There are Still Many Questions
SciFi Wire lists a whole bunch of questions (most without answers yet) about Lost.
Technorati Tags: lost
Strange Windows Under Parallels Behavior
After the last update of Parallels (Version 5.0.9344.558741), I noticed a really weird thing happening with file system access - quite often, I wasn't able to write to the working directory. This is a Windows 7 VM, with shared directories -meaning, "Documents and Settings" is actually "Documents" on the Mac. A reboot of the VM seemed to mostly deal with that, but VisualWorks still has problems. If I try to run an image from the shared area, I get really bizarre results - the UI Painter acts like it generates multiple methods, for instance, but they end up looking like one method - and attempting to edit code fails badly.
I'm thinking that the file system isn't responding to VW as VW thinks it should. If I use a non-shared area - I created a new folder under the virtual "C" drive - it all works fine. I wonder if anyone else has seen anything like this, and has an answer...
Technorati Tags: visualworks, windows
Let me have Opera for the iPhone
Apple is supposed to be all about the end user experience - if this promo is any indication, they should allow Opera into the app store. It looks way, way better than Safari on the device....
YouTube Down?
I upload the Smalltalk Daily video to YouTube (amongst other places) every morning - but today, here's what I'm seeing for YouTube:
I've never seen that before. The funny thing is, embedded videos on my sight still work - so they aren't completely down.
Update: Whatever it was, it's over. YouTube is back up. I noticed this when the outage was nearly over - TechCrunch also reported on it.
Technorati Tags: youtube
A WebVelocity Application on the iPhone
Here's a short video showing a WebVelocity app - the Media Search one we have on our site - running on a iPhone. To watch, click on the viewer below:
Click to Play
You can also watch it on YouTube:
If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly.
Technorati Tags: web, webvelocity, iPhone
Why Flash Forward Moves Slowly
The same guy who ensured that all the drama was peeled out of Star Trek in favor of endless "character development" is doing Flash Forward - Brannon Braga. I think we can look forward to lots of slow movement, and a focus on soft stuff. Blah.
Technorati Tags: flash forward
Smalltalk in Switzerland
Theres a new Swiss Smalltalk user group - and they are advertising an event with Claus Gittinger (Smalltalk/X) on April 28.
Technorati Tags: switzerland
Techno Bill Spotted
A real life Techno Bill has been spotted - apparently traveling from around 1985 :)
PDF From Smalltalk: Video
Today's screencast looks at the SPDF library - which enables PDF creation from Smalltalk.
Click to Play
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: pdf
USB Flash for the XBox
This is good news, but what I really want to see - for things like downloadable video - is the ability to attach arbitrary sized drives:
Xbox spokesman Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb confirmed earlier today what many have suspected for weeks -- that the Xbox 360 will soon allow USB memory compatibility.
Podcast Update
This week's podcast will be Hernan Wilkinson's talk on Mutation Testing from ESUG 2009 - we'll be back with a "live" podcast next week.
iPad to Best Buy
We'd heard buzzing for some time now around the internet that Apple planned to sell its iPad in more than just it's own stores, and usually the name Best Buy was mentioned in the same breath... but now we've got some photographic evidence. The above shot comes from what looks to be an internal memo from the big box retailer, not only stating that the stores will be getting the iPad, but that they'll be getting the iPad on launch day.
I'm not surprised - Best Buy has been a retailer for Apple products for awhile, and this makes all kinds of sense - Apple stores aren't everywhere, but Best Buy is - and for a lot of people, Best Buy is the default place to go look for electronics (me, I look to Amazon - but I'm an outlier)
Think and Doublethink
Ahh, the perverse world of "intellectual property - Sony just shutdown Beyonce's YouTube site for "piracy". How an artist could be pirating their own music is an exercise left to the insane. INtellectual Property law has moved from farce to utterly absurd...
