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js4u

JS 4U 32: Constructors

February 15, 2011 6:37:14.816

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we take a look at constructors for Javascript object creation. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube.

Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

To watch now, click on the image below:

Class Creation

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

CloudFork Adds Authentication

February 15, 2011 8:28:54.922

Spotted in Smalltalk in The Cloud:

With the CloudforkSSO library you can let the users of your Seaside web application login using their Google or Yahoo accounts. This works using the OpenID2 protocol. CloudforkSSO also contains OAuth support. With this protocol you can ask users for permission to access their data on other websites.

I recall some real hassles implementing OAuth against Twitter - I was never sure whether I was at fault, or whether Twitter was - it worked sometimes. It's nice to see someone else has done the heavy lifting :)

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posted by James Robertson

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marketing

Not So Much

February 15, 2011 9:13:37.741

David Meerman Scott thinks that companies that block various social media sites are going to face uprisings of a sort:

I'm wondering when will companies that block employee access to social networks go through the same sort of revolution as Egypt? I think it will be soon. These companies are ripe for uprising.

Well - not so much. Sure, it's irritating to not be able to get to various things in a locked down environment, but - what are you going to do? Tell your spouse that you were willing to lose your job (and risk your mortgage, etc) because you couldn't get to YouTube?

The way this might play out will be slower and less obvious. As younger people used to the "always on" culture rise through the ranks, a lot of the restrictions will drop away. The companies that stay locked down will have a harder time hiring (assuming the job market eventually loosens up, of course). In the meantime, I seriously doubt you'll see job actions over this kind of thing.

posted by James Robertson

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itNews

A Restriction Too Far?

February 15, 2011 21:12:30.895

I think that Apple's latest restrictions on subscriptions - that vendors have to sell through the app store, and can't provide a link to external services - is going to cause a lot of problems. Rhapsody is is the first to complain, but I doubt they'll be the last. I can hardly wait to see what Amazon does with the Kindle app (if it applies to Amazon; that's unclear right now):

Rhapsody has issued a statement, which says that it's not going to play ball and even levels a bit of a threat: "We will be collaborating with our market peers in determining an appropriate legal and business response to this latest development." The big trouble stems from the fact that Apple requires anybody offering a subscription service to offer that service for the same price or less through Apple. That means you can still sign up folks through your own methods and get all the cash, but if anybody signs up through your app, Apple gets a 30 percent cut. In addition, Apple is no longer allowing applications to include a link to an external site for purchasing, which means vendors will have trouble getting new users to pay them directly instead of using Apple's simple but heavily-taxed option.

This is going to get uglier for Apple as more vendors start to follow Rhapsody's lead. I tend to be very cynical about government involvement in this sort of thing, but this much is clear: Apple really, really shouldn't want that kind of attention.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Pharo Looking Ahead

February 16, 2011 6:09:10.819

Pharo Smalltalk is ready for the next step ahead in terms of commercial acceptance and viability - I saw this on the ESUG mailing list, from the Pharo board:

We are pursuing an effort to bring Pharo to the next level: we will set up a consortium of pharo users and industrial partners. Our goal is to build a legal infrastructure that will be able to sustain the development of Pharo and improve its future. As an example, we would like to be able to collect funds (ways as to be determined - we foresee a membership model or moral license) to pay engineering tasks to be performed such as improving the virtual machine, network libraries, better JIT support. To make it short we would like to give a chance to our community to grow and structure itself so that Pharo can get stronger and that risk (truck factor) gets minimized.

It should be interesting to watch that and see how it develops. For many years, the various Smalltalk vendors simply didn't take the open source Smalltalk community seriously. Gemstone has been taking it more seriously of late, but I don't think much has changed elsewhere. If this effort makes headway, that'll have to change.

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posted by James Robertson

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podcasting

Smalltalk in German

February 16, 2011 6:39:33.359

Looks like Independent Misinterpretations is no longer the only Smalltalk focused podcast - there's a new German language one run by Marten Feldtmann.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 48: Getting Started with Monticello

February 16, 2011 8:01:45.488

Today's Smalltalk 4 You takes a look at Monticello:

  • How to create a new project
  • How to create a repository for that project
  • How to version off your code into that repository

We'll look at loading your code into a fresh image in the next screencast. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

Monticello

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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posted by James Robertson

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marketing

Transparency

February 16, 2011 12:36:12.000

Peter Shankman makes a good point about the "new rules" we live under:

Transparency has to rule the day. You need to go through life, both business and personal, assuming that someone has a camera on you at all times. A bit sad? Sure. But it’s the world in which we live.

