smalltalk
October 14, 2010 5:46:22.000
John McIntosh's Wiki Server and WikiServer Pro are free (for a limited time, apparently) for the iPhone and iPad. These are Smalltalk (Squeak) apps running on IOS.
I helped beta test the Wiki Server app, and it's pretty cool.
Technorati Tags:
squeak, iPhone, iPad
posted by James Robertson
smalltalkDaily
October 14, 2010 6:39:06.233
posted by James Robertson
gadgets
October 14, 2010 9:48:23.779
Interesting - Apple has done a distribution deal for the WiFi only version of the iPad with Verizon - a bundle with Verizon's MiFi device:
Verizon Wireless and Apple® today announced that iPad™ will be available at over 2,000 Verizon Wireless Stores nationwide beginning Thursday, October 28. Verizon Wireless will offer three bundles, all featuring an iPad Wi-Fi model and a Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, for a suggested retail price of $629.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 16GB + MiFi, $729.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 32GB + MiFi and $829.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 64GB + MiFi. Verizon Wireless is offering a monthly access plan to iPad customers of up to 1GB of data for just $20 a month. In addition, Verizon Wireless will also offer all three iPad Wi-Fi models on a stand-alone basis.
So Apple and Verizon are working together on a limited basis at least. The question is, do all the Apple/Verizon rumors point back to this deal, or is there something real coming with the iPhone? I'm still skeptical based on the whole branding and CDMA thing, but we'll see.
Update: Apple is also getting iPads to AT&T, under what can only be described as more consumer friendly terms:
AT&T* and Apple® today announced that all three iPad™ Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available at more than 2,200 AT&T stores starting Thursday, October 28. AT&T will offer customers 3G Apple iPad Data Plans, complete with Apple's easy, on-device activation and management. All iPad data plans are available without a term contract and include unlimited access to AT&T's 23,000+ domestic Wi-Fi Hot Spots.
Technorati Tags:
apple, verizon, iPad
posted by James Robertson
esug2010
October 14, 2010 14:13:05.554
Here's a video from ESUG 2010, which was held in Barcelona, Spain, the week of September 13, 2010. In this presentation, Cincom's Arden Thomas talks about the product roadmap going forward. You can watch using the embedded player below, or follow the download links at the bottom of the post.
Cincom Smalltalk Produce Roadmap from James Robertson on Vimeo.
You can follow the ESUG channel on Vimeo for all the videos from the conference.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Videos"? If you would rather subscribe specifically to the ESUG videos, then use this Vimeo feed - which will work in iTunes.
Technorati Tags:
roadmap, cincom, smalltalk, visualworks, objectstudio, webvelocity, barcelona, spain, esug2010
posted by James Robertson
games
October 14, 2010 17:35:08.000
Michael and I play many of the same video games, and we have spent a fair amount of time talking about them - so what the heck, we figured we'd take our bull sessions and make them into a podcast. Later this evening I'll be releasing episode 1 of "James and Michael on Games" - it'll be a periodic podcast, audio-only. I'll have details about the home page for the archives after I get the first episode posted :)
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 14, 2010 18:25:25.092
posted by James Robertson
gamecast
October 14, 2010 18:49:45.502
Enclosures:
[gamecast1.mp3 ( Size: 8426836 )]
posted by James Robertson
humor
October 15, 2010 6:24:00.000
posted by James Robertson
smalltalkDaily
October 15, 2010 7:44:02.543
posted by James Robertson
jobs
October 15, 2010 10:03:53.225
As of this morning, I'm no longer working for Cincom - I'm not going to go into the reasons for that here. However, that does mean that I'm looking for work - if anyone needs a Smalltalker, I'm pretty familiar with VisualWorks and ObjectStudio (and could pick up any other dialect pretty quickly).
You can contact me via jarober@gmail.com - I'm open to either fulltime work or contract work. I think "Smalltalk Daily" will be on hiatus for now; the podcast is ended as well, but there's new work media work I'm doing in that area:
Wish me luck!
Technorati Tags:
smalltalk
posted by James Robertson
law
October 15, 2010 17:22:00.204
Amazing - there's a patent troll that somehow managed to get a patent on - get this - rollover menus. Arstechnica is as unimpressed as I am:
Hello? Pardon our dropping jaws, but is Webvention suggesting that it owns rollover online pictures with embedded hyperlinks?
