. .

development

Usability

February 12, 2012 10:47:05.488

Dave Winer makes an excellent point about usability:

They're always moving stuff around in software like this. This is a lesson every generation of developers seems to have to re-learn. Little things like this break users. So what. Once you have competition and look into why people switch, you'll find that "it just works" or "it works like I think" is a highly valued non-feature. It's not something that you can put on a comparison chart. To users it's a subjective thing. It has to do with whether they like you or not. To you however, it's engineering. This feeling is created from hundreds of little subjectives they don't even see, that Ebert would totally understand. In film it's called suspension of disbelief . We don't yet have a name for this in software.

He flared that off a complaint by Roger Ebert about changes to Twitter; it could just as easily have flared off of a bazillion useless changes Facebook has made over the years, or the atrocities Microsoft has committed with Office. Since they put in the Ribbon, I can't find anything anymore; it's the main reason I switched to the OS X suite. IMHO, Office has become downright user hostile.

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Smalltalk at FosDem

February 12, 2012 16:55:24.000

This sounds like the kind of thing that will help get Smalltalk a bit more notice:

One of my major stumbling blocks with Smalltalk has been general unfamiliarity with the development environment, the workshop was the perfect opportunity to resolve some of this. The structure was to pair one experienced Smalltalker with one noob, and for both to work through a pre-planned exercise with an existing image and application set up.

ESUG and the STIC conferences are useful, but getting Smalltalk into the hands of new users requires some outreach. I'm glad to see that happening.

Technorati Tags:

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

podcast

IM 65: Magritte Magic at ESUG 2011

February 12, 2012 19:08:28.689

Welcome to episode 65 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week we have another recording from ESUG 2011 - Magritte Magic with Nick Ager and Esteban Lorenzano.

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!

Technorati Tags: ,

Enclosures:
[im65.mp3 ( Size: 9792544 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

podcastAAC

IM 65: Magritte Magic at ESUG 2011 (AAC)

February 12, 2012 19:09:03.509

Welcome to episode 65 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week we have another recording from ESUG 2011 - Magritte Magic with Nick Ager and Esteban Lorenzano.

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!

Technorati Tags: , ,

Enclosures:
[im65.m4a ( Size: 13583510 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

skyrim

Thu'umcast 21: Mods, Mods, and More Mods

February 12, 2012 23:29:25.081

Thu'umcast

Welcome to episode 21 of "Thu'umcast" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith, Scott Dirk, Austin Haley, Makahlua and I document our trials and tribulations in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

There's big news to talk about today - the Skyrim Creation Kit is out, and we decided to have two conversations about it. Today, we talked about the Steam Workshop - the new way to download mods, some of the mods that have shown up there already, and about the really cool mod video that Bethesda put out to show us what kinds of things you can do with the kit. We'll talk about the Creation Kit itself next time, and then we'll get back to the perk trees.

If you liked our work on That Podcast, you'll probably like this. We intend to stay with the same idea - a gameplay podcast. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen - we are going to be talking about how we play the game, and what we ran across as we played.

You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. We'll add the iTunes specific links as soon as they are available. In the meantime, join the Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter. If you play on Steam, join the Steam Group. Like the music? Pay Sbeast a visit, we thank him for letting us use it!

Links to all episodes and other information can be found on the Thu'umcast page.

If you want to download the podcast directly, we've provided it in three formats:

Got feedback? Tweet us!. Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in Skyrim!

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Enclosures:
[thuum21.mp3 ( Size: 13463511 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

skyrimAAC

Thu'umcast 21: Mods, Mods, and More Mods (AAC)

February 12, 2012 23:30:03.851

Thu'umcast

Welcome to episode 21 of "Thu'umcast" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith, Scott Dirk, Austin Haley, Makahlua and I document our trials and tribulations in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

There's big news to talk about today - the Skyrim Creation Kit is out, and we decided to have two conversations about it. Today, we talked about the Steam Workshop - the new way to download mods, some of the mods that have shown up there already, and about the really cool mod video that Bethesda put out to show us what kinds of things you can do with the kit. We'll talk about the Creation Kit itself next time, and then we'll get back to the perk trees.

If you liked our work on That Podcast, you'll probably like this. We intend to stay with the same idea - a gameplay podcast. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen - we are going to be talking about how we play the game, and what we ran across as we played.

You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. We'll add the iTunes specific links as soon as they are available. In the meantime, join the Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter. If you play on Steam, join the Steam Group. Like the music? Pay Sbeast a visit, we thank him for letting us use it!

