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news

Post Modern Family Life

April 7, 2010 21:14:41.969

Now I've truly seen everything:

An Arkadelphia mother is charged with harassment for making entries on her son's Facebook page.

Awesome :)

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posted by James Robertson

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web

Embedded Video Works Again

April 7, 2010 12:16:13.407

Apple applied some awesome to the web today, breaking every single embedded Quicktime video out there. It took me a bit to figure out that it wasn't something I did; there's a lively forum topic on this over at Apple.

I've applied the workaround (fortunately, I use an include file for the embedded library - otherwise, it would have been hundreds of posts to script an update to, and then undo once Apple came to their senses.

In the meantime, here's a question: doesn't anyone at Apple test? It wouldn't be hard; just bring up an embedded video and watch the broken behavior, across all browsers. Someone at Apple needs a severe slapping around.

Oh, and I have a timeline of what I was investigating over on my Cincom blog

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

The iPad as Dynabook

April 7, 2010 10:14:16.386

PC World notices what Arden pointed out a long while back:

The general design and specs for Apple's magical tablet were first outlined as the 'Dynabook'

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posted by James Robertson

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service

Annals of Customer Service

April 7, 2010 10:12:20.556

Verizon is all about Process:

Five minutes later, my Internet stopped working. I called FiOS tech support. “You placed an order for new service, so of course we had to shut off your old service,” they helpfully explained. When would the Internet that I was already paying for be restored? “You’re scheduled for an install on April 9th.” So the upgrade process has a designed-in two-day service outage? “No. Sometimes people are cut off for a week or more.”

Ultimately, this is how all large entities - private or public - end up. The process is more important than the product, and the employees are highly incented to follow the process. Heck, sometimes the only real chance of a penalty is in not following the process.

Small is better, IMHO.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Reading Image Files: Video

April 7, 2010 9:34:41.101

Today's screencast looks at reading image files (jpg, etc) into Smalltalk.

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

They have an eye for the obvious

April 7, 2010 8:35:36.836

I love this level of commentary on the court ruling against the FCC having the authority to create "net neutrality" laws - from PC World:

Some net neutrality advocates said the ruling raises broad questions about the FCC's authority to take any actions not spelled out in law.

Call me crazy, but I thought that's how regulatory agencies were supposed to operate - within the confines of the law. If not, why should we even bother having elections?

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

XBox USB Weirdness

April 7, 2010 8:32:04.846

Microsoft has brought confusion to the "we allow USB devices on the XBOX" game - you can only plugin devices that range between 1 GB and 16GB. So.... none of the older things you have piled up will work, and none of the cheap hard drives you can buy, either.

So what's the point, exactly?

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posted by James Robertson

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travel

Another Plus for the iPad?

April 7, 2010 8:28:41.086

No need to tie up the security line by taking it out for x-rays. I wonder if all laptops will go this route as solid state storage becomes more common?

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

iPad reactions

April 6, 2010 14:14:35.350

The reactions to the iPad are all over the map, and fascinating. Dave Winer has a thoughtful piece, although I think he lost a bit of objectivity in looking so deeply at his personal workflow. Mark Bernstein thinks that it may well work perfectly as a book replacement, or as a digital picture frame, or - we'll figure it out. Tim Bray seem ambivalent. Lots of people are up in arms over the lack of a USB port or two.

Meanwhile, my wife has been pretty happy using it to read the same book upstairs (Kindle on her Macbook) and downstairs (Kindle on the iPad). It's early days yet; we'll see how things look in a few weeks. I haven't had any real time with it, so I don't really have any comments beyond "it looks pretty" :)

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Working with Tabs in VW: Video

April 6, 2010 11:08:13.437

Today's screencast looks at changing tabs in a VisualWorks UI.

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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smalltalk

Smalltalk Upsides and Downsides

April 6, 2010 8:43:12.765

Steve Wessels makes a good point about the malleability of Smalltalk:

What I would like to say is that I love how Squeak is open under the covers, and so easy to explore and extend.  All the Smalltalk tools do that.  But I m also aware of how these little annoying behaviors about Squeak have more that just a few times caused me to become diverted by yet again another tools enhancement run.  The temptation to personalize it, which is exactly what I think Alan Key and Dan Ingalls had in mind, can be great enough to the point of distraction.  You just have to remember that.

Yeah, it's incredibly easy to get lost in a "bug hunt" at times. It's cool that you can do things like what Steve talks about in his post (modifying the browser), but then again - if it were more nailed down, would you spend less time on bug hunts and more time on your actual project? It's worth considering, I think...

