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py4u

PY 4U 7: Python from a File

October 8, 2013 9:08:44.665

Today's Python 4 You introduces Idle, the basic Python development tool you get when you download the environment. 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:

Idle

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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[py4u7.mp4 ( Size: 2463344 )]

posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 476: Compressing a VW Image

October 7, 2013 9:57:45.837

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at how you can make a CST runtime image smaller using image conpression. While we are demonstrating with VisualWorks, the same technique works 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:

Image Compression

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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[st4u476-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 2199971 )]

posted by James Robertson

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history

The Civil War in Color

October 6, 2013 21:54:50.083

Colorized images from the US Civil War - these are amazing:

Two professional colorists have combined their skills with photographs and fascination with the American Civil War to create a remarkable series of color photographs from the era. British colorist Jordan Lloyd, 27, met fellow colorist Mads Madsen, 19, from Denmark when he started posting on Madsen's subreddit 'Colorized History'. Initially it was Madsen who was colorizing images from the Civil War era, but Lloyd eventually got interested and now the two work together restoring the images, improving their technique by giving each other critiques.

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posted by James Robertson

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podcastAAC

IM 146: How Much is Too Much (AAC)

October 6, 2013 10:26:06.215

Welcome to episode 146 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week Dave and James talk about the potential issues involved in giving end users too much power in an application. If you extend scripting support (or even full Smalltalk access) to them - but don't give them any other development tools, you haven't really done them any favors.

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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[im146.m4a ( Size: 12753019 )]

posted by James Robertson

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podcast

IM 146: How Much is Too Much

October 6, 2013 10:24:58.391

Welcome to episode 146 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week Dave and James talk about the potential issues involved in giving end users too much power in an application. If you extend scripting support (or even full Smalltalk access) to them - but don't give them any other development tools, you haven't really done them any favors.

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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[im146.mp3 ( Size: 9276044 )]

posted by James Robertson

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news

Lost and Found

October 5, 2013 23:51:06.528

This is kind of cool - a da Vinci painting that had been missing for centuries turned up in a private collection:

But a 500-year-old mystery was apparently solved today after a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci was discovered in a Swiss bank vault. The painting, which depicts Isabella d’Este, a Renaissance noblewoman, was found in a private collection of 400 works kept in a Swiss bank by an Italian family who asked not to be identified.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 475: Using the Monticello Importer

October 4, 2013 12:32:11.524

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the Monticello Importer 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:

Monticello Importer

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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[st4u475-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 2483116 )]

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Screencast Delayed

October 4, 2013 12:15:52.250

Update: Well, that was fast. It's back up again.

I normally have the daily screencast up by now, but YouTube is giving me (and everyone else, apparently) this:

When they get that resolved, the daily cast will be up

posted by James Robertson

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games

I Don't Want My Console to Use Auto-Off

October 3, 2013 22:01:31.956

Polygon has a post up about energy efficiency and gaming consoles. To the surprise of very few who know me, it's a topic about which I care very little. However, I do care about "auto off":

"An obvious low hanging fruit is enabling auto switch off by default," said Delforge. "The big prize is to make that as seamless as possible so that the users are not even aware that it's there."

Why? There are still games out there (Bioshock Infinite comes to mind) that don't allow saving whenever you want - they just have checkpoints. The last thing I need is to be most of the way to a checkpoint, have to pause because real life pops up... and have the damn console shut off because someone who thinks they know what's good for me decided to make that the default.

Pro Tip: The default should be the option that is least likely to cause end users problems, not the option that makes people with too much time on their hands feel better about themselves...

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Dave Buck Spotted on Hacker News

October 3, 2013 11:49:12.403

One of Dave's posts - "Swimming with the fish" - got picked up by Hacker News. Very cool

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Cincom Smalltalk Releases Out

October 3, 2013 10:40:07.584

VW 7.10 and OS 8.5 were actually done awhile ago, but the ever helpful US government had some hoops for Cincom to jump through due to the security (encryption) code in the products. I just saw an email from Cincom's Product Manager (Arden Thomas) announcing that the release is formally out now.

Update: I've been told that the website has not been updated with the release information as they wanted to inform the development communities (vw-dev and os-dev) first. I expect they'll be updating the website and getting the downloadable versions out soon.

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posted by James Robertson

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py4u

PY 4U 6: Basic String Operations

October 3, 2013 10:10:23.235

Today's Python 4 You looks at some basic String operations in Python. 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:

Python Strings

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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[py4u6-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 2026332 )]

posted by James Robertson

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travel

The FAA Finds a Nut

October 3, 2013 2:06:56.664

Someone at the FAA finally decided to look at the actual research, and not at some worry warts "feelings":

Last week, an FAA advisory committee recommended that airline passengers should be allowed to use smartphones, tablets and e-readers during takeoffs and landings. Now, it's added Wi-Fi use to that list.

With luck, that means I'll be able to read books on my iPad in peace as the plane takes off....

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 474: A Simple State Machine Example

October 2, 2013 11:27:10.578

Today's Smalltalk 4 You builds a simple state machine for a singke CSV line 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:

State Machine

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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[st4u474-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 4823787 )]

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Jade: A GemStone/S Windows Client

October 1, 2013 16:01:38.301

Spotted in Programming Gems (on GemStone)

Because Smalltalk was the origin of much of today’s GUI (mouse, overlapping windows, drop-down menus), Smalltalk developers are understandably accustomed to a nice GUI IDE. GemStone/S is an excellent database and Smalltalk execution environment and includes a built-in command-line tool, Topaz, where you can execute Smalltalk code, but has no native GUI. In this blog post we continue a demonstration of GemStone.app on the Macintosh (started here) and show Jade, a GUI-based IDE available on Microsoft Windows.

James has also posted a screencast for this

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posted by James Robertson

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py4u

PY 4U 5: Idle, and String Basics

October 1, 2013 8:40:19.348

Today's Python 4 You introduces the Idle tool - a far better place to experiment than the command line. 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:

5Idle

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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[py4u5-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 4275371 )]

posted by James Robertson

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law

Questions for Patent Trolls

October 1, 2013 8:25:56.999

I've now reached a point of extremity with patents and copyright; I think they do more harm than good. That said, at least someone is finally going to go after the obvious patent trolls with a few pointed questions:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted 4-0 to start an investigation of so-called "patent trolls." The first step is to solicit public comment on a long series of questions that the agency plans to submit to about 25 of the most controversial patent-holding companies, which the FTC calls "patent assertion entities" (PAE).

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posted by James Robertson

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