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smalltalk

Smalltalk Powered Url Shortening

October 24, 2010 17:36:52.713

Pretty Cool - a Dolphin Smalltalk powered url shortener, Twit.io. Now all they need is an API - they already have analytics.

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posted by James Robertson

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Independent Misinterpretations 2: Meet the Podcast

October 24, 2010 9:58:55.573

Welcome to episode 2 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck. Michael is also co-hosting - he and Dave will be alternating weeks, while I keep the moderator seat warm.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

This week, David and I discuss a few changes to the format, and we touch on a few other things we intend to discuss in the future. Perhaps this should have been episode 1, but there was a lot going on last week with my work circumstances change, and I had material "in the can".

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.

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

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. 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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Independent Misinterpretations 2: Meet the Podcast

October 24, 2010 9:58:25.893

Welcome to episode 2 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck. Michael is also co-hosting - he and Dave will be alternating weeks, while I keep the moderator seat warm.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

This week, David and I discuss a few changes to the format, and we touch on a few other things we intend to discuss in the future. Perhaps this should have been episode 1, but there was a lot going on last week with my work circumstances change, and I had material "in the can".

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.

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

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

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Faster Remoted Gemstone

October 24, 2010 9:42:57.000

Ramon Leon explains how to run Gemstone tools from a remote server with better performance: X11

Just a quick post to document some knowledge for myself and for anyone using Gemstone on a remote server like SliceHost or my preference Linode and trying to run GemTools locally through a ssh tunnel. It's slow, very slow, several seconds per mouse click. OmniBrowser is just to chatty. Fortunately Linux has a better way to do it: X11Forwarding. Run the GemTools client on the remote server and forward the UI for just that app to your workstation.

Follow the link for full details.

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posted by James Robertson

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Smalltalk and Multiple CPUs

October 24, 2010 7:43:01.000

There's a new framework in Cincom's Smalltalk that allows you to take advantage of multiple CPUs or cores - polycephaly. There's an interesting write up over on the CST website, which comes from the ObjectStudio team:

Polycephaly allows the user to spawn new copies of your ObjectStudio VM and image. Since Windows sees these new copies as separate programs, it can schedule them on any available CPU. One use of Polycephaly could be to connect to different web services at the same time and read some data. We currently use Polycephaly to run our SUnit test suite.

Follow the link for some code you can experiment with.

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posted by James Robertson

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Onward to Xtreams

October 23, 2010 7:01:13.000

It looks like Xtreams is getting attention beyond the world of Smalltalk implementations. Derek Williams writes:

Smalltalk is home to perhaps the first truly elegant streams implementation, particularly when compared to other approaches developed around that time, such as those in C and C++. You can’t get much simpler than ‘myfile.txt’ asFilename readStream contents to open and read a file, and yet there’s significant power in the classes behind that. But new designs for stream libraries since followed, including pluggable/chainable I/O stream architectures, such as those found in Java, C#, and even advanced parallel stream processing frameworks. Not to be outdone, Michael Lucas-Smith and Martin Kobetic have recently developed a new pluggable stream framework for Smalltalk called Xtreams, and I couldn’t resist giving it a try.

There's a lot more there; follow the link.

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posted by James Robertson

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That Podcast 3: The Repconn Edition (AAC)

October 23, 2010 2:36:38.432

That Podcast: FNV Diary

Welcome to episode 3 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas.

This is the Repconn podcast - we talk about the quest to rid the Repconn test facility of ghouls, and the different ways the two of us approached that. Along the way a few other locations came up, including the murder mystery in Novac.

You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can get to the podcast directly in iTunes via this link.

If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:

Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!

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That Podcast 3: The Repconn Edition

October 23, 2010 2:35:56.312

That Podcast: FNV Diary

Welcome to episode 3 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas.

This is the Repconn podcast - we talk about the quest to rid the Repconn test facility of ghouls, and the different ways the two of us approached that. Along the way a few other locations came up, including the murder mystery in Novac.

You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can get to the podcast directly in iTunes via this link.

If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:

Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!

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posted by James Robertson

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stupidity

Lawyers with Too Much Free Time

October 22, 2010 23:11:32.257

Can anyone explain where the actual harm is here?

Mr. Stauffer, who calls himself a "sharp-dressed man," also happens to be a patent lawyer. He sued Brooks Brothers Inc. in federal court, claiming it broke the law by marking its adjustable bow ties with patents that expired in the 1950s.