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Well Crafted Smalltalk

April 6, 2010 8:34:31.565

Steve Wessels has some nice things to say about VisualWorks.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Mutation Testing at ESUG 2009: Video

April 5, 2010 22:44:44.786

Here's Hernan Wilkinson, presenting mutation testing at ESUG 2009. You can download his slides here (PDF). To watch, click on the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly.

If you like this video, why not subscribe to Smalltalk Videos?

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Nearly Time for my Next iPhone?

April 5, 2010 13:18:25.359

Engadget has the scoop on apple's next big event:

Yes folks -- the world is turning upside down. Apple has announced an iPhone OS 4 event on April 8th at 10AM PT for a "sneak peek of the next generation of iPhone OS software."

I think that once Apple ships a new rev of the iPhone on the next gen of the OS, I'll be upgrading.

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posted by James Robertson

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books

Civil War Reading

April 5, 2010 12:38:23.695

I just finished two books on the civil war - one on Sheridan (more properly, on him and his top commanders) , and the other on the war in the Chesapeake Bay region . The Sheridan book covered the last year of the war - more or less, the Shenandoah campaign and the wrapup of the siege of Petersburg. Sheridan was an interesting character, and he ended up having a lasting impact on the army - his innnovations with cavalry warfare make me wonder - he would have been an interesting guy to pair with Patton during WWII.

Another thing that comes clearly through this book, at least for me - if you're going to fight a war, fight the war. No half measures, no "proportional response" nonsense - take the war to the enemy and make them regret the decision to go to war in the first place. I often wonder how differently many modern American wars might have gone had Sheridan, Sherman, and Grant been around to run them.

Anyway - if you're interested in this period of history, it's an interesting book, and short. A good companion to a biography of Sheridan.

The second book, about the war on the riverine Chesapeake, was fascinating. It really brought home to me how messy the border region war was between 1861-1865. All along the Chesapeake, the skirmishing, smuggling, and guerilla warfare went on non-stop until the very end of the war, and it was often a nasty business. Not that war is ever not nasty, but it was smaller scale and more personal - given the divided loyalties of the region, there was a lot of the stereotypical "brother vs. brother" thing going on.

If you want to read something that gives you a view of the war away from the common "Lee vs. a parade of Union commanders" thing, this is a good one to look at.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Testing with SUnitToo: Video

April 5, 2010 9:55:37.703

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at creating a simple test case using SUnitToo - with the File handling code from last Friday. You can also download the small package I show in the screencast (zip file). 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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news

Record Keeping in a Digital World

April 5, 2010 8:32:59.558

Nick Carr makes a good point about digital records and fragility:

The problem is magnified by the speed with which old digital media and recording techniques, including devices and software, are replaced by new ones. It's further magnified by the fact that even modest damage to a digital recording can render that recording useless (as anyone who has scratched a CD or DVD knows). In contrast, damage to an analog recording - a scratch in a vinyl record, a torn page in a book - may be troublesome and annoying, but it rarely renders the recording useless. You can still listen to a scratched record, and you can still read a book with a missing page. Analog recordings are generally more robust than digital ones. As Bollacker explains, history reveals a clear and continuing trend: "new media types tend to have shorter lifespans than older ones, and digital types have shorter lifespans than analog ones." The lifespan of a stone tablet was measured in centuries or millennia; the lifespan of a magnetic tape or a hard drive is measured in years or, if you're very lucky, decades.

Carr adds a worry about cloud storage overtaking local storage, and a resulting "storage monoculture" resulting what amounts to a single point of failure. I'm not sure we'll get there, but it is possible. For things like music and books, we still like to have local copies, because we'll listen (or read) over and over. Video is something else again - beyond a few favorites, most people don't want to re-watch something they've seen already. Storage is cheap (and getting cheaper) though, so I'm not sure that the cloud monculture issue will ever truly arise.

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posted by James Robertson

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itNews

Wasn't that Dead Already?

April 5, 2010 8:24:16.978

Spotted in PCWorld Latest Technology News

Microsoft is ending its support for Intel's Itanium processor with the current version of its Windows Server OS; according to a Microsoft blog posting Friday.

The death throes of the iTanium have to be the slowest moton thing in the tech space ever...

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posted by James Robertson

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humor

Sad But True

April 5, 2010 8:22:30.088

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Concentrated Goodness: Audio

April 4, 2010 21:41:59.461

This week, Michael and I got VisualWorks customers from older versions of VW up to the latest. It ended up being a wide ranging conversation; this is part 1 of 2 - part 2 will be out next week.

