. .

gadgets

I'll Believe it When I See it

June 29, 2010 21:12:10.775

Yet another "iPhone on Verizon" rumor has surfaced:

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.'s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.'s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.

How solid a rumor? Well...

The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn't public.

Right... It would still involve a downgrade so far as Apple is concerned (the whole voice/data problem on CDMA issue), and LTE is still on the horizon. So I'll believe it when I see it :)

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

tv

Hulu Subscriptions

June 29, 2010 14:23:03.462

If I could just stream episodes, and not have to worry about getting the (truly awful) Comcast DVR to work, I might move off cable completely. Hulu is trying to give me that option, with a monthly subscription plan:

In a first for Hulu, the shows will be accessible to subscribers on the iPhone, the iPad, and on some television sets. Soon it will also work through the PlayStation3 and Xbox video game consoles.

Between this, video games, and Netflix, I think we might be at a real inflection point for TV service. Like POTS phones, cable TV use has peaked, and will start to move downward.

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

development

Entity Based Programming?

June 29, 2010 10:55:44.798

Last night Michael pointed me to this article on something called "Entity Based Programming" - an approach that the author claims is better than OOP for MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Games). I read it with interest - the first three sections sounded interesting, and made some good points. Part four started to lose me though, as he veered into relational technology as the answer - by part five, I was completely off board. In a discussion of metadata, he had this to say about metadata for game objects:

You can’t do that with OOP: you can get some *similar* benefits by doing C-Header-File Voodoo, and writing lots of proprietary code … but … so much is dependent upon your header files that unless you really know what you’re doing you probably shouldn’t go there

This tells me that everything he knows about OOP comes from C and C++, which doesn't give me confidence in where he's coming from. It's the rest of part five that had me losing interest - his near obeisance to relational technology as a way to proceed. Apparently, he hasn't noticed that the large scale web apps - Twitter, Facebook, Digg - have all been bailing on relational technology, because it doesn't scale for their needs.

Based on what this guy writes - the need for speed - in MMOG systems, I simply cannot see relational as a scalable response. That's too bad, because the first three parts of his article were interesting. I'm not sure I'm sold on what he's pushing, but I was intrigued. Parts four and five? Totally lost me.

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 06/29/10: Smalltalk Syntax (4)

June 29, 2010 8:35:24.563

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at basic Smalltalk syntax. This is part 4. Today we look at operators in Smalltalk. If you can't watch the YouTube embed below, click here to go to the video now:

You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.

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

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

law

Predatory Lawyers

June 29, 2010 7:58:39.080

I really dislike this aspect of the legal system - trial lawyers who go fishing for cases:

Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff, LLP is looking for people who "recently purchased the new iPhone and have experienced poor reception quality, dropped calls and weak signals." That's the same firm that filed a federal class action suit over deceptive "offer" ads in games like Mafia Wars and Farmville.

The "beneficiaries" in these sorts of cases get little or nothing; the lawyers, on the other hand, pocket millions for "helping" the rest of us. The worst part is that their "help" usually results in higher prices. All firms like this do is subtract value - everywhere they go, things get worse.

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

itNews

Flash Has No Friends

June 28, 2010 22:36:28.274

I hesitated before posting this, but it was too good to leave alone: Flash officially has no friends left:

It may seem that Steve Jobs is on a lonely crusade against Adobe’s Flash format with the rest of the industry simply waiting who this battle will turn out. While Adobe is rallying support for Flash, Apple receives support from a rather unexpected ally, the adult film industry. The founder of Digital Playground, one of the porn heavyweights in the U.S., told ConceivablyTech that it will abandon Flash as soon as the desktop browsers fully support HTML 5.

Of course, it might give Steve Jobs an aneurysm when he hears that...

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

travel

London Time

June 28, 2010 11:11:11.336

I'll be heading to London next month - I arrive on July 15th, just before the Camp Smalltalk event (which I'll be attending). Anyone in town up for an evening at a pub on the 15th?