You can see that in the almost daily stories about people filming police - those stories tend to get pitched by the police as "public safety" things, but it really boils down to what Peter is on about: enforced transparency.

The same thing is happening everywhere. You can't move ahead with an ossified business plan where you try to keep everything secret. If you're big enough, it'll leak anyway. If you aren't, you'll simply disappear into the background, as the few people who do spot you will immediately move along, in search of more transparent business partners.

It doesn't matter whether you like this - it's just the way it is. The genie isn't going back in the bottle.

posted by James Robertson

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games

DLC News for FNV

February 16, 2011 14:54:33.000

Looks like new DLC for Fallout: New Vegas is coming, and "Dead Money" will be on PS3 and Steam soon - February 22nd. Wired has the story:

Bethesda will launch new downloadable expansions for Fallout: New Vegas in the coming months, the publisher said Friday on its official blog. It will launch the packs simultaneously for Xbox360, PC and PlayStation 3. These three packs are in addition to the first New Vegas downloadable expansion, Dead Money, which will be available for PS3 and Steam on February 22. Xbox 360 owners can already purchase the DLC.

That's excellent news!

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posted by James Robertson

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general

The Joys of Packaging

February 16, 2011 17:49:19.000

We ordered a single cup coffee brewer recently - it's a nice machine, but I found this amusing. Here's the machine:

And here's the packaging it came in - sort of like one of those Russian dolls :)

posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Death of the Zune?

February 16, 2011 19:45:19.000

Spotted in Engadget:

In all the Microkia hub-bub of late, as the best of Redmond and the pride of Tampere hold hands and blaze a trail to smartphone domination, the word " Zune" never once came up. This didn't escape the notice of many, including MS guru Paul Thurrott and ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley, who inquired to someone at Microsoft about just what's going on -- whether indeed the brand is indeed being killed off. This is the non-denial that came back:

We're not 'killing' any of the Zune services/features in any way. Microsoft remains committed to providing a great music and video experience from Zune on platforms such as Xbox LIVE, Windows-based PCs, Zune devices and Windows Phone 7, as well as integration with Bing and MSN.

Makes sense to me. If they want to push Windows Phone 7, for instance, they need to have music (etc) be integrated with that. Right now, they have a confusing set of products that needs to be rationalized around the successful XBox, IMHO

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

One Way to Stay Ahead

February 17, 2011 6:44:03.004

If you have a gadget that's popular enough that you can more or less corner the market on key components, you end up with a pretty nice advantage:

In order to achieve its internal goal of shipping 40 million iPad products in 2011, Apple has occupied close to 60% of the global touch panel capacity causing tight supply among Apple's competitors, according to sources from upstream component makers.

There is a downside to that though. With their moves in the subscription space creating some anger amongst publishers, that number might embolden someone to push for anti-trust action. I've always been skeptical of that kind of thing, but I think Apple needs to keep it in mind as a real risk.

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posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 33: Validating Forms

February 17, 2011 10:10:25.876

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we take a look at constructors for Javascript object creation. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube.

Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

To watch now, click on the image below:

Form Validation

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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posted by James Robertson

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humor

Overheard

February 18, 2011 10:18:01.321

In the Smalltalk IRC channel:

no smalltalk vm implementation in redstone yet

Hehe

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 49: Loading Code From Monticello

February 18, 2011 10:52:03.481

Today's Smalltalk 4 You continues with Monticello - today we start a fresh image and load the code we worked on last time. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

Monticello

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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posted by James Robertson

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management

Vertical Integration Works

February 19, 2011 2:47:27.169

Apple has managed to keep the iPad available at a lower price than any (current) rival, and also has high profit margins. How? Vertical Integration:

Apple is the most vertically integrated company in the world. In addition to operating its own retail chains, all Apple hardware and software are designed in-house, and Apple also runs its own digital content store, iTunes.

