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smalltalk

Open Social for Smalltalk

June 5, 2010 21:00:12.432

Carlos Crosetti has been busy - creating an interface from Pharo for Open Social.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Ecosystems

June 5, 2010 20:48:36.959

I hadn't thought of Apple's mobile space this way, but mp3newswire has an interesting set of numbers:

In 1959 5,749,000 television sets were sold in the US, bringing the cumulative total of sets sold since 1950 to 63,542,128 units.
As of April this year Apple sold 75 million iPhone and iPod touch units, devices capable of delivering video via Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Add to that figure 2 million iPads and counting. By the end of the year Apple should have about 90 million smart mobile devices in the wild.

Now, combine that with the announced iAd platform, and you have a new media empire rising - and it's one for which Apple doesn't have to share the revenues as much as the networks had to...

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posted by James Robertson

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browsers

Ah, Standards

June 5, 2010 19:02:10.026

You have to love the sheer cluelessness of this Apple demo site - they are trying to show off how Safari supports standards such as HTML5, which is fair. But, if you try a different browser, you get this:

It would be a lot more effective if you could use the site to compare and contrast with Safari. Found via this Guardian story.

posted by James Robertson

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web

Will This Make Site Design Less Relevant?

June 5, 2010 18:30:16.413

I noticed an interesting feature for the upcoming Safari 5 - one that, if replicated in Chrome, FF, and IE, will make web designers a little less relevant:

Safari Reader: Click on the new Reader icon to view articles on the web in a single, clutter free page

Most sites have a header, footer, sidebars, and, with ads, all manner of annoying tactics to get your attention. If this catches on, it could do for typical web advertising what the web did to classifieds...

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posted by James Robertson

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webVelocity

WebVelocity 1.1 Beta

June 5, 2010 13:09:30.468

The beta release of WebVelocity 1.1 is ready for evaluation - I've sent a note out to the mailing list for the product. If you're interested, check out the discussion group we set up.

posted by James Robertson

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humor

How Business Incentives Are Really Set

June 5, 2010 12:08:44.374

Scott Adams is more right than he knows...

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk in Ottawa

June 5, 2010 7:20:05.000

David Buck tells us that the Ottawa STUG will be talking about debugging in June:

Smalltalkers user the debugger all the time to see what a program is doing and to help familiarize themselves with new parts of the system. Most developers, however aren't familiar with some of the more advanced features of the debugger. In this talk, David will present some of the more obscure areas of the debugger including various options for stepping, breakpoints, one shot breakpoints, watchpoints, variable watches, class watches and more.

Follow the link for location details - it's on June 9th at 6 PM

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

The New ATT Data Plans: Out of Step With Reality

June 4, 2010 21:00:28.487

Unless you only stream video while you're on WiFi, the new data plans from AT&T are insane - Clicker did some basic math on it:

For example, if you download one episode of Mad Men (47min 41sec) from iTunes you’ll be using up 554MB for the standard video and a whopping 1.51GB for the episode in HD. That’s practically your whole data allotment.

AT&T has been explaining that the "average" iPhone user uses way less than 2GB of data per month, but: the iPhone is not the iPad. The iPad is a much better device for consuming video, and the usage patterns for it will differ from those of the iPhone.

If AT&T sticks to this plan, Apple will end up paying for it in very, very unhappy customers. Since Apple really, really doesn't like that, I expect this policy to change.

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posted by James Robertson

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music

Google Music

June 4, 2010 18:21:17.446

Looks like Apple is about to have real competition in the music - Google:

At Google I/O a few weeks ago, Google teased the audience with a glimpse of a web-based iTunes competitor that would be a new section of the Android Market. Details were sparse during that time, but we may have found the name of the service through a new logo that is hosted on Google’s domain: Google Music [ed: The url for that graphic 404's now].

Apple's going to have to get with the program - no more tethered only synching for iPads, Touches, and iPhones. Or, they can get left behind...

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk Tutorials

June 4, 2010 10:12:23.997

I've put together a number of walkthrough posts, and I figured it might be nice to have a simple listing of them, rather than forcing people to page through the blog post category.