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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gadgets

iPad Impressions

April 4, 2010 10:27:44.507

I've been asked about my impressions of the device, but at this point, I don't really have any - it's my wife's iPad, and she's been using it. IN watching her use it, I've noticed that she's had some minor issues with the UI - she hasn't looked at an iPhone/Touch, so it's all based on prior expectations from OS X and Windows. The most interesting one I've seen? The fact that double click isn't used (other than double tap for zoom). As we settle in with the device, I'll have more to say, but so far - we like it.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

There's that iTunes Thing

April 3, 2010 20:10:21.993

Ummm:

Okay so the iPad has a problem that lots of software has, when you finish the basic setup -- now what? There are no movies, newspapers or books on the device, and no clue as to how to get them on there. Those are the first things I want to do, see how it plays stuff. Maybe I'm wrong about that. I should disconnect and see what I get.

Dave Winer must be the only person on the planet who doesn't know that you use iTunes to get stuff onto the iPad - either directly from the iTunes app on the device, or via synching from your computer.

posted by James Robertson

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media

The iPad will not Save Old Media

April 3, 2010 20:02:16.703

I agree with John Dvorak on this one - the iPad will not be the salvation of old media (newspapers and magazines). Why not?

No matter that you are not reading these journals now. For some unexplained reason you'll want to read them on the iPad. How does that make any sense?

Exactly. The problem is the content, not the medium. The old media guys haven't figured that out yet, and it looks like they never will.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

iPad Unboxed

April 3, 2010 19:14:42.838

My wife unboxed the iPad this afternoon, and liked it well enough that the planned trip to the gym became an unplanned hunt for likely apps :)

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

The iPad Arrives

April 3, 2010 10:49:33.519

I'll let my wife enjoy the unboxing (it's for her, after all) - but the box is here:

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posted by James Robertson

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humor

Oops

April 2, 2010 22:50:11.340

Here's a funny thing that floated by on the TV tonight:

posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

iPad For the Win?

April 2, 2010 21:55:16.865

Doc Searls thinks that more open mobile platforms, like Android or Symbian, will end up beating Apple in the new space being created by the iPad:

The iPad will launch a category within which it will be far from the only player. Apple's feudal market-control methods (all developers and customers are trapped within its walled garden) will encourage competitors that lack the same limitations. We should expect other hardware companies to launch pads running on open source operating systems, especially Android and Symbian. (Disclosure: I consult Symbian.) These can support much larger markets than Apple's closed and private platforms alone will allow.

I'm not so sure. Part of why the iPhone and Touch are doing so well is that they provide a consistent, simple user interface. No file system to mess with, not multiple stores - one stop shopping and your apps handle all of their own details for you. Google doesn't really look at the world that way; I seriously doubt that any device they ever sponsor will be as easy to use as what Apple is coming up with.

Arguably, Android's ecosystem is more open that Apple's, but thus far, that hasn't been enough - it would have to be at least as good an end to end system. Until another vendor in the mobile space beats the iTunes/mobile device combo, Apple will lead. That's not destiny; there are plenty of ways other vendors could do better (wifi synching, anyone?). It's just that they haven't done it yet - and the open source community really doesn't have much of a track record in the "easy to use UI" space.

Update: I disagree with Cory Doctorow for all the same reasons. Here's the thing - cars used to be accessible to owners as well, and now they pretty much require an expert to do anything under the hood. And people still buy cars. Consumer goods go through a lifecycle, and they eventually exit the "anyone can get under the hood" part of it.

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posted by James Robertson

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podcasting

Live in 10 Minutes

April 2, 2010 12:51:48.610

We'll be talking to Dave Buck about porting VisualWorks apps from older revs (as far back as the 2.5 era) up to the latest (7.7) at 1 PM eastern US time - about 10 minutes from when I'm posting this. Listen live at justin.tv

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

File Reading in Smalltalk: Video

April 2, 2010 11:30:35.115

Today's screencast is a basic introduction to file handling in Smalltalk, looking at class Filename, and at basic Stream protocol.

Here's the code I used in the short examples in the screencast - The #nextLine message is part of the NetClients package - when I did the recording, I didn't notice that. To get that code, load the NetClients parcel:


"Filename is your entry point into file handling"
(Filename named: '.') directoryContents.

"Read line by line"
list := List new.
stream := 'lines.txt' asFilename readStream.
[stream atEnd]
	whileFalse: [list add: stream nextLine].
stream close.


