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stic13

STIC 2013 Impressions

June 11, 2013 20:52:34.896

We'll be recording a podcast tomorrow after the final talk here at STIC 13 - with our perspective on what we saw and heard. It'll be posted on Sunday, and over the course of the next few months, the audio and video for the talks will be appearing in my regular audio and video feeds. Stay tuned :)

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posted by James Robertson

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stic13

Gemstone Updates

June 11, 2013 13:32:34.833

First big news - Gemstone/S 32 is no longer EOL. It's not being enhanced much (all the work is on the 64 bit rev), but it's a live product still. The older 64 bit rev is 2.4.5.3 - it's stable, with all work going into the 3.x stream they've got out. The latest - 3.1.0.3 is the latest 3.x release, with 3.2 coming out in December 2013. New stuff:

  • OpenLDAP
  • OpenSSL
  • ZLib
  • LiblCU
  • Regular Expressions
  • Support for Solaris 11
  • More MT work in reclaiming sessions
  • More Unicode support
  • New work on the indexing system
  • Improved encryption support, including AES
  • new hot standby support
  • Thread safe GCI support coming
  • Adding some protections against DOS attacks to netldi and stone
  • Improvements to VSD

On the server side, no support changes. Client side, still support latest two versions of Cincom and Instantiations Smalltalks. Licensing - perpetual, subscription was discontinued by VMWare, now coming back. Also have VAR licenses. The free (web) edition is still out, and they intend to make it more fine grained.

MagLev - In "Strategic Planning" mode. No work has been done for 2 years at GS, but there has been work at HPI. To get real, would have to support Ruby 1.9, which is not there yet. The future on this is not clear.

posted by James Robertson

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stic13

Gemtalk at STIC 2013

June 11, 2013 12:58:18.358

So we just found out that 20 percent of the world's shipping moves on a Gemstone/S powered app, the one that started at OOCL - and Dan Ware tells us that it's going to grow to more of the shipping companies. That's why they have a good future laid out in front of them :)

Company name is now Gemtalk Systems - they can be found on the web at gemtalksystems.com

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posted by James Robertson

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general

Bike Share Plus Helmet Mandate

June 10, 2013 17:52:22.352

Sure, helmets are a good idea. However, if you mandate their use, don't be surprised if the actual usage of your system is low. Think about it - if you're a tourist in NYC, how likely are you to have a helmet on hand? If you don't, do you actually want to buy something you the have to cart around the rest of the day?

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Market Reality

June 10, 2013 17:15:38.552

Well, at E3, EA says that the next Dragon Age game will be released in 2014 on the next gen consoles. However - even if DA2 didn't put you off your BioWare feed, this game is not a reason to get a next gen console:

Yes Dragon Age Inquisition is coming to Xbox 360, XBox One, PS3, PS4, AND PC.

posted by James Robertson

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stic13

Smalltalk on the JVM

June 10, 2013 17:01:18.698

I did a podcast with Mark Roos last year on this - running Smalltalk (Digitalk 2.0 in this case) on the JVM. Unlike a lot of the other efforts in that direction, it's actually in production

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posted by James Robertson

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stic13

What's New in VA 8.5.2

June 10, 2013 13:34:18.035

Looks like there's new stuff to cover on the screencasts -

  • Monticello Importer, integrated with ENVY
  • Code Completion added to inspectors
  • Better support for high latency WAN connections to ENVY
  • Packaging Instructions for Seaside (IC support)
  • Various Tool Improvements
  • TimeZone Support, in DateAndTime class - very seamless with existing code
  • Added System>>processId to get process ID from Windows
  • Rebar Control in the Composition Editor
  • Glorp updated to 0.4.190
  • Updated Web Services
  • Support for Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12
  • More online doc, including ST4U videos

What's Coming Next?

