Solving the Wrong Problem
James Governor notes that Google's latest announcement, allowing you to shove any kind of file into Google Docs for storage, isn't solving a useful problem. There is a problem worth solving, just not the one they are on about:
Tools for automatic file migration and syncing between multiple folders and devices? Now *that* is a use case. See DropBox, Evernote, Mozy, SugarSync etc. I want Google to offer me the Synchronised Web, not a USB stick replacement.
Exactly. While I've seen some sales people who run around without laptops (and then have their email auto-respond that they are traveling and "away from email"), that's a shrinking population - and, to be honest, not the most clueful one - the sort of person who does that isn't a great candidate for Google's use case, IMHO...
Technorati Tags: cloud, google docs
Using Active Record in Glorp
With the release of OS 8.2 and VW 7.7, Glorp is not only a supported O/R library - it has ActiveRecord support as well. Today's screencast looks at using it withing VW.
If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: database, ActiveRecord, glorp
Let Slip the Dogs of Name Calling
The video linked here is making the rounds, and being used to promote the idea that "HP must be racist" - because the face tracking software on the unit in question doesn't seem to track a black guy in front of it.
I rather suspect that HP just did all of their testing with lighter skinned people, or in much better lighted rooms, or both. So blame them for incomplete testing and sloppiness, sure. But racism? Be serious.
iPhones and Verizon
How long will it be before we can buy an iPhone on other networks? Will it be available on all networks? It'll be interesting to see the sales numbers for iPhone when it does open up.
I'm not convinced that the iPhone will come to Verizon before the next generation (converged with GSM) network rolls out. Why? Well, Apple would have to go with CDMA, which is useful in North America, and pretty much nowhere else. I can tell you that I wouldn't jump to Verizon if they had the phone, because I've had enough of carrying a useless brick overseas.
Now, they could make it a tri-band phone, I suppose, and have it work overseas - but that just adds to the potential expense. I rather expect that Verizon won't see the iPhone for awhile.
Netflix and the Wii
Now, you might wonder why I care about this - having Netflix streaming on the Wii, when I already have the Xbox. Well, it's like this:
- The XBox requires a cabled network connection
- We have an exercise bike in one of our upstairs bedrooms
- The Wii uses WiFi
- My wife uses the bike quite a bit, since she has knee troubles
What this will do is make it easier for us to consume Netflix material wherever we want to, which is cool.
Marketing To Lose
I love this approach to marketing:
So, you crafted a campaign to drive people to submit your form, but they did not? That's ok. Within Eloqua, you can easily set up a follow up email to target people who landed on a specific page, but did not submit a form.
Here's a better thought: How about you don't bother people who expressed no interest? How about you don't require the form, and just offer the information? This whole concept of "lead generation" is just wrong headed. If you want potential customers to know something, let them know. If the information is actually useful, and you have a product/service that solves a related problem, they'll come back to you.
When you get treated this way at the car dealer shop, does it fill you with joy? What makes marketing people think it will make anyone happy?
Update: When I described this to my wife, and asked her how that kind of followup would feel, she said "I'd feel stalked"
When to Stop
A sixth season of Supernatural? This year, the Winchester boys are fighting Lucifer. How the heck do they top that?
Let the story end, just like Buffy should have ended after season 5...
Smalltalk Superpowers
Travis Griggs is talking about Smalltalk Superpowers again - lightweight classes, specifically - in order to solve a problem involving VisualWorks LookPolicy classes. Check it out - it's interesting stuff.
Technorati Tags: superpowers, lightweight classes
Travel Security and Unintended Consequences
I hadn't thought of this, but it makes a lot of sense:
As for not having luggage, many people (including me) ship it via Fedex ahead of time. [More...] United Airlines has an easy feature on their website where for $79., Fedex will come to your house or office, pick up your suitcase and deliver it to your hotel or other place in the destination city. Considering the airlines charge $25.00 or more to check the bag, and the requirement that you have to check it 45 minutes ahead of departure, the extra $50 is well worth it.
I try hard not to have to check anything, but some people have issues carrying heavy things - like, say, a person with knee or hip trouble. I can see it being well worth the time of someone with minor health issues to just ship everything to their destination.
Technorati Tags: security
Google to the Rescue
Yesterday, my iPhone suddenly started playing the same song over and over, even though it was on shuffle. I could manually proceed it, but by itself, it repeated. I put it in recovery mode after an attempt to reboot it ended in a lockup, but it retained the same setting. I had looked under iPod prefs and seen nothing, so I was starting to get frustrated.