The court should have fined Stauffer for wasting its time, and told him to find better ways to fill his free time.

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posted by James Robertson

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tv

Netflix is on your Tubes

October 22, 2010 19:57:42.000

Via Engadget, Sandvine reports:

The bandwidth manufacturer has released a report that concludes that over twenty percent of stateside peak time downstream Internet traffic is gobbled up by Netflix streams, with the heaviest use going down in the primetime hours between 8 to 10 pm.

Doesn't surprise me; we watch a lot of Netflix (my daughter uses it a lot, mostly to catch up on shows she didn't think she'd like at first). More and more content is going to head this way, and the local cable company is going to pull its hair out over it....

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posted by James Robertson

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Lukas Renggli Defends his PhD

October 22, 2010 15:08:13.000

posted by James Robertson

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development

No Iron Anything

October 22, 2010 13:30:22.376

Looks like dynamic languages on the .NET platform are dead - oh, wait, they are "out in the community" now. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for much VM support though :)

Microsoft has officially ended a half-decade flirtation with building its own .NETized scripting languages, and it lost a languages guru to Google in the process. The company has handed code and project responsibility for IronRuby and IronPython to "the community," six years after it started the projects and then stuck them in limbo.

The guri reference is to Jim Hugunin, who is on his way to Google. Since Android is heavily Java dependent, and Oracle is trying to throw sand in Google's gears there, who knows what that means for dynamic languages on the JVM. My guess: nothing good.

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posted by James Robertson

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management

Clinging for No Reason

October 22, 2010 13:03:43.000

This is the kind of mistake that hidebound management makes a lot - something new comes along, and there's an instant "no":

Three of the biggest U.S. television broadcasters have blocked the Web-based versions of their shows from Google's new Web TV service, throwing a wrench into the company's plans to expand from computers to the living room.

Now think about that for a minute - you have Google TV, and you want to watch a show via the network's website. The network blocks your access. Why? You'll still have to watch the ads, so that's not the reason. This is just unreasoning fear. Supposedly they are worried about Google extending their web ad model to tv but I can't see how that would happen without the acquiescence of the network - the stream originates there. No, this is a bunch of guys who just fear the future.

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posted by James Robertson

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Macintosh

Seamless Migration

October 22, 2010 8:43:12.851

I've moved from one Windows box to another many, many times over the years, as the one i was using got old and needed to be replaced. Invariably it was a painful experience, requiring me to track down every blasted install disk (later, CD/DVD) I had and manually re-installing everything. Getting data to the new machine typically meant some kind of backup/restore or network transfer; there was never any automated support. For all I know, Windows 7 is better at that, but I haven't looked.

What I do know is this: moving from one Mac to another is the simplest thing I've ever seen. I walked into the Apple store yesterday, got a new 13" machine, and brought it home with a Firewire cable (I could have used my LAN, but the direct connection was faster). I followed the migration assistant instructions, and about 3 hours later (maybe less; I went to the gym in the middle of all that) it was done. I reset the Cincom machine to a base Snow Leopard install, with all the data on it erased, and had a new machine that is - for all intents and purposes - the same system. All the software works, all my settings were preserved... it's fantastic.

I realize that a Windows box costs less money, but boy - the time sink aspects are another thing entirely...

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Dynamic Stockholm News

October 22, 2010 7:15:24.741

There was a bunch of Smalltalk at the recent "Dynamic Stockholm" event - Martin Vilcans has a pretty good writeup of his impressions. I particularly like this:

Björn Eiderbäck’s final talk about Smalltalk was inspiring. Smalltalk is a nice language. For good or bad, it has the idea that it is not only a programming language, but a complete environment. You don’t just edit Smalltalk in a text editor and compile it on the command line. The development environment and the runtime is tightly coupled in a way that provides some very nice dynamic features for development and debugging. At the same time, you’re very much tied to the environment, so if you don’t like its text editor for example, you’re not going to be happy. The whole idea is perhaps too different, especially if you’re a text editor and command-line person. For example, Björn briefly showed the built-in version control of the Smalltalk environment, something that I would prefer to use an external tool for. (Here I admittedly express the kind of conservatism that suppresses progress.)

That's a pretty good summation of how a lot of people see Smalltalk - very cool, but.... they want to use external tools. I went through a phase where I really thought that would be a good idea, but I'm back to being unsure.

Smalltalk is the image - if you lose that, I'm not really sure that you have Smalltalk any longer.