Links to all episodes and other information can be found on the Thu'umcast page.

If you want to download the podcast directly, we've provided it in three formats:

Got feedback? Tweet us!. Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in Skyrim!

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Enclosures:
[thuum21.m4a ( Size: 18425926 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

st4u

ST 4U 193: Raising Exceptions in Pharo

February 13, 2012 11:13:17.510

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at using exceptions (raising them) in Pharo Smalltalk. 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:

Exceptions

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:

Technorati Tags: , ,

Enclosures:
[st4u193-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 3796638 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Pharo in France

February 13, 2012 22:14:10.903

There's a two day Pharo Conference coming up in May, in France. You can get details and register here.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

js4u

JS 4U 131: Smoother Animations I

February 14, 2012 10:49:30.864

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at various approaches to smoother animations, via the examples on the CSS Tricks page. 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:

smoother animations

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:

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Enclosures:
[js4u131-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 5624396 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Smalltalk and Cloud Foundry

February 15, 2012 10:30:33.000

James Foster takes Smalltalk off to the cloud.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

st4u

ST 4U 194: HTTP Queries in VA Smalltalk

February 15, 2012 11:29:38.719

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at client level HTTP again in VA Smalltalk - specifically, how to make such usage simpler. We also take a brief look at using proxy servers. 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:

HTTP Get.

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:


Today we'll go back to HTTP queries in VA Smalltalk. As it happens, there's a simpler way to do queries than getting the client, starting it up, and shutting it down. Instead of this:


"Set up a client for http, execute a request"
client := (SstHttpClient  forTransportScheme: 'http') startUp.
response := 
	[client get: 'http://www.jarober.com']
	ensure: [client shutDown].
^response.

We can do this:


"shortcuts"
url := 'http://www.jarober.com/'.
response := url sstAsUrl fetch.
^response.

If you trace through the execution, you'll see that it does the same thing as the more complex looking code - but it's a whole lot simpler to use. Once you do that, you should see something like this:

HTTP Query

We can't really demonstrate proxy server usage, as the network used here doesn't have that. However, it's pretty straightforward. Simply use the following:


"proxy setup"
(SstTransport configurationRegistry at: 'httpl')
proxyUrl: ('http://proxy.myco.com:8080') sstAsUrl.

and then execute requests normally - you'll then be using your proxy server.

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Enclosures:
[st4u194-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 4607491 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

js4u

JS 4U 132: Smoother Animations Part II

February 16, 2012 8:48:29.728

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You continues looking at smoother animations. 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:

animations

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:

Technorati Tags: , ,

Enclosures:
[js4u132-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 3794212 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

skyrim

Thu'umcast 22: The Creation Kit!

February 16, 2012 11:41:58.735

Thu'umcast

Welcome to episode 22 of "Thu'umcast" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith, Scott Dirk, Austin Haley, Makahlua and I document our trials and tribulations in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

In this episode we go into a bit of (limited) depth about - the Skyrim Creation Kit. While we understand that this is kind of a nothing-burger for console players, it is big news for the game as a whole. We'll be back to the game itself shortly, but in the meantime: if you're a listener who's used the Creation Kit heavily, and would like to come on as a guest, please let us know!

If you liked our work on That Podcast, you'll probably like this. We intend to stay with the same idea - a gameplay podcast. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen - we are going to be talking about how we play the game, and what we ran across as we played.

You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. We'll add the iTunes specific links as soon as they are available. In the meantime, join the Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter. If you play on Steam, join the Steam Group. Like the music? Pay Sbeast a visit, we thank him for letting us use it!

Links to all episodes and other information can be found on the Thu'umcast page.

If you want to download the podcast directly, we've provided it in three formats:

Got feedback? Tweet us!. Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in Skyrim!

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Enclosures:
[thuum22.mp3 ( Size: 9765039 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

skyrimAAC

Thu'umcast 22: The Creation Kit! (AAC)

February 16, 2012 11:42:11.825

Thu'umcast

Welcome to episode 22 of "Thu'umcast" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith, Scott Dirk, Austin Haley, Makahlua and I document our trials and tribulations in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

In this episode we go into a bit of (limited) depth about - the Skyrim Creation Kit. While we understand that this is kind of a nothing-burger for console players, it is big news for the game as a whole. We'll be back to the game itself shortly, but in the meantime: if you're a listener who's used the Creation Kit heavily, and would like to come on as a guest, please let us know!

If you liked our work on That Podcast, you'll probably like this. We intend to stay with the same idea - a gameplay podcast. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen - we are going to be talking about how we play the game, and what we ran across as we played.