Every time I see stuff like this, it makes me think that patents themselves are no longer useful...
Technorati Tags:
patent troll
posted by James Robertson
podcasting
October 15, 2010 23:35:25.703
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 16, 2010 9:10:39.639
I just downloaded the Gemstone installer I found here - while it seems pretty basic on first inspection (it's a shell script), it worked right out of the box for me. I'm grabbing the associated Pharo image (same place)as I write this, and I'll see how things go from there.
One thing I'm interested in doing is something I know how to do - a blog server - in Seaside using Gemstone as my back end. It should be a nice little project to start off with both GLASS and Pharo with - I clearly know the domain :)
Technorati Tags:
gemstone, glass, seaside, pharo
posted by James Robertson
general
October 16, 2010 13:34:02.794
Life does go on - we are having a Halloween party soon, so it's time to get the decorations up. First one: Halloween Town:

Technorati Tags:
halloween
posted by James Robertson
games
October 16, 2010 14:01:55.591
posted by James Robertson
general
October 17, 2010 11:10:27.817
While I look for work, I'll be busy with a few new things. The podcast and screencast series I was doing at Cincom are done; if you subscribe to those feeds, there won't be anything new coming (at least not from me; I can't speak to what Cincom may do with those properties).
However, I'll be continuing forward with Michael Lucas-Smith on a podcast - episode one of "Independent Misinterpretations" will be starting up later today. I've also created an index page for the ESUG 2010 videos; they will continue to be posted to the Vimeo site. Here are the links - the first two won't work until I get that first episode posted :):
On Monday, I'll be launching a new screencast series as well - you'll want to check back here for details then. I plan to continue posting the ESUG videos as well, but I don't think I want to pay to host them. Instead, I'll continue to push them up to Vimeo - follow the last link above for the index page for that
Technorati Tags:
smalltalk, podcast, screencast
posted by James Robertson
general
October 17, 2010 14:38:07.992
Not the best photo in the world, but it was the only way - had I opened the door, the squirrel would have bugged out:

posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 17, 2010 15:07:09.761
Reza Razavi' on-line programmable CMS implemented in Seaside is now online. he announced it on the Seaside mailing list:
It is implemented by a home-made software platform that reuses and extends Seaside and Pier CMS.
You can get more details with his post on the topic. Hat tip Torsten.
Technorati Tags:
seaside, cms, pier
posted by James Robertson
podcast
October 17, 2010 21:16:55.514
Welcome to episode 1 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and Michael Lucas-Smith.
You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed - I'll be submitting it to the iTunes store, and will let you know when the podcast is listed there.
This week's podcast is a coversation with Ernest Micklei about his new website, soek.goodies.st. - it's a library of open source code for Smalltalk, allowing you to explore code without having to load it in an image. It's an interesting application, built in Seaside.
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!
Vote for the podcast on Podcast Alley:
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-902515a0bc7a7814a2721c389a7a8b7f}
Technorati Tags:
smalltalk, soek, seaside
Enclosures:
[im1.mp3 ( Size: 14987358 )]
posted by James Robertson
podcastAAC
October 17, 2010 22:19:52.608
Welcome to episode 1 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and Michael Lucas-Smith.
You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed - I'll be submitting it to the iTunes store, and will let you know when the podcast is listed there.
This week's podcast is a coversation with Ernest Micklei about his new website, soek.goodies.st. - it's a library of open source code for Smalltalk, allowing you to explore code without having to load it in an image. It's an interesting application, built in Seaside.
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!
Technorati Tags:
smalltalk, seaside, soek
Enclosures:
[im1.m4a ( Size: 20890300 )]
posted by James Robertson
humor
October 18, 2010 6:02:50.343
posted by James Robertson
st4u
October 18, 2010 6:49:35.513
Enclosures:
[st4u1-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 12560996 )]
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 18, 2010 8:51:33.478
As you probably noticed this morning, I pushed out a new screencast series - I intend to cover various Smalltalk dialects the way I was covering Cincom Smalltalk. The links you'll want to keep track of:
Technorati Tags:
squeak, pharo, screencast
posted by James Robertson
general
October 18, 2010 10:48:44.475
One of the things I no longer need is a second phone line - my former employer was paying for a work line and a fax line. i don't really need either one; the fax number just brings up a steady stream of junk, and I rely on my mobile for everything anyway.