As per usual though, I should have turned to the web first. A quick search showed me this, and - sure enough - the little loop button under the the time showed "repeat 1". I hadn't even noticed that there was a setting there before :)
I have no idea how that setting got turned on, but I suspect I did it accidentally. At least I know it's there now.
Technorati Tags: iPhone
Password Field Properties
When you specify the type of an input field as "Password", the "Read Only" setting becomes a problem in VisualWorks 7.7. Today's screencast looks at that, given that the two worked in VisualWorks 7.6
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: password field, read only, visualworks, gui
WiFi On the Rails
Now, a very few of those lines are getting even more appealing with Amtrak announcing that Acela lines between Boston, New York, and Washington will be receiving WiFi upgrades in March. That the service will be free is great news -- that the word "initially" is inserted before the word "free" isn't so very great
So the next time I have to head to NYC, it looks like I'll be able to stay online. Cool!
Xtreams - Live Tonight on justin.tv
We'll be broadcasting the next podcast tonight at 9 PM EST on justin.tv - it's going to cover the new Xtreams work that Michael and Martin Kobetic (fellow Cincom Smalltalker) have been working on.
See you then! It'll be posted for download on Sunday, as per usual. You can get more of a feel for what Xtreams is all about by loading the bundle from the public store - and by checking out video from Martin's recent presentation on it.
Gray Market Readers in the App Store
Here's an interesting little new media legal dilemma for you: apparently there are several paid apps in the iPhone App Store that bill themselves as "readers" for publications like the New York Times, CNET, and the BBC, but aren't actually licensed or official in anyway -- they're just pulling RSS feeds. That means people paying for an app like The New York Times Mobile Reader aren't actually getting an app from the Times -- and, perhaps more importantly, the Times isn't getting anything from anyone. Seems like Apple should probably just shut these apps down, but that's the interesting part: all these apps are pretty much just custom-built feed readers, and you can generally access all of the same content using Safari.
I noticed this because the idea of a "Smalltalk Daily" reader like the ones discussed above seemed like a good idea, and a friend of mine built a proof of concept that I like. White label is one thing; this gray label thing is the sort of thing you would think the app store approval process would weed out.
Is Zucker This Dumb?
I find this whole Leno/Conan thing terribly amusing. The entire contretemps was set into motion years ago by Zucker himself, when he promised the Tonight Show to Conan. Then, he let Conan find out about the "bring Leno back to 11:35" move via media reports. Now, he's "talking tough":
But now the NBCU chief has been talking tough during the negotiations with Team Conan. To counter O'Brien's principled public statement which the late night host issued this week, Zucker "is threatening to ice Conan", according to his reps. "Zucker said, 'I'll keep you off the air for 3 1/2 years.' Which doesn't have a chance in hell of happening.
I've written about Zucker before; he might well be the dumbest man in the TV business. He's certainly a living example of the "Peter Principle" in action...
The big winner in all this? CBS and Letterman. The more Zucker does, the bigger they win, I think.
Sears... I Should Know Better
You know, I should really know better than to buy anything that involves a service visit from Sears. After all, there's all of this history.
Sigh. We bought a new dishwasher last week, because ours has been doing a terrible job, even after a repair recently. installation was scheduled today between 2 and 5. That's fine; I work out of the house, so there wasn't any issue that way. However....
it's now 5:01 PM, and nothing. I called the local number, and got their "closed for the day" answering machine (that's the contractor, not Sears). So I called Sears. That was moving along untill they tried to transfer me, at which point they dropped the call. So, it's back to the phone.
I wonder how long this saga will last?
Update: The installers showed up at 5:30 with the new dishwasher, and it's going in now. So the main question is, how frakking hard would a short "we'll be late" phone call have been?
Technorati Tags: sears, unresponsiveness, bad service
Haiti - Just Wow
This series of before/after satellite photos of various parts of Port au Prince makes it clear just how much damage the earthquake did. If the "after" shots were black and white, you might think they were WWII era photos of some European city that got bombed a lot...
Technorati Tags: haiti, earthquake
Smalltalk in Seattle, next Thursday
The Cincom Smalltalk team will be coming to Seattle for a one day event on Thursday the 21st - you can register here (free). You can get more details over on the Cincom Smalltalk Events Page- the event will run from 9 AM to 1 PM
Technorati Tags: seattle
Seaside in the Wild
Joachim Tuchel has a few more examples of real world Seaside usage.
