. .

weather

More Snow!

February 24, 2010 22:10:54.193

Doesn't look like our area is in the crosshairs like we were earlier this month, but there's some potential for real accumulations:

All we need is a tenth of an inch to go over 80 inches for the season - which is massive for this area :)

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Squeak License Closer to Clean

February 24, 2010 21:57:07.078

Randal Schwartz reports progress on the Squeak licensing front:

Well, after an immense amount of collective work with important legal and social restrictions and ramifications, I'm happy to see that we are in the home stretch!
The SFC asserted that we needed one final "call to all interested parties", and that has begun. Once that's complete (hopefully without a hitch), the current 3.10.2 release will be relabeled as Squeak 4.0, and made available under a combination of the Apache and MIT licenses.

I guess you should stay tuned to Randal's blog for updates :)

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posted by James Robertson

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tutorial

Using the Smalltalk Facebook Interface

February 24, 2010 15:51:00.824

I've seen a few questions pop up on getting started with the Facebook interface I wrote, so I thought I'd post a basic "getting started" tutorial. First off, you need to go to the Facebook website (developer pages) and create an application definition - you'll get your application keys (you'll need those to make any Facebook API callls).

Once you've done that, start VisualWorks 7.7 (or ObjectStudio 8.2) and load the FacebookBundle from the public store repository.

Once you've done that, you need to execute the following code (use a workspace for now) with your application credentials:


"login"
holder := FacebookSecretHolder new
		apiKey: apiKey;
		secretKey: secret;
		applicationId: appId.

"now get the connection (will spawn a web browser"
connection := Connection withSecretHolder: holder.
connection login.

At the end of that, your default browser should pop up - it may show you what's below, or it may prompt you to login:

Once you've logged in, execute the following code to start a session:


"get auth token"
connection authGetSession.

At this point, you can start using the API - but you may notice that some calls don't work as you expect. For instance, #getStream will only return your news updates, and trying to publish to the news stream (#streamPublish:) will fail. Why? Well, your application needs to have permissions granted. Execute the following code, which will spin your browser back up, prompting you to authorize the relevant permissions:


"only need to ask for these authorizations once - grants permission to read news feed
and to write to the news feed"
connection grantExtendedPermissionFor: 'read_stream'.
connection grantExtendedPermissionFor: 'publish_stream'.

As the comment notes, you only need to do that once. Not once per session, once, period - unless Facebook changes something, or you use the APIs (or website) to revoke the granted rights. Now, use this to read the stream (inspect the results), and then publish an update:


"now read the news feed"
connection streamGet.


"update status in stream"
connection streamPublish: 'Writing to my Facebook news stream from Smalltalk!'.

Use the browser to verify that it all worked. That's pretty much it - to disconnect your session, use the code below:


"logout"
connection clearSession

You should be good to go. If anything seems wrong, just let me know

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posted by James Robertson

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podcasting

Talking about Metacello

February 24, 2010 13:45:23.647

We'll be live tomorrow at 4pm EST with Dale Henrichs of Gemstone - talking about MetaCello, a pacakge management system for Monticello. To listen live, head to our justin.tv site at 4 PM.

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

How to Report a Bug: Video

February 24, 2010 8:13:20.525

Today's screencast walks through the process of reporting a bug in Cincom Smalltalk - what kind of information you need, and how to prepare it.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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posted by James Robertson

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law

Technically Illiterate

February 24, 2010 6:49:27.840

I love the "thinking" behind this acton out of Italy:

A Milan court has convicted three Google Inc executives for the 2006 transmission of a video showing the bullying of a youth with Down's syndrome, the judge in the case told Reuters on Wednesday.

As is their policy, Google removed the video once they were notified of the issue. That wasn't good enough for the geniuses prosecuting the case:

It said that, as hosting platforms that do not create their own content, Google Video, YouTube and Facebook cannot be held responsible for content that others upload, comparing the case to prosecuting the postal system for hate letters sent by mail. But the prosecutors accused Google of negligence arguing the video remained online for two months even though some web users had already posted comments asking for it to be taken down.

I wonder whether they pondered what that means. Pick a video that gets a decent number of views, and you'll find a few comments as to why it should go - there's always someone who objects. There's simply no way for any company to pro-actively do what these people seems to want, unless they are willing to put up with huge posting delays (manual review of all upoads), or a ton of false positives (as software excludes based on some kind of heuristic).

