Finger Yoga
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 1.09.07The practicing and performance of arcane Macintosh keyboard commands while booting, often in an attempt to solve some grievous system error. The procedure can involve any combination of three to sixteen keys, and requires extraordinary dexterity, nimbleness, and a complete lack of bones.
Well, I’ve gotten a second Macbook. One of them has to go (to be sold on eBay, perhaps?), but for now I’m enjoying the hilarity of twin macbooks. They’re so cute sitting next to each other on the desk! Sadly, this also means I’ve quickly become acquainted with the various idiosyncrasies of the Macbook line.
Don’t get me wrong, I love macs. They make me happy. But they’re still computers… and as such, are susceptible to possession by evil spirits. In the past two weeks I’ve diagnosed (and somehow fixed) random restarts and shutdowns, sleeping and waking crashes, flickering video displays, backlight blackouts, and dead mouse buttons. Actually, it’s not as hard as it sounds; all you’ve got to do is run Apple’s Software Update from the preference panel. The latest OS and firmware versions should set everything straight. If not, well… finger yoga time.
Resetting the system management controller — Shut down the computer and remove both battery and power cable. Press and hold power button for 5 seconds. Re-insert battery and power cable to start working again with a fresh set of system settings. Since the SMC controls power, shutdown, and startup, this can help solve erroneous activity.
Resetting the PRAM — Holding Command-Option-P-R while booting (press and hold just as soon as the mac boot sound plays) will reset PRAM and NVRAM. There will be some audio beeps, then the computer will restart (let go of the keys, though, you don’t want to cause a reboot loop… that’s just silly). While I haven’t needed to try this yet, it should have a similar effect to resetting the SMC; by resetting system defaults, you can clear out damaged settings and corrupted preferences.
Somehow, everything is fixed and running nicely. As of now, I have two very happy little macbooks… awh, they’re so cute… yesh they arrrr…
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My life
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 2.08.07I just realized I haven’t posted in a while regarding my work or even general life stuff. Things have been pretty upside down since mid-July when my visual effects job at the museum ended. Funding has been all but lost, and they just can’t keep everyone on. Hopefully I can stay in touch, as the studio team was a great group of artists and I’ll really miss all my friends there. It’s unfortunate, but it happens, and I am excited to see what comes next.
Speaking of which, I’m currently working freelance doing motion graphics and web/print design. It’s been a long time since I’ve done freelance, as I really prefer working inhouse with a team of artists, but it seems to be going ok. There’s an upcoming interview in the next week or two for a full time position, so I’m looking forward to that.
Oh, and I saw Transformers last night. I liked it a lot more than some, a little less than others. The actors were good, the script was ok, the photography was, at times, pretty cool, but it was the visual effects that were really amazing. Incidentally, CG World featured the film in the latest issue, which arrived yesterday afternoon shortly before I left for the theater. Very cool. 
Yeah, the movie wasn’t disappointing since I had no expectations. YOu should see Bourne Ultimatum. THe whole movie has a fine-art Euro style to the filmmaking.
I feel your pain. We roll out of KY on Sunday. Keep in touch!
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I'm no programmer
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 8.07.07And for the most part, this fact is simple and obvious. But some days I like to pretend… or rather, some days I get sucked into an obsessive black hole (instead of turning off the alarm clock yesterday, I hallucinated about the javascript routines needed to find the alarm clock element and remove the audio class). Well, after a string of days like this, I guess I have something to show for it. Here’s the unveiling!
Earlier this week SeventhLeaf was posted online. I have the opportunity, from time to time, to freelance webdesign, and this may become a good resource to send prospective clients to. While there’s hardly anything up there yet, more content should be added as time goes by. I also hope SeventhLeaf can give friends a chance to freelance; if I can’t take a job myself, someone else probably can.
The MooTools javascript library has been running effects on Iaian7.com for quite some time, but recently I’ve been working on some extra-cool stuff. You may notice that the sections navigation to the right now includes feed links, elegantly revealed only when needed. The expanding bookmark link below each article, though added a month ago, has been updated to the same code (while I liked the slide effect, fading on rollover seems far more inviting, and doesn’t shift the page layout, what do you think?). Image thumbnails also fade slightly into the background till you mouse over them, as do media links.
Which leads us to what may be the biggest update yet… Mediabox. Definitely the most extensive coding project I’ve attempted, it’s derived from three other lightbox-style scripts (Slimbox, Slimbox Ex and Videobox), and is finding integration with Textpattern through one of my latest TXP plugins. I leave you with an example; the full length demo reel that was previewed last month!
Wow! I’m glad I can say ‘Hey, John is my friend and he creates the coolest stuff! Nice work.
