Squeak News has an excellent ESUG 2010 roundup. It has a link to the first video from the conference - you can check back at the archive pages for all the video that's available, and subscribe to Smalltalk Videos to get notified when a new one goes live.
James Foster pointed out some interesting work on Namespaces for Pharo:
Germán Leiva was accepted in Google Summer of Code 2010 and developed a Namespaces implementation for Pharo Smalltalk. This video is based on his presentation at ESUG in Barcelona, Spain in September 2010. You can get the code here.
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at creating an ObjectStudio UI for an existing domain model - the one we created in this screencast. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
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"?
Speaking to investors at a Goldman Sachs conference, Seidenberg said nothing about an iPhone for the company's current network, but said he hopes Apple Inc. will come around and allow Verizon to sell the phone for a new network it is building. The "4G" network hasn't yet opened for service and won't be complete next year.
Even once LTE is ready, there's still the whole issue of Verizon's VCast store and their relentless desire to put Verizon branding on all devices - things I simply can't see Apple being ok with...
I want to thank the ESUG 2010 folks for sending me a shirt:
I shrunk the picture down in size, so it may not be obvious, but that's one of the ESUG videos (Andreas Tonne's) playing in the browser behind the shirt. Thanks guys!
You can register (free) for the Smalltalks 2010 conference, to be held November 11-13 in Argentina:
The Fundación Argentina de Smalltalk (FAST) invites you to the 4th Smalltalk Conference of Argentina, to be held on November 11, 12 and 13, 2010 at the Concepción del Uruguay site of the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Everyone, including teachers, students, researchers, developers and entrepreneurs, are welcome as speakers or attendees. Registration is free and now open at http://www.fast.org.ar.
I post a lot of Smalltalk related links, so I thought that a monthly "link dump" page might be useful. I'm not including "Smalltalk Daily" posts; since I do one of those each day, including them would bury the rest of the links, I think. Anyway - you can get to the September dump here, and I'll be updating it when the month ends.
I was going to put that together by hand, but I decided that sounded like work - so I wrote a couple of methods, patched the server, and then ran this on the server:
Then I just renamed the output file and dropped it where it would get picked up. Pretty simple stuff, and the code I'm using above lets me run arbitrary category reports if I so choose.
There's an interesting looking new HTTP framework brewing for Smalltalk - Zinc:
Zinc HTTP Components is an open-source Smalltalk framework to deal with the HTTP networking protocol. This is a new project (started September 1st 2010) that is currently under heavy development. Our long term goals are very ambitious: we want to reach the level of functionality, scope, architectural clarity and maturity of the Apache HTTP Components library. Our short term goal is to offer working HTTP client functionality to support fundamental features in a Smalltalk image. For the time being, Pharo is our reference platform.
There are lots of details at the link, including info on how to get involved.
It's not just the "purists" that Selig denigrates who oppose another expansion of the playoffs; it's those of us who don't look forward to a November World Series in horrible weather. If Selig wants to expand the playoffs, he should also do the following:
Revert to the 154 game schedule
Return to a reasonable number of double headers in that schedule
Have every round of the playoffs except the World Series be best of 5
Otherwise, we'll be looking at baseball under ridiculous weather conditions.
I've been playing the game for a few days now, and I do like it. It's got a different feel from games like Fallout 3
, Mass Effect 2, and Dragon Age - and that difference is due to two things:
No conversation tree. When you encounter someone, the way you react to them is scripted. You have the encounter or not, and then do combat (or not) as you see fit - but the conversation is out of your hands
Your character is set. You are who you are - a former outlaw turned straight who's been caught up in problems he doesn't want. In the other games, your starting point can be adjusted some (ME2, Fallout), or a lot (Dragon Age).
Having said that, I've found that I like the game. The world is open; you can ignore the plot for eons if you want to, and just explore the world building up your fame and honor (positive or negative). That's an aspect I like a lot - on my second playthrough of Fallout, I didn't even begin the plot until I had maxed out my level to 30.
Which brings up another difference - there doesn't seem to be leveling. Instead, new equipment options open up, and depending on how you've behaved, it will be more or less expensive. The game isn't for the faint of heart; the language and combat can get explicit. I intend to keep playing the game, and have a look at the DLC. Supposedly, the multi-player stuff is pretty good too; I'll see once I run through the game.
