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smalltalk

Kinect and Smalltalk

November 26, 2010 11:05:01.172

Nikolay Suslov is hooking up a Squeak/Croquet image to Kinect:

Want to share my early experiments with the novel controller from Microsoft: Kinect, fine working in Krestianstvo SDK (based on Smalltalk dialect Squeak/Croquet).

Follow the link to see what he's up to, and get involved if it sounds interesting to you.

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posted by James Robertson

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books

The Man Who Never Was

November 25, 2010 23:05:27.631

I guess I have to rethink the idea that most spy stories are yarns too unbelievable to be true. I just finished reading "Operation Mincemeat ", and trust me - this story definitely needs to be filed under "truth is stranger than fiction".

It's not just that the deception operation - using a dead man with false papers to convince the Nazis that Greece and Sardinia were being invaded rather than Sicily - was fantastic. No, it's the various weird things that happened along the way, and the fact that the entire Nazi hierarchy bought the deception, even given all of the holes in it.

The book is a great read - like a spy thriller, but with the added benefit of being real history. While Ian Fleming has a bit part in the tale (in case you ever wondered where his ideas came from), the real stars were Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley, along with the supporting cast of intelligence operatives around them. I won't spoil the story by telling you much more about it - just go grab the book and read it. You'll be glad you did.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk in Frankfurt

November 25, 2010 15:52:06.000

The Frankfurt (Germany) Smalltalk group is meeting today - details at the link (in German)

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Console Scripting with Pharo

November 25, 2010 9:50:13.750

Interesting - the notion of a command line level REPL came up on the podcast I did with James Ladd recently (It'll be out Sunday) - and here's a Pharo project for just that.

Hat tip Torsten.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Living with Live

November 25, 2010 7:44:47.000

Sean DeNigris gives us a nice explanation of the power of Smalltalk - when things go wrong, you can just pull out the wrench and get to work.

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posted by James Robertson

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general

Excitement with Microsoft Office

November 24, 2010 22:18:05.149

I installed Office for Mac today - my dad bought a family pack and had a spare use license available. So I figured what the heck - I have to deal with Office documents all the time, and while iWork does a decent job with them, it doesn't handle everything I get. This popped up while I was installing, and I have no idea why:

Why does the Office installer care that Chrome is running?

Update - it gets stranger. If I start Chrome after I have one of the Office apps running, it won't load pages. I get the message about a script hanging the page from Chrome, but for any page. If Chrome is running when I start an Office app, this doesn't happen. So... what the heck did Microsoft screw up such that they have a runtime issue with a browser?

Update 2 - Ok, now I can't replicate that behavior, but it did happen more than once. Really, really strange...

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Red Ded Zombies?

November 24, 2010 21:43:22.678

Red Dead Zombies

The latest DLC for Red Dead Redemption confuses me:

Seemingly overnight, a undead plague ravages the once bountiful frontier, decimating the landscape and reawakening the dead. In towns, settlements, and outposts throughout the world, the uninfected citizens are left to fight for survival against waves of the undead. John Marston must ride out into the vast and terrifying world and survive long enough to find a cure.

This sounds like a fusion of the game and the TV show "The Walking Dead". It might be fun to play - but boy, it just doesn't seem to fit in at all with the basic premise of the game. Not to mention this: by the end of Redemption, Marsters is ded anyway. So is this more or less an alternate history that pops up when he was about to be whacked at the end?

Now you know why I'm confused....

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posted by James Robertson

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js4u

Javascript 4 U 10: Conditional Statements

November 24, 2010 10:05:58.813

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at conditional statements in Javascript. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube.

Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

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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[js4u10-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 4438849 )]

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Name That Method

November 23, 2010 23:45:49.206

Travis is looking for suggestions on method naming quandary,

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk Solutions 2011 Rates

November 23, 2010 19:25:52.955

Smalltalk Solutions 2011

The registration details for Smalltalk Solutions 2011 are out

Two strange things about the announcement, too:

  • There's a charge for the speakers, which is not exactly the norm for tech conferences. Now that I'm "on the outside", I have to say - it's a bit of a hurdle. I'd need to take a week off (and not get paid during that week, mind you) just to go, so additional fees are a problem
  • No word on how to register. Presumably that's coming soon, but you would have thought that a registration page would have been available with the announcement...

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posted by James Robertson

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general

Lots of Stuff

November 23, 2010 12:23:07.484

I guess I have a fair assortment of computers lying around - I moved the old Mac Mini's LCD screen over to run a test for the VW Intro class I'm teaching next week:

Yeah, that's an old CRT attached to an old PC (ancient, really) running an old rev of Linux. There's even a KVM attached for a slightly less old (but way more noisy) Linux box....