Of course, you can also subscribe to the tutorial specific feed.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Customizing Object Display in the Inspector - Video

June 4, 2010 8:33:52.158

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at customizing the basic object print used by the inspector in VisualWorks. Click on the viewer below to watch it now:

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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humor

Capping the Oil Well Explained

June 4, 2010 6:38:50.848

Peny Arcade has a useful analogy :)

posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

The Danger For Apple

June 4, 2010 6:17:58.000

Apple is riding high on their iPad sales right now, but I think Jason Snell is on to something. While showing off his iPad to a (non-techie) colleague, he ran into this:

The other day I was talking to a colleague, a bright guy who obviously works in the technology and media industries, but isn’t on the technical side. He’s what I’d call a moderately informed tech consumer, and I was showing him my new iPad. His response to me was shocking: He said that he had been interested in buying an iPad, but needed to read PDF files, and since Apple only supported its own formats, he couldn’t buy one.

Now of course, you can view PDF files on an iPad, and, load video and audio that didn't come from Apple. but - notice the assumptions. Apple is building up a reputation as a walled garden outfit. If that meme spreads, then their hardware sales will suffer.

Apple needs to open up the iPad and iphone enough to kill that growing meme - or the fall from grace they experienced during the rise of DOS and Windows will happen again.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Internet Sharing, Mac to XBox

June 3, 2010 20:51:42.000

While I like the XBox, I was annoyed by this - I went off to exercise earlier (stationary bike), and took the XBox upstairs with me. I don't have the wifi adaptor for the XBox, and there's no wire in that room, but I figured that shouldn't be a problem - I fired up Mass Effect 2 .

Wrong

It requires a connection. No problem - I grabbed my Macbook, set up internet sharing, and hooked the wire up. Easy, right? Well.... no. It didn't work. I didn't have all day, so I just went back and played another game, but I Googled later, and came up with this:

  • Start Internet Sharing
  • Edit /etc/bootpd.plist as root: change reply_threshold_seconds to 0
  • Reboot. Yes, you really do have to reboot. Don't start/stop Internet Sharing before rebooting because it will revert your change on you

Erf. Next time I give things a go, I'll try that. I've never had an issue sharing a connection from the Mac, either to other Macs or Windows PCs, so I'm kind of puzzled by this one...

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posted by James Robertson

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PR

Feel the Stupid

June 3, 2010 17:41:17.482

Giorgio Galante has released the contents of the email he sent to AT&T's CEO, along with the audio for the awesomely stupid response he got back. A company with a clue would have had something resembling a response by now, but I guess that's not AT&T.

Looks like they did recognize how bad this looked. Engadget reports that ATT has apologized to Galante:

Giorgio tells us that he's received a sincere apology from an AT&T senior VP, who took responsibility for the mixup. Apparently the cease and desist warning came about due to bad reading of AT&T internal policy -- Giorgio was told the rep who made the call is "not having the best of days today" -- and AT&T tells us it's reviewing its procedures to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Still - I wonder how awesome the next chat between Jobs and Stephenson will be?

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Inconceivable!

June 3, 2010 17:26:28.000

With the rationales being offered by AT&T (and various consultants) for the changes to their data plans, I'm reminded of Vizzini's constant cry in "The Princess Bride":

But industry analysts said that when customers take “unlimited” literally, those plans rapidly become money losers for the companies — and lead to network congestion.

Gosh, how dare those pesky customers - taking the words the vendor used to describe the service seriously! Next thing you know, those pesky customers will also expect honest bills and polite service. The horror.

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posted by James Robertson

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jobs

Smalltalk in Switzerland

June 3, 2010 16:19:49.639

This will appear in James Savidge's jobs database, but here are the details I have now:

I am recruiting for a “3rd Line Application Support professional with experience of Smalltalk” for a global Investment Bank based in Zurich Switzerland.

You can contact Ahmed Baig for further details.

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posted by James Robertson

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webVelocity

WebVelocity 1.1 Nears

June 3, 2010 16:01:57.469

Arden is asking for people interested in WebVelocity to check out the 1.1 beta, which should be ready shortly. Interested? Send an email to him, or to me.

Want to see what's coming? Michael has done a screencast.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Looking for the VW 7.7a VM?

