fnvdiary
October 23, 2010 2:35:56.312
![That Podcast: FNV Diary That Podcast: FNV Diary](/games/game-image.jpg) |
Welcome to episode 3 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas .
This is the Repconn podcast - we talk about the quest to rid the Repconn test facility of ghouls, and the different ways the two of us approached that. Along the way a few other locations came up, including the murder mystery in Novac.
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You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can get to the podcast directly in iTunes via this link.
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, new vegas
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary3.mp3 ( Size: 8673079 )]
posted by James Robertson
fnvdiaryAAC
October 23, 2010 2:36:38.432
![That Podcast: FNV Diary That Podcast: FNV Diary](/games/game-image.jpg) |
Welcome to episode 3 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas .
This is the Repconn podcast - we talk about the quest to rid the Repconn test facility of ghouls, and the different ways the two of us approached that. Along the way a few other locations came up, including the murder mystery in Novac.
|
You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can get to the podcast directly in iTunes via this link.
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, fallout new vegas, repconn, xbox, games
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary3.m4a ( Size: 11925848 )]
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 23, 2010 7:01:13.000
It looks like Xtreams is getting attention beyond the world of Smalltalk implementations. Derek Williams writes:
Smalltalk is home to perhaps the first truly elegant streams implementation, particularly when compared to other approaches developed around that time, such as those in C and C++. You can’t get much simpler than ‘myfile.txt’ asFilename readStream contents to open and read a file, and yet there’s significant power in the classes behind that. But new designs for stream libraries since followed, including pluggable/chainable I/O stream architectures, such as those found in Java, C#, and even advanced parallel stream processing frameworks. Not to be outdone, Michael Lucas-Smith and Martin Kobetic have recently developed a new pluggable stream framework for Smalltalk called Xtreams, and I couldn’t resist giving it a try.
There's a lot more there; follow the link.
Technorati Tags:
xtreams, streams
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 24, 2010 7:43:01.000
There's a new framework in Cincom's Smalltalk that allows you to take advantage of multiple CPUs or cores - polycephaly. There's an interesting write up over on the CST website, which comes from the ObjectStudio team:
Polycephaly allows the user to spawn new copies of your ObjectStudio VM and image. Since Windows sees these new copies as separate programs, it can schedule them on any available CPU. One use of Polycephaly could be to connect to different web services at the same time and read some data. We currently use Polycephaly to run our SUnit test suite.
Follow the link for some code you can experiment with.
Technorati Tags:
polycephaly
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 24, 2010 9:42:57.000
Ramon Leon explains how to run Gemstone tools from a remote server with better performance: X11
Just a quick post to document some knowledge for myself and for anyone using Gemstone on a remote server like SliceHost or my preference Linode and trying to run GemTools locally through a ssh tunnel. It's slow, very slow, several seconds per mouse click. OmniBrowser is just to chatty. Fortunately Linux has a better way to do it: X11Forwarding. Run the GemTools client on the remote server and forward the UI for just that app to your workstation.
Follow the link for full details.
Technorati Tags:
gemstone, x11
posted by James Robertson
podcast
October 24, 2010 9:58:25.893
Welcome to episode 2 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck. Michael is also co-hosting - he and Dave will be alternating weeks, while I keep the moderator seat warm.
You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.
This week, David and I discuss a few changes to the format, and we touch on a few other things we intend to discuss in the future. Perhaps this should have been episode 1, but there was a lot going on last week with my work circumstances change, and I had material "in the can".
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
Enclosures:
[im2.mp3 ( Size: 14970346 )]
posted by James Robertson
podcastAAC
October 24, 2010 9:58:55.573
Welcome to episode 2 of Independent Misinterpretations - a new Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck. Michael is also co-hosting - he and Dave will be alternating weeks, while I keep the moderator seat warm.
You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.
This week, David and I discuss a few changes to the format, and we touch on a few other things we intend to discuss in the future. Perhaps this should have been episode 1, but there was a lot going on last week with my work circumstances change, and I had material "in the can".
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
Enclosures:
[im2.m4a ( Size: 20765057 )]
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 24, 2010 17:36:52.713
posted by James Robertson
st4u
October 25, 2010 7:25:11.215
Enclosures:
[st4u6-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 7112680 )]
posted by James Robertson
fnvdiary
October 25, 2010 7:41:49.095
![That Podcast: FNV Diary That Podcast: FNV Diary](/games/game-image.jpg) |
Welcome to episode 4 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas .
On today's podcast, we have a special guest - Makahlua, one of the regular co-hosts of Polycast, which covers everything about Civilization. This is the "White Glove Treatment" podcast - we talk about the Vegas Strip, a bunch of side quests that can sidetrack you on your way there, Lake Mead, and the impossible to deal with DeathClaws. Along the way a few other locations came up, including the murder mystery in Novac.
|
You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can get to the podcast directly in iTunes via this link.