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 06/28/10: Smalltalk Syntax (3)

June 28, 2010 9:10:32.840

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at basic Smalltalk syntax. This is part 3 of at least 4 parts. Today we look at variables in Smalltalk. If you can't watch the YouTube embed below, click here to go to the video now:

You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.

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

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Weirdness in Parallels

June 28, 2010 5:17:13.000

Ok, I have a Windows 7 VM setup - it's using my wifi adaptor (this is parallels) for network, so that it can appear to be a "separate machine". I also have shared setup for things like the Documents folder. So... I found this odd. I couldn't get a Seaside server to start, and it boiled down to this - executing the following:


IPSocketAddress hostNameByAddress: #[127 0 0 1]

Comes back with - wait for it - '.psf'. I'm baffled; the call goes straight to the VM for some host API call. I suppose maybe I should configure a different sort of VM, but how much time do I want to spend on that? It was simpler to hack class IPSocketAddress and save the image to a new name. I'd still like to know what the heck is going on though...

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Industry Misinterpretations 194: Package Review

June 27, 2010 20:59:39.483

This week's podcast features something new - a review of a number of packages in the public store repository. We intend to make this subject a recurring feature of the podcast; we'll be talking about things in various Squeak/Pharo repositories over time as well. This week, we covered:

  • NameGenerator
  • Herl
  • SubFork
  • MustBeBoolean
  • ImageLocker

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!

Technorati Tags: , , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

culture

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

June 27, 2010 13:40:04.375

Things like this just make you shake your head....

Alyssa Thomas, 6, is a little girl who is already under the spotlight of the federal government. Her family recently discovered that Alyssa is on the "no fly" list maintained by U.S. Homeland Security.

Like a lot of current issues - things I see my daughter run into at school, the response to the oil spill, and so on - this is the elevation of rules and process over personal judgment. As a society, we have decided that "the rules" are all that matters, even when they result in really stupid things.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Smalltalk Solutions 2011

June 27, 2010 10:11:35.112

STIC has announced the 2011 Conference:

The STIC Board has decided to organize Smalltalk Solutions 2011 in Las Vegas from Sunday March 13 to Wednesday March 16, 2011. This time, one of our goals is to attract strangers, i.e. non-Smalltalks to our conference. Thus we are looking for an attractive sub title. Buzz words which popped into our minds are Cloud and Dynamic Languages. Thus we start a call for subtitle today. Please send your idea(s) to georg@stic.st until July 31st, 2010. The STIC Board of Directores shall vote on the subtitle. We sill also run a drawing amoung all submissions to win three prices: 10%, 5%, and 3% discount off the admission fee.

There will likely be a call for participation soon - in the meantime, if you have a suggestion for a subtitle, let Georg know.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

culture

The Rise of Delivery

June 27, 2010 10:06:49.412

I think there's something of a quiet revolution going on in retail - I say "quiet" because it goes beyond the typical desire to save sales tax involved in, say, an Amazon purchase.

This morning I had a grocery delivery arrive - unattended, on my front porch, with the perishable foods packed in cold packs. Last week, my iPhone and iPad arrived at my door - and while I was home to get those, I had printed out a "leave them on the porch" form in case I had to go out. I rarely go to places like Best Buy any longer; why would I? I can get hard drives and printer ink (the two most common things I end up needing) delivered to my door for a lot less than they charge, and with a lot more choice in ordering as well.

I might be something of an outlier for my age group, but this kind of thing is on the rise. It's just way, way simpler to order stuff. No driving, no hassles with parking - and it's going to drive a lot more change than the blathering you hear about suburbs vs. urban, or about driving vs. mass transit. Add in the fact that a lot more work can be done remotely, and you have a sea change in how people deal with things. To get the kind of services I enjoy:

  • Fast internet
  • Inexpensive delivery of goods

You need to live in an area that's dense enough for, say, broadband to pay for itself, but you don't need to live in a city. It's not that you shouldn't live in a city - whatever floats your boat. It's just that the number of trips required for goods are going to plummet out here in the burbs. You'll still have to drive for other things - kids activities come to mind - but a lot of the rest of it will be fading. I suspect that the big box stores have peaked, and will be finding their prospects leveling out - and even dropping - as this dynamic plays out.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

webVelocity

WebVelocity Beta

June 26, 2010 13:53:57.832

We have another beta build of WebVelocity available - to get access to it, you'll need to sign the NDA here. The release is getting pretty close - things are looking good. There are instructions on dealing with the NDA on the WebVelocity Group page.

