to let you know it’s online status, and has the option of storing the username and password combination in it’s configuration as well, which, in most cases would be incredibly insecure. iSSH, however, provides the ability to lock the entire application out with a four digit passcode, which might not seem like much, but if your iPad is protected by a passcode (with a 10-try lockout, no less) it would be rather difficult for any would-be ‘hacker’ to gain access to the server information in any respect.

(more…)

Tagged with: iPad • iPhone • iSSH • review • Terminal

Penultimate – Not quite, but close.

On 05.17.10, In Product Reviews, Productivity, Software, iPad/iPhone Apps, By Alexander

I’m going to try something new here – I’ve been using lots of applications, for the iPad, iPhone, and many other platforms for a while now, and I’m going to start sharing my thoughts on them with the world. These are my opinions, of course, and by no means do I expect people to just run with my word and make a decision with it, but it might be possible to at least help someone with making a decision. I’ll be adding a permanent page to the blog with the review guidelines soon, if any one is interested in that. =P

Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, on with this, the first review!

Ever since I got my hands on an iPad, I’ve been hunting for the perfect handwritten note taking application. There are many to choose from, and the screenshots in the appstore always seem to make them look just about perfect for the task at hand – but once you have your shiny new app installed, you often quickly realize that you downloaded something that is complete garbage and a waste of your time – or worse – your hard earned coin. The reviews in the store can be skewed, seeded, or even non-existent for newer apps, making that purchase an even harder decision.

This is not the case with Penultimate (iTunes Link). This application, while it has a long way to go until it reaches “penultimate” status (you gotta admit it’s a really good name), is definitely on it’s way to being quite a useful tool for quickly jotting down notes and sketching quick, low detail diagrams for various different purposes. There are a few limitations to the interface and utility of the application, unfortunately, but these are by no means a game-changer – it does exactly what it’s advertised to do, and I’ve found no better substitute for it yet.

(more…)

Tagged with: Apple • Apps • iPad • Penultimate • Productivity • review

Using MovieClip(parent) to access variables and other MCs in AS3

On 04.21.10, In Flash, By Alexander

If you are working with multiple layers of MovieClips, each with their own ActionScript (trust me, with dynamic projects, you can end up in a situation where MovieClips have minds actions of their own) you might come across a situation where you need to access a variable or another MovieClip from the MovieClip that owns it (as in it’s parent) or even two or more above. (If you need to skip all the nested MCs and access a variable on the now-depricated _root read this article)

This is actually quite easy with a method called parent, utilizing the hierarchy of your MovieClips to access variables from any number of levels away from your current execution realm.

To access a variable – let’s call it myVariable – from one level up in your tree, use this:

trace( MovieClip( parent ).myVariable );

Similarly, to access a variable two or more MovieClips up in the tree, nest the parent calls accordingly.

trace( MovieClip( parent.parent ).myVariable );

You can do this ad-infinitum to the root of the whole project if you so desire, but in this case, again, I’d recommend that you read the article mentioned above.

To access other MovieClips, the process is very much the same, except instead of a variable name, you would use a MovieClip’s Instance Name followed by the property you wanted to adjust, as such:

MovieClip( parent ).myMovieClip.visible = true;

-or-

MovieClip( parent.parent.parent ).myMovieClip.gotoAndStop( 1 );

etc.

Hope this helps someone,

Cheers,

~/A\V/

Tagged with: actionScript • AS3 • Flash • web programming

Working with variables from the (deprecated) _root timeline in AS3

On 04.18.10, In Flash, By Alexander

Bit of a longer hiatus from this blog than I had imagined – Orange has kinda been taking up a LOT of time lately (I have quite a few articles that are non-tech related that need to be edited and then I will post) – but here’s an ActionScript Quickie:

If you need to work with a variable from the Main Timeline (formerly _root in AS2) in another MovieClip in the same project, you can do this by using the “root as MovieClip” property. This allows you to load elements from what was _root into your current working MC. (If you only need to go one or two levels up, read this article)

Quick and dirty, in your new MC, you can test this functionality with the following:

trace((root as MovieClip).myVariable);

Replace “myVariable” with the variable you wish to access from the Main Timeline, of course.

Digging a little deeper, we can assign this variable to a more… suitably accessible medium by using the following (assuming that the variable type is String for this example, use the typecast that you need in a situation):

var myNewVariable:String = (root as MovieClip).myVariable;

Again, replace “myVariable” (and variations therein) with your own names.