June 3, 2010 10:01:48.888

I pushed a post up with directions and direct links over on my Cincom blog

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Inspector Tricks - Video

June 3, 2010 9:15:41.422

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at some of the interesting things you can do with the inspector and the workspace involving drag/drop in VisualWorks. Click on the viewer below to watch it now:

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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PR

How to Look Like an Idiot

June 2, 2010 22:42:50.498

Send an email to Steve Jobs - maybe you get a one line response. Send one to ATT's Randall Stephenson - get threatened with legal action. The sheer stupidity on parade here is awesome:

as reader Giorgio Galante found out today, sending AT&T's CEO two emails in two weeks results in a phone call from AT&T's Executive Response Team and a warning that further emails will result in a cease and desist letter

I wonder if AT&T can spell PR - even if you spot them the first two letters...

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

More Apple/Verizon Rumors

June 2, 2010 18:21:33.000

These iPhone/iPad rumors keep popping up:

According to a highly placed source of ours, Verizon Wireless is currently testing Apple iPad devices on their network.

I still have my doubts. I just don't see Apple going to CDMA at this point.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Moose 4.0

June 2, 2010 16:54:17.569

The Moose team just shipped 4.0 - there's lots of new stuff, and you can get it for Pharo, Squeak, and VisualWorks.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

UIPainter (3) - Video

June 2, 2010 10:30:06.809

Today's Smalltalk Daily is part 3 of a 3 part look at the VisualWorks UI Painter (GUI Builder) tools. Today we look at hooking up the UI to a domain model. If you want to see part 1, go here - for part 2, go here. Click on the viewer below to watch it now:

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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media

Self Parody at Carr Central

June 2, 2010 9:11:51.337

No, Nick Carr can't get off this easy:

Warning: the first idiot who writes a comment on this post pointing out the "irony" of its links will be tracked down, tortured, and shot.

In discussing reaction to his piece on links and attention span, he pretty much had to link to other people - what's a discussion otherwise?

The part of this I find amusing is this: Carr seems to think that the web will destroy long form, immersive reading. Excuse me? When was there a huge amount of that going on anyway? Long form reading is (and always has been) engaged in by a fairly small number of people. This supposed golden age of media that Carr seems to yearn for never existed. Most newspapers prior to the mid 20th century were openly biased scandal sheets; there was a brief confluence of technology that allowed a few people (like Carr, it seems) to believe that journalists were some new class of objective uber-men, able to convey the news to us poor heathens in a pure form.

What hasn't occurred to Carr is this: stuff on the net is one form of writing, consumed in a particular way. Books are a different form of writing, consumed in another. Some people prefer one over the other, just as there were plenty of people back in the 80's who preferred "People" to "The Wall Street Journal".

There's no "winner" or "loser" here; there's just a new form of writing and reading. Maybe Carr can't consume books like he used to; that sounds like a personal problem. As you can see here, I haven't run across that problem, and I'm pretty heavily immersed in this whole internet thing.

Overall, I think Mathew Ingram has Carr pegged pretty well.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Tethering Finally Coming to the US

June 2, 2010 6:43:22.476

Along with a host of other changes to their billing plans for data, ATT will finally be rolling out tethering (although tethering will wait for OS 4). The big change - the "unlimited" data plan is gone, replaced by a 2 tier plan with - wait for it - reasonable overage charges. Engadget has the details.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

App Store Unpredictability

June 1, 2010 16:44:39.378

This leaves a huge opening for Google (and eventually HP, if they get anywhere with WebOS):

I see now why people are so angry at the ‘murky’ nature of the App Store, and I’m starting to agree with them. My Frame was approved by Apple 3 times (once for each version we released), and then now, at version 1.2 they decide it’s to be removed? How can a company be prepared to invest into a platform that can change at any time, cutting you off and kicking you out, with no course of action but to whine on some no-name blog. There is no alternative platform, despite what others may say about Android, it’s immature and their app store(s) are a wild west nightmare. It really is Apple’s way or the highway, and that really stinks.

That kind of unpredictability isn't at all good for a business plan. It works for Apple now, because there's something of a void beyond them. However, all it'll take is for Google and/or HP to create something "good enough" to start luring developers across - because predictability will trump coolness....

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posted by James Robertson

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copyright

EBook Standards

June 1, 2010 10:55:33.000

I'm with Engadget Here:

Of course, they wouldn't be publishers if they didn't also lust after robust DRM measures, which might explain why they're not roundly supporting the readily available EPUB format. It has DRM options, but perhaps they're not gnarly enough for the dudes responsible for bringing us the psychological horror of the Twilight series. We still don't like the suggestion that the people, Amazon primarily, who popularized this market should just open it up out of the goodness of their own hearts -- maybe we would if publishers ever showed themselves capable of doing similarly noble things.