It's not so much about "greedy" wireless companies as it is about the rising tide of NIMBY-ism, combined with the wild theory that mobile signals are bad for you. If that's the case, then we had best ban radio as well, and erect a barrier in the atmosphere against radiation from space:
The ordinance passed unanimously this week by the Hempstead town board prohibits wireless companies from installing equipment closer than 1,500 feet to homes, day care centers, schools and houses of worship, unless they submit compelling evidence that there is an absolute need. Hempstead, home to America's first suburban community — Levittown — is a densely populated township just east of New York City.
What you won't see reported much is the same people who pushed for this wondering "why is my signal weak" later on.
This week's podcast is a followup with John McIntosh, longtime Smalltalker and driving force behind the Squeak port to IOS. We spoke to John (along with John Maloney) awhile back about the fate of Scratch for the iPad with Apple's policies regarding language usage and code downloading; with the recent policy changes, we thought it would be interesting to see what's changed for Smalltalk on IOS. If you haven't listened to that earlier podcast, - you can get that here (part 1), and here (part 2).
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!
The September UK STUG meeting will be this Monday, September 27th. We'll meet at our usual venue - the Counting House, close to Bank station - from 18:30 onwards.
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at customizing the hotkeys for the debugger. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
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"?
Tim Bray makes some excellent points about book sharing and electronic readers:
Those in the business of books are unlikely to be losing sleep because I’m whining about sharing, but they’d better be careful. We saw what happened in the music space, and I think authors are way more vulnerable than musicians. First off, no matter how much piracy is going on, a musician can always fall back on live performance. Second, your average novel, compared to music or video, is remarkably small; trivially easy to share once the digital locks are broken, as broken they will be.
The thing about authors and musicans is key - authors really don't have anything else to fall back on. Too much greed on the part of publishers could create real problems. Right now there's limited sharing; with the Kindle app, you can share across 5 devices - so I can share one account with my wife.
However, I can't feasibly pass a book to my mom or sister (I've done this with physical books). The issues of space (they live in other states) and credit card sharing get in the way. THis is going to end up being a problem, and if the publishers don't create a reasonable response, the response that arises will be one they won't like.
One of the cooler packages in the public store repository is Cloudfork - to get it, just load "Cloudfork-all" into VisualWorks or ObjectStudio. from there, and then you can access whatever cloud services you use on Amazon. You'll need key info (you get that from Amazon), and you'll need something actually stored there. From there:
On the surface, this sounds like a reasonable thing:
What I needed in searching for these flash drives was not the words: “256MB USB flash drive.” Those words failed me. What I needed was a Dewey Decimal code for a 256MB USB flash drive, or even a Dewey Decimal number for the concept: “Flash drive that is small in storage capability and that is very inexpensive.” Vendors selling such flash drives could easily add that numerical code to their product metadata, quickly connecting them with people looking to buy those products.
There are a few problems with this idea. First, imagine the spam possibilities - meta-keywords died trying to solve exactly this problem years ago. Second, how would I, as an end user, find the numeric code I want to punch in? Does the author foresee some huge index site somewhere with codes? If so, then I have to.... search it. Using keywords. Congratulations - you've taken the same problem and added a degree of separation to it :)
Now Listening to: Hey Lady by Thriving Ivory from: Thriving Ivory
I'm not sure how or why this should be something that can get a patent:
Bank of America was just awarded a patent for a process that lets it make sure any teller at any branch will know not to give you a refund on a disputed overdraft fee.
What would you call a working model? A person standing behind a teller window saying "no"?
Now Listening to: Twilight by Thriving Ivory from: Thriving Ivory
I finally feel like I've got the hang of the combat system in the game - the "dead eye" thing is pretty useful - although it is easy to take way more shots than you want to. The biggest problem I've had has been shooting bystanders in running gin battles (on horseback). That leads to bounties, which leads to everyone and his brother hunting you down until you can clear the bounty - and as you shoot the people chasing you, it gets worse. I've restored to save points over that :)
I do like the game though. The world is expansive, and it's pretty easy to find interesting things to do instead of the main plot. Not that the plot is bad - the combats/actions during the plot drivers have been pretty good. I'll have to finish the plot out, load some of the DLC, and try multi-player out.