  • New Text Editor coming - atop Scintilla - exposes full Scintilla API to Smalltalk, used in browsers, inspectors, workspaces
  • Date and Time picker added from Windows common controls
  • Various Development Tool improvements
  • Some old limitations from EMSRV (multi-processor warnings on Windows, size limitations on Linux) removed.
  • Monticello Importer Refinements - relevant metadata arranged where it makes sense
  • Can prefix all windows with an image "short name" - so that multiple images are easily distinguished by the mark one eyeball
  • Cross development (build on one platform, deploy on another) improvements
  • Possibly Announcements and Roassal
  • HTTP Multipart message support (mostly for Seaside
  • Glorp updated to latest version in Cincom Smalltalk public repository
  • Installation with InstallShield (Windows), RPM (Linux)
  • Further out - GTK+ on Linux
  • Redesigned Change Browser and Merge Tools
  • TCP/IP VI
  • Open SSL Wrappers (full)
  • IGC on 64 bit Smalltalk

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posted by James Robertson

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stic13

I've Been There

June 10, 2013 12:52:46.717

I feel for John O'Keefe - his machine blue screened when he tried to hook it up to the conference AV. I had a kerne panic at ESUG a few years back, so I know what's that's like.

John got things sorted faster than I did, so that's good :)

posted by James Robertson

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games

X-Boned

June 9, 2013 18:09:06.577

Chris Plante of Polygon nails it on the XBox One:

After a month of vague corporate comments from Microsoft executives, we now know the Xbox One's game licensing policy was written from the ground up for companies. It's aggressively anti-consumer and anti-middle class, and it outright ignores underprivileged gamers. It's gross, despicable, greedy, pathetic, cowardly and out of touch with a growing global resentment for corporations.

Yeah, a gaming PC hooked up to the TV to run Steam Big Picture is looking better and better....

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posted by James Robertson

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stic13

Smalltalk Stuff this Week

June 8, 2013 15:40:59.949

I'll be at the STIC conference this week - so no podcast tomorrow, and the daily screencasts are on hiatus for the week. Lots of content will be ready for posting after that though, so stay tuned :)

posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 401: Bad Choices with DNU

June 7, 2013 11:33:14.757

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at how you can get into trouble with message construction and #doesNotUnderstand:. 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:

DNU and perform.

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 take a look at a common pattern in Smalltalk development that can get you into real trouble - overriding #doesNotUnderstand: to construct messages and send them via #perform: - like this:


doesNotUnderstand: aMessage
	| string |
	
	string := aMessage selector asString.
	self doOp: string

The problems with this are twofold - first, your API is effectively hidden - using standard senders/implentors searches, you don't find it. For follow on developers, it's as if your API doesn't exist. Second, you'll probably end up implementing something like this:


doOp: aString
	|msg |

	msg := (aString, ':') asSymbol.
	(self class allSelectors includes: msg)
		ifFalse: [^self].
	self perform: msg with: 1

Which swallows your exceptions. This kind of code seems very cool the first time you write it, but do yourself a favor - avoid it. There are uses for DNU (mostly when creating proxy objects) - but you should think carefully before using this kind of pattern

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:
[st4u401-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 2526268 )]

posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 400: Infinity in Pharo

June 6, 2013 10:20:22.961

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at a small pacakge that adds an infinity object to Pharo's numerics. 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:

Infinity

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:
[st4u400-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 1389325 )]

posted by James Robertson

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games

Someone Flipped the Switch

June 6, 2013 0:02:32.522

Back on the Microsoft side, someone enabled my account again - I'm finally able to download my XBox profile. Now I just need to install a bazillion things, since the original issue was the crash that corrupted the hard drive....

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Rinse, Repeat

June 5, 2013 10:53:56.469

The good news is, Microsoft support is talking to me, and has escalated my case. The bad news: All communication is via their support forums, which seem to have a 24 hour turn around on messages. The other bad news - the first set of suggestions were all of the things I've already tried that don't work. So... I wait for later today or tomorrow, and see if they have any other ideas. In the meantime, my XBox is still effectively a brick.

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posted by James Robertson

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games

How Big is Skyrim?

June 5, 2013 9:57:15.491

Try on the word... Legendary:

Prima had to leave additional space at the inner edges of each page, because the length "tested the limits of what an actual binding can take," said Hodgson. The Legendary Edition's updates include all Dragonborn-related content and a new, more readable body font.