Really, that about sums it up. If they want a standard, what's wrong with ePub?

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Evangelist Evening at Epicenter

June 1, 2010 8:43:48.000

Julian Fitzell will be part of the Envangelist Evening at Epicenter. It looks like it will be structured as a presentation (Matt Raible) followed by debate sort of thing.

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posted by James Robertson

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books

Depression Reading

June 1, 2010 8:15:16.852

Over the weekend I finished a depressing book - Vox Day's The Return of the Great Depression . Day doesn't have much patience for the Keynesian model of economics; in fact, there's a fairly extended discussion of the flaws (as Day sees them) in Paul Krugman's thinking.

You may not agree with Day's take on things, but one thing's for sure - it's quite different than what you'll see on CNBC, or just about anywhere else in business/economic reporting. What he says about debt and fiat currency makes a lot of sense to me (although I have no idea what the "right" answer is to the huge levels of debt that all governments seem to have acquired). Suffice to say that Day is not optimistic - the title of his book pretty much gives away where he thinks things are going.

He quotes Mish Shedlock a few times in the text, and I enjoy reading Mish's blog. If you want a non-mainstream take on how things are going, you'll get it from this book and from Mish. I think it's worth getting the perspective, even if you come away unconvinced.

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

UIPainter (2) - Video

June 1, 2010 7:58:28.717

Today's Smalltalk Daily is part 2 of a 3 part look at the VisualWorks UI Painter (GUI Builder) tools. Today we look at hooking up the UI to a domain model. If you want to see part 1, go here. Click on the viewer below to watch it now:

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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media

Carr Would Have Hated Writing

June 1, 2010 5:55:38.000

It's useful to read Nick Carr from a "there's a set of ideas to avoid" standpoint. Take his latest on the humble link:

Sometimes, they're big distractions - we click on a link, then another, then another, and pretty soon we've forgotten what we'd started out to do or to read. Other times, they're tiny distractions, little textual gnats buzzing around your head. Even if you don't click on a link, your eyes notice it, and your frontal cortex has to fire up a bunch of neurons to decide whether to click or not.

Now, imagine Carr a few thousand years ago, when the written word appeared. He would have fulminated against it as the "death of storytelling". To an extent, he would even have been correct - no one develops memorization skills as our ancestors did anymore. Then again, we don't have to - Wikipedia (et. al.) are never more than a link away.

Carr has become a force in favor of inertia. He's comfortable with a certain level of technology, and pretty much wants things to stay in his comfort zone. The trouble is, he sounds just reasonable enough to get a few shallow thinkers to follow along.

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posted by James Robertson

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stupidity

Darwin Award Candidate

May 31, 2010 12:08:37.181

The judge in this suit should not only throw the case out, but nominate the plaintiff for an honorable mention in the "Darwin Awards":

On January 19, 2010, Rosenberg was apparently trying to get from 96 Daly Street, Park City, Utah, to 1710 Prospector Avenue, Park City, Utah. She looked up the walking directions using Google Maps on her Blackberry. Google Maps suggested a route that included a half-mile walk down "Deer Valley Drive," which is also known as "Utah State Route 224." There's not much more to say--she started walking down the middle of a highway, and a car hit her. Who wouldn't have seen that one coming?

In what version of reality does behaving like that involve a lawsuit?

Update: Credit where due - Danny Sullivan originally broke the story.

posted by James Robertson

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books

Power Hungry

May 31, 2010 11:34:14.207

I just finished reading a the book Power Hungry - it's a good book, detailing where the power of today and tomorrow are likely to come from. You have to be willing to deal with some math to read this book - and the math makes it pretty clear (at least to me) that wind and solar are not going to be more than bit players in our energy future.

That all comes down to something pretty simple: energy density. To over-simplify a lot, how much space do you need in order to generate a given amount of energy? For things like coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear (or for vehicles, gas), the space you need is pretty small, and you can locate the power generation capacity close to where the power is needed. For things like wind and solar, you need gobs of space, and, generally speaking, they need to be located pretty far away from where the power they generate is needed.

And that doesn't even get into the intermittancy problem (which the author, Robert Bryce, covers in some detaiil). I've written recently about my skepticism about electric cars, and one of the more amusing parts of this book is the series of headlines about electric cars being "the future" - with that series beginning in 1901. It seems that electric vehicles have been the "wave of the future" for a long time, and the problem remains the same now as it was for Edison - battery capacity and life.

