Today's Smalltalk Daily does a brief overview of WebVelocity 1.1. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. Click on the viewer below to watch it now:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
While I generally like having a car that's fully paid off, there are downsides to a 21 year old car: periodically, things break. I took my daughter out for a driving lesson on Sunday, and two exciting things happened: someone else driving out of the parking lot hit a light pole, so we had to run up and call 911. Just about simultaneously, the car started making a lot more noise. Driving yesterday, I noticed that there was also some kind of clunking sound coming from underneath, so I suspected that part of the exhaust system is loose.
So, this morning I drove the car down to the local gas station and walked home. I appreciated the cloudiness, because that made it possible for me to read a book on my iPad as I walked the 2 miles home. Now I just have to wait to find out what the damage comes to :/
Sometimes, the network neutrality advocates baffle me. Take today's post from David Weinberger, where he says (in part - follow the link for his entire post):
It’s time for Genachowski to stand firm and act at the FCC. He has a vision for the Internet as a place where small voices speak and where new ideas get a fair chance. He understands the Internet as a potentially transformative force in culture, business, education, and democracy.
I just don't see the supposed problem. Anyone can get a free or cheap site - blog or otherwise. People with some technical skills can get inexpensive hosting (like the one I use here) and run whatever kind of server they feel like. This one runs on Smalltalk, because that's what I like.
How about Video and Audio? Well, there are more solutions in that direction than I can count. YouTube,Vimeo,Mevio all come to mind immediately, as does Facebook. Photos? Flickr and a ton of other services.
Given all that, what the heck is the problem that requires some kind of forceful response from a government agency? A "small voice" can be heard much more easily now than at any time in history. The main impediement isn't scarcity; it's actually finding a niche where you can stand out from the huge crowd.
I just can't figure out what Weinberger wants the FCC to do, because I can't see the problem he's clearly agitated about.
As you will see, if you do the math, a 5 minute FaceTime call with lots of movement used 14.7 MB of data. -- That's about 3 MB per minute
Add in some streaming video on the go, and you'll blow through your 2 GB cap pretty fast. Gosh forbid you try that overseas, where the charges can really add up :)
One of the cool new things in VW 7.7.1 is the comparison tool. In a BottomFeeder development image, here's the result of comparing the most recent version of a package to an older one:
Here's one of the changes opened up, with the changed segement highlighted:
Now, if the various things on the screen for this tool don't seem clear, just hit the help button on the top at the right:
Motorola Droid users better not get too excited by Android 2.2, also known as “Froyo.” While Verizon Wireless is set to push out the latest version of the Android operating system to Droid users starting this week, two key features will be missing: tethering and Wi-Fi hot spot capability. Verizon says the Droid won’t get these two features, which are built into the Android 2.2 OS, because the device’s hardware isn’t capable of supporting it.
AT&T sed to spin similar stories about the iPhone; now they just throw bandwidth limits at us. Verizon will probably go through the same BS progression.
I'll be doing screencasts of the new 1.1 release of WebVelocity over the next couple of weeks - here's a screenshot of the new UI, showing the way code is laid out:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
I love the way Apple updates things. I have iMovie '09, and I was getting ready to put together a montage video from Camp Smalltalk London. I have a bunch of stuff that was processed by QuickTime and.... iMovie has no idea what it is. A quick check of Google shows me that lots of people have hit this - and one solution is to export into the .dv format.
What I want to know is, what kind of idiot at Apple decided that standard export formats from QuickTime ("Export For Web") aren't recognized by iMovie?
Sadly, I won't be going to ESUG this year - so the videos I normally shot at the conference won't be appearing, either here or over at my Cincom blog. I'll be following the action remotely via Twitter, Facebook, and whatever other links I turn up, of course. Hope everyone there has a good time, and I'll miss catching up with you.
If anyone has raw video after the conference they would like to have me host, let me know - I have a DropBox account, and that would be a simple way to get stuff to me.
Samsung announced new hard drives today that feature an aereal density that was questioned just four years ago and we are now approaching densities that are believed to be the limit for the current recording technology. Is it finally time to ditch traditional magnetic recording methods and transition to heat assisted recording?