Mutation Testing (Audio)
This week's podcast is Hernan Wilkinson's ESUG 2009 talk - "Mutation Testing". You can download his slides here.
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!
Technorati Tags: podcast, mutation testing, testing, esug09, brest, france
You Aren't Google
I like this post, because it makes a point that a lot of web developers really need to understand: you aren't going to have massive scaling issues:
The sooner your company admits this, the sooner you can get down to some real work. Developing the app for Google-sized scale is a waste of your time, plus, there is no way you will get it right. Absolutely none. It's not that you're not smart enough, it's that you do not have the experience to know what problems you will see at scale.
He's making that point in the context of NoSQL databases (vsersus SQL), but it holds for a lot more. I'm reminded of an anecdote a friend related to me years ago when he just started a new job. He was being shown a web project with a 3 tier architecture, failover capabilities, expensive software all around. When he asked how many users of the system there were going to be, the answer was "3 or so now, maybe 10-20 later". When he suggested that they just use something like Access, they treated him like some kind of heretic, and hustled him along to a different project.
That's the kind of thinking that powers a lot of fake work in this industry...
Technorati Tags: scaling
Apple Wins Again
Looks like the iPad is going to be a successful device - 9 to 5 Mac has the scoop:
If you haven't already ordered your iPad, you'll now have to wait to April 12th to get your hands on one, according to Apple's Website. The Wifi models have moved from an April 3rd delivery date to April 12th, signaling that Apple has run out of its first week's worth of Wifi iPads. We already knew that demand is pretty strong, and this is another indication that sales will be brisk.
Guess it's a good thing I ordered on early :)
OpenGL in Smalltalk: Video
Today's screencast looks at using OpenGL in Smalltalk.
Click to Play
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
SUnitToo and Resources
Martin Kobetic writes about using Test Resources with SUnitToo
ObjectStudio 8.2 at ESUG 2009: Video
Here's Dirk Verleysen presenting ObjectStudio 8.2 (prior to its December, 2009 release) at ESUG 2009.
Click to Play
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Videos"?
Technorati Tags: esug09, objectstudio, brest, france
Using TGZ Archives in Smalltalk: Video
Today's screencast looks at using TGZ archives files from Smalltalk.
Click to Play
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: tgz
OS X 10.6.3
Well, the laptop (2007 era Macbook Pro) updated to 10.6.3 just fine, but the iMac got itself into a bit of a block; it rebooted with a black screen, but it was running (Finder found the system, and I was able to ssh into the box). A reboot seems to have gotten its attention. Came up, and the only issue was a delay in my lunch's arrival :)
Apple Expanding to CDMA?
So is this CDMA for iPhone story another rumor, or is Apple actually planning on expanding out to Verizon? It makes sense within the North American market (less sense anywhere else). From the WSJ:
The new iPhone would work on a type of wireless network called CDMA, these people said. CDMA is used by Verizon Wireless, AT&T's main competitor, as well as Sprint Nextel Corp. and a handful of cellular operators in countries including South Korea and Japan. The vast majority of carriers world-wide, including AT&T, use another technology called GSM.
Doesn't interest me, though. One thing I really like about my iPhone is that it's not a brick when I travel overseas. Any CDMA phone - iPhone or otherwise - is.
Dumb Mistake of the Day, Blog Edition
I noticed a couple of days ago that the category selection option wasn't working in WebKit browsers on this site; it seemed curious, since the same code was working over on my Cincom blog. Well - the issue was fairly simple. A while back I changed the way comments get added (I now include the comment box on any single post page). However, the only place I was assigning the user agent was in a bit of template associated with the old way of doing comments - which meant that I was never checking the user agent at all.
That hit the category selectors, as those boxes are Javascript driven, and the Javascript differs for IE6 and "everything else". So... I slapped the user agent check back in, and now it all works again.