Do we really want video auto-pulled based on comments anyway? Consider how that would play out.

Oh, one last ill effect of this: the three Google executives in question now can't travel freely, even though they had nothing to do with this. I'm not sure we want a world where that sort of outcome is common, either.

Update: Google Comments:

But we are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason. It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming. European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbor from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy. If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them -- every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video -- then the Web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear.

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posted by James Robertson

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law

Annals of Stupid Actions

February 23, 2010 22:56:05.615

Fresh off wasting time on Microsoft, the EU is ready to waste more time on... Google

Now that Microsoft's browser selection story story is all but settled, it looks like the European Union is gearing up for a new antitrust probe, with its crosshairs aimed generally in Google's direction.

Much time and money will be spent on this, and absolutely nothing useful will come of it. Kind of like what happened with Microsoft, actually....

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posted by James Robertson

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security

What Privacy?

February 23, 2010 20:20:58.733

Before I read the book Daemon, I really didn't think about my phone and privacy all that much:

At any given moment, it - and therefore your carrier - knows within a few feet exactly where you're standing. It knows when you're stationary or walking - and the direction you're heading. It knows who you stood next to on the transit bus, that you walked through Washington Square today when a political rally took place.

Mind you, Daemon is fiction - but many things could be done with the reams of location/activity data the typical smartphone has access to, and not all of them are good...

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

How to Report a Bug

February 23, 2010 15:07:48.090

If you see something like what's below, and you're sure that it's the fault of Cincom code instead of yours, what do you do? See my post over on my Cincom blog.

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

ExtraActivity and Animation

February 23, 2010 8:21:25.161

Today's screencast takes a look at ExtraActivity - a contributed library for VisualWorks that makes animations simpler to create.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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posted by James Robertson

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marketing

Some Pigs are More Equal than Others

February 23, 2010 6:49:44.769

Apple's ban on "sexy" apps in the app store looks even sillier now that we learn that Sports Illustrated (swimsuit issue) and Playboy are still around. Phil Schiller strove mightily to win the "lamest rationale ever" award:

When asked about the Sports Illustrated app, Mr. Schiller said Apple took the source and intent of an app into consideration. "The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format," he said.

Umm, right. It's enough to make your head spin. It took four days to come up with that?

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

A Smalltalk Appliance

February 23, 2010 6:41:10.309

Want to try out Smalltalk, but not sure which one to try? Well, Marten Feldtmann has made things easier for you - he's created an appliance (VM) with the major Smalltalks all loaded already

The following Smalltalks are installed:
  • Smalltalk/X 5-4-6 (Windows)
  • Smalltalk/X 5-4-6 (Linux)
  • VASmalltalk 8.01 (Linux)
  • VASmalltalk 8.01 (Windows)
  • ObjectStudio 8.1 (Windows)
  • VisualWorks 7.7 (Linux)
  • VisualWorks 7.7 (Windows)
  • Pharo (Linux) RC2

The only issue I see there is that it should include ObjectStudio 8.2 - you can get that here

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

SeaBreeze at ESUG 2009: Video

February 22, 2010 15:47:42.359

Here's another ESUG 2009 video - Karsten Kuche talking about SeaBreeze, a UI builder and library for Seaside, built in VisualWorks.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Videos"?

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posted by James Robertson

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Macintosh

Back to the Apple Store

February 22, 2010 9:10:07.680

My wife's Macbook (now fairly old, I guess) seems to be having a problem - while the battery has power (there's a button you can press to check on the white macbooks), the machine isn't actually getting any. So it's off to the Apple store for an appointment today - it should still be under AppleCare, so at least it won't cost me an arm and a leg...

posted by James Robertson

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security

Chuck Norris is in your Router

February 22, 2010 8:45:06.333

When I first saw the slashdot posting, I expected to find some ill informed political argument about Linux - but no, it's actually a botnet plague using Chuck Norris' name. Just when I think computer security stories can't get stranger...

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Introducing Xtreams

February 22, 2010 8:07:12.363

Today's screencast takes a brief, introductory overview of Xtreams - a new streaming library for Smalltalk that is under early development. You can listen to our podcast on Xtreams here, and get started by visiting the Google Code Page.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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posted by James Robertson

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books

Changeable Textbooks

February 22, 2010 6:24:55.537

I like the idea of textbooks that can be updated:

Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations.

