Smalltalk with James Robertson

Happy New Year, Happy New Squeak!

Well, this is a cheery sounding bit of news:

Today Robert Templeman at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana, and a few pals at Indiana University reveal an entirely new class of ‘visual malware’ capable of recording and reconstructing a user’s environment in 3D. This then allows the theft of virtual objects such as financial information, data on computer screens and identity-related information.

You download a camera app, but it's actually this thing. Awesome.

Tags: phone, malware

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at loading applications into ObjectStudio. The way things end up being displayed for use (and where the Transcript is located) differs somewhat from VisualWorks and VA Smalltalk.. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Tags: smalltalk, objectstudio

I ran across this yesterday - I have a second monitor attached to my Mac, and I use Parallels (Win 7) to play games that aren't out for Mac. I set the big screen to be the primary, fired off Parallels, and then started XCOM: Enemy Unknown. And... the mouse pointer is registering dozens of pixels off. To hit a button, I have to move the mouse way to the right. If I play in mirrored mode (less resolution), everything works fine. No other game does this too me - I'm wondering whether it's a Parallels artifact, or something else?

Tags: xcom, parallels, windows

It's not the concept of patent law that I object to; it's where things have gotten to. Unless we adopt "loser pays", there's really no way out of the crap sandwich world we now live in. No patents would - absurd as that sounds - be better than what we have now.

Tags: patents

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at using 3rd party libraries in the maps api. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

This change happened back in 7.8, but since we are only now upgrading, we ran into it while going from 7.6 to 7.9.1. Take code that looks like this in VW 7.6:

point := 4@-5.

In 7.6, that gives you a point object. In newer VW? It gives you the message #@- sent to 4 with an argument of 5. Same thing with fractions. Not hard to fix - just look for senders of #@- and #/- and then use a rewrite rule to fix them. Better yet, it was turned up by our unit test suite :)

Tags: visualworks, upgrade

I took this screencap this afternoon from Steam:

More than 13 months after the game's release - and the latest DLC isn't out for PC yet - and it's still in the top ten most days.

Tags: skyrim

Today's Smalltalk 4 You starts looking at the basic memory monitoring tools available in VA Smalltalk. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

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If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

It can be useful to get an idea as to how memory is being used as parts of your Smalltalk application are running - VA Smalltalk provides some tools that allow you to have that look. First off, you'll need to load some applications using the ApplicationManager (EsMemoryTools)

Once that's loaded, go to the launcher's tools menu, and start the monitor:

If you start it, not a lot will be happening - after all, we aren't really running anything but the base image. Try something - here, we loaded an image file using streams:

See the changes? You can use this to better effect when running your application (or hotspots in it) to see what's going on.

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Welcome to episode 109 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week Dave and I talked about Collections, and how important it can be to pick the right one. As an example, Dave explains a recent consulting assignment where using the right collections in one method shaved execution time from 23 minutes to 21 seconds..

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

To listen now, you can either download the mp3 edition, or the AAC edition. The AAC edition comes with chapter markers. You can subscribe to either edition of the podcast directly in iTunes; just search for Smalltalk and look in the Podcast results. You can subscribe to the mp3 edition directly using this feed, or the AAC edition using this feed using any podcatching software. You can also download the podcast in ogg format.

If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Troublemaker for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

Tags: smalltalk, collections

Welcome to episode 109 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week Dave and I talked about Collections, and how important it can be to pick the right one. As an example, Dave explains a recent consulting assignment where using the right collections in one method shaved execution time from 23 minutes to 21 seconds..

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

To listen now, you can either download the mp3 edition, or the AAC edition. The AAC edition comes with chapter markers. You can subscribe to either edition of the podcast directly in iTunes; just search for Smalltalk and look in the Podcast results. You can subscribe to the mp3 edition directly using this feed, or the AAC edition using this feed using any podcatching software. You can also download the podcast in ogg format.

If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Troublemaker for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

Tags: smalltalk, collections

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at an interesting issue with teh Atomic analyzer and loader in VW. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Tags: smalltalk, visualworks, version control

From the STIC 2013 Director, Evelyn Van Orden

Dear Smalltalk Colleagues,

I'm pleased to announce more details about the STIC'13 International Conference and Smalltalk 30th Anniversary Reunion.

STIC13
The Smalltalk Industry Conference STIC’13 will be held June 9-12, 2013 at the Wigwam Resort

The theme is 30 Years of Smalltalk

STIC'13 Call for Participation
The STIC'13 Call for Participation was posted by James Robertson. This is the first time the conference has called for presentations on the History of Smalltalk.

Submissions of technical presentations, experience reports, technology demonstrations, panel discussions, workshops, and other ideas should be submitted by email to Sts_Speakers@stic.st.

STIC'13 Smalltalk Reunion Banquet
We need your help to make this a memorable once-in-a-lifetime event:

• Invite colleagues to participate - send their contact info to evelyn@evelynArts.com or ask them to connect with Evelyn Van Orden on LinkedIn
• Provide historical information, especially info not previously published: anecdotes, stories, interviews, photos, videos, music, artwork, etc.
• Donate memorabilia for a silent auction; proceeds to benefit software engineering scholarships
• Submit ideas for the banquet program, which will be a multi-media presentation including music, artwork, speeches, videos, and ???

With your help, we can make the Smalltalk 30th Anniversary Reunion Banquet more dynamic and fun than any other conference banquet you've ever attended!

STIC’13 Call for Sponsors
We're actively recruiting sponsors for STIC’13. Please let me know asap if you have any qualified leads. We're especially interested in companies who were developers or early adopters of Smalltalk in the 1980s and 1990s (e.g. Xerox, PARC, IBM, Apple, Microsoft; descendents of Tektronix, Digitalk, etc.).

STIC13 Sponsorship Levels

• Platinum $10,000
• Gold $5,000
• Silver $2,500
• Corporate $1,000
• Academic $500

Sponsors for the previous conference STIC12 are listed here

If you’re interested in participating, please email me at evelyn@evelynarts.com or connect with me on LinkedIn. Please forward this to colleagues who may be interested.

Objectively,

Evelyn Van Orden
Director, Smalltalk 30th Anniversary Reunion
STIC13

I saw this article on what (some) flight attendants think about things, and this stuck out to me:

Our airline used to pay us when we showed up for duty at the airport. That was eons ago. Then we got paid our measly hourly wage when the cabin doors closed. Then it was when the plane's brakes were released. Now we get paid only when the wheels leave the ground ("wheels up" in airline parlance). We don't even get paid when we're taxiing! There can sometimes be hours of delay between the time we show up for work and when we're airborne. Different airlines have different policies, but it's a way for them to save money. So when we greet you at the door, we do that for free. When we serve you your pre-flight drink, we do that for free, too. No wonder our smiles are so fake.

If a flight is late, the airline might have to pay us overtime. If the flight is going to be late anyway, we've been known to delay it even further in order make sure overtime kicks in, which on our airline means up to double the hourly pay. We might find some minor defect in the aircraft or use some other ruse to make up for the money we don't get paid waiting for take off.

This is where many, many big organization policies end up. Some bozo with a spreadsheet has a bright idea about saving money, but the idea that an action might generate a reaction never occurs to him. Everyone ends up less happy, and the bozo gets promoted for "thinking outside the box".

Tags: travel

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at basic overlays using Javascript and the maps API. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Tags: javascript, maps