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

news

Gas Vs. Electric Cars

June 26, 2010 13:51:31.000

I've written before on my skepticism towards electric cars; here's another reason to have second thoughts:

According to a report from the UK's Glass Guide, unless manufacturers properly address customer concerns regarding battery life and performance, the new breed of electric vehicles (EV) soon to be launched will have residual values well below those of rival gasoline and diesel models, with a typical electric vehicle retaining only 10% of its value after five years of ownership, compared to gas and diesel-fueled counterparts retaining 25% of their value in that time period

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. Consider your laptop - my Macbook Pro is now 3 years old. It doesn't hold battery power anything like it did when it first arrived; likewise, my new iPhone retains a charge much better than the 2008 era one it replaced. With small electronic devices, that's an annoyance - power is not typically far away.

For a car though? Recharging takes a lot of time, and if your range drops significantly over the course of 3 years, that's going to be a problem. Even for someone like me, who typically fills the tank once a month, that's an issue.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

weather

Gulf Problems

June 26, 2010 10:56:45.132

As if the Gulf of Mexico didn't have big enough problems:

That looks like it's tracking away from the spill itself, but it'll certainly complicate matters down there.

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

social media

Undeveloped Thoughts

June 26, 2010 10:45:28.742

Julian Fitzell writes about the "siren song" of tweeting:

I'm pretty confidant that some ideas are better suited for tweets and others for blog postss, but the line can be fuzzy. And the temptation of laziness persists so I'm going to need to increase the temptation of effort to counter it. In the meantime, I'll be on Twitter throwing out undeveloped thoughts with everyone else.

I found that interesting, because i used to write a lot more long pieces - if you go back to my early archives on my Cincom blog, you'll find plenty of them. Over time, I've gotten to be much more of a "slap it out there" blogger.

I'm not sure why that happened, and i couldn't point to a when - it just sort of happened. I've also come to a different way of dealing with Twitter - I mostly don't post to it directly. Instead, I write here, my server auto-tweets what I post, and a Facebook app picks up my tweets and tosses them into my news feeds. I'll sometimes toss out a tweet directly from my iPhone; very rarely from my Mac.

Again, I'm not really sure why things evolved for me this way; they just did.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Why Smalltalk?

June 26, 2010 7:09:16.000

I saw this on my Facebook news feed, from a happy user of VisualWorks:

From my perspective, Smalltalk (in the form of VisualWorks) is the perfect vehicle for exploratory programming. The latest incarnation of my program tests competing theories and allows me to make choices of what to use, based on recent history.

That's how I've always seen VW. I usually start out with a few lines of script in a workspace, migrate to a class or two, and build up from there. The immediate feedback is what sets Smalltalk apart.

Technorati Tags:

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Smalltalk Solutions 2011

June 25, 2010 23:45:39.912

Yes, there will be a conference in 2011 - I can't reveal the location yet, but it will take place in the spring. Stay tuned for details, and for a call for participation!

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

games

Finished Alan Wake

June 25, 2010 23:06:39.141

I finished Alan Wake this evening - it's an interesting game. It's linear, but it held my interest more than shooters like "Modern Warfare" - it's more of a story with a game attached. The game elements themselves are challenging - the end battle, for instance, took me a few tries to get right. Let me just say this, to avoid too many spoilers: it's hard to beat a supernatural weather event with a flare gun and a flashlight :)

I only got 30 of the 50 achievement points - I'm not sure I'd try it on "Nightmare", but it might be worth running through again in search of the rest of the manuscript. Reading those pages to get a taste of what was coming next was one of the best parts of the game. If you like horror, I think you'll like this gane.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

tv

Streaming TV Arrives

June 25, 2010 16:31:46.609

We are about to learn just how terribly wrong Mark Cuban has been about net TV:

For $10 a month, viewers will reportedly have access to a wider selection of shows than the free, ad-supported version Hulu currently offers. The service would work on PCs and specialized devices such as the iPad, videogame consoles and set-top boxes. The company plans to test a version of this “Hulu Plus” subscription, an expected development, with select users as early as this month to find out whether they’ll will bite, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital.

