July 9, 2008
Blogging Software & Firewalls
Since I started at my new place in December, getting to my home server has been a challenge. We have a Cisco 871 firewall here. I soon noticed that all traffic to and from my server would be blocked at times. At first, I suspected I was being flagged with the dreaded Comcast blocking. However, I was soon able to suss out that my site wasn't being blocked outside our firewall. The Cisco became the culprit, and it was further revealed to be the problem when some Google servers were also being blocked.March 19, 2008
First Steps in ActionScript3
I'm starting to mess around in Flash. I finally bit the bullet and purchased a copy of Flash CS3 Pro (after trying endlessly to mess around with Open Source alternatives).
I'd love to get some simple prototypes going, and my previous experiences with Flash led me to believe it was possible. However, ActionScript2 had this wonky problem with scope that required use of a klugy function called Delegate. I don't remember the specifics now, but it involved registering events within a class definition.
After reading the docs and O'Reilly books I recently purchased, I was afraid they hadn't quite remedied the situation. Last night, I was able to put most of it together, and I got a class going that handled its own events, including mouse. Seems that I was missing adding the item to the master display list. What confused me was that if I had the root AS class do something, it just showed up, but all other creations weren't doing squat. I'm guessing that the first class declaration is automatically added to the display list, but all subsequent ones need to be explicitly added. I haven't found this in the documentation anywhere yet.
I hope to be able to progress a bit further now. Looking forward to having more time this Easter weekend.
February 5, 2008
Finding the Path
Why the heck is it that we're perfectly happy to send the CPU off to do most other mundane tasks like modifying every single pixel, culling every errant vertex, and monitoring every directory for new music, but when I'm coding, I spend WAY too much time with other people's code trying to work out the proper paths for everything?
It's 2008. My computer and compiler should be perfectly happy searching some nearby directories for files. Sure, it might find the wrong one, but it's better than not finding one, no? Seriously. WTF.
January 4, 2008
Feedback & Productivity
So, for the longest time, I've worried that my upbringing was hampering my progress. I never achieve near as much as I think I should be able to. I've attributed that to two major things:
1) Being told constantly that I was ahead of everyone else (and actually having it be true many times)...which taught me how to coast rather than work
2) Being raised by supportive parents who encouraged me, and being in a schooling system that did the same thing.
October 11, 2007
Server Upgrade
I've done a few of them so far. Redking is now running on a shiny new mobo/proc combo, has 2 GB of ram, and much more drive space for the home & web directories. Also, I got a DVI video card so I can use my KVM to look at the server. Before this, I only had text access.
For all my bitching on this blog, things are definitely getting easier. This move was pretty much a drop in, even though I screwed up on the hardware order. I didn't notice that the new mobo had only 1 IDE controller, and redking had 3 IDE drives (not counting the DVD drive). So, I had to get a SATA drive and move some things over. I'll eventually have to move one more drive over to SATA so I can use the DVD drive for upgrades, but that's done later.
Even having to move the drives and install a new OS on the SATA drive, it was pretty easy. I've got my process streamlined with backups of essential files. I just drop what I need in the right places and away I go.
I've still got some more security twiddling to do. I've discovered some other security software I'm playing with, and I'm going to move a few more things over.
All in all, my backups performed well, moving the drives was easy, and I'm very happy with the switch.