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Fashion and Driving
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 28.06.07While my entire family is involved in the county fair (from show chickens to award winning craft projects, I might add), there are some things slightly less “rural” than others. Back in highschool, I was the only guy to dare set foot on the stage and compete in the fashion review. Shocking, isn’t it? Yeah, I know, no one would expect that of me.
My sister, while perhaps not as risqué as my attempt, has been doing rather well on the runway herself. This year she modeled a historical recreation (1800’s french settler) and a couple more formal pieces, including a fitted woolen coat. Afterwards we celebrated my aunt’s 50th birthday while my youngest brother (more the pyromaniac than I ever was as a kid) shot of plenty of fireworks.
The vacation has been great, but work goes on (for now) and I’ve had to journey back to “the south”. While I certainly cannot recommend it, taking photos while driving can sometimes produce rather abstract photos. Especially when it’s raining.
Love the abstract photos. I’ll have to try that. lol.
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Fireflies and Home
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 25.06.07While my project is waiting on a few effects elements from another artist, I’m taking the opportunity to visit my parents. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a break, (not counting my being sick a couple weeks ago) and it’s been especially nice to kick off and drive up to north central Indiana. I get an amazing “this is home” feeling about the time I turn off the interstate and hit SR3; rolling hills and endless fields, all spattered with woods and copses and towns. It’s awesome.
North central Indiana also has some of the best fireflies you can find. I’m not sure if it’s the large quantities of fields, the midlands locale, or that it’s totally “the boondocks”. Since I can’t find my tripod I’ve ended up borrowing my dad’s, and spent from 10:30 till well past midnight photographing the fireflies. And stars. And some long exposure madness with the moon. It’s crazy how bright it gets with a near-full moon and a 30 second exposure.
Those pictures are great! I can’t decide which one is my favorite.
That long-exposure shot is AMAZING! Wow!!
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2007 Reel
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 24.06.07After a few positive reviews (including inquires made at work) I simply extended the 2007 preview into a slightly-longer 2007 demo reel. Some better thought out audio mixing and a few additional shots, but it’s still in desperate need of the completed Adam project footage (made especially obvious at the end). There should be another, even more official update in the next few weeks.
Speaking of which, if you happen to know of any companies looking for a visual effects generalist, let me know! I have about three more weeks left at my current job, and am looking for what comes next. Someplace more northern than my current location would be ideal, I’m tired of the heat down here.
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Safari 3
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 13.06.07As betas go, it’s not as bad as it could have been… I guess. So far I’ve seen random symbols added while editing text, a couple crashes, and a few less-than desirable interface changes. Safari 3 is a lot like Safari 2… just with more FireFox mixed in.
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Another haircut
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 1.04.07I’ve cut my own hair for years (usually 3am in the morning when I’m really bored), and figured it was about time to do it again last week. The sides of my head were starting to form weird shapes entirely unto themselves, and I dislike resembling fluffy clown wigs. Alas, starting earlier in the evening was not advantageous and I ended up with a worse-than-usual chop. Generally it’s hard to tell, my hair being so curly, but it was pretty bad.
Bad enough I had to even things up this weekend… I thought the 1” attachment on my hair trimmer would work well for the back (which seemed the most uneven). Well, it did, and since my tragically thinning hair was already about 1” in the front, I decided to cut everything to match.
Then I had to shorten the back a little with the 3/4” attachment so it wouldn’t look so long…
Eeih, I’ll just skip to the finale; the evening ended with a 1/2” attachment,
and I’m down to very little hair.
Cutting hair is akin to carpentry:
“You can always take some more off, but you can’t put any back on.”
It looked fine to me. Of course, I could only see you from across the lake. Its not likely anyone would’ve noticed, but now I MUST SEE...
I think your haircut looks nice. You are so talented, Papa John. 
I think it looks fine, too.
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DST
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 13.03.07Wherein I divulge server woes and my loathing for daylight saving time.
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Hail?
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 25.02.07
This is not something I see often in my weather widget. I brought up the panel tonight as I was winding things down at work and just had to laugh. There’s something funny about little circles bouncing around.
By the time I’d made it outside, it was just raining. The ground, however, was littered with slushy snowballs like gallons of shallots dumped half an inch thick. Since I haven’t had the soundness of mind to pack up my clogs for a less inclement season, I couldn’t cavort too much. Granted, I was also umbrellaless, which tends to prevent frolicking in freezing rain.
mediaboxAdvanced
I recently came across instructions for using Open Firmware (the macintosh bios, so to speak). Press and hold Command-Option-O-F while booting to bring up the Open Firmware command line, then type in the following commands (pressing return after each one):
reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all
The last command will reboot the computer, hopefully fixing any troubles you might be having with system settings. Visit kernelthread.com and apple.com for more information on Open Firmware, or reference this handy compendium of other keyboard shortcuts.