Bryce thinks the future belongs to what he calls N2N - Natural gas and nuclear - and he makes the point that if you are concerned about air pollution (either CO2, or, to me at least, the more dangerous toxins that are emitted by burning things like coal), you should favor that future as well.

That's a very brief summary of his points - like I said, Bryce marshals a lot of data in support of his conclusions. I'd recommend taking a look before you draw your own conclusions. I think he makes a ton of sense.

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posted by James Robertson

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books

Portal War

May 31, 2010 9:33:31.578

I just finished a fairly engaging techno-thriller: Counterstrike: The Last World War, Book 2. It's a follow on from The Last World War , something I read a few years ago. I happened upon the book at Borders while getting my daughter an AP prep guide; I had mostly forgotten about the earlier book.

It's a typical techno-thriller, with a Stargate wormhole type of plot device. The kicker - aliens fighting a long (think generations) war create the technology, hoping to use it as a game changer, allowing them to deploy across their own planet. Instead, they end up accidentally opening wormholes to Earth, and humanity gets involved in the war.

Through the first book, it's not at all clear why the war was happening; in the second book, a vague "cold war gone hot" device crops up, with Earth siding with the "Western" side of the conflict. An anti-war group becomes something of a plot device in the second book, but not for long - mostly, they help set up the predictable plot twist that puts the book on the race track towards the conclusion.

The story was fun enough to read, in a "beach reading" sort of way - although I really wonder how much longer authors can pull out grizzled Vietnam war vets to fight again. Seriously - that's a long time ago now :) On the other hand, how many techno-thrillers have you read recently where a North Korean tank jockey is one of the good guys?

Anyway, if you pick up these books, don't expect anything deep. They are enjoyable yarns, but that's about it.

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posted by James Robertson

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history

Memorial Day

May 31, 2010 9:03:23.658

Forgotten in the stream of "beginning of summer" barbecues is where Memorial Day came from - it was originally set aside as "Decoration Day" - a day to honor the fallen from the US Civil War. Over time it's become a day to remember US veterans in general, from all wars and eras, but - I think it's useful to recall the original idea. The Civil War remains a huge breaking point between then and now - before, "United States" was often plural, whereas after, it became singular. A small seeming change, but it's had a lot of impact over time.

Sitting here in Maryland in 2010, it's hard to imagine the depth of feeling people in 1861 had for their regions and states. That could be because I'm a transplant from New York, surrounded by other transplants from all over, but it's the way things are. It's not only times that change - nations and the people who comprise them change over time as well.

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posted by James Robertson

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news

Why Electric Cars are Still "In the Future"

May 31, 2010 8:47:06.944

From Popular Mechanics:

In contrast, a station with eight Eaton/TEPCO Quick Chargers could theoretically fuel just 24 i-Mievs to 80-percent full in an hour. To match the capacity of a modest gas station, completely filling 160 i-Mievs to 100-percent of battery capacity (on 25 minute charges) in one hour, would take at least 67 Quick Chargers with one parking space for each charger. Figure 300-square feet of space for each charger and parking spot and that’s a half acre of land before accounting for driveways or other infrastructure

Mind you, that kind of "quick charge" also depletes battery life - everything I've been reading says that you would, as an owner, want to limit the number of quick charges you did. Which means the picture is even worse - imagine the typical recharge station requiring a 4-6 hour parking time. That's fine if everyone lives within range of their destination (work, say), and they don't ever have to drive anywhere else after they get to work. A few minutes pondering how we actually use our cars will puncture that fantasy pretty quickly.

Of course, there's another issue as well. The "clean power" for these vehicles doesn't jump magically from a wall; in fact, it may well come from a coal fired plant. And if you were to replace a significant number of cars with electric vehicles, well - I think you would need to start putting in new generation capacity as well.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Skype 3G

May 30, 2010 14:16:05.009

There's good news and bad news. The good: Skype over 3G is finally available for the iPhone. The bad: as of August, Skype will charge for that feature:

After August 2010, Skype will start charging a “small monthly fee” for use of the 3G calling feature. You heard that right — even though you’re already paying AT&T (in the U.S., at least) for your data plan, Skype is throwing in an extra fee. At this point we’re not sure if the move is Skype’s own doing, or if the network operators had a hand in trying to make the Skype app a less desirable option.