"more manually, to show stream protocol"
list := List new.
stream := 'lines.txt' asFilename readStream.
[[stream atEnd]
	whileFalse: [| next|
				next := stream upTo: Character cr.
				list add: next]]
ensure: [stream close].

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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gadgets

Worst Named Device Ever Launches

April 1, 2010 20:23:21.169

Engadget has a first look at the JooJoo. Yes, it is the worst named device ever...

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Learn How to Upgrade from an Older VW

April 1, 2010 20:12:24.949

We'll be doing the podcast with David Buck tomorrow - he's recently been working on upgrading some VisualWorks users from older versions (including version 2.5.x) to the latest release. Listen live on justin.tv

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posted by James Robertson

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web

Cloud Going Mainstream

April 1, 2010 12:57:31.804

O'Reilly says that "cloud computing" is now where "web apps" were a few years ago - they are what "everyone" is working on:

For many years at OSCON we called out "web applications" as a distinct topic. This year it became a useless demarcation, as just about everything is a web application. Cloud computing is in a place similar to web applications a few years ago.

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posted by James Robertson

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web

The Reshaping of the Web Begins

April 1, 2010 12:34:14.805

Maybe Apple as a whole has a distortion field, only it's reaching out into reality:

The Wall Street Journal reports (with its usual paywall shenanigans) that both CBS and ABC will be streaming TV shows to the iPad. CBS will opt for video that you can watch through Safari on the iPad--as we reported last week, the network has already been running tests of HTML5-served video. As of Saturday, when the iPad launches, CBS plans to have full episodes of popular reality show Survivor available, as well as clips from other shows. At some point in the future, however, the network is shooting for full parity between what's offered on its standard Website and on the iPad.

I suspect that the iPad we bought will get a lot of use for streaming TV...

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

RSS and Atom Feeds in Smalltalk: Video

April 1, 2010 9:08:08.438

Today's screencast looks at how to read rss and atom news feeds in Smalltalk.

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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smalltalk

Smalltalk in Ottawa

April 1, 2010 8:01:00.562

Dave Buck reports that Dorin Sandu will be talking about Smalltalk and Cocoa in Ottawa this month:

We will provide an overview of model-view-controller as implemented by Cocoa, introduce key-value coding, key-value observing, key-value binding, and review some of the provided controllers and views. We will illustrate all these concepts through several example applications implemented in Smalltalk.

Follow the link for location details; it's happening at 6 PM April 14

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Early iPad Reviews Look Good

March 31, 2010 22:32:21.210

We're looking forward to the arrival of the iPad we ordered - the early reports (Boing Boing and Walt Mossberg) sound good.

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posted by James Robertson

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browsers

Adobe Finds a Friend

March 31, 2010 21:29:58.714

Interesting - Google is baking Flash into Chrome:

The search-and-advertising giant announced Tuesday that it will bundle Adobe’s Flash player with downloads of the Chrome browser, putting Google in sharper opposition to Apple

Of course, with the popularity of the iPhone (and the seeming popularity of the new iPad), site developers are going to have to deal with the "no flash" problem anyway...

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

iPhone Finally Getting Full Multi-Tasking

March 31, 2010 15:35:34.822

The 4.0 version of the iPhone OS will finally take us to where we were with Windows 3.0 - task switching:

The technology, detailed by people familiar with Apple's plans for the new firmware, will finally allow users to launch multiple apps in the background and quickly switch between them, as AppleInsider exclusively reported earlier this month. Currently, a running app must be quit when the user returns to the Home screen.

For all the verbiage about how "you don't really need this", chat apps (skype, irc, AIM) are way, way less useful if you have to fully quit and log back in every time you want to check something else.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Equality and Equivalence: Video

March 31, 2010 8:29:46.360

Today's screencast looks at how #= and #== differ in Smalltalk.

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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smalltalk

Smalltalk and Cassandra

March 31, 2010 7:34:42.085

It's a command line heavy install at the moment, but it looks like it's possible to get Pharo and Cassandra talking.

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posted by James Robertson

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open source

No More Free Solaris

March 31, 2010 7:18:26.035

Looks like Oracle understands that Sun's "make it up in volume" theory just wasn't working out:

Rebranded Oracle Solaris operating system, the UNIX OS will now be available for a 90 days trial version and then users have to pay to buy a licence. Earlier, under Sun, the OS was available for free but users had an option to buy support from Sun. This may seem OK for enterprise customers as cost of OS is miniscule compared to cost of services. Companies like Oracle generate extremely thick revenues through services and support.

I'm not sure what kind of future Solaris has in any event, free or otherwise. Linux mostly qualifies as "good enough", I think.

posted by James Robertson

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