However, that's not really the reason this idea is being pushed:

The modifiable e-book editions will be much cheaper than traditional print textbooks. "Psychology," for example, which has a list price of $134.29 (available on Barnes & Noble's Web site for $122.73), will sell for $48.76 in the DynamicBooks version.

That price cut is intended to gut the market for used textbooks (just like game publishers would like to gut that trade in their space). At least for textbooks, it's driving prices down.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Industry Misinterpretations 176: Slate

February 21, 2010 20:49:26.366

This week Michael and I spoke to Brian Rice about Slate - a language inspired by Smalltalk, Self, and other dynamic languages. To quote from the Slate website:

Slate is a prototype-based object-oriented programming language based on Self, CLOS, and Smalltalk-80. Slate syntax is intended to be as familiar as possible to a Smalltalker, for the clarity of messages as phrases. Unlike the Smalltalk family, methods within Slate can be assigned to a signature of objects, instead of being installed on one favored receiver.

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.

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!

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posted by James Robertson

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travel

Post Laundering Win

February 21, 2010 12:28:35.737

I was a little worried that the earlier snow storms might have delayed passport processing (I need mine in a week) - but lo and behold, the new passport arrived sometime this week by mail (I've been a bit lax in checking the mailbox). Crisis averted; I'll see you in London and Paris early next month!

posted by James Robertson

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books

Daemon Wrapup

February 20, 2010 23:34:38.765

I just finished reading Freedom - the second (and final, I think) part of the story Daniel Suarez started with Daemon. I spent most of the first book debating which "side" to root for; by the end of the second book, it became apparent that the answer to that was not terribly simple.

Suarez did set the libertarian-ish techno-elite up as the sympathetic side, but with plentiful "be careful what you wish for" warnings. It was a very fast moving pair of books; I consumed the two stories in days (it would have been less time were I not still obsessed with Dragon Age: Origins :)

The main complaint I have with the story is the prominent place that Suarez assigns mainstream (especially cable tv) news sources. There's the "Darknet" set up by the deceased protagonist, and then there's the media - it's as if the entire internet that we know now doesn't exist. That's a pretty big hole to ignore, but the story is entertaining if you can get beyond that. I'd love to see the autheor asked about that in an interview though :)

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posted by James Robertson

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browsers

Gears for All?

February 20, 2010 21:47:12.557

There's been a new post to the Google "Gears Blog", explaining why they haven't said much about Gears of late. The main reason? HTML5 seems to be on track to provide the same features natively:

If you've wondered why there haven't been many Gears releases or posts on the Gears blog lately, it's because we've shifted our effort towards bringing all of the Gears capabilities into web standards like HTML5. We're not there yet, but we are getting closer.

It would be pretty nice to get rid of the hacks that exist for video, if nothing else.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

More Data for the iPhone

February 20, 2010 11:59:56.889

I've run into the iPhone download limit myself - Civ Revolution for the iPhone is just over 10 MB, for instance. So it's welcome news that they are upping the (3G based) cap to 20 MB - but that's not going to help much with full shows. An hour long TV show, at compression rates that give you a decent viewing experience, is still in the hundreds of megabyte range. And that's stadard def - HD is a whole other kettle of fish.

This whole capped bandwidth model is going to have to change if mobile devices are going to be used to consume streaming video, or even just "not on wifi" video...

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Xtreams Goes MIT

February 20, 2010 11:57:55.999

As listeners to the podcast know, there's been a project underway to create a new streams framework - Xtreams. It would be nice to see this catch on across Smalltalk using the same codebase - allowing modifications and improvements to come from anywhere. So:

So....

That's right - the project is under the MIT license. That means that you can take it to any Smalltalk (or even non-Smalltalk) implementation free from worry. If this code has value, let's see it spread. To get started, try the Google Code project page.

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posted by James Robertson

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law

Patent Trolling - it's what old companies do

February 20, 2010 11:15:43.579

I'm not sure whether I should laugh, or cry about this story - Kodak is trying to get touchscreen smartphones banned on patent infringement grounds:

Eastman Kodak claims that Apple Computers and Research in Motion are guilty of infringement of patents. Kodak has taken the step to request the U.S. International Trade Commission prevent both companies from importing their smart phones into the United States. Nokia filed a similar complaint in December 2009.

