. .

gadgets

The Dog Ate My Antenna

July 3, 2010 10:26:07.138

This open letter from Apple may or may not describe what's going on with the new iPhone, but it sure sounds odd:

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

Now, it's not as if I've done studies or anything - so this is all anecdotal. Having said that, I don't recall many calls dropping with my 3g phone while I was just sitting in one place - I've had that happen with the new phone a few times, and yeah - I've been holding it with the left hand at the time. Call me crazy, but that doesn't sound like a software error in signal strength display.

Again, this is all anecdotal - and I know that in the presence of a lot of media coverage of this, I could be falling sway to confirmation bias. Still - that latter just doesn't hold up well for me :)

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posted by James Robertson

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general

Getting Ready for the Fourth

July 3, 2010 2:10:24.692

Things have been a bit quiet here on the blog; there are two reasons for that:

  • I've got a new project I'm working on (in Smalltalk, of course) with some fellow Cincomers
  • I've been getting things ready for our 4th of July party

The latter one has consumed the odd hour or two here and there - weeding gardens, buying burgers (have you seen the enormous packages they have at Costco??), and general house cleaning.We're just about ready for the party though - it should be a lot of fun.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 07/02/10: Dynamic Typing

July 2, 2010 8:53:58.281

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at dynamic typing in Smalltalk, and how it simplifies things for you. 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"?

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posted by James Robertson

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general

Big Enough To Attract the Regulators

July 2, 2010 6:59:44.000

Looks like Apple has gotten big enough to get the attention of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic:

The European Commission will ensure that devices with always-on connectivity, like Apple's iPhone, don't lock consumers in to proprietary technology, Neelie Kroes, EU commissioner for the 'Digital Agenda', told EurActiv in an exclusive interview. A yearly scorecard will measure the industry's progress.

I'm not sure how well Apple will deal with this - when Microsoft got run through the wringer back in the 90's, it sure didn't help them much. Worse, I'm not convinced that anything the regulators did helped anyone else, either.

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posted by James Robertson

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stupidity

English is a Second Language...

July 2, 2010 0:35:10.878

For the RIAA:

"We believe that the district court's dangerously expansive reading of the liability immunity provisions of the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] DMCA upsets the careful balance struck within the law and is bad public policy," Cary Sherman, RIAA president, wrote in a blog post. "It will actually discourage service providers from taking steps to minimize the illegal exchange of copyrighted works on their sites."

Gosh, the court actually read the law and applied it. Maybe they can order remedial english comprehension for the RIAA.

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Squeak Joins the Software Freedom Conservancy

July 2, 2010 0:28:08.808

Randal Schwartz explains why the Squeak license cleanup was so important - it enabled Squeak's entry into the SFC:

This is big.  The community has been working towards having the Squeak Project join the SFC for years. And we've finally finished! Through the SFC, we can avoid duplication of legal and administrative services to accept donations and deal with copyright and license issues.

That's pretty cool, and it makes Squeak a more legally "clean" product.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

PS3 No Longer Sucking Wind

July 1, 2010 11:22:18.000

It took Sony a long time to get to this point - the point where a sale of the PS3 doesn't cost them money:

"This year is the first time that we are able to cover the cost of the PlayStation 3," Yoshida said. "We aren't making huge money from hardware, but we aren't bleeding like we used to."

In the interim, as game development for the platform initially lagged, they lost a lot of ground on the "hardcore gamer" front to Microsoft, and got surprised on the other end by Nintendo. They run the risk of slipping again - it looks like MS will have Kinect (their answer to the Wii) out at the same time that Sony will have their version (and Sony's version looks, well, strange).

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posted by James Robertson

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law

Apple Attracts Some Ambulance Chasers

July 1, 2010 9:34:09.000

Tort lawyers doing what they do best: subtracting value:

The lawsuit was filed by Ward & Ward, PLLC and Charles A. Gilman, LLC. on behalf of Kevin McCaffrey, Linda Wrinn and a number of other iPhone 4 users. It is not the same iPhone 4 class action lawsuit currently said to be in the works by the California law firm that sued Facebook and Zynga.