To use some old gaming terms, using the book as a weapon does 6d6 of damage :)

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 399: VisualWorks.ini for ObjectStudio

June 5, 2013 9:32:51.619

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at using the visualworks.ini process (to start any image with the right VM) in ObjectStudio. 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:

ObjectStudio.ini

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:
[st4u399-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 2994595 )]

posted by James Robertson

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games

Still No XBox Joy

June 4, 2013 19:56:36.848

It's been over 24 hours since my problems with the XBox started - I've spoken to some people from XBox support who have been helpful, but they can't really solve my problem. Why? For reasons that make no sense to me, your XBox Live account is associated with (but somewhat independent of) your Microsoft account. Mind you, I don't use a Microsoft account for anything - I've never used Hotmail, I haven't tried to use Outlook.com, I haven't set up Skydrive. Somehow, when I tried to download my XBox gamer profile, the Microsoft side of things locked me out.

The maddening part of all this is how little I can do about this. I've tried changing my password, filling in the form the website directs me to in order to unblock my account... none of it works. There's no phone number to call; apparently, I'd have to be a paying email customer to rate that level of service. So what can I do? Well, apparently nothing. I got a few helpful sounding tweets back from @MicrosoftHelps, but nothing has really happened.

So at this point, I'm thinking the XBox One sounds like a really, really bad idea. When things go wrong, there's basically no recourse other than "fill in a form, pray, and wait for an indeterminate period of time". For all intents and purposes, my XBox is bricked. I have no access to any of the games I've downloaded, or any of the DLC I've downloaded. I've paid for a Gold account, which is currently not accessible to me. I'm sure Steam has problems, but I've never been locked out of my account. I've had issues like this with my XBox more than once.

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posted by James Robertson

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games

More Fun With the XBox

June 4, 2013 10:43:26.491

This morning, I spoke to a helpful person at XBox support - unfortunately, they could not help me. This is where the whole Microsoft/XBox thing gets strange. I have an XBox live account. That's apparently different than my associated Microsoft account (which I do not use). The problem seems to be on the Microsoft side, and the XBox people tell me they can't do anything with that. Heck, I can't even get real support - I can go to a forum site (requiring an MS account login) to post a question. After setting up a new account in order to do that, I posted my problem and now... I wait.

Here's the bottom line - my Xbox crashed, and it somehow managed to lock out my account in the process. Have I ever seen anything like this from Apple, Google, or Steam? Nope. Something like this does happen to my XBox account every few months though. Let me tell you, @majornelson, this is not making me look at an XBox One as a good idea. I'm thinking gaming PC, Steam, and HDMI cable to the TV. At least Steam doesn't knock me offline when a game crashes, and then send me wandering in the desert to recover my account.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 398: thisContext

June 4, 2013 9:00:42.931

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the "hidden" reserved word in VisualWorks, ObjectStudio, Squeak and Pharo - thisContext. 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:

thisContext

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:
[st4u398-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 966302 )]

posted by James Robertson

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games

The XBox Saga

June 4, 2013 1:04:15.713

Earlier this evening, I was off achievement hunting in Fallout New Vegas. As happens in that game from time to time, it locked up on a loading screen. No problem, I thought - I've had to do the unplug/reboot thing before with Bethesda games. However, when it came back, it wouldn't install an update, claiming a lack of space. Since I had 85 GB free, I figured that couldn't be right.

The bad news was, the drive apparently got corrupted. Reformatting it was harder than it should have been - the device tells you to look up the serial number on an info screen, which gives you a 16 digit number. Inputting that to format yielded... nothing. No error, no format, nothing. Turns out it wanted a 12 digit number on the box itself. Fine, that worked. Next up - download my gamer tag.

Well.

That failed with an error - the dreaded 8015D000. So, I went to the MS site, took the "change my password" option (since i had no idea what I had used as my password - the XBox does auto-login). Then the website took me to a "your account has been temporarily blocked" page. That's the point where I contacted support. Support was less than helpful. They couldn't unblock my account, and the best they could offer was that an "advocacy team" would contact me in 2-3 business days. My box is effectively a brick until then, because without my profile, I have no access to the DLC or downloaded games I've bought. Most of the disc games I've bought have DLC associated with them, so they're useless until this is dealt with.

To contrast this - a few years ago, I had a Macbook Pro die on a flight to London. I went to the Apple Store, and while I had lunch with friends, they replaced the motherboard - on a Saturday. Meanwhile, no one at XBox support can figure out how to help me unblock my account, or even explain to me why it's blocked.

Hey @majornelson - explain to me why I should get an XBox One later this year? Seems to me that a half decent PC with Steam would work a lot better at this point.

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posted by James Robertson

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