What patents, and why?

Kodak's complaint says the iPhone and BlackBerry infringe on the patent approved in 2001 regarding the ability to preview images. Kodak made more than $622 million on intellectual property last year and expects to receive more than $450 million in royalty this year from Samsung. It is seeking a similar agreement with Apple and Research in Motion.

How hard would it be to change the system by just this tiny amount: in order to bring a patent infringement suit, you would have to actually be providing a competing product in the space that you are complaining about - thus showing that there's actual harm? I know, it's just crazy talk. How would that keep legions of lawyers employed?

Update: I love this from Gordon Weakliem:

Ideas are worthless without execution, and as it is, the practice of patent trolling completely subverts the intended economic incentive behind patents. I’m amazed that corporate America hasn’t thrown their collective weight at Congress and forced reform. I suspect that the attitude is an intellectual property Cold War the large patent-holders are building a system of mutually assured destruction and regard the patent terrorists as a manageable cost of doing business.

Read the rest of his post - he makes some great points.

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posted by James Robertson

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movies

Is it On Location, Or.....

February 19, 2010 16:50:37.742

Now I'm going to have to really ponder every TV and Movie scene I see - wondering just how much is real.

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Live in 45

February 19, 2010 10:17:41.009

We'll be live in 45 minutes with Tudor Girba, talking about Glamour. You can wait for the podcast to appear in our stream, or listen live at justin.tv

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Introducing the Grid Widget

February 19, 2010 9:53:05.493

Today's screencast looks at the Grid widget - a component in preview for VisualWorks.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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posted by James Robertson

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development

Twitter Death Knell

February 19, 2010 8:38:49.739

Live by the meme, die by the meme: As a commenter points out, this is a two year old story that I posted on without noticing that rather salient fact. Well, that's what corrections are for - nothing to see here, move along :)


If this TechCrunch story pans out, you can stick a fork in Twitter - they'll be dead soon enough:

We're hearing this from multiple sources: After nearly two years of high profile scaling problems, Twitter is planning to abandon Ruby on Rails as their web framework and start from scratch with PHP or Java (another solution is to stick with the Ruby language and move away from the Rails framework).

The problem is this: swicthing languages/frameworks is a very "enterprisey manager" type decision. Down in the development trenches, it means multiple man years of the following:

  • Standing still while the new system is built from the ground up.
  • Faults in the existing codebase will go largely unaddressed, as all the effort will be focused elsewhere
  • Competitors will have a lot more room to steal users, as it'll be obvious that Twitter is standing still

This isn't a solution; it's a way to circle the drain while others feed off their carcass The worst part is, the management team that made this call (if it has been made - it's rumor now) will walk away clean, blaming "developers" for the failure...

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Will they ban books and movies, too?

February 19, 2010 8:30:49.629

The Swiss are known for tolerance, but apparently, that tolerance ends with "mature" games:

It illegalises the purchase of any game not carrying a PEGI age rating and requires stricter rules on the requirements of ID, although both of these measures had previously been voluntarily introduced by retailers late last year. However, more worrying is a second resolution that was passed — albeit with a split vote of nine-to-three — that could lead to an outright ban of violent and adult titles in the country.

No more "Modern Warfare" or "Dragon Age" for you, I guess. While they're at it, will they also ban mature books and movies?

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posted by James Robertson

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DRM

I'll Love it When this comes to Books

February 19, 2010 8:21:18.309

The war against common sense ownership rights continues:

Echoing the controversial measures announced by Ubisoft last month, Sony has revealed that users of SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 will need to register their game online before they are able to access the multiplayer component of the title.

It gets worse:

Furthermore, in a nod to recent plans implemented by EA, anyone buying a pre-owned copy of the game will be forced to cough up $20 to obtain a code to play online.

I brought up books in the title because e-books could run into the same kind of "no sharing" buzzsaw - which would be very different from the centuries long practice of passing books around we have now (Jasper Fforde touched on this in "The Well of Lost Plots", actually - you have to read it to see how, because explaining it would give away too much of the story).

