. .

itNews

ISP Disconnects

September 29, 2010 17:46:30.000

Engadget notes that ClearWire is throttling aggressively:

As the story goes, it seems as if the company is pulling back on upload and download speeds (from 10Mbps to around 0.25Mbps) for users who have consumed between 7GB and 10GB in a month, which is comically low even compared to Comcast's hated 250GB / month usage cap

The thing is, that's a trivial amount of bandwidth. Download a few movies from Netflix, iTunes, or shows from Hulu, and you could be done. In other words, use your connection as a normal person might, and you're done. There's a complete disconnect between how ISPs think you ought to use your connection, and how people are actually using them.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 09/29/10: Using Google Client Auth

September 29, 2010 9:19:59.051

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at implementing a client interface to Google services. That required implementing the client login scheme google uses (for desktop clients). Today's screencast covers that client auth scheme. The code I'm demonstrating is in the public store repository under the name GoogleClientAuth - the usage in the screencast is below. To skip to the video, click here..


"get the request token - cl is the calendar service"
gAuth := AuthRequest 
	requestTokenFor: 'cl' 
	user: username
	password: password
	clientName: 'Cincom-VisualWorks-771'.

"now we can start making requests - this makes a 
simple request to the 'own' feed for google calendar"
serviceResponse := ServiceRequest
					makeRequestWith: gAuth 
					requestPrepObject: ExampleRequestPrep new.
feed := serviceResponse contents

If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:

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 need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk Without Loading

September 29, 2010 6:21:58.651

Spotted in self halt:

The site soek.goodies.st gives access to the sources of open-source Smalltalk libraries and frameworks. A big advantage to developers is that they can explore Smalltalk classes without having to successfully load them into one of the Smalltalk dialect platforms. Recently, I have changed much of the Smalltalk generator and HTML/Javascript generated code.

This is a cool app, because it makes it so much easier to explore Smalltalk code if you're not yet committed to loading a particular library - like many newcomers who aren't sure what they can or should do next. It's also a nice look at how using cloud resources facilitates this kind of thing:

Because the Soek project is implemented in VisualWorks, the first projects were exports of loaded bundles and packages from the Public Store. With the help of the Monticello VW package, it is now possible to add projects from any Monticello repository out there. The process of adding a new library is almost completely automated and uses Cloudfork for storing metadata in Amazon SimpleDB and uploading the site contributions to Amazon S3.

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history

The Past is Still With Us

September 29, 2010 6:15:59.651

I hadn't realized that Germany was still paying off the Versailles conference reparations, but this Sunday, the final payment goes in:

"On Sunday the last bill is due and the First World War finally, financially at least, terminates for Germany," said Bild, the country's biggest selling newspaper. Most of the money goes to private individuals, pension funds and corporations holding debenture bonds as agreed under the Treaty of Versailles, where Germany was made to sign the 'war guilt' clause, accepting blame for the war.

I've read a lot of books about WWI - the run up to it, the war itself, and the post war conference - but I had no idea that the reparations payments had extended into the 21st century. Wow.

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sports

The Yankees are Going to the Show

September 28, 2010 22:52:46.043

The Yankees are in the playoffs again:

The New York Yankees clinched their 15th postseason berth in the last 16 years and CC Sabathia got his 21st win of the season, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 on Tuesday night.

As I like to say about this subject, it's the way things are supposed to be :) It's a nice bonus that the Red Sox are out :)

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smalltalk

Controllerless Keyboarding

September 28, 2010 22:37:30.803

Travis talks about how he's doing widgets in VisualWorks these days, focusing on the keyboard aspect:

As I've wandered far and wide through other widget frameworks, I've learned that a) "MVC" is very popular and b) for every different framework there is a new and unique interpretation of "controller." One of the "different" ways I've been building widgets is without controllers. There are two aspects to deal with in this "controllerless" new world. One is how we deal with mouse interaction, the other keyboard interaction.