Sounds simple, right? Well, there was a voice message from the phone company notifying me that my service had been flipped back to me, and a phone number to call. That's when the awesome started - it's a non working number. The good news is, the message included an 800 number I could call. But the question is, why is the non-working line still in their system?
Technorati Tags:
phone service
posted by James Robertson
tutorial
October 18, 2010 12:20:54.988
I'll do a screencast on this later this week, but I thought it might be useful to toss out some quick "how do I get it running?" instructions. I downloaded GLASS and a "one click" Pharo image from Gemstone's website, but then I ran into problems connecting to the database. James Foster was extremely helpful, and the steps I'm outlining here came from him.
Step one - if you're on Mac or Linux, as I am, use the installGemstone.sh script.
Step two - grab the one-click Pharo image
Step three - do this in a terminal window
source /opt/gemstone/product/seaside/defSeaside
That sets up the environment variables you'll need. Next, you'll want to get the server running, and for the "I'm just experimenting" case, you probably don't want all the security bells and whistles. So, do the following:
/opt/gemstone/product/bin/startnetldi -g -a YourUserNameHere
/opt/gemstone/product/bin/startstone seaside
It's probably simplest if you set up a script, something like this:
#! /bin/sh
source /opt/gemstone/product source /opt/gemstone/product/seaside/defSeaside
cd $GEMSTONE
./bin/startnetldi -g -a jarober
./bin/startstone seaside
And then one to shut things down:
#! /bin/sh
source /opt/gemstone/product source /opt/gemstone/product/seaside/defSeaside
cd $GEMSTONE
./bin/stopnetldi
./bin/stopstone seaside
Now, you should have GLASS running. You'll need to start your Pharo image. I used a command line from the same terminal I started GLASS from, but that's not essential - you can just double click on the app bundle. You'll get something like this:

Next, you'll want to edit the settings for the connection:

Now, hit the "Login" button, and you'll get prompted for your name:

After you enter that, here's what you should see:

From there, you can get started with your first GLASS/Pharo project!
Technorati Tags:
seaside, gemstone, pharo, glass
posted by James Robertson
st4u
October 19, 2010 6:29:02.882
Enclosures:
[st4u2-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 6451422 )]
posted by James Robertson
general
October 19, 2010 7:05:47.028
Sometime in the next few days I'm going to find out how well Mac to Mac transfer works - I need to return my MacBook Pro to Cincom, which means:
- Getting a new Mac (I'm looking at the 13" model)
- Transferring all of my apps and data to it
I've done the transfer before, back when we bought an iMac a few years ago - but that was from an old g4 based mini, and there weren't any apps on the mini that required registration. I've installed a whole bunch of things onto this Mac, so we'll have to see how it goes...
Technorati Tags:
mac
posted by James Robertson
general
October 19, 2010 9:26:23.989
I'd like to thank everyone who has sent me an email, contacted me on Facebook, or commented here on the blog - I really appreciate all of the kind words.
You'll be able to follow my Smalltalk work here, no matter what I end up doing - and I've left the comments for my announcement open, so feel free to add yours.
posted by James Robertson
games
October 19, 2010 9:51:46.899
I'll be receiving the game later today, and since I'll probably be cloning Macs, I'll have a chance to play it. I'm a bit worried about the early reviews....
Technorati Tags:
fnv, fallout, xbox
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 19, 2010 19:06:08.641
Sean Denigris explains how to do brain surgery on a bunch of existing Smalltalk objects when you make a code change:
Now comes the problem… I had objects floating around that already contained a non-empty OrderedCollection. I didn’t want to add otherwise-not-needed accessors. Luckily, because of Smalltalk’s awesome reflection capabilities, it was a breeze to reach into these objects and surgically change them.