I can't say I've run across this problem myself. It's been reported too widely to not be real, but it doesn't seem all that serious to me.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 07/01/10: Store Replication

July 1, 2010 8:54:08.326

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at replicating packages and bundles between store source code repositories. There's a UI for one off replication; the screencast shows you how to use the engine directly. To create replication rules, you do something like this (the repository names are the logical ones from your connection list):


replicator :=  StoreAutoReplicator new.

"Package or Bundle,Package/Bundle Name,Source Repository Name,
Destination Repository Name"
rules := #('P,NetworkAppUtilities,cincomsmalltalk,local').

rules do: [:each |
	replicator addRule: (ReplicationRule readFrom: each readStream)].
replicator replicateAll.

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"?

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posted by James Robertson

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humor

Go Hands Free at the Stadium

July 1, 2010 8:08:17.156

This is funny because the person who got hit by the baseball didn't suffer a serious injury - but it does show why you should pay attention if you're sitting at the foul line at Yankee Stadium :)


Watch CBS News Videos Online

posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Death of a Phone

July 1, 2010 7:46:38.000

Apple knows how to launch gadgets. Then.... there's Microsoft:

Just over two months after launching it, and days after reducing the price, Microsoft has decided to kill the Kin phone.

Microsoft needs to figure out focus. They really don't need to be in every single space...

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posted by James Robertson

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social media

Where's My Facebook iPad App?

July 1, 2010 6:32:14.000

So Facebook updated their iPhone app to take advantage of fast app switching in iOS4. That's great for the iPhone, but - where the heck is my iPad scaled app? For a company the size of Facebook, can't they handle that?

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posted by James Robertson

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web

Death of Flash Continues

June 30, 2010 21:26:21.439

Looks like Flash is getting dropped by more and more sites. Campaign Monitor is the latest:

When it became clear that the iPad wouldn't be supporting Flash, and that it was likely a device many of our customers were going to view reports on, we had all the motivation we needed to overhaul our charts to work around the problems mentioned above. At the same time, JavaScript based charts that take advantage of standards like canvas and SVG had come a long way and would likely make the transition a much simpler process.

I expect this trend to continue. With Hulu coming out for the iPad and iPhone, even the streaming sites don't need Flash anymore...

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

iPhone, Verizon, and the Network

June 30, 2010 9:37:05.267

Yesterday I sounded skeptical about the latest "iPhone on Verizon" rumor. However, there is this tidbit:

This information comes from a new tipster, but we have very good reason to believe that Verizon will begin rolling out its LTE network in 25 markets starting on November 15th. While 25 markets might not sound like a lot, but apparently they’re enough to give 100 million subscribers access to the next-generation wireless network.

I'm no wireless expert, but I seem to recall that LTE merges Verizon's network with the next gen global wireless standard - which would make their network a lot more suitable for the iPhone as far as Apple is concerned. Just as the existing phone has the 2g (Edge) and 3g (GSM) radios, a Verizon edition could have a 3g (CDMA) and 4g (LTE) radio. Does that make sense? I guess we'll find out.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 06/30/10: Shared Variables

June 30, 2010 9:05:35.517

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at Shared Variables - what other Smalltalk implementations call class variables. 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"?

posted by James Robertson

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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 :)

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posted by James Robertson

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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.

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posted by James Robertson

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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.

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posted by James Robertson

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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"?

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posted by James Robertson

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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

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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...

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posted by James Robertson

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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?

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posted by James Robertson

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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"?

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posted by James Robertson

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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...

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posted by James Robertson

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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!

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posted by James Robertson

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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.

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posted by James Robertson

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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.

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posted by James Robertson

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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.

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posted by James Robertson

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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.

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posted by James Robertson

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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.

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posted by James Robertson

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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

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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.

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posted by James Robertson

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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.

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posted by James Robertson

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