Follow the link for Travis' full explanation.

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weather

What My Parents are Looking At

September 28, 2010 16:17:29.655

My parents live not far from the space coast region of Florida - here's what's headed their way:

Fortunately, it looks like it'll be fairly tame when it gets there.

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esug2010

ESUG 2010 Slides

September 28, 2010 10:36:42.271

The slides for ESUG 2010 presentations (at least, the ones the organizers have) are available here. As I post videos, I'll link to the presentation slides when I can.

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Smalltalk Daily 09/28/10: Using a RESTful Web API

September 28, 2010 8:04:33.951

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at using a simple, RESTful web api from a Smalltalk client. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:

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 need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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smalltalk

Pharo and Moose in Bern

September 28, 2010 6:18:00.862

There's a joint Pharo and Moose sprint planned for October 23-24 in Bern, Switzerland:

We will organize a joint Pharo sprint / Moose dojo during October 23-24, in Bern (at the Software Composition Group, University of Bern). Some action points are mentioned on the dedicated page (of course, other ideas and interests are welcome as well)

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games

More on Red Dead Redemption

September 27, 2010 23:21:03.160

I finally feel like I've got the hang of the combat system in the game - the "dead eye" thing is pretty useful - although it is easy to take way more shots than you want to. The biggest problem I've had has been shooting bystanders in running gin battles (on horseback). That leads to bounties, which leads to everyone and his brother hunting you down until you can clear the bounty - and as you shoot the people chasing you, it gets worse. I've restored to save points over that :)

I do like the game though. The world is expansive, and it's pretty easy to find interesting things to do instead of the main plot. Not that the plot is bad - the combats/actions during the plot drivers have been pretty good. I'll have to finish the plot out, load some of the DLC, and try multi-player out.

Now Listening to: Twisted by Katie Melua from: The House

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smalltalk

Smalltalk in Argentina

September 27, 2010 21:23:42.688

Spotted in Ten is a good number

The Smalltalks 2010 conference in Argentina has been declared of interest by the Science, Technology and Innovation Agency of Entre Ríos (ACTIER)

Follow the link to Andres' blog for more details

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law

How is this Patentable?

September 27, 2010 18:24:26.000

I'm not sure how or why this should be something that can get a patent:

Bank of America was just awarded a patent for a process that lets it make sure any teller at any branch will know not to give you a refund on a disputed overdraft fee.

What would you call a working model? A person standing behind a teller window saying "no"?

Now Listening to: Twilight by Thriving Ivory from: Thriving Ivory

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web

Not as Reasonable as it Sounds

September 27, 2010 15:44:33.000

On the surface, this sounds like a reasonable thing:

What I needed in searching for these flash drives was not the words: “256MB USB flash drive.” Those words failed me. What I needed was a Dewey Decimal code for a 256MB USB flash drive, or even a Dewey Decimal number for the concept: “Flash drive that is small in storage capability and that is very inexpensive.” Vendors selling such flash drives could easily add that numerical code to their product metadata, quickly connecting them with people looking to buy those products.

There are a few problems with this idea. First, imagine the spam possibilities - meta-keywords died trying to solve exactly this problem years ago. Second, how would I, as an end user, find the numeric code I want to punch in? Does the author foresee some huge index site somewhere with codes? If so, then I have to.... search it. Using keywords. Congratulations - you've taken the same problem and added a degree of separation to it :)

Now Listening to: Hey Lady by Thriving Ivory from: Thriving Ivory

posted by James Robertson

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tutorial

Using the Amazon Cloud with Smalltalk

September 27, 2010 15:06:13.021

One of the cooler packages in the public store repository is Cloudfork - to get it, just load "Cloudfork-all" into VisualWorks or ObjectStudio. from there, and then you can access whatever cloud services you use on Amazon. You'll need key info (you get that from Amazon), and you'll need something actually stored there. From there:


"get access"
credentials := CFAWSCredentials newWith: key andSecret: secret.
s3 := CFSimpleStorageService newWith: credentials.