You might wonder why that's useful, but consider this situation (which I've actually had):
- You make a code change for a running app server, such as the one you're reading this post on
- There are existing objects that have the old object shape, and need the new object shape
Just use the same sort of strategy Sean outlines above. I've done that a fair number of times over the years, both to the servers I maintained at Cincom while I was there, and to this one. It's a really handy thing to be able to do, because it's much, much better than the more standard tack of:
- Take server down
- Apply change
- Bring server back up
It works great, even in production.
posted by James Robertson
games
October 19, 2010 21:08:34.023
posted by James Robertson
movies
October 20, 2010 6:06:15.628
It's only fitting that Peter Jackson is doing this:
“We’ve known this was coming for awhile now, but according to The New York Times it’s just become official: Peter Jackson will return to Middle Earth to direct The Hobbit. Honestly, it’s a move that makes the most sense. Let him finish what he started. Jackson’s deal is now finalized, as is the deal for Warner Bros., New Line and MGM to all help finance the two-part film, which some have suggested could cost upwards of $500 million for both.”
Hat tip Rob Fahrni.
Technorati Tags:
hobbit, lotr
posted by James Robertson
st4u
October 20, 2010 6:31:57.028
Enclosures:
[st4u3-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 7878388 )]
posted by James Robertson
fnvdiary
October 20, 2010 8:37:52.720
 |
Welcome to episode 1 of "FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas . We both got the game yesterday - Michael via Steam on the PC, me via UPS truck for the XBox 360. We got started pretty much immediately :)
In this episode, we talk about the early game as we saw it. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen in - we are talking about what we saw, how we dealt with what we saw, and what the options looked like. This isn't a review cast so much as a diary case (thus the title).
|
The schedule for this podcast will depend on how much game time we get in, which of course depends on our jobs (or, in my case, my job search) and regular lives. We should be hitting the pod-waves regularly though - you can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition.
If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:
Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!
Technorati Tags:
fnv, fallout, games, xbox
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary1.mp3 ( Size: 8342949 )]
posted by James Robertson
fnvdiaryAAC
October 20, 2010 8:38:07.150
 |
Welcome to episode 1 of "FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas . We both got the game yesterday - Michael via Steam on the PC, me via UPS truck for the XBox 360. We got started pretty much immediately :)
In this episode, we talk about the early game as we saw it. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen in - we are talking about what we saw, how we dealt with what we saw, and what the options looked like. This isn't a review cast so much as a diary case (thus the title).
|
The schedule for this podcast will depend on how much game time we get in, which of course depends on our jobs (or, in my case, my job search) and regular lives. We should be hitting the pod-waves regularly though - you can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition.
If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:
Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!
Technorati Tags:
fallout, fnv, games, xbox
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary1.m4a ( Size: 11513674 )]
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 20, 2010 8:53:13.210
Just saw this on Facebook from John McIntosh:
Received official word today that Scratch.app Squeak.app [ed: Scratch.app had already been rejected for this reason] has been rejected. You can't download executable code from the internet, I've heard this before, no surprise. This makes it impossible to use the iPad to write software outside of typing into web browsers/text files. At this point I'll toss it back to the educational institutions to convince Apple that they should allow software engineers to be creative on iOS devices too
As John says above, not a surprise, but disappointing nevertheless....
Technorati Tags:
squeak, scratch, iPad
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 20, 2010 13:25:18.856
posted by James Robertson
Macintosh
October 20, 2010 15:55:42.013
Looks like OS X and IOS are converging to some extent. Gizmodo reports:
Mac OS X Lion is another step in the road to a new—or better said, renewed—computer interface paradigm: Modal computing. And along the way, Apple is taking some of the most successful parts of iOS, like the App Store—with automatic installation of applications—and the springboard—rechristened launchpad in Lion.
For most people, having an app store right on the desktop is going to make life simpler. For IT admins and a lot of software vendors, it's going to create a lot of heartburn, especially when Microsoft inevitably follows suit.
Technorati Tags:
osx, ios, app+store
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 20, 2010 16:08:00.369
The Redline Smalltalk project - running Smalltalk on the JVM - seems to be moving forward. There's:
Hat tip Torsten
Technorati Tags:
redline, smalltalk on jvm
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 20, 2010 19:48:16.879
Georg Heeg, Executive Director of STIC, has issued a call for participation for StS 2011, to be held in Las Vegas, March 13-16:
The conference will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 13 – 16, 2011.