What Cuban doesn't quite get is the difference between an on demand model, where I as a consumer get to decide how much to pay, and the "all you can eat" model the cable company wants me to pay for. He's a billionaire; he doesn't even notice. The rest of us do.

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

marketing

Brand Loyalty to Die For

June 25, 2010 15:51:06.937

Reports are that 77% of iPhone 4 sales went to existing customers upgrading (yes, I was one of those). As one analyst put it:

"Apple has in three years built brand loyalty in the phone market that compels users to upgrade to the latest version and wait in line for one to six hours to pick up their iPhone."

This is why I take some of the "brands are dead" talk with a huge grain of salt. Cleary, it's working quite well for Apple. It's a hard thing to pull off, but when it works - wow.

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 06/25/10: Smalltalk Syntax (2)

June 25, 2010 12:41:50.915

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at basic Smalltalk syntax. This is part 2 of at least 3 parts. If you can't watch the YouTube embed below, click here to go to the video now:

You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.

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

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

general

Delayed Screencast

June 25, 2010 9:46:23.502

I woke up to a conference call this morning, so today's screencast will be a bit late arriving. Probably lunchtime :)

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

stupidity

The Stupid Burns

June 24, 2010 23:25:18.469

Sometimes I think society as a whole is engaged in a suicide pact. First example:

Transocean’s ban on employee knife possession nearly killed several BP drilling rig survivors, by preventing them from cutting the rope that attached the life boat to the drilling rig.

And, the second example, from San Francisco:

Last week, the city's board of supervisors voted 10-1 to require cellphone retailers to show how much radiation their phones emit. Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign it, making it the first such law in the nation.

At some point, we'll all be so safe that we won't be able to do anything but quietly starve in a padded room...

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

Smalltalk in Argentina

June 24, 2010 23:04:53.609

The initial call for participation for Smalltalks 2010 is out:

SMALLTALKS 2010
4th Argentinian Smalltalk Conference
Research Track: Call for Papers
November 11th – 13th, 2010

Important dates:

  • Submission (Hard Deadline): September 7th, 2010 (Argentinian time: UTC/GMT -3 hours).
  • Notification of acceptance: October 6th, 2010.
  • Camera Ready Submission: October 20th, 2010.

There's a large and very active Smalltalk community in Argentina - this event has been growing quite nicely!

Technorati Tags:

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

gadgets

iPad, iPhone

June 24, 2010 15:32:43.114

FedEx delivered the iPad and iPhone this morning; I got them both set up pretty quickly. The iPhone is nice, but the square-ish shape is kind of weird for an Apple product. My only complaint so far is this - in my pocket, I can't tell the back from the front. It's a minor quibble and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. I haven't tried a lot of things out yet - one thing I need to start using is voice commands with my headset.

The iPad is really nice - my daughter has already been using it to look things up for video games. It seems trivial, but it's nice to have a small device right there that's easy to read. I downloaded a free ebook a long time ago for my iPhone, but never really got anywhere with it. I went back to it on the iPad, and the reading experience on it seems very nice. I expect to shift a lot of my book purchases over to it.

My only complaint has nothing to do with the iPad - more of a "huh, what?" kind of thing. Facebook has no native iPad app yet? Seriously?

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

gadgets

No Left Handed Calls?

June 24, 2010 10:29:40.000

I'll find out soon enough - FedEx says my phone is out for delivery. This reception problem based on how you hold the phone sounds very annoying:

One iPhone 4 demonstrated the issue everytime it was held in our left hand (as a right-handed person is apt to do) so that our palm was essentially bridging the two antennas.

You would think that basic acceptance testing would turn that sort of thing up...