Now that you have your credentials lined up, you can query the buckets you have on S3:


"get buckets"
buckets := (s3 allBuckets) result.
Transcript clear.
buckets do: [:each |
	Transcript show: 'Bucket: <', each name, '>'.
	Transcript cr].

Now open up a bucket and see what's inside it:


"open a bucket"
bucket := s3 openBucketNamed: 'jar-images'.
all := bucket getList result.

Finally, now get an item and have a look at it. In my case, it's a JPEG:


"now extract first item"
key := all first key.
byteArray  := (bucket getObject: key) result.

"save to a file"
file := 'imgFroms3.jpg' asFilename writeStream.
file binary.
file nextPutAll: byteArray.
file close.

"now open it"
img := (ImageReader fromFile: 'imgFroms3.jpg') image.

And that's it. I did a screencast on this awhile back as well:

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books

Book Sharing and E-Books

September 27, 2010 11:55:50.000

Tim Bray makes some excellent points about book sharing and electronic readers:

Those in the business of books are unlikely to be losing sleep because I’m whining about sharing, but they’d better be careful. We saw what happened in the music space, and I think authors are way more vulnerable than musicians. First off, no matter how much piracy is going on, a musician can always fall back on live performance. Second, your average novel, compared to music or video, is remarkably small; trivially easy to share once the digital locks are broken, as broken they will be.

The thing about authors and musicans is key - authors really don't have anything else to fall back on. Too much greed on the part of publishers could create real problems. Right now there's limited sharing; with the Kindle app, you can share across 5 devices - so I can share one account with my wife.

However, I can't feasibly pass a book to my mom or sister (I've done this with physical books). The issues of space (they live in other states) and credit card sharing get in the way. THis is going to end up being a problem, and if the publishers don't create a reasonable response, the response that arises will be one they won't like.

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smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 09/27/10: Customizing Debugger Hotkeys

September 27, 2010 9:26:28.421

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at customizing the hotkeys for the debugger. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:

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 need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk in London

September 27, 2010 8:27:12.623

The UK Smalltalk user group is meeting this evening, in London:

The September UK STUG meeting will be this Monday, September 27th. We'll meet at our usual venue - the Counting House, close to Bank station - from 18:30 onwards.

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esug2010

Another ESUG Retrospective

September 27, 2010 8:07:38.142

Raimon Grau has some post-ESUG thoughts.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

OmniBrowser Powers Forward

September 26, 2010 15:55:01.462

Lukas Renggli points out some nice improvements to the OmniBrowser:

The latest version of OmniBrowser includes a completion dialog that is used at various places to ease the use of the keyboard.

He's also posted a video that demonstrates the new features.

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audio

Industry Misinterpretations 207: Smalltalk and IOS

September 26, 2010 9:17:56.144

This week's podcast is a followup with John McIntosh, longtime Smalltalker and driving force behind the Squeak port to IOS. We spoke to John (along with John Maloney) awhile back about the fate of Scratch for the iPad with Apple's policies regarding language usage and code downloading; with the recent policy changes, we thought it would be interesting to see what's changed for Smalltalk on IOS. If you haven't listened to that earlier podcast, - you can get that here (part 1), and here (part 2).

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 - you can vote for the Podcast Alley, and subscribe on iTunes.. Interested in Cincom Smalltalk? Why not download it now and try it out yourself? If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

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itNews

This is Why Your Mobile Coverage is Bad

September 25, 2010 10:17:57.567

It's not so much about "greedy" wireless companies as it is about the rising tide of NIMBY-ism, combined with the wild theory that mobile signals are bad for you. If that's the case, then we had best ban radio as well, and erect a barrier in the atmosphere against radiation from space:

The ordinance passed unanimously this week by the Hempstead town board prohibits wireless companies from installing equipment closer than 1,500 feet to homes, day care centers, schools and houses of worship, unless they submit compelling evidence that there is an absolute need. Hempstead, home to America's first suburban community — Levittown — is a densely populated township just east of New York City.