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4 U 18: Literal Array Syntax

November 23, 2010 6:46:38.099

Today's Smalltalk 4 You continues with "ProfStef", which is part of the "one click" Pharo download. Today we look at creating Array objects using literal syntax. One caveat - this method is not consistent (or even available) across all Smalltalk dialects. 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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[st4u18-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 2328399 )]

posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Airprint is Underwhelming

November 23, 2010 0:19:17.674

I have to say, I'm not impressed with the new Airprint feature. My wife was looking forward to being able to print from her iPad - we have a 2 year old WiFi enabled printer (HP), so we thought it looked positive. Well... not so much. Get a load out of the tiny list of printers that are supported:

There's a PrinterShare app for the iPad and iPhone that works with the Wifi enabled printer - you would think that Apple would have figured that out as well. Nope - looks like the only people who can use Airprint are the ones who just bought a printer, and happened to buy the right one.

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posted by James Robertson

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podcasting

Redline Smalltalk on the Podcast

November 22, 2010 19:55:55.236

I'll be talking to James Ladd about his Redline Smalltalk project this week - it'll be released into the IM stream on Sunday.

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posted by James Robertson

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itNews

To the Cloud

November 22, 2010 19:00:35.046

Google's cloud strategy is now solidly in the enterprise zone:

Today, Google is launching a new plugin for Microsoft Office called Cloud Connect, which will tie Google Docs directly into the ubiquitous productivity suite, free of charge. Editing a document in Word? It’ll automatically sync to your Google Docs account each time you hit ‘Save’. Want to share a preview of your document without worrying about what file format your coworkers can open? Just send them a link to the Google Docs file. The plugin supports Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and it’s a big deal for Google’s strategy with Docs.

You have to wonder how Microsoft feels about that. On the one hand, it does plug into their tools; on the other hand, it gives a nice glide ramp off those tools and over to the Google suite - which is free for the small/home end, and very inexpensive for the enterprise side. If nothing else, the price points MS charges for Office should start coming under real pressure...

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

The Demise of Mass Market Cameras?

November 22, 2010 14:49:42.000

This pretty much maps my usage of cameras as well - I have a nice (not great, but nice) Samsung, and an iPhone. MG Siegler has a much nicer Canon, but writes the following:

I anticipate I’ll take about 5 percent of my pictures with it in the coming year. The other 95 percent will be taken with my iPhone. How do I know? Because I had the S90 last year and that was my exact usage pattern.

That's what I've noticed as well - I take the vast majority of my photos with the iPhone. Why?

Smartphones are always connected. Point & shoots never are. When I take a cool picture, I often want to share it right away. With my smartphone, it takes 20 seconds. With my point & shoot, it’s impossible. I have to wait until I get home, upload it to my computer, then upload it to the web.

That's pretty much it right there. With my phone, the photos can be shared immediately; with my regular camera, there's a delay (and truth be told, I might not even get around to it). Professionals and serious hobbyists will keep buying nice cameras, of course, but that entire space is going to drop into niche status, as most of us just use our smartphones. Ironically, that probably means that prices on nice digital cameras will go up, because the buying audience will shrink - unless they start doing 3g deals with wireless vendors. Even that might not work though - why would I want to carry two devices when I can get by with one?

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posted by James Robertson

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tv

More Google TV Blockage

November 22, 2010 12:14:46.000

At this point it might be simpler to list the handful of network content that you can get via GoogleTV:

Are we beginning to see a pattern yet? Just when we thought (or at least we were hoping) that Fox was going to be the last major network to block Google TV, Viacom has arrived just in time to rain on our parade. That’s right folks, Viacom is now blocking Google TV devices from streaming full episodes across their entire line of properties.

Fighting the future is what the content owners do best...

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Where is IOS 4.2?

November 22, 2010 10:04:13.301

Apple has announced IOS 4.2 for the iPhone, Touch, and iPad. A visit to apple.com tells me to hook my iPad up to iTunes and enjoy the update - however, here's what I got when I attached my iPad to iTunes:

So I think someone at Apple forgot to flip a switch...

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posted by James Robertson

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js4u

Javascript 4 U 9: Comparison Operators

November 22, 2010 6:38:36.165

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at comparison operators in Javascript. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube.

Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

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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Enclosures:
[js4u9-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 3751702 )]

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Seaside 3.0.2

November 22, 2010 6:09:57.255

A bug/patch release of Seaside 3 is out:

We are pleased to announce the release of Seaside 3.0.2. This is a bugfix release for Seaside 3.0. We recommend all users of Seaside 3.0 to update. A changelog is available

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posted by James Robertson

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fnvdiaryAAC

That Podcast 11: The Second Time Around (AAC)

November 21, 2010 22:17:17.414

That Podcast: FNV Diary

Welcome to episode 11 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas.