I'd suspect AT&T demanded that....

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posted by James Robertson

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sports

Take His Copy of MoneyBall Away

May 30, 2010 11:34:34.896

There is such a thing as being overly immersed in statistics, and Joe Girardi is an example. Consider yesterday's painful game against the Indians:

holding what, on the surface, would have seemed to be a relatively safe 10-5 lead over one of the worst teams in baseball, Joe Girardi decided it was time to embark on what we have come to call "the constant search for the one guy who doesn't have it" and, in the course of three Yankee pitching changes, the Indians batted around to take a 12-10 lead.

In the midst of that mess, one of the pitchers thrown into the fray got a man out on a routine flyball, but was then pulled - likely on the basis of some stat lurking on a clipboard. What the clipboard doesn't show is the intangible "he has good stuff" thing. Some days athletes do well; other days, they're just off. I say that as a guy who ran track and cross country in high school, and I remember plenty of "on" and "off" days.

In modern baseball, that concept has been totally lost. Instead, it's all pitch counts, individual matchups, and other arcane stats. The notion that someone might be "on" is utterly gone.

Now, going with your gut is probably not the best way to run a baseball team - the moneyball thing has paid dividends. But... it's also overused, and Girardi seems to be an utter slave to the idea. When it comes to pitching, it's obvious that he never pays attention to what's going on out on the field - it's only the clipboard that matters to him.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk Roadmap, 2010 - Podcast

May 30, 2010 10:57:49.662

This week's podcast features our Product Manager, Arden Thomas. In this podcast, Arden discusses three things with us:

We didn't discuss WebVelocity 1.1, since we covered that on a recent podcast. Arden is anxious to hear what your needs are in Cincom Smalltalk - if you like what you hear this week (and next; this is part 1 of a 2 part podcast), let him know. And if you think there's something else we should be doing - let him know about that, too!

To listen now, you can either download the mp3 edition, or the AAC edition. The AAC edition comes with chapter markers. You can subscribe to either edition of the podcast directly in iTunes; just search for Smalltalk and look in the Podcast results. You can subscribe to the mp3 edition directly using this feed, or the AAC edition using this feed using any podcatching software. You can also download the podcast in ogg format.

To listen immediately, use the player below:

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

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!

posted by James Robertson

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itNews

Let No Success Go Unpunished

May 30, 2010 9:46:40.497

A more cynical person might say "let no insufficient number of money laden lobbyists go unpunished". The Feds have decided that Apple is in need of a good spanking:

"The [Justice Dept.] is doing outreach," an anonymous Hollywood source told the Post. "You can't dictate terms to the industry. The Adobe thing is just inviting the wrath of everybody."

Someone should just ask this first - after all the yelling and legal maneuvering, exactly what did the Microsoft cases amount to? Lots of money for lawyers, and precious little else. The competition moved MS back, not the DOJ - although I suppose you could argue that the DOJ made MS skittish enough that they didn't engage well. I'm not sure I'd call that a win.

Now it's Apple's turn. And you know what? In the mobile space, there's plenty of competition. I don't think Google needs help, and it looks like HP is jumping in with WebOS. And Microsoft is trying (not well, but that goes back to being skittish, I think), with their planned Windows 7 phones. What exactly can the DOJ do that won't be done better by letting this play out?

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posted by James Robertson

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TV and Video Games Blur

May 30, 2010 0:20:11.438

My wife was channel surfing this evening, and I had to ask her to pause - we ran across "Red Dead Redemption". At first I thought it was a trailer ad for the game, but it's a 30 minute movie - filmed inside the game engine:

But the story doesn't end there; instead of posting the video online or on the consoles the game is out on, the RDR short film will be debuting on Fox this Saturday at midnight. That's right: it's a damn television premiere.

The day is approaching when this kind of production will give actors a run for their money...

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk in London

May 29, 2010 19:00:45.757

Julian Fitzell reports that the Camp Smalltalk event in London (July) is getting some good attention:

When the UK Smalltalk User Group started planning the Camp Smalltalk London event a few weeks ago, we imagined we might get 20 people. After only four days, 30 have signed up and we're jumping to figure out how many more people are interested and how many more we can handle. There are certainly worse problems to have!