What you won't see reported much is the same people who pushed for this wondering "why is my signal weak" later on.

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Thoughts on Red Dead Redemption

September 25, 2010 9:50:13.791

I've been playing the game for a few days now, and I do like it. It's got a different feel from games like Fallout 3 , Mass Effect 2, and Dragon Age - and that difference is due to two things:

  • No conversation tree. When you encounter someone, the way you react to them is scripted. You have the encounter or not, and then do combat (or not) as you see fit - but the conversation is out of your hands
  • Your character is set. You are who you are - a former outlaw turned straight who's been caught up in problems he doesn't want. In the other games, your starting point can be adjusted some (ME2, Fallout), or a lot (Dragon Age).

Having said that, I've found that I like the game. The world is open; you can ignore the plot for eons if you want to, and just explore the world building up your fame and honor (positive or negative). That's an aspect I like a lot - on my second playthrough of Fallout, I didn't even begin the plot until I had maxed out my level to 30.

Which brings up another difference - there doesn't seem to be leveling. Instead, new equipment options open up, and depending on how you've behaved, it will be more or less expensive. The game isn't for the faint of heart; the language and combat can get explicit. I intend to keep playing the game, and have a look at the DLC. Supposedly, the multi-player stuff is pretty good too; I'll see once I run through the game.

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sports

Don't Expand the Baseball Playoffs

September 24, 2010 21:57:06.299

It's not just the "purists" that Selig denigrates who oppose another expansion of the playoffs; it's those of us who don't look forward to a November World Series in horrible weather. If Selig wants to expand the playoffs, he should also do the following:

  • Revert to the 154 game schedule
  • Return to a reasonable number of double headers in that schedule
  • Have every round of the playoffs except the World Series be best of 5

Otherwise, we'll be looking at baseball under ridiculous weather conditions.

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smalltalk

New HTTP Framework for Smalltalk

September 24, 2010 16:31:55.000

There's an interesting looking new HTTP framework brewing for Smalltalk - Zinc:

Zinc HTTP Components is an open-source Smalltalk framework to deal with the HTTP networking protocol. This is a new project (started September 1st 2010) that is currently under heavy development. Our long term goals are very ambitious: we want to reach the level of functionality, scope, architectural clarity and maturity of the Apache HTTP Components library. Our short term goal is to offer working HTTP client functionality to support fundamental features in a Smalltalk image. For the time being, Pharo is our reference platform.

There are lots of details at the link, including info on how to get involved.

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smalltalk

Smalltalk Link Dump

September 24, 2010 13:33:54.842

I post a lot of Smalltalk related links, so I thought that a monthly "link dump" page might be useful. I'm not including "Smalltalk Daily" posts; since I do one of those each day, including them would bury the rest of the links, I think. Anyway - you can get to the September dump here, and I'll be updating it when the month ends.

I was going to put that together by hand, but I decided that sounded like work - so I wrote a couple of methods, patched the server, and then ran this on the server:

BlogSaver
	dumpLinkFileFor: 'blog'
	to: 'linkDump.txt'
	start: (Timestamp readFrom: '9/1/10 0:00:00' readStream)
	end: (Timestamp readFrom: '10/1/10 0:00:00' readStream)
	forCategories: #('smalltalk' 'esug2010' 'audio').

Then I just renamed the output file and dropped it where it would get picked up. Pretty simple stuff, and the code I'm using above lets me run arbitrary category reports if I so choose.