Anyway, on games - we trade games back and forth with friends (once a game is done, it's usually done). The industry apparently wants that practice to stop. Like book sharing, I don't think it's costing anyone real money, but, like DRM for music, it's a bad idea that lots of industry types have gone "all in" on. Great.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Cincom Smalltalk Gets an Upgrade

February 19, 2010 8:09:40.859

Julian Fitzell has joined the Cincom team:

I'm happy to announce that I have accepted a full-time position with Cincom in the UK. As a result, I will be laying down my consulting hat for a while, and heading to London at the end of the month. I'll be doing Pre-Sales Consulting (or Sales Engineering, as some call it) for their Smalltalk products in Europe

I look forward to working with Julian - he's seemed like a great guy every time I've met hm!

posted by James Robertson

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games

More Civilization

February 19, 2010 1:02:12.906

Spotted in Slashdot:

2K Games announced today that they will be releasing Civilization V in the fall. For the first time in the series, the square tiles will be changed to hexes, which 2K Games says provides 'deeper strategy' and 'more realistic gameplay.' Civilization V will also include a new graphics engine, new combat system including ranged bombardment, multiplayer and good support for the modding community. 'Each new version of Civilization presents exciting challenges for our team. Thankfully, ideas on how to bring new and fun experiences to Civ players never seem to stop flowing. From fully animated leaders and realistic landscapes, new combat tactics, expanded diplomacy and shared mods, we're excited for players to see the new vision our team at Firaxis has brought to the series,' Sid Meier said. In addition to Civilization V, the Facebook-based Civilization Network will also be released during 2010.

Well, I never really mastered Civ IV, so what the heck - I can get another game to act as a countervailing time sink to "Dragon Age Origins" (and the expansion they are putting out soon). I wonder when I'll find time to come up for air :)

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk and Network APIs

February 18, 2010 12:06:19.077

I'll be speaking to the NYC Smalltalkers tonight, about the interfaces I've built to various social media systems (and a few related topics, like building to a network API). Should be fun - it all starts at 6:30 PM here.

I'll be doing demos and talking about the code - see you there!

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Getting Started with VWNC 7.7: Overview

February 18, 2010 9:01:12.424

Today's screencast walks through the overview material that comes with the VWNC 7.7 download. To watch, click on the viewer below:

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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posted by James Robertson

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windows

Windows 7 - Needs 64 Bit?

February 18, 2010 8:32:50.129

One way to read this ComputerWorld story is that Windows 7 is a resource hog:

Citing data from Devil Mountain Software's community-based Exo.performance.network (XPnet), Craig Barth, the company's chief technology officer, said that new metrics reveal an unsettling trend. On average, 86% of Windows 7 machines in the XPnet pool are regularly consuming 90%-95% of their available RAM, resulting in slow-downs as the systems were forced to increasingly turn to disk-based virtual memory to handle tasks.

A slightly different way to view it is this: Microsoft has seen the future, and it has 64 bits, not 32. Do we "need" 64 bits? Well heck, you could have asked "do we need 32 bits?" a decade or so ago, too. Microsoft would like to have Windows 7 push new hardware sales, and I think they'd be even happier if those sales were at least 64 bit ready, if not actively running 64 bit.

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posted by James Robertson

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social media

Social Networking, the Dark Side

February 18, 2010 7:53:46.723

The powers of social media can be used for evil as well as for good:

Unfortunately, as PleaseRobMe points out, updating Foursquare on where you are implicitly updates Foursquare on where you're not -- at home.

On the other hand, with so many people doing this kind of thing, you have what amounts to an information flood. If you're already at risk (being stalked, for instance), I can see the immediate danger. Otherwise? It's never been that hard to figure out that a house is empty.

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Live in 20 Minutes

February 17, 2010 21:43:12.146

We'll be live with Brian Rice, talking about Slate, in 20 minutes (10 PM EST).

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posted by James Robertson

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books

What I'm Reading

February 17, 2010 15:50:40.800

As is quite often the case, I'm reading two books right now:

The Well of Lost Plots is the third book in the Thursday Next series. While it's hardly heavy reading, it's an enjoyable set of books - the intertwining of the real world with the book world (characters can jump in and out of books; some fictional characters die and have to be replaced by generics who stand in for them) is quite interesting. The idea of "oral tradition" story characters (think nursery rhymes) going on strike for better working conditions was pretty amusing. I don't want to give awy too much - this is, after all, the third book in the series. However, I can say this: it's a fun set of books to read, and I recommend them

Daemon is a much more involved book, and harder to read in parts - there's at least one character involved in some pretty unsavory things, and it's not clear yet whether he ends up on the "good" team yet - because the sides are unclear to me halfway in.