From the consumer end, these don't look new - they are shipping 1.5 tb and 2.0 tb drives. But:
However, the 2.0 TB model now includes only 3 disks instead of four, which means that the storage capacity has been increased by 33% to 667 GB.
I wonder whether SSD drives will ramp up to the point where these physical limitations don't really matter, or whether there's still life in the classic spinning disk...
Maybe it was just ahead of its time. Or maybe there were just too many features to ever allow it to be defined properly, but Google is saying today that they are going to stop any further development of Google Wave.
That's death for a web service. The problem was always simple: Things like Skype worked just as well or better, and already existed. Wave was a solution in search of a problem.
Recently I was asked to make a demo application that makes a standard WebVelocity application using scaffolding with active record look and work on the iPhone. There are three tricks to making a web page look like a native iPhone app: 1) colours, 2) orientation detection, 3) animations. In this demo I show off #1 and #2 and leave #3 for any adventurous jQuery users out there.
Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.
End users already get the same choice with their ISP - I could be paying more money for a faster connection than I have, but the symmetric 20/20 seems good enough for me for now. Additionally, Verizon and Comcast are already doing this - if you don't think that an on demand movie being streamed to your tv is getting priority over YouTube (et. al.), then you haven't really thought things through. If anything, this kind of deal at least allows content providers to approach parity with the content being pushed by the two big players here in the US.
You wouldn't know that from the coverage though; here's the NY Times, nearly fainting over this:
Such an agreement could overthrow a once-sacred tenet of Internet policy known as net neutrality, in which no form of content is favored over another.
Wake me when any of this actually matters. For all the yelling and screaming, we crossed the rubicon on this one the instant that on demand services popped up at vendors like Comcast and Verizon.
"The only way to manage this is true transparency and no anonymity. In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it."
Right, because expressing a particular opinion is always safe in all places. There's just no chance that you'll be targeted if you happen to be the lone (insert political persuasion here) surrounded by a sea of (insert opposing persuasion here).
Nope, in the fantasy land that Schmidt lives in, everyone is perfectly safe having all of their thoughts hanging out for all to see all the time. No reason to ever create an anonymous blog, or comment anonymously on someone else's post.
Today's Smalltalk Daily is a simple "Hello World" demo using WebVelocity 1.1. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. Click on the viewer below to watch it now:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
RMoD is looking for an engineer to support the development of a demonstrator for Moose. The constraints linked with the position are that the person should have got his master in 2009 or 2010.
ExtremeTech has a few details - there have been some changes (hexes instead of squares on the map, for instance) - but it sounds generally iterative to me. The biggest change seems to be technical - the game will require Steam, according to ExtremeTech. No Mac version yet either, we'll have to see how that shakes out...
WebVelocity 1.1 is shipping now to our commercial customers; the non-commercial version will be available for download shortly. What's new? A whole lot of cloud support for your web apps:
Supports Firefox 3, Safari and Chrome for development. IE can be used for deployed apps.
Integrates with industry standard databases, such as MySQL, SQLlite, Oracle, SQLServer, and MS Access
Integrates with industry standard Javascript libraries, such as JQuery and Scriptaculous
Develop and deploy on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
Full support for Amazon's EC2 and RDS. We have an Amazon instance prepared to get you started fast
Vastly improved code editing
Collaborative editing features, making it easy for multiple developers to see and share the same code
I'm on a little road trip tomorrow - heading to my 30th high school reunion in East Fishkill, NY. Since my parents moved to Florida, there hasn't been a reason for me to head there in a long time - it should be interesting to see what's changed. I'm heading up with an old friend - we went to junior high and high school together, so it should be a fun road trip.
Today's Smalltalk Daily walks through a simple TimeTracker application in WebVelocity 1.1. There are three methods I needed to create to get the basic behavior I wanted; Click here to jump to the video:
ProjectViewUI
renderActionsOn: html
| record |
super renderActionsOn: html.
html button
class: #record;
callback: (record := Record new.