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalks 2010 Registration

September 24, 2010 12:44:52.000

You can register (free) for the Smalltalks 2010 conference, to be held November 11-13 in Argentina:

The Fundación Argentina de Smalltalk (FAST) invites you to the 4th Smalltalk Conference of Argentina, to be held on November 11, 12 and 13, 2010 at the Concepción del Uruguay site of the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Everyone, including teachers, students, researchers, developers and entrepreneurs, are welcome as speakers or attendees. Registration is free and now open at http://www.fast.org.ar.

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esug2010

There In Spirit

September 24, 2010 10:33:26.436

I want to thank the ESUG 2010 folks for sending me a shirt:

I shrunk the picture down in size, so it may not be obvious, but that's one of the ESUG videos (Andreas Tonne's) playing in the browser behind the shirt. Thanks guys!

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gadgets

iPhone and Verizon - Not Soon

September 24, 2010 9:57:37.000

I didn't think Apple was going to put the iPhone on Verizon anytime soon, and Verizon's execs are putting that message out there:

Speaking to investors at a Goldman Sachs conference, Seidenberg said nothing about an iPhone for the company's current network, but said he hopes Apple Inc. will come around and allow Verizon to sell the phone for a new network it is building. The "4G" network hasn't yet opened for service and won't be complete next year.

Even once LTE is ready, there's still the whole issue of Verizon's VCast store and their relentless desire to put Verizon branding on all devices - things I simply can't see Apple being ok with...

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smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 09/24/10: Hooking an OS UI to a Domain Model

September 24, 2010 9:00:43.660

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at creating an ObjectStudio UI for an existing domain model - the one we created in this screencast. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:

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 need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that 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

Namespaces for Pharo

September 24, 2010 6:33:18.000

James Foster pointed out some interesting work on Namespaces for Pharo:

Germán Leiva was accepted in Google Summer of Code 2010 and developed a Namespaces implementation for Pharo Smalltalk. This video is based on his presentation at ESUG in Barcelona, Spain in September 2010. You can get the code here.

The ESUG presentation will get posted to the ESUG 2010 video archive soon.

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smalltalk

ESUG 2010 Roundup

September 24, 2010 6:24:22.181

Squeak News has an excellent ESUG 2010 roundup. It has a link to the first video from the conference - you can check back at the archive pages for all the video that's available, and subscribe to Smalltalk Videos to get notified when a new one goes live.

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smalltalk

PDF Two Ways

September 23, 2010 18:30:35.283

Torsten reports on a new PDF wrapper for Squeak:

Marten Feldtmann is working on pdf creation using libHaru, he published a first, not ready code for a wrapper around libHaru.

and also mentions his own work from a lottle while ago:

But I already wrapped this small library for Pharo/Squeak two years ago with a more natural Smalltalk interface.

Follow the link to see his code example.

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esug2010

Smalltalk in Enterprise Class Applications

September 23, 2010 10:30:42.653

Here's another video from ESUG 2010, which was held in Barcelona, Spain, the week of September 13, 2010. In this presentation, Andreas Tonne talks about using Smalltalk in Enterprise Class applicatons. You can watch using the embedded player below, or follow the download links at the bottom of the post.

Smalltalk in Enterprise level applications from James Robertson on Vimeo.

You can follow the ESUG channel on Vimeo for all the videos from the conference.

You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Videos"?

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smalltalk

More JQuery Widgets for Seaside

September 23, 2010 9:03:25.067

Spotted in Planet Squeak

The JQueryWidgetBox project is growing and we now have 32 interesting JQuery widgets wrapped for Seaside. Feel free to use them in your seaside app to enhance the user experience.

This is what's cool about having a growing community around Seaside - there's active interest and work going on to bring standard web stuff into Seaside, which makes it easier for "dumb web developers" (a category into which I include myself) to get things done.

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smalltalkDaily

Smalltalk Daily 09/23/10: Using SUnitToo

September 23, 2010 7:53:28.963

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at using SUnitToo to create a simple unit test - the test is for the code we created in yesterday's screencast. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:

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 need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that 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

Can You Say Prior Art?