Technorati Tags:

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

books

Bootstrapping Innovation

June 24, 2010 8:49:16.803

I just finished reading Sramana Mitra's Entrepreneur Journeys v.4 : Innovation: Need Of the Hour (Volume 4) - a set of interviews/case studies with various people who have built businesses from the ground up. Some with venture capital, some without, some in manufacturing, and some in software. The software examples resonated better with me, simply because it's a field I live in; I did like many of the examples from the "harder" sectors though.

I especially liked Paul Cook's Raychem story - he was pretty adamant about the need to pay attention to customers/prospects, and about getting to profitability fast. It's a lesson a lot of software outfits could learn from; I think a lot of the VC money that's been burned in the industry has been a net negative. Mitra makes that point later in the book, when she covered CollabNet, SpringSource, and SugarCRM - all outfits that started from nothing, and bootstrapped themselves into big things.

In general, I liked her call for more rational behavior on the part of government, VC's, and academia - I just wish she hadn't then been so rah rah about the Xunlight thing, a company that's lived exclusively off government grants. I'm not sure I'd call that a success. I also wish she had gone a bit into the problems in the IPO space being caused by SarbOx - that's an example of well intentioned government action that has had the unintended consequence of hindering IPOs.

Overall, I liked the book though. It was fun to read the various stories. Having worked at ParcPlace in the latter part of its startup journey, it was nice to read about firms and people who had not made the same mistakes.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

BottomFeeder

Where's BottomFeeder?

June 24, 2010 8:18:54.633

BottomFeeder

I've been mentioning the next release of BottomFeeder for awhile; you might be wondering where it is. The current build is based on VW 7.6, and 7.7 has been out for awhile - but 7.7.1 is coming out this summer. So rather than release it on a soon to be passed release of VW, I've decided to hold back. When 7.7.1 ships, I'll ship Bf. Other than one issue I'm tracking, things are ready for release.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 06/24/10: Smalltalk Syntax (1)

June 24, 2010 7:56:41.659

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at basic Smalltalk syntax. This is part 1 of at least 3 parts. If you can't watch the YouTube embed below, click here to go to the video now:

You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.

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

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

stupidity

Someone Hand John Gruber a Skype Account

June 23, 2010 22:52:28.081

I'm sure he'll be amazed with the service, what with how he seems to think that Apple's FaceTime is somehow revolutionary. Psst - Gruber - with Skype I can anyone, whether they have Skype or not. Heck, I can even get a Skype number.

While he's at it, maybe he should check out Google Voice, too. Sheesh.

Technorati Tags:

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

law

YouTube wins case against Viacom

June 23, 2010 21:02:27.719

Viacom loses their ridiculous suit against YouTube:

Today, the court granted our motion for summary judgment in Viacom’s lawsuit with YouTube. This means that the court has decided that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement. The decision follows established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online.

I'm sure it didn't help when it came out that Viacom's marketing staff were uploading material as fast as their lawyers were issuing takedown notices...

Technorati Tags:

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

DRM

DRM or Death

June 23, 2010 9:03:58.000

The more things change, the more they stay the same. New administration, same old panic over intellectual property. Apparently, a kitten dies somewhere every time a song is shared over p2p...

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

ESUG Innovation Awards: Submission Time

June 23, 2010 8:27:26.655

If you have a cool Smalltalk app that you would like to show the world, why not submit it for the ESUG Innovation Awards?

We are proud to announce the 6th Innovation Technology Awards. The top 3 teams with the most innovative software will receive, respectively, 500 Euros, 300 Euros and 200 Euros during an awards ceremony at the conference. Developers of any Smalltalk-based software are welcome to compete. This year we will also request 3-5min video.

Whip out your browser and flip cam!

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 06/23/10: Installing Custom Error Handling into a Runtime

June 23, 2010 8:06:17.655

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at adding error handling (for the runtime) via the build script. We're adding the basic stuff from RuntimePackager, but you can customize from there. The build script is just below; You can also just skip to the video


"build a simple app"

"load all my needed parcels - including RTP"
[#(   '$(VISUALWORKS)/packaging/RuntimePackager.pcl'
	'SampleApp.pcl') do: [:each |
        Parcel loadParcelFrom: each]]
	on: MissingParcelSource
	do: [:ex | ex resume: true].