You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. We'll add the iTunes specific links as soon as they are available. In the meantime, join the Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter. If you play on Steam, join the Steam Group. Like the music? Pay Sbeast a visit, we thank him for letting us use it!

Links to all episodes and other information can be found on the Thu'umcast page.

If you want to download the podcast directly, we've provided it in three formats:

Got feedback? Tweet us!. Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in Skyrim!

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Enclosures:
[thuum22.m4a ( Size: 13381786 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

st4u

ST 4U 195: URL encode/decode in VA Smalltalk

February 17, 2012 9:28:48.902

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at url encoding and decoding in VA Smalltalk. 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:

url encoding.

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:


Today we'll take a look at url encoding and decoding in VA Smalltalk. When making HTTP requests and posts, it's quite common to have to deal with encoded content. Fortunately, it's easy to do in VA. To Encode, we'll use an url:


"encode an url"
url := 'http://www.jarober.com/blog/blogView?entry=3506669370'.
encoded := url sstUrlEncode.
^encoded. 

'http://www.jarober.com/blog/blogView?entry=3506669370'


You can see the encoded text right there. Now the reverse - decoding an encoded string:


"decode"
decoded := encoded sstUrlDecodeQueryComponent.
^decoded

 'http://www.jarober.com/blog/blogView?entry=3506669370'



And there's the result, back in its original form. That's all there is to it.

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Enclosures:
[st4u195-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 2646996 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Pharo Conference 24/25 May

February 17, 2012 12:15:33.657

There's a Pharo Conference in France this May:

The Pharo core team organises a Pharo Conference hosted at INRIA Lille Nord Europe located at Villeneuve D'ascq (close to Lille).

Technorati Tags:

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

games

They Should Have Let Mass Effect Be Mass Effect

February 17, 2012 15:18:09.207

Recently, I played through the original Mass Effect again - and it reminded me how much better a game than ME2 it was. Sure, the controls were clunkier, and the combat wasn't quite as smooth - but the RPG elements were solid, and the choices felt like they mattered.

After playing the ME3 demo, I'm disappointed. One of the gameplay options is to remove conversation completely, and have it all in cutscenes. That also means that leaving it in will be irrelevant, as the main story arc will be driven the same way, regardless of how you pick your responses. Instead, we have "Gears Effect".

And that's a problem. Why? Well, it's not that Gears of War is a bad game, it's that it's a different game. It's a 3rd person shooter, with excellent combat mechanics. It has a story, but it's linear - you're along for the ride, and you're there to shoot things. Mass Effect isn't supposed to be that way - it's supposed to be an RPG. Last time I looked, the video gaming space was big enough to have both shooters and RPGs in it - why did the "brilliant" EA marketing team decide that the world needed another Gears of War (with less fluid combat, I might add)?

The old BioWare is completely dead, and that's a sad thing. Some of us like story driven RPG games, and EA's marketing team has just gone out and destroyed that. Maybe some of the original BioWare staff can start up a new studio that's interested in the idea.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

podcast

IM 66: TANSTAAFL

February 19, 2012 12:23:02.614

Welcome to episode 66 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week Dave and I set out to talk about "Not Invented Here" - but it ended up being much more of a conversation about "TANSTAAFL" - Heinlein's famous observation that "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".

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!

Technorati Tags: ,

Enclosures:
[im66.mp3 ( Size: 13641442 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

podcastAAC

IM 66: TANSTAAFL (AAC)

February 19, 2012 12:23:32.554

Welcome to episode 66 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week Dave and I set out to talk about "Not Invented Here" - but it ended up being much more of a conversation about "TANSTAAFL" - Heinlein's famous observation that "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".

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!

Technorati Tags: ,

Enclosures:
[im66.m4a ( Size: 18824647 )]

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

copyright

The Not So Free Internet

February 19, 2012 13:42:24.389

SOPA may have been sidelined, but you would never know it - DHS isn't happy enough frisking people without cause at airports, they've moved along to shuttering domains without any stated rationale:

The website JotForm.com, which allows individuals to create their own forms easily, has had its main domain, jotform.com "suspended" by the US government, due to "an ongoing investigation." Because of this JotForm is forcing all of its users to change their forms to use their .net domain rather than their .com.

The way this will play out is obvious - internet startups (and existing firms, for that matter) are going to transfer their domains out of the US. It's the only rational business move, given that otherwise, your site could inexplicably go dark. If we stay on this track, the US based internet will end up being a push only, MPAA and RIAA approved dead zone.

Technorati Tags:

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This