The protagonist is a rich game developer who set off a series of events after his death, via sophisticated, distributed software systems (and people he has the software recruit as real world actors). I'm still not sure what his goals are, or whether his goals serve a good or bad end yet - which is one of the things I like about the book - at the midway point, it's not clear. This is the first book in a series (and only the second is out) - so if you don't want to get sucked in, there's your warning. I like the book, even though parts of it were hard to get through (from the standpoint of the things going on, not from a writing standpoint).

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posted by James Robertson

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podcasting

Smalltalk on the Air

February 17, 2010 15:11:24.910

Michael and I have two interesting podcasts coming up in the next couple of days (the recordings will be released, as per usual, on Sundays):

  • Tonight at 10 PM EST: We'll be talking to Brian Rice about Slate, a Smalltalk derived language
  • Friday at 11 AM EST: We'll be talking to Tudor Girba about Glamour.

You can listen live on justin.tv, at the times posted above.

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posted by James Robertson

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scifi

Journal of Useless Information

February 17, 2010 14:49:48.776

I got a chuckle out of this "scientific revelation" in scifi wire - apparently, FTL travel would have smoked Kirk (et. al.):

Well, the reality is that he would have fried instantly, and any other Starfleet travelers such as Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise would have perished had they really attempted to travel at faster-than-light speeds.

There are two issues with this:

  • It's sciene fiction, not science
  • Science fiction typically (and most certainly in this case) assumes some sort of scientific discovery that makes the seemingly impossible, possible.

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posted by James Robertson

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traffic

The Wages of Traffic Calming

February 17, 2010 10:14:05.753

It's been a week since the second storm, and 11 days since the first - but because the brilliant thinkers in Howard County traffic control think that the "random shapes in the road" approach to slowing traffic is a good idea, we have this to put up with:

Many of us in the neighborhood have been wondering how plows would deal with those areas after a major snow storm for years; this year, we discovered that the answer is mostly "they don't". That was pretty clear to everyone but the advanced thinkers in the local government. I rather suspect that none of the traffic design folks have atrocities like this near them...

posted by James Robertson

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tv

Overstaying their Welcome

February 17, 2010 10:03:02.383

Spotted in SCI FI Wire:

It's been a good news/bad news kind of Supernatural day. The Good: Supernatural got an early season-six pickup for next season. The Bad: Creator Eric Kripke is planning to step down as co-showrunner, along with his current co-showrunner, Robert Singer.

This is mostly bad news, IMHO. This year's villain for the Winchester boys is Lucifer himself; like Buffy after season 5, I'm not exactly sure what's left to fight that could be bigger. Sometimes, a story just needs to end; this is one of them.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Installing ObjectStudio 8.2 NC

February 17, 2010 9:17:25.447

Today's screencast walks through the installation process for ObjectStudio 8.2 NC - from initial download to initial startup. All on Windows 7. To watch, click on the viewer below:

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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posted by James Robertson

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social media

Outlook as Uber Portal?

February 17, 2010 8:06:24.347

I've never been a fan of Outlook - this is mostly a matter of personal taste, not a commentary on quality, real or perceived. Having said that, I see that Microsoft wants to turn the software into a hub for everything you do online:

On Wednesday, Microsoft is releasing a "beta" test version of the Outlook Social Connector. The add-on software, which was first discussed last November, adds a new pane to the main e-mail reading screen on Outlook. When a user clicks to read an e-mail message, the new pane fills up with the sender's most recent social-networking activities. Those could include the addition of a professional contact on LinkedIn or a "what I'm doing now" status update from Facebook.

The interesting thing from further down in the article is that there's no "push" capability - i.e., no way to update those streams from Outlook. Heck, I can do that from BottomFeeder, so it's not that hard. I understand the idea, but I have no idea why they would leave it half done...

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posted by James Robertson

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humor

Don't Let this Happen to your Marketing

February 17, 2010 7:54:30.013

posted by James Robertson

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