Searchlight
Searchlight is a new search tool for Cincom Smalltalk - instead of separating senders/implementors, it unifies results for them. Inspired by Apple's Spotlight, it's a new take on finding things in Smalltalk - learn more about it below:
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: searchlight, search
Getting to the Meat
I have a question - you can either email me, or leave comments if you want to answer it :) When you go to a site, and see an an offer to watch a video, or read a document (assume for the sake of argument that it's about something of interest to you) - how do you react to a mandatory form? Do you:
- Bail on the content, even though it sounds interesting
- Fill in the form, but with bogus information
- Fill in the form
I know how I react, but I'm curious as to how other people see this.
Feel the Stupid at the RIAA
Our good friends at the RIAA are back, trying to help us:
ISPs should have authority to block subscribers from sharing music and other files without permission of the copyright owner, the RIAA said. "ISPs are in a unique position to limit online theft," the RIAA said in its comments. "They control the facilities over which infringement takes place and are singularly positioned to address it at the source. Without ISP participation, it is extremely difficult to develop an effective prevention approach."
Right, and we can trust that no false positives would crop up, and that no innocent people would get caught up in this. Just like with their "sue the world" strategery...
The Wii Soars
I guess that price drop to $199 helped Nintendo move units:
According to The NPD Group (via Wired), Nintendo moved 3.81 million Wii consoles in North America last month. That's 1.66 million more units than December 2008, and the record for most consoles sold in a single month. No surprise, then, that the games industry had a record month overall, besting December 2008 by 4 percent.
I like the XBox, but the Wii is still very cool. Apparemtly, lots of other people think the same thing
New Smalltalk Website
The Smalltalk website at Cincom has been refreshed - if you have feedback, you can email me, or drop a comment here.
Also, if you find the old version of the site more familiar, you can get there via cincomsmalltalk.com/developers.
A Storm of Swords
 
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All I can say is - wow! George Martin keeps his story moving, and keeps throwing curve balls at me. I was pretty well stunned by the final paragraph of the book A Storm of Swords
. I've ordered the next book, and I'm hoping that he gets the next few books out as soon as he can. |
Technorati Tags: fantasy, george martin
The Wages of Procrastination
On of our car's has to get its emissions checked, and the deadline (before a fine) is Tuesday. So, I went down to the station this morning... only to discover that they are closed today and Monday for Martin Luther King observance.
Well, this is what I get for putting things off to the last minute, I guess...
Immersive Gaming: DragonAge Origins
 
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Ever since Christmas, my daughter and I have been spending a lot of time with EA's Dragon Age: Origins. It's a pretty immersive RPG we have on the XBox. The kid is positively obsessed with the game, and - I must say - I've spent a fair amount of time with it as well. I liked Modern Warfare 2 and Gears of War 2 well enough, but this is a much bigger game. I'm not even all that far into it - I'm dealing with the last battle in the tower of the magi right now. Speaking of which, I think the XBox is calling me... |
Moron Alert
The stupidity is getting harder to keep up with:
A San Diego school vice-principal saw an 11-year-old's home science project (a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics), decided it was a bomb, wet himself, put the school on lockdown, had the bomb-squad come out to destroy X-ray the student's invention and search his parents' home, and then magnanimously decided not to discipline the kid (though he did recommend that the child and his parents get counselling to help them overcome their anti-social science behavior).
I have a better idea: fire the idiot vice principal, congratulate the student for trying to build a cool science project, and send the entire staff at that school back to grade school. Or let them and the students swap places.
Seriously, what the heck is wrong with the staff there? Based on the reporting, it looks like the vice principal is listed here. After someone fetches him clean underwear, can they also hand him a remedial education course?
Technorati Tags: education
Industry Misinterpretations 171: Xtreams
This week Michael and I spoke to Martin Kobetic - he's one of Michael's fellow Smalltalk engineers here at Cincom. The two of them have been working on Xtreams as a side project for awhile now; Xtreams is a "Streams library reboot", applying the lessons learned from the existing Smalltalk streams library after the many years of use across domains they weren't originally designed (for instance, network protocol work).
There's a bit of crackling in the audio whenever Martin talks, that I couldn't do a whole lot to get rid of. It's a bit annoying, but it's all easily audible.
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.
To listen immediately, use the player below:
If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Effortless for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!
If you have feedback, send it to smalltalkpodcasts@cincom.com - or visit us on Facebook or Ning - you can vote for the Podcast Alley, and subscribe on iTunes. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!