Update: More here.

posted by James Robertson

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Follow ST 4 U on Facebook

October 22, 2010 6:51:38.089

I've set up a Facebook group for "Smalltalk 4 U" - you can watch the videos there, comment on them, and give me feedback on suggested topics.

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posted by James Robertson

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Smalltalk 4 U 5: Getting Started with VA Smalltalk

October 22, 2010 6:45:06.569

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the process of downloading and installing VA Smalltalk (from Instantiations) on Windows. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, use the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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posted by James Robertson

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Smalltalk Casts in the iTunes Store

October 21, 2010 22:00:13.270

The new Smalltalk podcasts - Smalltalk 4 U and Independent Misinterpretations are available in the iTunes store:

That should make them easier to find :)

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posted by James Robertson

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esug2010

Direct Editing of Objects at ESUG 2010

October 21, 2010 21:06:09.572

Here's a video from ESUG 2010, which was held in Barcelona, Spain, the week of September 13, 2010. In this presentation, F. Olivero talks about directly editing objects. You can watch in the embedded player below, or go directly to the Vimeo page

Directly Editing Objects from James Robertson on Vimeo.

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posted by James Robertson

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humor

Oops - World Not Ending in 2012

October 21, 2010 15:09:48.000

Never mind the difference between "end of time" and "end of an epoch" - apparently the Mayan calendar hasn't been properly converted to our calendar, either:

According to the new book Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World, we should stop believing that doomsday will come in 2012 because that's when the Mayan calendar ends, since scientists didn't convert the Mayan calendar into the modern calendar correctly and could be off by as much as 50 to 100 years.

Quick, someone call Roland Emmerich :)

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Screencast Plans

October 21, 2010 12:54:02.321

There's a lot of things that I could cover in the new "Smalltalk 4 U" series I've started up - I intend to do a whole set of "how to install X" ones first, including the Cincom products. As an outside person, I'll walk through that the same way you would - registration, NC download, followed by installation.

After I get that set of stuff out of the way though, things are a bit more open. I was thinking of doing a set on the "standard" libraries in Smalltalk - streams and collections being the most obvious, and covering interesting aspects in each of the products I'm looking at.

Anyone have better/different ideas? Let me know!

posted by James Robertson

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gamecast

James and Michael on Games 2: Mass Effect Edition

October 21, 2010 12:43:50.451

James and Michael on Games

Here's episode 2 of "James and Michael on Games" - in this podcast, we spend a fair amount of time on Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 - games we both like quote a bit. Michael has a few issues with the way ME2 wrapped though - listen to find out more!

To listen now, you can either download the mp3 edition, or the Ogg Vorbis edition. You can also grab an AAC edition. You can subscribe to the MP3 edition in iTunes using this feed.

If you have feedback, send it to James Robertson.

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fnvdiaryAAC

That Podcast 2: Meeting the Legion (AAC)

October 21, 2010 6:53:15.880

FNV Diary

Welcome to episode 2 of "That Podcast - a FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas. Today we delve a bit deeper into the wastes

In this episode, we talk about our first encounters with some of the bigger players in the game - the Legion, and the NCR. Michael also made it to the vegas strip, and has a few tips on getting there without spending a fortune. Meanwhile, I documented my challenges getting to Novac :)

The schedule for this podcast will depend on how much game time we get in, which of course depends on our jobs (or, in my case, my job search) and regular lives. We should be hitting the pod-waves regularly though - you can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can also subscribe directly in iTunes!

If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:

Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!

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[fnvdiary2.m4a ( Size: 9745651 )]

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That Podcast 2: Meeting the Legion

October 21, 2010 6:43:44.340

FNV Diary

Welcome to episode 2 of "That Podcast - a FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas. Today we delve a bit deeper into the wastes

In this episode, we talk about our first encounters with some of the bigger players in the game - the Legion, and the NCR. Michael also made it to the vegas strip, and has a few tips on getting there without spending a fortune. Meanwhile, I documented my challenges getting to Novac :)

The schedule for this podcast will depend on how much game time we get in, which of course depends on our jobs (or, in my case, my job search) and regular lives. We should be hitting the pod-waves regularly though - you can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can also subscribe directly in iTunes!

If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:

Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!

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[fnvdiary2.mp3 ( Size: 7050200 )]

posted by James Robertson

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Tab Completion for Squeak

October 21, 2010 6:30:02.910

Spotted in Planet Squeak

Levente Uzonyi is obviously one of a number of people who have been quite envious of the built-in tab-completion in Pharo, so he’s put in the work required to make OCompletion work on Squeak images again. OCompletion works in two ways: it offers a short list of automatic completion hints as you type based on your recent activity, or you can bring up the fuller (classic eCompletion) list by using the tab key, and use the up and down arrow keys to navigate the list and the right arrow to reveal syntax-highlighted source code for the methods listed.