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posted by James Robertson

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Open the iPad

May 29, 2010 18:25:16.213

Charles Stross makes some good points about the pros and cons of the iPad - his take on Flash is funny, but then I ran across this:

Secondary motive: I want to stay current. I have a bunch of O'Reilly nutshell books on Python. I would like to be able to open a terminal and run a python interpreter while I work through the tutorials. Ditto ruby, smalltalk, or whatever else I want to play with. The "no interpreters" rule in the app store gets right up my nose.

While average users neither know nor care about that rule, the tech influencers do care. I didn't think that mattered at first - which, given my role as a Smalltalk evengelist might be surprising - but I'm starting to think it will matter. As happened with PC's "back in the day", Android (or WebOS) tablets will eventually have a "good enough" user experience, and the open nature of them will matter. Apple lost that war once; they might be setting themselves up to lose a second time.

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posted by James Robertson

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Changing Video Habits

May 29, 2010 15:59:18.172

This report about TV/internet video use doesn't surprise me:

Nearly half (46 percent) of 18- to 25-year-olds spend as much time using online video services as they do watching TV, says RealNetworks. Research by online video software firm revealed that just under a third (32 percent) say the PC is their preferred platform for watching TV and video.

That tracks pretty well with what I see here - my daughter spends far more time with the net and video games (Xbox and Wii) than she does with TV. For that matter, so do I. I'm not entirely sure what changed, but over the last few years I've found TV to be less and less interesting. The only shows I really cared to watch on a regular basis this last few months have been Lost (now ended), Stargate: Universe, Dr. Who, and Fringe. There are other things my wife likes that I tolerate, but I don't much care about. My daughter is even further down that path; the only show I've seen her have real interest in lately is Dr. Who.

This will have a rather large impact on the standard TV/advertising model as the next decade unfolds.

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posted by James Robertson

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Looking Backwards

May 29, 2010 14:52:27.359

Jeff Jarvis doesn't like what he sees in an FTC report on how to "save journalism". Like Jarvis, I wasn't aware that journalism needed saving; I am aware that there are (still influential) legacy players that want the field cleared of all those pesky new media types.

And people wonder why I'm skeptical about government. With "help" like what's being talked about here, who needs obstacles?

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general

Sprucing the Yard Up

May 29, 2010 12:12:26.060

It took me a few days of separate efforts - buying the flowers, spreading the dirt, getting the trees delivered - and finally, getting new garden hoses, as a weed whacker seems to have done in the old one - but it finally all came together this morning. I have two photos below; if you're on Facebook, I posted an album.

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posted by James Robertson

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Privacy Schizophrenia

May 29, 2010 10:06:08.950

On the one hand, you have people worried that Facebook is exposing too much, and not giving users enough control over the process (never mind Zuckerburg's quite clear mindset on where privacy is headed). On the other hand, Facebook is still growing, and Foursquare has a million people per day "checking in" - i.e., letting the world now the minute details of where they are and what they are up to.

And then there's the dark side of all this - how third parties are trying to use that glut of information to learn more about you - and doing so incompetently:

One day, Greg was called in to see his manager and was told that his services would no longer be needed. He was asked to clear his desk and escorted from the building with no further explanation. His family hadn't even finished unpacking from the cross-country move, and Greg was faced with the shock of unemployment.

Thankfully, after some pushing Greg was able to learn that the company had fired him because the subsequent background check had uncovered a criminal background and outstanding warrants the company was unaware of. Of course, Greg was also unaware of the criminal background and outstanding warrants because the company had uncovered information on the wrong "Greg".

That's the sort of confused privacy world we live in. People are exposing more and more of their lives to the world, are vaguely worried about it, but keep doing it anyway for the immediate (perceived) benefits. I'm not sure where that's going to end up, but it's going to be different than it has been...

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posted by James Robertson

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itNews

Policy Via Obsolescense

May 29, 2010 7:44:48.000

This would be funnier if it weren't so pathetic:

"[Companies are] happy to stay with IE6 because ... a lot of the social networking sites and the sites that they deem are unnecessary for work purposes, they're not going to render and function properly within [older versions of] IE," Microsoft's Australian chief security adviser Stuart Strathdee said.

Can't say I've tried Facebook (et. al.) in IE 6 - I don't have it running anywhere. But seriously? With all of the security issues that MS has addressed since IE 6 with the 7 and 8 releases? Any IT department thinking that way needs to be outsourced...

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posted by James Robertson

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