Presentations may be in the form of:
- Technical Presentations
- Experience Reports
- Technology Demonstrations
- Panel Discussions
- Half-day Tutorials
- Other interesting ideas ...
You'll need to send your proposals to STS_Speakers@stic.st. Follow the first link to find out exactly what details to include.
Technorati Tags:
sts2011, smalltalk solutions
posted by James Robertson
st4u
October 21, 2010 6:16:12.230
Enclosures:
[st4u4-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 3519810 )]
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 21, 2010 6:30:02.910
Spotted in Planet Squeak
Levente Uzonyi is obviously one of a number of people who have been quite envious of the built-in tab-completion in Pharo, so he’s put in the work required to make OCompletion work on Squeak images again. OCompletion works in two ways: it offers a short list of automatic completion hints as you type based on your recent activity, or you can bring up the fuller (classic eCompletion) list by using the tab key, and use the up and down arrow keys to navigate the list and the right arrow to reveal syntax-highlighted source code for the methods listed.
It's interesting how much faster this kind of thing makes it into Squeak and Pharo than into the commercial Smalltalk implementations. There are various reasons for that, but as an end user of Smalltalk those reasons fade off into the middle distance and just make the freely available tools that much more desirable....
Technorati Tags:
squeak, tab completion, auto complete
posted by James Robertson
fnvdiary
October 21, 2010 6:43:44.340
 |
Welcome to episode 2 of "That Podcast - a FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas . Today we delve a bit deeper into the wastes
In this episode, we talk about our first encounters with some of the bigger players in the game - the Legion, and the NCR. Michael also made it to the vegas strip, and has a few tips on getting there without spending a fortune. Meanwhile, I documented my challenges getting to Novac :)
|
The schedule for this podcast will depend on how much game time we get in, which of course depends on our jobs (or, in my case, my job search) and regular lives. We should be hitting the pod-waves regularly though - you can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can also subscribe directly in iTunes!
If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:
Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!
Technorati Tags:
fnv, fallout, that podcast, games, xbox
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary2.mp3 ( Size: 7050200 )]
posted by James Robertson
fnvdiaryAAC
October 21, 2010 6:53:15.880
 |
Welcome to episode 2 of "That Podcast - a FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas . Today we delve a bit deeper into the wastes
In this episode, we talk about our first encounters with some of the bigger players in the game - the Legion, and the NCR. Michael also made it to the vegas strip, and has a few tips on getting there without spending a fortune. Meanwhile, I documented my challenges getting to Novac :)
|
The schedule for this podcast will depend on how much game time we get in, which of course depends on our jobs (or, in my case, my job search) and regular lives. We should be hitting the pod-waves regularly though - you can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can also subscribe directly in iTunes!
If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:
Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!
Technorati Tags:
fallout, fnv, that podcast, games, xbox
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary2.m4a ( Size: 9745651 )]
posted by James Robertson
gamecast
October 21, 2010 12:43:50.451
Enclosures:
[gamecast2.mp3 ( Size: 8745399 )]
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 21, 2010 12:54:02.321
There's a lot of things that I could cover in the new "Smalltalk 4 U" series I've started up - I intend to do a whole set of "how to install X" ones first, including the Cincom products. As an outside person, I'll walk through that the same way you would - registration, NC download, followed by installation.
After I get that set of stuff out of the way though, things are a bit more open. I was thinking of doing a set on the "standard" libraries in Smalltalk - streams and collections being the most obvious, and covering interesting aspects in each of the products I'm looking at.
Anyone have better/different ideas? Let me know!
posted by James Robertson
humor
October 21, 2010 15:09:48.000
Never mind the difference between "end of time" and "end of an epoch" - apparently the Mayan calendar hasn't been properly converted to our calendar, either:
According to the new book Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World, we should stop believing that doomsday will come in 2012 because that's when the Mayan calendar ends, since scientists didn't convert the Mayan calendar into the modern calendar correctly and could be off by as much as 50 to 100 years.
Quick, someone call Roland Emmerich :)
Technorati Tags:
mayan calendar
posted by James Robertson
esug2010
October 21, 2010 21:06:09.572
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 21, 2010 22:00:13.270
posted by James Robertson