It's interesting how much faster this kind of thing makes it into Squeak and Pharo than into the commercial Smalltalk implementations. There are various reasons for that, but as an end user of Smalltalk those reasons fade off into the middle distance and just make the freely available tools that much more desirable....

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

Smalltalk 4 U 4: Installing Pharo for Windows

October 21, 2010 6:16:12.230

Today's Smalltalk 4 You explains how to get Pharo installed on your Windows system - from "where do I find it" to "how do I install and run it". If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, use the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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posted by James Robertson

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Smalltalk Solutions 2011 Call For Participation

October 20, 2010 19:48:16.879

Georg Heeg, Executive Director of STIC, has issued a call for participation for StS 2011, to be held in Las Vegas, March 13-16:

The conference will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 13 – 16, 2011. Presentations may be in the form of:

  • Technical Presentations
  • Experience Reports
  • Technology Demonstrations
  • Panel Discussions
  • Half-day Tutorials
  • Other interesting ideas ...

You'll need to send your proposals to STS_Speakers@stic.st. Follow the first link to find out exactly what details to include.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Redline Smalltalk

October 20, 2010 16:08:00.369

The Redline Smalltalk project - running Smalltalk on the JVM - seems to be moving forward. There's:

Hat tip Torsten

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posted by James Robertson

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Macintosh

The Appification of OS X

October 20, 2010 15:55:42.013

Looks like OS X and IOS are converging to some extent. Gizmodo reports:

Mac OS X Lion is another step in the road to a new—or better said, renewed—computer interface paradigm: Modal computing. And along the way, Apple is taking some of the most successful parts of iOS, like the App Store—with automatic installation of applications—and the springboard—rechristened launchpad in Lion.

For most people, having an app store right on the desktop is going to make life simpler. For IT admins and a lot of software vendors, it's going to create a lot of heartburn, especially when Microsoft inevitably follows suit.

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posted by James Robertson

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Cincom Smalltalk Roadmap

October 20, 2010 13:25:18.856

Arden linked to his roadmap presentation from ESUG 2010. You can see all of the ESUG videos as they roll out on the STIC archive page

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posted by James Robertson

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No Scratch for iPad

October 20, 2010 8:53:13.210

Just saw this on Facebook from John McIntosh:

Received official word today that Scratch.app Squeak.app [ed: Scratch.app had already been rejected for this reason] has been rejected. You can't download executable code from the internet, I've heard this before, no surprise. This makes it impossible to use the iPad to write software outside of typing into web browsers/text files. At this point I'll toss it back to the educational institutions to convince Apple that they should allow software engineers to be creative on iOS devices too

As John says above, not a surprise, but disappointing nevertheless....

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fnvdiaryAAC

That Podcast 1: Wandering in the Desert (AAC)

October 20, 2010 8:38:07.150

FNV Diary

Welcome to episode 1 of "FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas. We both got the game yesterday - Michael via Steam on the PC, me via UPS truck for the XBox 360. We got started pretty much immediately :)

In this episode, we talk about the early game as we saw it. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen in - we are talking about what we saw, how we dealt with what we saw, and what the options looked like. This isn't a review cast so much as a diary case (thus the title).

The schedule for this podcast will depend on how much game time we get in, which of course depends on our jobs (or, in my case, my job search) and regular lives. We should be hitting the pod-waves regularly though - you can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition.

If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:

Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!

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[fnvdiary1.m4a ( Size: 11513674 )]

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fnvdiary

That Podcast 1: Wandering in the Desert

October 20, 2010 8:37:52.720

FNV Diary

Welcome to episode 1 of "FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas. We both got the game yesterday - Michael via Steam on the PC, me via UPS truck for the XBox 360. We got started pretty much immediately :)

In this episode, we talk about the early game as we saw it. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen in - we are talking about what we saw, how we dealt with what we saw, and what the options looked like. This isn't a review cast so much as a diary case (thus the title).

The schedule for this podcast will depend on how much game time we get in, which of course depends on our jobs (or, in my case, my job search) and regular lives. We should be hitting the pod-waves regularly though - you can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition.

If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:

Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!