Now Listening to: Twisted by Katie Melua from: The House
We will organize a joint Pharo sprint / Moose dojo during October 23-24, in Bern (at the Software Composition Group, University of Bern). Some action points are mentioned on the dedicated page (of course, other ideas and interests are welcome as well)
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at using a simple, RESTful web api from a Smalltalk client. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
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"?
Travis talks about how he's doing widgets in VisualWorks these days, focusing on the keyboard aspect:
As I've wandered far and wide through other widget frameworks, I've learned that a) "MVC" is very popular and b) for every different framework there is a new and unique interpretation of "controller." One of the "different" ways I've been building widgets is without controllers. There are two aspects to deal with in this "controllerless" new world. One is how we deal with mouse interaction, the other keyboard interaction.
The New York Yankees clinched their 15th postseason berth in the last 16 years and CC Sabathia got his 21st win of the season, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 on Tuesday night.
As I like to say about this subject, it's the way things are supposed to be :) It's a nice bonus that the Red Sox are out :)
I hadn't realized that Germany was still paying off the Versailles conference reparations, but this Sunday, the final payment goes in:
"On Sunday the last bill is due and the First World War finally, financially at least, terminates for Germany," said Bild, the country's biggest selling newspaper. Most of the money goes to private individuals, pension funds and corporations holding debenture bonds as agreed under the Treaty of Versailles, where Germany was made to sign the 'war guilt' clause, accepting blame for the war.
I've read a lot of books about WWI - the run up to it, the war itself, and the post war conference - but I had no idea that the reparations payments had extended into the 21st century. Wow.
The site soek.goodies.st gives access to the sources of open-source Smalltalk libraries and frameworks. A big advantage to developers is that they can explore Smalltalk classes without having to successfully load them into one of the Smalltalk dialect platforms. Recently, I have changed much of the Smalltalk generator and HTML/Javascript generated code.
This is a cool app, because it makes it so much easier to explore Smalltalk code if you're not yet committed to loading a particular library - like many newcomers who aren't sure what they can or should do next. It's also a nice look at how using cloud resources facilitates this kind of thing:
Because the Soek project is implemented in VisualWorks, the first projects were exports of loaded bundles and packages from the Public Store. With the help of the Monticello VW package, it is now possible to add projects from any Monticello repository out there. The process of adding a new library is almost completely automated and uses Cloudfork for storing metadata in Amazon SimpleDB and uploading the site contributions to Amazon S3.
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at implementing a client interface to Google services. That required implementing the client login scheme google uses (for desktop clients). Today's screencast covers that client auth scheme. The code I'm demonstrating is in the public store repository under the name GoogleClientAuth - the usage in the screencast is below. To skip to the video, click here..
"get the request token - cl is the calendar service"
gAuth := AuthRequest
requestTokenFor: 'cl'
user: username
password: password
clientName: 'Cincom-VisualWorks-771'.
"now we can start making requests - this makes a
simple request to the 'own' feed for google calendar"
serviceResponse := ServiceRequest
makeRequestWith: gAuth
requestPrepObject: ExampleRequestPrep new.
feed := serviceResponse contents
If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
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"?
As the story goes, it seems as if the company is pulling back on upload and download speeds (from 10Mbps to around 0.25Mbps) for users who have consumed between 7GB and 10GB in a month, which is comically low even compared to Comcast's hated 250GB / month usage cap
The thing is, that's a trivial amount of bandwidth. Download a few movies from Netflix, iTunes, or shows from Hulu, and you could be done. In other words, use your connection as a normal person might, and you're done. There's a complete disconnect between how ISPs think you ought to use your connection, and how people are actually using them.
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at using the client authentication to Google we built yesterday. Today's screencast builds a small example of interfacing to Google to get your calendar settings. The code I'm demonstrating is in the public store repository under the name GCal-Example - the usage in the screencast is below. To skip to the video, click here..
"get the request token - cl is the calendar service"
gAuth := AuthRequest
requestTokenFor: 'cl'
user: username
password: password
clientName: 'Cincom-VisualWorks-771'.
"get settings the hard way"
settingsRequest := SettingsRequest new user: username.
settingsResponse := ServiceRequest
makeRequestWith: gAuth
requestPrepObject: settingsRequest.