Paywalls and Readers
I see the Times is leaning in a paywall direction again:
After a year of sometimes fraught debate inside the paper, the choice for some time has been between a Wall Street Journal-type pay wall and the metered system adopted by the Financial Times, in which readers can sample a certain number of free articles before being asked to subscribe. The Times seems to have settled on the metered system.
While I understand the need to make money, I'm just not sure this is going to work for them. The problem for the Times is that they desperately want to preserve their existing business model in an environment that will support a lot fewer employees nad overhead. Then there's the loss of influence problem - I ran across this commeneary from Ann Althouse:
For me, reading on line is tied to blogging. I'm not going to spend my time reading sites that I can't blog, and I'm not going to blog and link to sites that you can't read without paying.
Now, I'm a very small player, so the loss of links from me won't mean much, but I feel the same way. During the baseball season, I've often linked to stories about the Yankees (and the pennant races in general) in the Times. With this change? I can't link to stories that are going to be invisible to most people either,
More Seaside
Douglas Putnam is looking for a hosting solution to run Seaside:
I recently rented a 256MB slice from Slicehost for my SmalltalkTheGoodParts.com work. I have a Wordpress blog running there, and I'll be installing Smalltalk and Seaside as part of my self-taught Smalltalk course.
I can heartily recommend Slicehost, the service I use.
CIncom Smalltalk NC: Closer
I know people are anxious to see the new releases - ObjectStudio 8.2 and VisualWorks 7.7 - and we should have them available soon. The holdup has to do with the commercial orders going out to customers - we didn't want to have a situation where paying customers were getting the product after non-commercial users.
The holiday slowed that process down a bit, but things are getting back on track now. I'll make an announcement when it's good to go, so stay tuned.
Technorati Tags: non commercial, download
Regex Searches in the Browser
You can use Regex for searches in the Smalltalk browser (VW or OS) - to learn how, watch today's video.
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: search, code browser, regex
Faster FIOS
The new bundles of course don't skimp on the goodies, particularly with the 35Mbps up / 35Mbps down symmetrical service that should be a boon to HD video chats, big torrents and medium-sized torrents.
Looks like I have a phone call to make :)
Join us After Each Smalltalk Event Online
After each of the upcoming Smalltalk Technology events (check the schedule here; the first one is in Seattle this Thursday), we'll be hosting a short live stream to talk about the event. If you can't make the events but would like to know a bit about what we're on about, head to our Ustream channel.
Technorati Tags: live stream
Tablet Coming?
Apple is holding an event on January 27th to show off something the company is calling their "latest creation."
Unless a completely out of left field play on AppleTV is in the works, it looks like all the Tablet Rumors are going to converge into a real device. We'll know soon; I should be back from Toronto just in time to find out :)
More Smalltalk Video
The Gemstone folks and the people behind the PharoCasts keep pushing new stuff out.
Technorati Tags: video, screencasts
Where in the World
I've added a new link over in the sidebar - "Where in the World". I'll be listing upcoming events and places where I'll be. If I'll be where you are, and you would like to meet up, you can drop me a line via email, or message me on Twitter
That's also the best place to look for updates on all things Smalltalk that I'm involved in, because I can update it as I get confirmations. So - either keep track of that page, or subscribe to the feed.
Technorati Tags: travel
Keeping Track of Smalltalk Stuff
With the changes to the Cincom Smalltalk website, you might want to know how to keep track of the audio and video I produce there. On that front, nothing's changed - down the right hand side of the new site is a set of links pulled from the RSS feeds for the media products. To summarize all of that:
- Smalltalk Daily Feed
- Smalltalk Videos Feed
- Industry Misinterpretations Podcast Feed
- Feed for changes to the Archives for the Dailies, Videos, and Podcasts
For the latest in events, you can check my "Where in the World" page here.
That should keep you up to date on the absolute latest on everything, as it happens :)
Technorati Tags: events
Heroes Goes for the Predictable
You could fail to see how the Samuel story on Heroes was going to end up if you haven't ever read or seen anything created in, oh, the last few millenia. It's time for this sorry mess to fold the tent and shuffle off the stage...
Complex Values at ESUG 2009
Here's Christian Haider at ESUG 2009, talking about ComplexValues. You can get his slides here, and watch the video below:.
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Videos"?
One of Those days
It's been an awesome start to the day - didn't sleep well last night, and when I woke up, I immediately got sick. On the upside of that, I felt better afterwards. Then I had to take my wife's car to get its emissions checked, but it failed the test due to a faulty sensor - why they don't just test what's actually coming out of the tailpipe in that situation mystifies me. Let's hope that tomorrow's flight to Seattle goes better...