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Enclosures:
[fnvdiary1.mp3 ( Size: 8342949 )]

posted by James Robertson

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st4u

Smalltalk 4 U 3: Getting Started with GLASS and Pharo

October 20, 2010 6:31:57.028

Today's Smalltalk 4 You explains how to get Pharo installed on your system - from "where do I find it" to "how do I install and run it". If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, use the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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posted by James Robertson

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movies

All Is Right in Middle Earth

October 20, 2010 6:06:15.628

It's only fitting that Peter Jackson is doing this:

“We’ve known this was coming for awhile now, but according to The New York Times it’s just become official: Peter Jackson will return to Middle Earth to direct The Hobbit. Honestly, it’s a move that makes the most sense. Let him finish what he started. Jackson’s deal is now finalized, as is the deal for Warner Bros., New Line and MGM to all help finance the two-part film, which some have suggested could cost upwards of $500 million for both.”

Hat tip Rob Fahrni.

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Civ V to the Mac

October 19, 2010 21:08:34.023

And there was much rejoicing:

Aspyr Media plans to bring the popular strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization V to the Mac in time for the holidays.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Brain Surgery While the Engine is Running

October 19, 2010 19:06:08.641

Sean Denigris explains how to do brain surgery on a bunch of existing Smalltalk objects when you make a code change:

Now comes the problem…  I had objects floating around that already contained a non-empty OrderedCollection.  I didn’t want to add otherwise-not-needed accessors.  Luckily, because of Smalltalk’s awesome reflection capabilities, it was a breeze to reach into these objects and surgically change them.

You might wonder why that's useful, but consider this situation (which I've actually had):

  • You make a code change for a running app server, such as the one you're reading this post on
  • There are existing objects that have the old object shape, and need the new object shape

Just use the same sort of strategy Sean outlines above. I've done that a fair number of times over the years, both to the servers I maintained at Cincom while I was there, and to this one. It's a really handy thing to be able to do, because it's much, much better than the more standard tack of:

  • Take server down
  • Apply change
  • Bring server back up

It works great, even in production.

posted by James Robertson

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games

Fallout NV - Early Reviews Seem Problematic

October 19, 2010 9:51:46.899

I'll be receiving the game later today, and since I'll probably be cloning Macs, I'll have a chance to play it. I'm a bit worried about the early reviews....

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general

My Heartfelt Thanks

October 19, 2010 9:26:23.989

I'd like to thank everyone who has sent me an email, contacted me on Facebook, or commented here on the blog - I really appreciate all of the kind words.

You'll be able to follow my Smalltalk work here, no matter what I end up doing - and I've left the comments for my announcement open, so feel free to add yours.

posted by James Robertson

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general

Acid Test of Mac Transfer

October 19, 2010 7:05:47.028

Sometime in the next few days I'm going to find out how well Mac to Mac transfer works - I need to return my MacBook Pro to Cincom, which means:

  • Getting a new Mac (I'm looking at the 13" model)
  • Transferring all of my apps and data to it

I've done the transfer before, back when we bought an iMac a few years ago - but that was from an old g4 based mini, and there weren't any apps on the mini that required registration. I've installed a whole bunch of things onto this Mac, so we'll have to see how it goes...

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posted by James Robertson

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Smalltalk 4 U 2 - Getting Started with Pharo

October 19, 2010 6:29:02.882

Today's Smalltalk 4 You explains how to get Pharo installed on your system - from "where do I find it" to "how do I install and run it". If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, use the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

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[st4u2-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 6451422 )]

posted by James Robertson

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Getting GLASS Running with Pharo

October 18, 2010 12:20:54.988

I'll do a screencast on this later this week, but I thought it might be useful to toss out some quick "how do I get it running?" instructions. I downloaded GLASS and a "one click" Pharo image from Gemstone's website, but then I ran into problems connecting to the database. James Foster was extremely helpful, and the steps I'm outlining here came from him.

Step one - if you're on Mac or Linux, as I am, use the installGemstone.sh script.