If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:
Got feedback? Send it to James. We'd really appreciate it if you head on over to iTunes and leave a comment - enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!
Technorati Tags:
fallout new vegas, fnv, games, xbox
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary4.mp3 ( Size: 10569141 )]
posted by James Robertson
fnvdiaryAAC
October 25, 2010 7:42:13.275
![That Podcast: FNV Diary That Podcast: FNV Diary](/games/game-image.jpg) |
Welcome to episode 4 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas .
On today's podcast, we have a special guest - Makahlua, one of the regular co-hosts of Polycast, which covers everything about Civilization. This is the "White Glove Treatment" podcast - we talk about the Vegas Strip, a bunch of side quests that can sidetrack you on your way there, Lake Mead, and the impossible to deal with DeathClaws. Along the way a few other locations came up, including the murder mystery in Novac.
|
You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can get to the podcast directly in iTunes via this link.
If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:
Got feedback? Send it to James. We'd really appreciate it if you head on over to iTunes and leave a comment - enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!
Technorati Tags:
fallout, fallout new vegas, white glove, the strip, xbox
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary4.m4a ( Size: 14513835 )]
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 25, 2010 9:08:27.507
posted by James Robertson
podcasting
October 25, 2010 9:28:16.557
One of the issues I had with the screencasts I was doing for Cincom was that the Windows ones often had frame skipping problems. It turns out that tyhis was due to a simple mistake I made in configuring the VM.
When you have a VM stopped, you can edit the settings. One of those deals with optimization - should your system favor native (OS X) apps, or the VM? The default is to favor the VM. This is great if you're playing a game, or running a fairly intense Windows app, but it's not so good if you are using a Mac App to capture the Windows screen.
The solution? Simple - just flip the optimization over to favor OS X apps. That solved the frame drops for me nicely.
Technorati Tags:
screencast, osx, windows, parallels
posted by James Robertson
advertising
October 25, 2010 16:58:29.183
Looks like Digg is the latest victim of an over-reliance on ads as a revenue source. The problem is simple: in the print era, ad space was limited, which pushed prices up. Same thing with over the air broadcasts - time was limited. Now? There are a nearly infinite number of web properties on which you can advertise, and most of us (at least in North America) have access to so many TV channels that it's a very easy matter to avoid any ad you don't want to see.
Scarcity disappeared, and - as should have surprised no one - rates plummeted.
Technorati Tags:
digg
posted by James Robertson
sports
October 25, 2010 20:02:24.000
This might be a good start, but it won't solve the problem:
In the wake of the disappointing end to New York's season, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has fired pitching coach Dave Eiland.
Here's a better answer: Hire a 400 pound, ex-NFL guy as the bench coach. When Girardi indicates that he's about to make a pitching change, have the 400 pound guy sit on him for 5 minutes. Given Girardi's constant - and mostly stupid - pitching moves - that woiuld help a lot.
Technorati Tags:
yankees, pitching, manager
posted by James Robertson
st4u
October 26, 2010 6:29:30.234
Enclosures:
[st4u7-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 6860705 )]
posted by James Robertson
development
October 26, 2010 8:55:27.178
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I've decided to expand the playing field for myself (in terms of the screencast series). I launched "Smalltalk 4 U" on October 15th - next week, I'll be launching "Javascript 4 U". The format will be similar - short screencasts that try to get one point across in 3 minutes or less.
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I've set up a landing page, but it's not populated with any screencasts yet. The series launches on Monday, and it will be an iTunes enabled feed. Look for it then!
The Smalltalk series will be continuing as well - I plan to push out Smalltalk and Javascript oriented screencasts on alternating days.
Technorati Tags:
smalltalk, screencast, javascript
posted by James Robertson
general
October 26, 2010 10:28:43.156
One of the things I need to do this week is return equipment to Cincom - including two external drives I've been using as backup drives (one of them was in storage with older backups). So, disk utility to the rescue - it has a nift "restore" feature I found out about here. There are hundreds of gigabytes involved on two disks, so this will take awhile :)
Technorati Tags:
time machine
posted by James Robertson
traffic
October 26, 2010 14:37:48.343
I'm not sure whether this concept vehicle out of China is cool, scary, or both. Via Wired:
![Bus From Hell](http://www.jarober.com/blog/images/fall10/busFromHell.png)
Technorati Tags:
transit
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 26, 2010 18:48:59.237
The FAST Foundation is offering help for Argentinians who would like to attend the Smalltalks conference next month, but need some help:
This year, the Fundacion Argentina de Smalltalk (FAST) will be able to offer some degree of assistance to attend the conference. In order to qualify for this support, it is necessary to live in Argentina, to reasonably justify the need for assistance, and to have submitted a talk proposal to the conference.