Smalltalk Daily from the Road
I'm heading to Seattle for our one day event tomorrow, but never fear - Smalltalk Daily will still be popping up. I have screencasts in the can and ready to go, so your daily Smalltalk fix should keep arriving in iTunes :)
Everything at Once
So not only did I have to run the car to emissions check this morning while sick, now - still not feeling 100 percent - I need to take my daughter to the Orthodontist, get on a conference call, and then go to the Sorint store for her broken phone (or usb cable - it's one that doesn't match anything else we have, either).
Awesome day :)
Cincom Smalltalk Non Commercial Arrives
The Non-Commercial Downloads for ObjectStudio 8.2 and VisualWorks 7.7 are available at last! There's a network installer for OS X, so things should be a bit simpler there. For ObjectStudio, it's a Microsoft MSI file, seeing as how ObjectStudio is the only Windows 7 Certified Smalltalk around.
Technorati Tags: non-commercial, cincom, download
More Smalltalk on Slicehost
David Putnam is getting started with a Seaside server on slicehost (the provider I use to host this blog). He's not running Seaside yet, but he did get Seaside running in a Pharo image, serving from his slice. Now all he has to do is create a Seaside app for it, and he'll be off to the races :)
Looks like he'll be charting his progress on his "Smalltalk the Good Parts" site, so go ahead and subscribe.
iTablet Rumors Run Hot and Heavy
Spotted in PC World Latest Technology News
CEO of iPhone repair firm predicts Apple will reveal 7-inch tablet next Wednesday and a 10-inch model by the end of 2010.
Everyone is speculating about the Tablet - if Apple doesn't release one on the 27th, it might be the biggest let-down in the hstory of technology :)
And yes, we'll probably get one, although my wife seems more interested in the idea than the rest of the family :)
Selective Renaming
Today's Video looks at selectively renaming with the Refactoring Browser, rather than the "all or nothing" approach. After I recorded this screencast, Travis let me know that you can pick and choose renamings from the "Show Changes" option without the add-on covered here, so you should give that a try as well and see which you like better.
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: renaming, refactoring, code browser
The iPhone is Mainstream
When the White House pushes out an iPhone app to "keep you in touch with the Administrayion", you know the device has gone completely mainstream. I think that handhelds are to the field what PCs were back in the early 80s - the next thing. Mainframes never died, but they are no longer front and center, either. Over the next few years, mobile devices will go the same way. I suspect that sometime very soon, most smart phones will start supporting Bluetooth keyboards, and will also be hookable to a display, or able to project a display themselves (like onto a wall).
Instead of carrying a full laptop, we'll have roll up keyboards and project onto the wall....
Technorati Tags: iPhone, mobile computing
Winging Out West
My cab will be here to pick me up in a few minutes, and then it's off to Seattle. You can find out where I'll be in the next few weeks and months with the handy "Where in the World" link over in the sidebar. See you in Seattle!
Download the NC with the Installers
I thought there was a problem with the network installers, but it turns out it was a directory naming problem I created myself. My apologies - you can get going with the installers now.
Technorati Tags: network installer, visualworks, cincom
Not Worth the Link
I know that the Times is trying to shore up revenue, but their problem is more basic: their newspaper minded business model is dead, and they just don't realize it yet:
Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the newspaper's print edition will receive full access to the site without extra charge.
The problem with that is simple: if I (or anyone else, for that matter) links to a NY Times story, we have no way of knowing whether any given reader will be able to read the story. Far safer and simpler to just find another source, because that's a problem. As Jeff Jarvis likes to say, links are the currency of the net - and the Times is pushing a wall in front of theirs.
And yes, there is irony in this including a link to a Times story - but it's free for now :)
Technorati Tags: paywall, business model
If I'm Traveling...
... I must be delayed. I haven't been on a plane since I returned from ESUG, and the first flight (BWI to Chicago) went off without a hitch. Now, however, I'm sitting in a lounge at ORD with a mechanical delay - which translates to "some random interval of time before you go, and possibly never".
Looks like I'll miss dinner with the crew in Seattle :/
Notifications
As most of you know, I have been posting notifications of live streams (for the podcast) to the Cincom Smalltalk events page (on the old site). The new events page will still have the best information for all things Cincom, but - it may not have the most up to date info for things like live streaming when I get a confirmation outside of normal working hours (which happens a lot).
So, if you want to be notified of that happening, check here for posts, or the Twitter feed, or my "Where in the World" page. For the big stuff from Cincom, of course, check the new site.
Technorati Tags: events