Step two - grab the one-click Pharo image

Step three - do this in a terminal window


source /opt/gemstone/product/seaside/defSeaside

That sets up the environment variables you'll need. Next, you'll want to get the server running, and for the "I'm just experimenting" case, you probably don't want all the security bells and whistles. So, do the following:



/opt/gemstone/product/bin/startnetldi -g -a YourUserNameHere
/opt/gemstone/product/bin/startstone seaside


It's probably simplest if you set up a script, something like this:


#! /bin/sh
source /opt/gemstone/product source /opt/gemstone/product/seaside/defSeaside
cd $GEMSTONE
./bin/startnetldi -g -a jarober
./bin/startstone seaside

And then one to shut things down:


#! /bin/sh
source /opt/gemstone/product source /opt/gemstone/product/seaside/defSeaside
cd $GEMSTONE
./bin/stopnetldi
./bin/stopstone seaside

Now, you should have GLASS running. You'll need to start your Pharo image. I used a command line from the same terminal I started GLASS from, but that's not essential - you can just double click on the app bundle. You'll get something like this:

Next, you'll want to edit the settings for the connection:

Now, hit the "Login" button, and you'll get prompted for your name:

After you enter that, here's what you should see:

From there, you can get started with your first GLASS/Pharo project!

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posted by James Robertson

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Ah, The Phone Company

October 18, 2010 10:48:44.475

One of the things I no longer need is a second phone line - my former employer was paying for a work line and a fax line. i don't really need either one; the fax number just brings up a steady stream of junk, and I rely on my mobile for everything anyway.

Sounds simple, right? Well, there was a voice message from the phone company notifying me that my service had been flipped back to me, and a phone number to call. That's when the awesome started - it's a non working number. The good news is, the message included an 800 number I could call. But the question is, why is the non-working line still in their system?

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posted by James Robertson

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Smalltalk 4 U

October 18, 2010 8:51:33.478

As you probably noticed this morning, I pushed out a new screencast series - I intend to cover various Smalltalk dialects the way I was covering Cincom Smalltalk. The links you'll want to keep track of:

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Smalltalk 4 You 1: How to Install Squeak

October 18, 2010 6:49:35.513

Today's Smalltalk 4You explains how to get Squeak installed on your system - from "where do I find it" to "how do I install and run it". To watch now, use the viewer below - if you have trouble viewing the embedded video, you can also go to the YouTube video directly

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Enclosures:
[st4u1-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 12560996 )]

posted by James Robertson

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Sad But True

October 18, 2010 6:02:50.343

posted by James Robertson

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podcastAAC

Independent Misinterpretations 1: Soek Goodies

October 17, 2010 22:19:52.608

Welcome to episode 1 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and Michael Lucas-Smith.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed - I'll be submitting it to the iTunes store, and will let you know when the podcast is listed there.

This week's podcast is a coversation with Ernest Micklei about his new website, soek.goodies.st. - it's a library of open source code for Smalltalk, allowing you to explore code without having to load it in an image. It's an interesting application, built in Seaside.

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.

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

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

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Independent Misinterpretations 1: Soek Goodies

October 17, 2010 21:16:55.514

Welcome to episode 1 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and Michael Lucas-Smith.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed - I'll be submitting it to the iTunes store, and will let you know when the podcast is listed there.

This week's podcast is a coversation with Ernest Micklei about his new website, soek.goodies.st. - it's a library of open source code for Smalltalk, allowing you to explore code without having to load it in an image. It's an interesting application, built in Seaside.

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.

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

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

Vote for the podcast on Podcast Alley:

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-902515a0bc7a7814a2721c389a7a8b7f}

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Online CMS in Seaside

October 17, 2010 15:07:09.761

Reza Razavi' on-line programmable CMS implemented in Seaside is now online. he announced it on the Seaside mailing list:

It is implemented by a home-made software platform that reuses and extends Seaside and Pier CMS.

You can get more details with his post on the topic. Hat tip Torsten.

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posted by James Robertson

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general

Still Life

October 17, 2010 14:38:07.992

Not the best photo in the world, but it was the only way - had I opened the door, the squirrel would have bugged out:

posted by James Robertson

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New Endeavors

October 17, 2010 11:10:27.817

While I look for work, I'll be busy with a few new things. The podcast and screencast series I was doing at Cincom are done; if you subscribe to those feeds, there won't be anything new coming (at least not from me; I can't speak to what Cincom may do with those properties).

However, I'll be continuing forward with Michael Lucas-Smith on a podcast - episode one of "Independent Misinterpretations" will be starting up later today. I've also created an index page for the ESUG 2010 videos; they will continue to be posted to the Vimeo site. Here are the links - the first two won't work until I get that first episode posted :):

On Monday, I'll be launching a new screencast series as well - you'll want to check back here for details then. I plan to continue posting the ESUG videos as well, but I don't think I want to pay to host them. Instead, I'll continue to push them up to Vimeo - follow the last link above for the index page for that

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posted by James Robertson

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