(self call: (RecordEditUI on: record))
ifTrue: [record bePersistent.
object records add: record.
object commitUnitOfWork]);
with: 'Add Record'
Project
printOn: stream
stream nextPutAll: self name
Record
printOn: stream
stream nextPutAll: self activity
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Cairos Technologies, a German outfit that's been trying to sell its goal line technology to football (as in soccer) bigwigs for a while, has told Reuters that it's in discussions with the NFL about bringing its magnetic field hocus pocus to the gridiron. The idea would be for the ref to be alerted, via a message to his watch, any time the ball does something notable like crossing the goal line or first down marker.
I'm on the road, blogging from my iPad. I decided to give the 3G a shot, and so far it's worked pretty well. I was able to look up traffic reports earlier, and it's all been cool. We got a late start though - we'll be arriving around 11. The reunion should be interesting.
The 30th reunion for John Jay High School (Hopewell Junction, NY) is in less than an hour - I've had a pretty full day already. I went out to play golf with Arden this morning - then we took a bike ride near his home, and swam in his pool (which is really nice). Then Mark and I drove around a bit - I took some photos of the old school and a few other things - I added alts and titles to the photos if you float the mouse over them:
This week's podcast was recorded at the recent Camp Smalltalk event in London - I spent a few minutes with Alejandro Reimondo and Frank Lesser, talking about their Lesser Smalltalk project. It's been on the Smalltalk world's radar for awhile, since they started building a VM that could run VSE images and Dolphin images; they are now concentrating on VSE.
I have a longer video presentation from the event that I'll release in a week or two; the audio for this podcast is a bit rough, since there was a fair bit of background noise.
To listen now, you can either download the mp3 edition, or the AAC edition. The AAC edition comes with chapter markers. You can subscribe to either edition of the podcast directly in iTunes; just search for Smalltalk and look in the Podcast results. You can subscribe to the mp3 edition directly using this feed, or the AAC edition using this feed using any podcatching software. You can also download the podcast in ogg format.
To listen immediately, use the player below:
If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Effortless for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!
If you have feedback, send it to smalltalkpodcasts@cincom.com - or visit us on Facebook or Ning - you can vote for the Podcast Alley, and subscribe on iTunes. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!
With the drop in price of e-readers down to $139 (and I'm guessing we'll see $99 by Christmas), the era of the big box book store is ending. The high end will be owned by the iPad and whatever Android based devices come out - the low and mid tier will be owned by the Kindle and it's competitors. The losers will be printed books, which will end up being a niche product. Just witness what's happening to B&N:
Perhaps the most symbolic event this week was Barnes & Noble “exploring strategic alternatives,” including putting itself on the block. When America’s most iconic bookstore is struggling to make it, this is not a good sign. As I say in my analysis, over the next few years we’ll see the “hammer of low-priced e-books steadily nail coffins shut across the book-retailing landscape.”
A decade ago, my entire family looked forward to a trip to Borders or B&N. We'd easily drop a ton of money on books, and spend a happy hour or two browsing the aisles. We just don't do that anymore. Why? Well, the Amazon store is the primary reason.
Even before my wife and i got iPads, we were browsing the virtual bookstore more often. The selection is better, and between recommendations (based on past purchases), and "people who bought X also bought Y", we've both found things we would never have found in a physical store. Now add in the instant gratification offered by an e-book, and you've got full disruption. Finished book one of a trilogy at 11 PM, and can't wait for book 2? With an e-reader, it's a few seconds (and dollars) away. With a physical store (or even an Amazon shipment), it's at least a day. Doesn't sound like much, but eliminating the wait makes purchasing a whole lot easier.
It's beyond books though. Every so often I need a new A/V cable of some kind, or a new USB drive, or a replacement router. Once upon a time, that meant a trip to best Buy. Now? I hit Amazon, and either take the two day shipment that I have via Prime, or pay a little extra to have it tomorrow. Saves me a trip, and I usually don't need the item this very second. Outside of things like clothing, where you want to try it on, I think a lot of the big box retail is going to start running into a huge buzzsaw. Even groceries, which I thought were secure from virtualization aren't - we now order from Peapod as often as we go to the store, and that percentage is rising. It wouldn't surprise me much if the trend towards mega grocery stores reversed, with mega warehouses replacing them, along with smaller shops for trips you need to make.
