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weather

The Power Came Back!

October 29, 2012 16:56:32.034

I have low hopes for it staying on, but I'm hoping it does for another 35 minutes at least - we tossed some chicken we had in the fridge in the oven, and we're hoping for the best :)

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk Tag Support in Amber

October 29, 2012 15:55:14.000

This new feature of Amber looks pretty fun:

I just pushed a small change that allows us to write script tags in smalltalk. You can now add scripts like the following to you HTML pages:


<script type='text/smalltalk'> window alert: 'Hello from Amber!' </script> 

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posted by James Robertson

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weather

Power Down

October 29, 2012 14:57:21.755

Sandy has knocked us off the grid for now - and with how bad the storm looks on the radar maps, I don't expect to see it restored anytime soon.  I hope I'm wrong about that, but at this point, we'll probably end up losing most of the stuff in the fridge and freezer....

posted by James Robertson

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weather

This is a Weather Event

October 29, 2012 10:37:35.744

I have to admit, the radar map is impressive:

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 302: Adding To the Pharo Help System

October 29, 2012 10:19:10.243

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks a little deeper at the help system in Pharo - you can extend it easily to include your own help for your own projects. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

Help

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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IM 100: Squeak Board Update (AAC)

October 28, 2012 21:48:53.532

Welcome to episode 100 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week James interviewed two of the current Squeak Board members - Craig Latta and Chris Cunnington. The topic? Where Squeak is now, and where it's headed.

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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podcast

IM 100: Squeak Board Update

October 28, 2012 21:45:43.532

Welcome to episode 100 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week James interviewed two of the current Squeak Board members - Craig Latta and Chris Cunnington. The topic? Where Squeak is now, and where it's headed.

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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weather

Here Comes Sandy

October 28, 2012 2:29:43.947

Don't be surprised if there aren't any screencasts the first couple of days of this week - I may be out of power:

We'll see how things shape up as things progress, but the storm tracks make it look like a not so fun week here on the east coast.

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posted by James Robertson

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copyright

Could Google Be Less Helpful?

October 27, 2012 1:29:50.897

This morning I got an email from Google, telling me that a video had been flagged for copyright violation. I went to the page they gave me for information, and found this enlightening statement:

Visual content administered by: FFT

The video in question is a screencast (one I did years ago, actually), showing VisualWorks controlling iTunes. I have no idea who "FFT" is, but there's no way that this video violates any copyright of theirs.

The larger question I have is, who the heck is "FFT"? If Google is going to listen to validity free copyright yelling, the least they can do is tell us who it is that's making the claim.

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Someone at Microsoft Found a Nut

October 26, 2012 19:09:48.000

Spotted in Polygon:

Speaking to Gizmodo, Windows Corporate VP of Web Services Antoine Leblond said the guidelines will be changed by December. "It basically ends up disqualifying games that would be ESRB Mature," he said of the original guidelines. In announcing that the guideline changes would be introduced in December, Leblond added: "This is to give developers a heads up that that's where we're going, so they can have the peace of mind around developing the kinds of games that will have those ratings."

I suspect that the original guidelines were put out by someone who doesn't play games, and was looking to prevent certain classes of "mature" apps from landing in the store with the MS stamp of approval. It probably took awhile for the people at MS who play games - and understood the impact - to get the problem explained to the powers that be :)

posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 301: Benchmarking Tools in VA Smalltalk

October 26, 2012 13:17:24.972

Today's Smalltalk 4 You starts looking at the benchmarking tools available in VA Smalltalk. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

Benchmarking.

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:


Today we'll start taking a look at the benchmarking tools available in VA Smalltalk. First, we'll need to load the relevant feature:

Load

Next, we'll go to the "Tools" menu in the launcher, and pick "Open Benchmark Workshop".

Benchmarking

THe tool has a code pane on the left, used to enter the code you want to benchmark. However, that doesn't operate the way you might expect - First, enter the code you want into the text area:

Benchmarking

Now, right click and select the "Save" option in the menu. You'll be warned about creating a scratch edition of an application; just ignore that:

Save

Once you've done that, the new benchmark is available from the drop down list at the top of the tool:

Benchmarking

At this point, we can run any of the saved tests. We'll get to that in the next screencast.

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

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js4u

JS 4U 216: Animating Map Indicators

October 25, 2012 9:04:26.890

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at the gt() function in JQuery. 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, click on the image below:

animated indicators

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

Summer of Smalltalk

October 24, 2012 14:55:29.000

Interested in what the Google Summer of Code produced for Smalltalk? Have a look

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 300: Recently Visited in VA Smalltalk

October 24, 2012 10:54:27.301

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the standard development process using VA Smalltalk and ENVY. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

Recently Visited.

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:


There's a nice little feature in VA stashed away on the "Options" menu of the launcher - recently visited methods. This is something that I'd really like to see in the tools I use in my day to day consulting work, because I keep going back to the same code, but I often can't quite remember what it is that I'm looking for - this feature helps a lot with that problem.

Recently Visited

As you can see below, the last few classes and methods I visited had to do with the screencasts I did on file handling in VA - and here they are, listed right where we can easily find them:

Recently Visited

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

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posted by James Robertson

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itNews

Asking the Wrong Questions

October 23, 2012 16:12:04.000

Slashdot Insults Users with the wrong question:

'Nonsense. The long and short of it is: If my 3 years old son can learn Windows 8 through very moderate usage, anybody with half a brain can do so too.' Bill Gates has already successfully made the transition to what he calls an 'unbelievably great' Microsoft Surface. On Friday, we'll start finding out if current Windows XP and Windows 7 users are also smarter than the average 3-year-old!'

The issue isn't whether users can figure out Windows 8; it's whether they can do what they do now with XP or Windows 7, and whether doing that requires more effort, or less. If the answer is that it takes more effort (especially on non-touch systems), then yes - it's too hard to use.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Spoon 3 Beta 3

October 23, 2012 16:09:07.323

Craig Latta has just pushed out another beta. In related news, I spoke to Craig and Chris Cunnington about what's been going on with Squeak for next week's podcast - check that out on Sunday.s

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posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 215: Polylines on a Map

October 23, 2012 9:45:38.774

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at drawing polylines on a Google map. 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, click on the image below:

polylines

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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st4u

ST 4U 299: Help in Pharo

October 22, 2012 13:11:37.026

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the help system that is included in Pharo. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

Pharo help

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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