Hope that this helps someone!

Cheers,

~/A\V/

Tagged with: actionScript • AS3 • Flash • web programming

And So Begins My Hiatus From Technology

On 02.16.10, In God and Christianity, My Life, By Alexander

I am surrounded by distractions. Every day, from morning to night, my life involves a computer, a “smart” device, or some other gizmo that is destined to make my life easier. At work, this is inevitable – I work with and on computers as a way to make a living – i cannot avoid that, at least not right now. However, in the morning, the first thing I do is check news and technology updates via various services on my iPhone. When I get home in the evenings, instead of doing something – anything – else, I almost immediately begin streaming movies or TV shows over Netflix “because it’s something to do,” and simply because it’s there. I have music playing or a TV show running whenever I am doing almost anything else – including writing the first part of this document. When even that is not enough, I have my iPhone on standby with an app store at my beck and call, waiting to deliver any one of a thousand games to entertain me, even for a little while, for just 99 cents.

My iPhone goes everywhere with me. It’s my connection to the world of the internet, the millions of people, places, news sources, cool new things, and every other little distraction in my life. XKCD, Wikipedia (that one’s a doozy), failblog, Facebook and twitter – which i update sporadically, admittedly, but they are massively distracting nonetheless – the ability to know what’s going on in friends’ lives in 140 character snippets is surprisingly attractive.

I lose touch. The distractions are a growing cancer on my soul – pulling my focus to the world and it’s interactions, and away from where it should be – on God. Now that’s not to say that I am against the world, and the things it has to offer – I believe that much is good, so long as it is taken in moderation, but the old adage stands true – “too much of a good thing…” Let’s just say that with the more toys we have, the more likely we are to worship them, and the knowledge, entertainment, distraction, or whatever other aspect that they bring to our lives instead of our Father.

That said, I’m going to try an experiment. Something that I have never done before, something that isn’t a new idea, at all, but new to me. I’m going to see how much I am missing due to these parasites stealing my attention from where it belongs. I am going to sever myself from my interface with the world, at least when I am not at work. Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, February the 17th, 2010 at 0900hrs, and ending Wednesday, February the 24th, 2010 at 0900hrs I will no longer be involving myself with communications devices and methods outside of my normal work hours – and will be using said devices only for work during those same hours.

I will be disabling email from reaching my phone – at all – for the next week, and will be using parental controls to block access to the web and the apps on my phone. My phone will be, for the first time in 2 years, just a phone (albeit with a very expensive dataplan). Twitteriffic will be disabled, and Facebook will be unavailable. If anyone needs to reach me after 6PM, it would be in your best interest to call me, as I will not be checking mails. My xBox will be dismantled, the harddrive stored in a separate location, so that i cannot get my instant fix of Netflix. I do have a computer set up at home with the basics – Cyberduck, Textwrangler, and Safari, so that, in the event an emergency does crop up I will be able to do something about it.

I will have my camera and my voice recorder, and I will still have a phone with which I could attempt to become a lot more social again. I won’t be getting “news” from people’s status updates, and if i want to know what’s going on with them, I’m going to have to make an effort.

So, here’s to a week of living distraction free, with the time to focus on the things that truly matter in life. I pray that it leads me in the right direction, and that I realize what all is going on around me, that I have allowed to pass me by for so long, and that I am properly putting myself into a position to become stronger in my walk with Christ.

And if anyone wants to grab a beer, hang out, or just talk, I’m definitely up for it =]

~/A\V/

Postscript: There will be one final twitter/FB post announcing this to everyone, so that they know that I’m not actively ignoring them, around 0830hrs tomorrow morning.

Tagged with: Christian Living • God • love • Relationships • the world

Alexander vanRossum

My mind. Exposed (scary, i know)

I have a bit of an addiction, and it’s called work.

Works, both in Progress and Complete

Random TV Show Observations Stargate SG-1, Season 8, “Moebius”

Random Art Moment: “ARTISTIC EXPRESSION, GRAFFITI STYLE”

Back soon – Work has me busy

iSSH – When you’re stuck and need access to your server

Penultimate – Not quite, but close.

Using MovieClip(parent) to access variables and other MCs in AS3

Working with variables from the (deprecated) _root timeline in AS3

And So Begins My Hiatus From Technology

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My mind. Exposed (scary, i know)

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