"turn change log off, so that we can ship patches reasonably"
'ChangeSet.BroadcastChanges' asQualifiedReference 
	ifDefinedDo: [:flag | 
		'ChangeSet.BroadcastChanges' asQualifiedReference value: false].

"Set herald string"
ObjectMemory setHeraldString: 'This is an Example Application in VisualWorks'.

"reset parcel path"
Parcel searchPathModel value removeAll.

"set up runtime state"
DeploymentOptionsSystem current startInRuntime: true.

"set up runtime state  (NOTE: This block is commented out
so that we can see the results in the example.

UI.WindowManager noWindowBlock: [:windowManager | ].
stream := WriteStream on: String new.
stream nextPutAll: 'changeRequest'; cr; cr; tab.
stream nextPutAll: '^true'.
VisualLauncher compile: stream contents.
VisualLauncher allInstances do: [:each | each closeAndUnschedule.  each release]."

"Install Error Handling - This is the new segment"
Notifier current: RuntimePackager.RuntimeEmergencyNotifier.
RuntimePackager.RuntimeEmergencyNotifier imageDumperClass: RuntimePackager.RuntimeFullDumper.
RuntimePackager.RuntimeManager errorLogPath: 'error.log'.
Notifier logToFile: true.

ObjectMemory garbageCollect.
Workbook allInstances do: [:each | each closeRequest].
(Delay forSeconds: 20) wait.
Parcel searchPathModel value: (List with: (PortableFilename named: '.')).
SourceFileManager default discardSources.

"Now save the image such that this file does not get looked for at startup"
[ObjectMemory permSaveAs: 'sample' thenQuit: false] fork.
[(Delay forSeconds: 45) wait.
RuntimeSystem isRuntime ifFalse: [ObjectMemory quit]] fork


If you can't watch the YouTube embed below, click here to go to the video now:

You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.

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

Technorati Tags: , , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

browsers

Firefox Gets On the Process Wagon

June 23, 2010 7:08:05.833

It's not quite as cool as the separate process per tab thing that Chrome does, but Firefox has taken a nice step forward - plugins/extensions run in separate processes:

The big new feature in this release is out-of-process plugins (OOPP). This means things like Flash, Java, QuickTime, etc., all run in separate processes, so when Flash decides to crash, it won't take your browser out with it. If Flash starts consuming all the CPU it can find, you can kill it without nuking your browser session

I'm still using Safari - "Reader" is awesome, and the "Readability" extension just isn't good enough yet. It's kind of cool seeing all of this browser competition though :)

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

itNews

Lazy Management Tactics

June 23, 2010 6:53:39.640

Gosh forbid that a manager should look into something useful, like, say - are people in my group getting their jobs done. No, far simpler to use fear and intimidation - like this proud comment about the installation of monitoring software:

"Once you talk to five people in the organization, it's like a virus," he said. "People learn that 'These guys are serious, they really do look at what is going on.'"

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

web

56k Modem?

June 23, 2010 0:16:11.024

Those guys at Adobe are keeping up with the latest trends:

But what if I hadn't moved up from 28.8?

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

general

Evening Sky

June 22, 2010 22:28:19.886

I just thought this was a nice sunset view, although being in a parking lot detracted from it:

Then once I got home, I got a piece of good news:

My wife has had such good things to say about the device, I decided to get one. I'm hoping to cut down on the additions to the piles of books around here :)

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalk

InfoQ Interviews Dan Ingalls

June 22, 2010 13:37:38.565

InfoQ interviewed Dan Ingalls earlier this year (during QCon in London). Lots of good stuff about the history of Smalltalk, and the Lively Kernel work he was doing more recently.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

gadgets

Kindle and eBooks

June 22, 2010 10:15:35.808

The important thing for Amazon to focus on is the core item - books - and not the hardware device. As Om Malik points out, Amazon gets paid whether you use a Kindle or not, so long as you buy from their store:

The day I first laid hands on Apple’s iPad I banished my Amazon Kindle to the back of the proverbial drawer. And yet, I have been spending, on average, about $10 every 3-5 days on Amazon’s site buying a book to read using the Kindle application on the iPad. In fact, the reading experience on the iPad is so superior to that of the Kindle I often find myself staying up later than usual reading a book.