Given all that, I wonder just how much higher their costs would be if they set up highly automated assembly plants in the lower cost parts of the US? Sure, labor is cheaper in China, but the shipping costs are much higher. It would be interesting to know, especially if fuel costs rise.

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posted by James Robertson

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web

Protests, Shutdowns, and Domains

February 19, 2011 11:56:32.551

Looks like people are asking about the impact - of a Libyan shutdown (like the one that happened in Egypt) on services like bit.ly. It looks like the immediate impact would be slight, as the root servers for that domain are located outside of Libya. However, if such a shutdown lasted long enough:

In the case of .LY, the absolute maximum for that is configured for 28 days (SOA expiry TTL is 2419200 seconds). Without external intervention, the availability of .LY domains would be compromised somewhere between 0 and 28 days if the Libyan registry is cut off the Internet.

Another reminder for those who forget - the virtual world is tied to the real one, and events in the real world can have large scale impacts on it. The net as a whole was architected to route around damage, but some kinds of damage can blow noticeable holes in the net.

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Notched

February 19, 2011 19:34:40.247

I really like Minecraft - and some of the bugs are amusing:

posted by James Robertson

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podcast

IM 18: Hard Problems, Interesting Solutions

February 20, 2011 3:41:29.863

Welcome to episode 18 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck. This week Dave and I spoke about some of the hard problems we've been confronted with over the years, and what the solutions - and often more importantly, the search for the solutions - looked like. This is part 1 of a 2 part podcast, so be sure to come back next week.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

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.

If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Troublemaker for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

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posted by James Robertson

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podcastAAC

IM 18: Hard Problems, Interesting Solutions (AAC)

February 20, 2011 3:41:52.923

Welcome to episode 18 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck. This week Dave and I spoke about some of the hard problems we've been confronted with over the years, and what the solutions - and often more importantly, the search for the solutions - looked like. This is part 1 of a 2 part podcast, so be sure to come back next week.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

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.

If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Troublemaker for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

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posted by James Robertson

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humor

A Law Too Far

February 21, 2011 1:02:59.666

Just when you think things can't get weirder, they do.

posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 50: Squeak by Example

February 21, 2011 8:10:55.200

Today's Smalltalk 4 You takes a pass by "Squeak by Example" - a great way to learn Smalltalk using Squeak if you prefer printed material. You can get the pdf free, or buy the book from Amazon or Lulu.. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

Squeak by Example

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Time to Drop that Grandfathered Unlimited Data?

February 21, 2011 10:08:02.000

This will make me consider it:

AT&T has reportedly provisioned the new Personal Hotspot WiFi sharing feature of iOS 4.3 beta 3 for a developer, indicating it will follow Verizon's lead in offering the feature to its subscribers.

The hotel wifi is often terrible when I travel, so....

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posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 34: Querying DOM Elements

February 22, 2011 8:15:39.715

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we take a look at constructors for Javascript object creation. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube.

Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

To watch now, click on the image below:

DOM Query

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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posted by James Robertson

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books

How Mordor Saw it

February 22, 2011 10:30:45.000

Here's an interesting idea - LOTR from the other side's perspective. Sort of a large sacle fleshing out of the idea that "the victors write the history books" :)

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Minecraft for IOS

February 22, 2011 14:22:31.000

Spotted in Engadget:

You know all of that time you've been wasting on Angry Birds HD? Looks like your flying friends may have company when it comes time to, um... kill time, as Markus Persson has confirmed to Gamasutra that an iOS port is "in the works." That means that an official Minecraft build will soon pop up in Apple's App Store, with iPhone and iPad versions hinted at. Aron Neiminen, a new recruit to the Mojang team, is responsible for the port, and if all goes well, it'll be let loose later in the year. Persson also confirmed that the iOS version won't receive every update that the original browser / download versions get, but that it'll be "granted features that make sense for the touchscreen platform." Raise your hand below if you're giddy beyond control.

After reading through the forums, I was sure this was never going to happen, but there it is. IMHO, it makes too much sense for it not to happen :)

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk in NYC

February 22, 2011 19:56:17.089

Arden Thomas is talking about Polycephaly at the NY STUG this Thursday evening:

Please join us on Thurs Feb 24th for this interesting discussion with Cincom Smalltalk’s product manager. Open house starts at 6:30 followed by the presentation at 7pm. Beverages will be available.

posted by James Robertson

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