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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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
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
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
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...
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"
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.
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.
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.
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
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
Moron Alert
I love this kind of thing:
A group of Santa Fe residents recently attempted to get all public Wi-Fi hotspots in the city banned by arguing that the APs irritated their supposed "electromagnetic allergies."
How he's managed to survive with all the TV and radio signals in the air is anybody's guess. One can only hope that these idiots don't find a judge stupid enough to play ball with them...
More Seaside
The Pharo-cast blog has a seaside video up - going through the canonical blog example. I did a whole tutorial series on that :)
Pretty Soon for a Reboot
SpiderMan is getting the reboot treatment instead of a 4th flick:
Mike Fleming and Nikki Finke have just confirmed that Sony Pictures decided today to reboot the Spider-Man franchise after franchise director Sam Raimi pulled out of Spider-Man 4 because he felt he couldn't make its summer release date and keep the film's creative integrity. This means that Raimi and the cast including star Tobey Maguire are out. There will be no Spider-Man 4. Instead, Mike Fleming is told, the studio will focus on a Summer 2012 reboot from a script by Jamie Vanderbilt with a new director and a new cast.
Of course, "Batman" has been rebooted a nearly infinite number of times now, so I shouldn't be surprised :)
Technorati Tags: spiderman
Over the Net Radio
The system isn't one. It's all very ad hoc and not very reliable. Nobody yet has the right formula to reconcile their own costs and programming with the barely-known users and usages out there. How many streams should they support? Should they stream at 128kb and be audible only over ethernet and good broadband land connecitons? Should they stream in lo-fi at 24kb or 32kb so they stay audible on iPhones over 3G connections after those go away and the connection drops down to GPRS? (That's my recommendation, generally.) Should they have multiple streams? (I also recommend that.) For radio on the Net (which also includes podcasting and on-demand), there isn't enough common usage yet, much less common wisdom about how to serve it on the supply side. It's like AM radio in 1924. The difference is that much more of it is outside regulatory control. The rules that matter are copyright more than engineering. Ever notice how little popular (or even known) music is on podcast? Thank the DMCA for that one.
I don't follow this field like Searls does, but I can certainly note that I listen to a whole lot less radio. I tend to have one of three things on, whether I'm in my home office or the car:
- iTunes
- Pandora
- AM Radio (I periodically listen to talk radio to get an idea as to what the outrage of the day is)
The thing I spent most of my younger years with - music radio - I almost never have that on. As Searls says though, things are in a very ad-hoc state right now, and they haven't settled down into anything like what they'll look like in, say, 10 years. Getting rid of the DMCA would help a lot, but I don't expect that to happen. Too bad, really; the whole shape of the future is constrained by that stupidity.
Brace Constructor Syntax in VW or OS
If you're trying to port code from Squeak or Pharo to VisualWorks and/or ObjectStudio, one thing you may have run across is the Brace Constructor syntax for arrays. i.e., instead of:.
array := Array with: 3+4 with: Date today.
You get:
array := {3+4. Date today}.
Today's screencast looks at adding support for that syntax to VW and OS:
If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: brace constructor, syntax, squeak
Speaking of Augmented Reality...
Soon, you could see ads in Google maps that never existed in the real world:
This patent, which was originally filed on July 7, 2008, describes a new system for promoting ads in online mapping applications. In this patent, Google describes how it plans to identify buildings, posters, signs and billboards in these images and give advertisers the ability to replace these images with more up-to-date ads. In addition, Google also seems to plan an advertising auction for unclaimed properties.
This is the kind of technology that could have some hilarious end resuts. FailBlog should do very well off this :)
Office and Word Disappear from Stores
I really thought that Microsoft was going to settle with i4i after they were given a hard date to comply with, but no - they've pulled Office instead:
Microsoft Corp. has pulled almost every version of Office from its own online store to comply with a court order requiring it to remove custom XML technology from its popular Word software starting today.
The powers that be at MS are either overly prideful, or very convinced that they are correct, because this is a really expensive move for them...
Heroes - About 1/4 as Many Characters Needed
Heroes used to be good - season 1, when the cast was a reasonable sized ensemble. Since then, the writers seem to have been working with the theory that "more characters are better!"
Many, many more characters. So many characters that we get to spend tiny bits of time on each plot thread - so little that we can't really maintain much interest in any of them.
Kill half of them, and maybe the show will have meaning again....
Just in Time Resourcing with SUnit
Here's Niall Ross, talking about new features of SUnit at ESUG 2009, held in Brest, France last summer. You can grab a copy of Niall's slides here(PDF). To watch, click on the viewer below:
If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Videos"?
Pharo Screencasts
Looks like a new video site devoted to Pharo has popped up - the videos are all Vimeo embeds, so there's no feed for iTunes, but you can watch over there.