CalendarSettings from: ((JsonReader
readFrom: settingsResponse contents readStream)
at: 'data').
"make it simpler"
SettingsRequester getSettingsFor: username using: gAuth
If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
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"?
Bert Freudenberg announced on the squeak-dev mailing list that Etoys 4.1 is now available. Etoys is a media-rich authoring environment and visual programming system with a simple, powerful scripted object model, ideal for teaching children powerful ideas in compelling ways. Based on Squeak, Etoys is available for free, with an open-source licence. You can run it on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
Well that sure didn't take long. iOS 4.2 Beta 2 is barely a day old and folks are already finding some interesting nuggets. As you can tell from the screenshot below, the new beta includes an option for Internet tethering, a feature that will allow iPad 3G owners to share their Internet connection with any ole' laptops they have lying around.
That could be useful for lots of reasons. When I was on vacation last summer, I broadcast a wifi signal from my laptop for both my iPad and my wife's iPad to use - but what if we had been in a wifi only hotel, where you pay for each device that gets on? Have a 3g iPad get on, and share a wifi signal. You would have to be careful about the b/w usage, given the charge models, but it would work.
Here's a video from ESUG 2010, which was held in Barcelona, Spain, the week of September 13, 2010. In this presentation, Bert Freudenberg talks about the progress Squeak has made since ESUG 2009. You can watch using the embedded player below, or follow the download links at the bottom of the post.
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"? If you would rather subscribe specifically to the ESUG videos, then use this Vimeo feed - which will work in iTunes.
Microsoft is ready to get back into the mobile game, and it looks like they'll get there before HP does anything new with Palm:
Microsoft Corp. will unveil a lineup of smartphones using the revamped version of its mobile operating system on Oct. 11, and AT&T Inc. plans to begin selling them in early November, according to people familiar with the launch plans.
Some of the reviews have been positive, so maybe MS isn't completely out of this game after all.
"How can you justify renting your first-run TV shows individually for 99 cents an episode and thereby jeopardize the sale of the same shows as a series to branded networks that pay hundreds of millions of dollars and make those shows available to loyal viewers for free?" Bewkes recently asked, joining the now growing chorus of executives to decry the new scheme. Jeff Zucker recently said he thought Apple's 99-cent rentals "devalue" the content, while Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said the rental model was "not good."
You have to consider how people use media though. Consider music, where 99 cents is now the agreed upon standard for purchasing. How many times will I listen to a song I like? Who knows, but it's a lot. People will go back to the same song over and over again over time.
TV shows aren't like that. With rare exceptions, individual episodes are a "one and done" thing. Which means this: to the end consumer of media, the typical tv episode has a lower value than most songs. Since songs have arrived at an agreed upon value of 99 cents, that's providing a ceiling on the value of tv shows.
Now, you can argue about production costs and such, but that doesn't really matter to the end buyer. It matters a lot to the producers, of course - which argues for fewer people in the value extraction chain, I think. Over time, I expect online sales to start whittling away the plethora of middle men who add cost - but no real value - to the creation of tv (and movies). I wouldn't be surprised to see tv shows go the way of video games: you buy a few episodes, and then subscribe to a "feed" for DLC. The entire model for show distribution and production would have to change for that to happen, and I think that's what the execs quoted above fear most. In that world, they have no place at the feeding trough.
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at using the client authentication to Google we built to retrieve an Atom feed of calendar events. The code I'm demonstrating is in the public store repository under the name GCal-Example - the usage in the screencast is below. To skip to the video, click here.
"get the request token - cl is the calendar service"
gAuth := AuthRequest
requestTokenFor: 'cl'
user: username
password: password
clientName: 'Cincom-VisualWorks-771'.
"get the response as XML"
request := EventRangeRequest
from: (Timestamp readFrom: '09/01/10 0:00:00' readStream)
to: (Timestamp readFrom: '10/01/10 0:00:00' readStream).
response := ServiceRequest
makeRequestWith: gAuth
requestPrepObject: request.
xml := response contents.
"save the results as a file for addition to any RSS/Atom aware tool"
file := 'calFeed.xml' asFilename writeStream.
file nextPutAll: xml.
file close.
If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
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"?
The cincomsmalltalk server seems to be having a problem right now - our IT guys are looking into it. When I have more information, I'll update this post. Sorry for the inconvenience!