No More Free Solaris
Looks like Oracle understands that Sun's "make it up in volume" theory just wasn't working out:
Rebranded Oracle Solaris operating system, the UNIX OS will now be available for a 90 days trial version and then users have to pay to buy a licence. Earlier, under Sun, the OS was available for free but users had an option to buy support from Sun. This may seem OK for enterprise customers as cost of OS is miniscule compared to cost of services. Companies like Oracle generate extremely thick revenues through services and support.
I'm not sure what kind of future Solaris has in any event, free or otherwise. Linux mostly qualifies as "good enough", I think.
Smalltalk and Cassandra
It's a command line heavy install at the moment, but it looks like it's possible to get Pharo and Cassandra talking.
Technorati Tags: nosql
Equality and Equivalence: Video
Today's screencast looks at how #= and #== differ in Smalltalk.
Click to Play
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: comparison, equality, equivalence
iPhone Finally Getting Full Multi-Tasking
The 4.0 version of the iPhone OS will finally take us to where we were with Windows 3.0 - task switching:
The technology, detailed by people familiar with Apple's plans for the new firmware, will finally allow users to launch multiple apps in the background and quickly switch between them, as AppleInsider exclusively reported earlier this month. Currently, a running app must be quit when the user returns to the Home screen.
For all the verbiage about how "you don't really need this", chat apps (skype, irc, AIM) are way, way less useful if you have to fully quit and log back in every time you want to check something else.
Adobe Finds a Friend
Interesting - Google is baking Flash into Chrome:
The search-and-advertising giant announced Tuesday that it will bundle Adobe’s Flash player with downloads of the Chrome browser, putting Google in sharper opposition to Apple
Of course, with the popularity of the iPhone (and the seeming popularity of the new iPad), site developers are going to have to deal with the "no flash" problem anyway...
Early iPad Reviews Look Good
We're looking forward to the arrival of the iPad we ordered - the early reports (Boing Boing and Walt Mossberg) sound good.
Smalltalk in Ottawa
Dave Buck reports that Dorin Sandu will be talking about Smalltalk and Cocoa in Ottawa this month:
We will provide an overview of model-view-controller as implemented by Cocoa, introduce key-value coding, key-value observing, key-value binding, and review some of the provided controllers and views. We will illustrate all these concepts through several example applications implemented in Smalltalk.
Follow the link for location details; it's happening at 6 PM April 14
Technorati Tags: ottawa
RSS and Atom Feeds in Smalltalk: Video
Today's screencast looks at how to read rss and atom news feeds in Smalltalk.
Click to Play
You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: rss, atom, syndication
The Reshaping of the Web Begins
Maybe Apple as a whole has a distortion field, only it's reaching out into reality:
The Wall Street Journal reports (with its usual paywall shenanigans) that both CBS and ABC will be streaming TV shows to the iPad. CBS will opt for video that you can watch through Safari on the iPad--as we reported last week, the network has already been running tests of HTML5-served video. As of Saturday, when the iPad launches, CBS plans to have full episodes of popular reality show Survivor available, as well as clips from other shows. At some point in the future, however, the network is shooting for full parity between what's offered on its standard Website and on the iPad.
I suspect that the iPad we bought will get a lot of use for streaming TV...
Cloud Going Mainstream
O'Reilly says that "cloud computing" is now where "web apps" were a few years ago - they are what "everyone" is working on:
For many years at OSCON we called out "web applications" as a distinct topic. This year it became a useless demarcation, as just about everything is a web application. Cloud computing is in a place similar to web applications a few years ago.
Technorati Tags: open source, cloud
Learn How to Upgrade from an Older VW
We'll be doing the podcast with David Buck tomorrow - he's recently been working on upgrading some VisualWorks users from older versions (including version 2.5.x) to the latest release. Listen live on justin.tv
Technorati Tags: podcast
Worst Named Device Ever Launches
Engadget has a first look at the JooJoo. Yes, it is the worst named device ever...
Technorati Tags: joojoo