Technorati Tags:
smalltalks 2010, argentina
posted by James Robertson
games
October 26, 2010 19:59:38.622
March 8th is just way, way too far away....
Technorati Tags:
dao2
posted by James Robertson
st4u
October 27, 2010 6:49:55.635
Enclosures:
[st4u8-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 5460607 )]
posted by James Robertson
podcasting
October 27, 2010 8:11:09.891
posted by James Robertson
gadgets
October 27, 2010 16:33:04.077
GigaOM reports that Apple is trying to reduce the points of contact between iPhone users and the carriers to a minimum in Europe. I have to imagine that they would like to do so here as well - that would let them end the exclusive with AT&T, albeit only by adding in lesser carriers like t-mobile:
Sources inside European carriers have reported that Apple has been working with SIM-card manufacturer Gemalto to create a special SIM card that would allow consumers in Europe to buy a phone via the web or at the Apple Store and get the phones working using Apple’s App Store.
This is why I am still skeptical about a big Apple/Verizon deal. I just don't see Verizon cheerfully fading into the background that way...
Technorati Tags:
iPhone, carriers
posted by James Robertson
general
October 27, 2010 17:38:07.743
So here I am, setting up an LLC for myself, so that I can safely conduct contract business. I went to LegalZoom, which seems like a pretty reasonable solution. However, here in Maryland, the state decided that it would be just swell to layer on extra fees - at rates that make no sense:
- $192 Filing Fee
- $149 Registered Agent Fee
- $79 to get a tax id
Do they employ garden gnomes to file small pieces of paper, or what?
Technorati Tags:
stupidity
posted by James Robertson
fnvdiary
October 27, 2010 23:31:51.785
![That Podcast: FNV Diary That Podcast: FNV Diary](/games/game-image.jpg) |
Welcome to episode 5 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas .
On today's podcast, we talk about the wackiness in Utobitha, the Brotherhood quests, and a fascinating glitch with Veronica at Vault 34. We also talked about our further adventures with the Legion, and James' "Merciful Thug" status with them.
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You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can get to the podcast directly in iTunes via this link.
If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:
Got feedback? Send it to James. We'd really appreciate it if you head on over to iTunes and leave a comment - enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-902515a0bc7a7814a2721c389a7a8b7f}
Technorati Tags:
fallout, fallout new vegas, vault 34, utobitha, fnv
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary5.mp3 ( Size: 6998994 )]
posted by James Robertson
fnvdiaryAAC
October 27, 2010 23:31:55.125
![That Podcast: FNV Diary That Podcast: FNV Diary](/games/game-image.jpg) |
Welcome to episode 5 of "That Podcast: An FNV Diary" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith and I document our trials and tribulations in Fallout: New Vegas .
On today's podcast, we talk about the wackiness in Utobitha, the Brotherhood quests, and a fascinating glitch with Veronica at Vault 34. We also talked about our further adventures with the Legion, and James' "Merciful Thug" status with them.
|
You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. You can get to the podcast directly in iTunes via this link.
If you want to download the podcast directly, I've provided it in three formats:
Got feedback? Send it to James. We'd really appreciate it if you head on over to iTunes and leave a comment - enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in the wastelands!
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-902515a0bc7a7814a2721c389a7a8b7f}
Technorati Tags:
fnv, fallout, fallout new vegas, utobitha, vault 34
Enclosures:
[fnvdiary5.m4a ( Size: 9649688 )]
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 28, 2010 6:06:04.805
Georg Heeg announced an update to SeaBreeze, their GUI builder front end to Seaside:
Currently we are developing a new interesting feature for seaBreeze: Internationalization and Localization. Today we had the great break-through: The first multi-lingual seaBreeze application was up and running on my machine today. We are working together with a master course in software localization at Anhalt University. So please be patient to see progress in the not too far future.
If you're interested in becoming a beta user, follow the link for details.
Technorati Tags:
seaside, seabreeze
posted by James Robertson
humor
October 28, 2010 6:18:53.415
TechDirt spotted an entertaining attempt at revenue gathering via an implicit paywall - an upstate New York newspaper website posted the following:
A subscription is required at North Country Gazette. We allow only one free read per visitor. We are currently gathering IPs and computer info on persistent intruders who refuse to buy subscription and are engaging in a theft of services. We have engaged an attorney who will be doing a bulk subpoena demand on each ISP involved, particularly Verizon Droids, Frontier and Road Runner, and will then pursue individual legal actions.