September 23, 2010 6:16:52.397

More evidence that the patent system is completely broken - Apple has been sued over iTunes being able to download video. The patent was granted in 2009, and according to a quick Google search, the company that filed the patent has only existed since about 2005. Wikipedia tells me that iTunes was launched in January of 2001, aqnd video support was added in May of 2005. So.... the timing at least is odd. Never mind pre-existing systems based on RSS enclosures.

Generally speaking, there are two issues with this suit so far as I can tell:

  • The PTO never should have granted the patent based on prior art
  • The company given the patent hasn't implemented anything based on it

That second aspect is what I find really stupid. If a software patent can be granted based on nothing more than an idea, then we're all doomed to a future of endless litigation and stupid patents.

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smalltalk

IOS and Smalltalk

September 22, 2010 22:30:18.145

We just wrapped up a podcast with John McIntosh about the status of Smalltalk and Scratch on IOS - we found out quite a bit about how things are evolving and what the interactions with Apple have been like. From what we heard, Smalltalk is punching above its weight in terms of driving change in this arena. Download it this Sunday to hear it all :)

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media

What About Revenues?

September 22, 2010 10:57:06.879

Jeff Jarvis only gives us part of the story on the "Times vs. WSJ" thing:

OK, but that’s half the story. It’s more like 10 percent of the story. For now shift to the future, the web, and comScore tells us that in July, The Times reached 43.6 million people online vs. the Journal’s 16.1 million. By the time you add in pass-around readers for the paper and de-dupe the same readers for print and online, those numbers might change, but the moral to the story doesn’t. The New York Times has roughly two and a half times more readers than the Journal. That translates to two and a half times more influence, two and a half times more relationships, a two-and-a-half-time bigger brand.

That's true, but - what are the revenue numbers? We know that the Times has been bleeding money and cutting staff; the online WSJ seems to be doing pretty well. I'm with jeff on the notion that print news is dead, and I like free stuff as well as the next guy - but my wife pays for an online subscription to the WSJ, as do a few other friends.

Those eyeballs might be nice for the NYT, but they don't end up paying the bills.

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Smalltalk Daily 09/22/10: Hooking Up a UI and Domain Model

September 22, 2010 8:16:00.257

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at hooking up a domain model to a UI. You can follow along by downloading the code here. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:

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 need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Missing the Point

September 22, 2010 6:41:58.465

Paul Thurott gushes about the joys of Android based phones before noting two pretty glaring flaws:

Where the DROID X--Android, really--falls apart is on the services side. As with Apple and, soon, Microsoft, Google supports Android with an online marketplace, in this case the Android Market. It's horrible. And I don't just mean it's lacking in some vague way, I mean that it is an absolute disgrace.
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This is perhaps less dramatic, but because Google doesn't (yet) have an online store to match Apple's iTunes Store, the Android experience for loading, syncing, finding, and playing media (music, movies, and other content) is truly second rate and, I suspect, must vary from phone to phone.

So.... finding apps is a chore, and getting media on the phone sucks a lot - and yet it's a "great" device. Sure Paul, sure. The bits many people would call core functionality suck, but it's a marvelous device.

Thurott goes on to say that this could be "easily fixed", but here's the thing: I doubt Google will do that. Why? Look at their hit or miss software development. It's all about throwing stuff against a wall and seeing whether it sticks (and, most of the time, it doesn't). Google doesn't really care about user experience - like the old Microsoft, they are an engineering led company. Sometimes that works (Gmail), but usually it doesn't (Wave).

Ultimately though, Thurott is looking at the wrong metric. Apple never looks at killer market share - they look at margins. A quick look here tells you everything you need to know about who's winning that battle. Beyond that, Google has major carrier problems that Apple really doesn't have. Android probably will end up with a larger share of the smartphone market than Apple, and analysts will call that a win. Meanwhile, Apple will be laughing all the way to the bank.

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posted by James Robertson

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