Today's Smalltalk Daily is a one table WebVelocity demonstration application, working from an existing table. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. Click on the viewer below to watch it now:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
There's a new thing called Frash out there, which can apparently give you a small subset of Flash on your iPhone, assuming you Jailbreak it. This snippet at the end of the article tells me that Flash still isn't really ready for mobile devices:
Adobe, for its part, has been stating its intention to ship a mobile version of Flash for Google's Android smartphone platform for several months, but a final version of the software is still not available to users.
I think the reality is that Adobe got caught flat footed by the explosion of smart phones - the same way Lotus managed to get steamrolled by Windows when they were slow to migrate 1-2-3 from being a DOS based app to being a Windows based app. The huge installed based of Office (and thus Excel) is a legacy of that long passed miscalculation; I suspect that we'll be living with the side effects of Adobe's mistakes for just as long.
Here's a video from Camp Smalltalk London, 2010 - it's a montage of various things that happened during the event, some with audio from the original video, some with a musical background. To watch, click on the embedded video below - You can also just click on this link to go to YouTube directly.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Videos"?
I love the press release Google shipped out touting their *cough* net neutrality plan *cough* with Verizon. Here, let me translate the long missive down to what they actually said:
"We didn't manage to keep control of wired internet, so we like the idea of having the FCC strangle that as much as possible with new regulations. Meanwhile, trust us with this whole wireless thing, we promise you'll love what we intend to do to you"
Sure guys. Can you toss in some free swampland with that, too?
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at how searching for code (senders/receivers, etc) works in WebVelocity 1.1. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. Click on the viewer below to watch it now:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Microsoft has launched a new Windows 7 campaign to take on Mac OS X. A new tab on the Windows 7 sites compares Windows 7 to Mac OS X in a number of areas--listing out the reasons that Windows 7 is the superior choice.
Sure, Apple took a small percentage (all at the high end) of the PC/laptop market away. But, they've moved on: you'll notice that Apple wound down the "switcher" ads a long while ago now. Why? Because they are focused on the mobile space - phones and iPads. In that area, Microsoft is basically invisible - and that leaves the one/two spot to Google and Apple, with Google playing the license model that Microsoft played with PCs years ago.
The third spot will end up with either RIM (Blackberry) or HP (Palm) - with Microsoft way, way back on the sidelines. Watching the MS marketing machine is just confusing at this point.
The Smalltalk group at Cincom has always been focused exclusively on Smalltalk - we're now joined in that focus by Instantiations. eWeek thinks that Google's purchase of the Java business from Instantiations is good for Java and for Smalltalk - they quote Mike Taylor:
“We’re extremely excited about both halves of this new development for the company,” Taylor said. “We’re excited for our Java business to go to Google an excellent home it. And the Smalltalk group is excited about being in a new mode where we can focus on Smalltalk.”
The Smalltalk business just got a whole lot more interesting :)
Will Android get to tablets before HP does? If so, they have to move fast. Engadget reports:
We've been trying to find out when HP would launch a webOS tablet since the company first bought Palm, and we're now hearing from several trusted sources that it'll be calendar Q1 2011.
Apple has an even bigger headstart in this space than they did in phones; in the phone arena, they broke out, but other systems (Blackberry in particular) were already there. If HP can get the second mover position, I think it puts them in a great place.
The frustrating part is not using many images (which is pretty cool to have multiple computers running at once… but I digress), but setting up the images every time. So I decided I’d find a way to load common configurations automatically. But how would I communicate to the image that it should run certain code on startup? A quick google found writing scripts.
This is one of the nice things we did to Cincom Smalltalk over the last few releases; made this kind of scripting a whole lot easier. In fact, if you check this Smalltalk Daily archive page, you'll find some nice examples. For a more general overview, I covered all of the command line arguments - for both images and the VM - here.