Some companies would have doubled down on the hardware, but Amazon was smart - they pushed the reader app out to iPhones (and now iPads) - they don't care what device you read on, so long as it was purchased from them. My wife's experience mirrors Malik's, except that she didn't bother with the Kindle in the first place.

Since the Kindle app exists on iPhones, iPads, PCs, and Android devices, stuff you buy there is portable. Anything you buy in the iBook store, on the other hand, is locked to the Apple device. Amazon is playing this very intelligently.

Technorati Tags: ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 06/22/10: A Simple Deployment Example

June 22, 2010 9:39:39.853

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at a simple runtime scripting example. I've covered this topic before, but used the (more complex) BottomFeeder application as my example. Here, we take a simple "application" (a class with one method) and a simple subsystem to start it - along with the script to do the build. The script is reproduced below; if you would rather just watch the video, then just go here. I posted all of the code and steps for this yesterday if you would rather take this in textual post form. You can download the example code here.


"build a simple app"

"load all my needed parcels"
[#('SampleApp.pcl') do: [:each |
        Parcel loadParcelFrom: each]]
	on: MissingParcelSource
	do: [:ex | ex resume: true].

"turn change log off, so that we can ship patches reasonably"
'ChangeSet.BroadcastChanges' asQualifiedReference 
	ifDefinedDo: [:flag | 
		'ChangeSet.BroadcastChanges' asQualifiedReference value: false].

"Set herald string"
ObjectMemory setHeraldString: 'This is an Example Application in VisualWorks'.

"reset parcel path"
Parcel searchPathModel value removeAll.

"set up runtime state"
DeploymentOptionsSystem current startInRuntime: true.

"set up runtime state"
UI.WindowManager noWindowBlock: [:windowManager | ].
stream := WriteStream on: String new.
stream nextPutAll: 'changeRequest'; cr; cr; tab.
stream nextPutAll: '^true'.
VisualLauncher compile: stream contents.
VisualLauncher allInstances do: [:each | each closeAndUnschedule.  each release].

ObjectMemory garbageCollect.
Workbook allInstances do: [:each | each closeRequest].
(Delay forSeconds: 20) wait.
Parcel searchPathModel value: (List with: (PortableFilename named: '.')).
SourceFileManager default discardSources.

"Now save the image such that this file does not get looked for at startup"
[ObjectMemory permSaveAs: 'sample' thenQuit: false] fork.
[(Delay forSeconds: 45) wait.
RuntimeSystem isRuntime ifFalse: [ObjectMemory quit]] fork

Need the direct link to YouTube for this video?

You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.

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

Technorati Tags: , , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This

social media

Personal Branding?

June 22, 2010 7:29:54.349

Doc Searls has been talking about the limitations of "personal branding" for awhile now - this morning he linked to two people on the subject. The "manifesto" post by Maureen Johnson is the one that caught my eye - her message about "social media experts" is something I'm familiar with.

I don't know that I've given the "personal brand" thing a lot of thought over the years. I avoid some subjects on my blogs (partisan politics), simply to avoid having disagreements over things I'd rather not talk about in this particular forum.

I think the big divide in this area is between normal people and the advocates who spend all of their time telling you to "promote your personal brand". You know what? This isn't really that complicated. Write about what you're interested in. Even if - like me - what you're interested in crosses over into commercial promotion, that doesn't mean that you have to become a mindless shill. Listen to our podcast for awhile, and you'll see that Michael and I haven't been shy about noting various flaws in Cincom Smalltalk. We love the product, but we know where the bodies are buried, too. Lots of promoters like to pretend that their favored product/solution/brand has no flaws - that way lies the "mindless shill" tag.

Ultimately, you want to come off as believable. There are going to be plenty of people who disagree with you, and that's fine - no one has a monoploy on truth, or even on a better point of view. The best you can do is to have people realize that you stand behind your words.

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This