On today's podcast, Makalua and I talk about our more careful followup playthroughs, where we've tried to explore the entire map and push the plot back until the end. Michael isn't on this cast - he's on a work trip to Europe. We also discovered another Fallout oriented podcast - The GNR podcast. I've subscribed in iTunes, you should too :).

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. You can also go to the iTunes store and leave a comment, or join the Facebook Group and discuss the podcast.

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

Got feedback? Send it to James. We'd really appreciate it if you head on over to iTunes and leave a comment - enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!

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[fnvdiary11.m4a ( Size: 18641042 )]

posted by James Robertson

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fnvdiary

That Podcast 11: The Second Time Around

November 21, 2010 21:26:52.434

That Podcast: FNV Diary

Welcome to episode 11 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas.

On today's podcast, Makalua and I talk about our more careful followup playthroughs, where we've tried to explore the entire map and push the plot back until the end. Michael isn't on this cast - he's on a work trip to Europe. We also discovered another Fallout oriented podcast - The GNR podcast. I've subscribed in iTunes, you should too :).

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. You can also go to the iTunes store and leave a comment, or join the Facebook Group and discuss the podcast.

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

Got feedback? Send it to James. We'd really appreciate it if you head on over to iTunes and leave a comment - enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!

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[fnvdiary11.mp3 ( Size: 13587834 )]

posted by James Robertson

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podcastAAC

Independent Misinterpretations 6: Monticello at ESUG 2010 (AAC)

November 21, 2010 9:48:24.620

Welcome to episode 6 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith>, and David Buck. This week we have a talk from ESUG 2010 - Colin Putney talking about Monticello.

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

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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podcast

Independent Misinterpretations 6: Monticello at ESUG 2010

November 21, 2010 9:47:57.290

Welcome to episode 6 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith>, and David Buck. This week we have a talk from ESUG 2010 - Colin Putney talking about Monticello.

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

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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[im6.mp3 ( Size: 16128218 )]

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Get Those StS 2011 Proposals In

November 20, 2010 10:46:02.077

There are ten days left in the proposal window for Smalltalk Solutions 2011

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posted by James Robertson

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history

A Piece of History

November 20, 2010 10:00:30.167

Everyone has seen the official black and white footage of the Japanese surrender ceremony aboard the USS MIssouri - but who knew that one of the navy crew - Commander Kosco - took color footage? Or that said color footage has been restored and posted to YouTube? Here it is:

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Travis Moves His Blog

November 19, 2010 14:32:47.277

Travis Griggs is now blogging over here.

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posted by James Robertson

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copyright

Copyright Rules Gone Mad

November 19, 2010 9:56:42.447

The latest stupidity in the ongoing copyright wars is the COICA - a proposed law (just got through the Senate Judiciary Committee) that would give the Attorney General the ability to censor websites based on his office "deeming them to be primarily for infringing activity". Well. I'm sure that a lot of the activity in DropBox qualifies; on the other hand, DropBox is a really cool service for easily passing documents around. Would that be something that got shuttered? Who knows?

And what about the possible political impact? It's not a stretch to imagine a politically oriented White House (insert whichever political persuasion you fear most here) deciding to shutter an opposing set of websites based on some infringing material that landed there via end user upload. The number of ways that this sort of thing could be abused simply boggles the mind.

It's time to completely rethink copyright law. What we have now isn't working, and attempting to tighten the screws - while simultaneously extending the timespan of content owner monopolies - isn't the best way forward.

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posted by James Robertson

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general

Getting Ready for a Training Class

November 19, 2010 7:18:17.661

I have an old Mac Mini (it's got a g4 processor, that's how old) - and it's hooked up to a VGA LCD monitor I bought a few years ago to replace a ginormous CRT it was using. I'm teaching an intro to Smalltalk class via webcast in a couple of weeks, and I figured the monitor would be useful for that - I can keep the slides I'm displaying on the exported view, and a window with the class chat room on the second display. Sounds reasonable, and a quick test (now that I've bought a new mini-display port to VGA adaptor) shows that it works fine.

It should be to teach an intro class again - it's been years since I did that regularly (going all the way back to the ParcPlace days for me). In the interim I've been doing a whole lot of screencast tutorials, so it's not as if I'm out of practice or anything :)

Interested in signing up? Sign up over at Dave Buck's site - while I'll be presenting the course it's material Dave has put together and delivered in person many times.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

Smalltalk 4 U 17: Literal Arrays

November 19, 2010 6:17:09.474

Today's Smalltalk 4 You continues with "ProfStef", which is part of the "one click" Pharo download. Today we look at another literal: Arrays. 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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