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news

Phone Malware

January 1, 2013 14:33:25.911

Well, this is a cheery sounding bit of news:

Today Robert Templeman at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana, and a few pals at Indiana University reveal an entirely new class of ‘visual malware’ capable of recording and reconstructing a user’s environment in 3D. This then allows the theft of virtual objects such as financial information, data on computer screens and identity-related information.

You download a camera app, but it's actually this thing. Awesome.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Squeak 4.4 Released

January 1, 2013 1:54:55.120

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

BioSmalltalk: New Release

December 30, 2012 12:09:46.326

Spotted in Planet Squeak

A new version of BioSmalltalk has been released. BioSmalltalk is the Smalltalk environment for doing bioinformatics with Pharo. There's a list of features, status and to do's at the link

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posted by James Robertson

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holiday

Podcast Break

December 29, 2012 20:49:07.272

No podcast this weekend - short break for the new year's weekend.

posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 325: Constructed Messages

December 28, 2012 11:40:35.884

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at constructed messages - sometimes useful in Smalltalk, but not without their risks. 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:

Config Maps.

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:


One of the things you run across in Smalltalk early on - and typically think is very cool at the time - is the ability to construct and perform a message send. You can ask an object to execute a message via the symbol for the name:


someObject perform: #nameOfMethodHere

That kind of thing is common, and used quite frequently - for instance, eecuting a message after an item has been selected from a list of options. If the actual symbol is used, it's even traceable by the tools in the system. What's also possible - but much harder to trace - is something like this:


execute
	| msg sendMsg |
	
	msg := lastState
		ifTrue: ['add', tail]
		ifFalse: ['remove', tail].
	sendMsg := msg asSymbol.
	lastState := lastState not.
	self perform: sendMsg

Here, a message is constructed by string concatenation, with the string then being made into a symbol and performed. The problem? It's impossible to find these references with the tools - you have to know where they are. Worse yet, we've seen such usage combined with the last screencast - wrap this in an MNU handler, and you'll never know what it isn't working.

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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Enclosures:
[st4u235-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 2725923 )]

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Call For Participation in the Smalltalk DevRoom at FosDem 2013

December 27, 2012 15:15:30.317

Saw this from Marcus Denker:

A devroom for the Pharo, Squeak, Amber, GST, Etoilé, Seaside, Moose Smalltalk projects & Newspeak as derived language. Smalltalk environments offer a very high development productivity, unmatched by their successors. Come do some pair programming with us and experience yourself the advantages of a real OO environment

You can get more info on the conference here

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posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 232: Layering Application Data on a Map

December 27, 2012 12:52:29.286

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at integrating third party tools (Panaramio in this case) into Googl emaps through the Javascrupt API. 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:

panaramio

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:
[js4u232-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 2733163 )]

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Regular Screencasts Return Tomorrow

December 26, 2012 12:07:51.466

I'm taking a short break from screencasting - basically, the 3 days around Christmas. Things will be back to normal tomorrow on that front.

posted by James Robertson

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weather

Bookending Christmas

December 26, 2012 11:24:59.055

Snow on Christmas Eve, and now this:

posted by James Robertson

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holiday

Merry Christmas to All!

December 25, 2012 10:48:09.645

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year next week!

posted by James Robertson

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