I anxiously await the response from that famed ISP, Verizon Droid.
Technorati Tags:
copyright
posted by James Robertson
st4u
October 28, 2010 6:58:45.605
Enclosures:
[st4u9-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 13160052 )]
posted by James Robertson
gamecast
October 28, 2010 8:11:10.847
Enclosures:
[gamecast3.mp3 ( Size: 3196584 )]
posted by James Robertson
esug2010
October 28, 2010 9:50:06.314
Here's another video from ESUG 2010, which was held in Barcelona, Spain, the week of September 13, 2010. In this presentation, G. Zabala talks about Physical Etoys. You can watch using the embedded player below, or follow this link to Vimeo.
Physical Etoys from James Robertson on Vimeo.
Technorati Tags:
smalltalk, esug, barcelona, spain, etoys, squeak
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 28, 2010 12:25:04.000
posted by James Robertson
advertising
October 28, 2010 23:11:10.618
Why, you ask? Because I was trying to read a cartoon, and a Bing ad insisted on rolling over the page and playing video that could not be interrupted. Yes Microsoft, you got my attention - just not in the way you wanted.
Technorati Tags:
stupidity
posted by James Robertson
st4u
October 29, 2010 7:01:41.818
Enclosures:
[st4u10-iPhone.m4v ( Size: 4854146 )]
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 29, 2010 9:09:31.765
Some of the tools out there make life a lot easier for beginners than they used to be. For instance, in Pharo, there's "ProfStef":
![ProfStef](http://www.jarober.com/code/images/profStef.png)
Meanwhile, there's a tutorial in the NC workspace for VisualWorks:
![VW Tutorial](http://www.jarober.com/code/images/vwLearn.png)
There's also This screencast series, the excellent Smalltalk TV, and the equally excellent Pharocasts. So if you're interested in Smalltalk, just dive right in!
Technorati Tags:
education, screencasts, tutorials
posted by James Robertson
smalltalk
October 29, 2010 13:28:09.777
Looking to learn Smalltalk in a professional setting, but don't have enough people to justify getting an instructor sent to you? David Buck has a solution to that problem: an Introduction to Smalltalk with VisualWorks delivered directly to your browser, from November 29 to December 3:
Attendees will be able to read and write Smalltalk code and will be able to use the Smalltalk environment to continue to enhance their knowledge. Attendees will be able to lay out windows and write the Smalltalk code needed to manage the windows.
You can register at the link - the cost is $1250 per person.
Technorati Tags:
instruction
posted by James Robertson
games
October 29, 2010 14:12:56.000
The console business is one where you need very deep pockets:
Sony's gaming business is moving towards profitability this year -- something that's eluded the company each year since the PlayStation 3 was launched in 2006.
Just think about that - four years of pretty harsh losses before things turn around - and then the console maker has to deal with two realities:
- The need to milk profits out of the now (no longer bleeding) system
- Getting ready to launch a next generation system
That sure explains why the improvements to the PS3, XBox, and Wii have all been incremental. Even though Nintendo was profitable out of the gate, they now have Apple on their turf, cutting into what they probably thought of as milk money (the entire DS line).
Technorati Tags:
console, xbox, ps3, wii
posted by James Robertson
browsers
October 29, 2010 19:15:55.000
Way back when XP was released, and IE6 was new and shiny, I doubt that Microsoft foresaw this problem:
The latest statistics from Web metrics company Net Applications pegged IE6's usage share at 15.6%, which means it's the world's third-most-used browser edition. Many of the holdouts are enterprises locked into IE6 because the commercial software or home-grown applications they use work only in that browser.
Apparently, many of those outfits won't update because their IT applications are dependent on IE 6, and in the current economic environmnet, rewriting them just isn't in the budget. It's a nasty problem for everyone - IT shops are stuck on a now very old OS and very out of date browser, and Microsoft is left with a fairly ugly decision - should they stick with the 2014 death date for XP (and with it, IE 6), or should they provide some kind of virtualization bridge?
I guess popularity has its downsides, too.
Technorati Tags:
ie6
posted by James Robertson
jobs
October 30, 2010 10:46:03.731
Things are looking pretty good - I'm looking at two offers right now. Given the huge tide of long term joblessness in the US right now, I have to say that this is a huge relief for me :)
posted by James Robertson
podcasting
October 30, 2010 10:54:23.311
![That Podcast That Podcast](http://www.jarober.com/games/game-image.jpg) |
We would probably be recording (and releasing) another edition of "That Podcast" today, but it's time for the annual Halloween party around here.
Never fear though - we'll have one out sometime tomorrow, I think :)
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Technorati Tags:
fallout, fallout new vegas, that podcast
posted by James Robertson