Technorati Tags: pharo, screencasts
Is HD DVD Making a Comeback?
Engadget reports an HD DVD (not Blu-Ray) player from a Chinese manufacturer. I thought HD DVD was dead?
Smalltalk is Coming to You
I'll be heading out to do some roadshows with the Smalltalk team at Cincom - we'll be in Seattle, Toronto, and Baltimore:
You can register to let us know you're coming - it's free. We'll have plenty to say about the new releases of ObjectStudio and VisualWorks, as well as WebVelocity. See you there!
Technorati Tags: cincom, objectstudio, visualworks, webvelocity
Off to the Races
No sooner had we decided to get a new dishwasher (arriving Thursday) than my wife's car decided that it needed a new tire - fortunately, she was only 3 or so miles from the house when that became obvious. If it's not one thing, it's another....
Using ActiveX Components in VisualWorks
Today we take a look at a new feature in VW 7.7: Embedding ActiveX components (on Windows, obviously) into VisualWorks windows.
If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: windows, ActiveX, COM, visualworks
Flash Coming to the iPhone
Well, Flash is sort of coming to the iPhone. But, it's enough to start a small tidal wave. TechCrunch reports:
Adobe is going to bring its 2 million Flash developers to the iPhone, with or without Apple's blessing. As it announced in October, the next version of its Flash developer tools, Creative Suite 5 (currently in private beta), will include a "Packager for iPhone" apps which will automatically convert any Flash app into an iPhone app. So while Flash apps won't run on the iPhone, any Flash app can easily be converted into an iPhone app. (Microsoft is taking a similar approach with Silverlight). This is a bigger deal than many people appreciate.
For good or ill, Flash is the standard video format on the web. HTML5 may change that over time, but not soon. For the forseeable future, Flash is pretty much where it's at if you want to hit the majority of browser users. More importantly (and this is what Apple feared early on) - it'll "flood the zone" with potential iPhone developers:
Once Adobe publicly releases CS5, Flash apps and video still won't run on the iPhone. But those 2 million developers will be able to keep working with Adobe tools and simply turn them into iPhone apps automatically. In contrast, there are only an estimated 125,000 or so iPhone developers.
Heck, I have the Flash SDK on my Mac inside Eclipse. I have the Glare code that hooks that up to VisualWorks. That means that with a fair amount of ease, I could probably package up a "Smalltalk Daily" app for the iPhone that drove itself off a VW back end once this comes out.
The Coming Death of the Broadcast TV Model
I watch the way my daughter consumes video, and I realize that the broadcast model is on its last legs. I'm sure there are people in her age group (high school) who watch a fair amount of TV, but here's what I see:
- Lots of iTunes usage
- Interest in Streaming (we just got Netflix)
- Virtually no "channel surfing" or regular watching. What watching there is, is via the DVR
The broadcast model is being shaken up now. Over the next decade, I think it's going to shrink dramatically, to be replaced by more of an on-demand model. No one under twenty really expects to have to wait for anything they want to see. Heck, I've gotten to that point myself...
Let's Pull out a Few Old Chestnuts
Every few months you find a hand wringing article about "the next generation" and how they are being influenced by technology. Sure enough, I ran across the Times fretting about the impact of IM and social networking on the younger set:
"I worry that young people won't be able to summon the capacity to focus and concentrate when they need to," said Vicky Rideout, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, which will release a sweeping survey on the technology and media habits of children and teenagers this month.
Way back in the late 60's and early 70's, this researcher's predecessors were fretting that TV was doing the same thing to my generation. Later on, video games were doing it. The symptoms never change, just the technology being ranted at.
Soon, it will be a Pamphlet
Remember NBC's proposed sci-fi series Day One? First it was a show. Then it was a one-season show. Then it was a miniseries. Now, it's just a TV movie, said Angela Bromstad, president of prime-time entertainment at NBC and Universal Media Studios.
Wow. I have to wonder whether it will air at all :)
How Far We've Come
The real irony of this disc is that the amount of memory you can write to it (1.44 MB, if memory — heh serves) isn’t enough to store the jpeg of the picture of it which came out of my camera (1.49 MB). That’s progress for you.
"Back in the Day", we booted an entire OS from floppies that held even less data :)
Industry Misinterpretations 170: The State of Smalltalk
Here's our first podcast of 2010 - and we take a wide angle view of the various Smalltalk implementations out there. There's a lot more Smalltalk out there than you might think - go here for the notes we used for the podcast, with links to the implementations we spoke about:
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!
VisualWorks: 7.7
ObjectStudio: 8.2
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com
Squeak: Version 3.10
http://squeak.org
Recent Split to create Pharo
Recent changes in the contribution model
Still embroiled in the license issue
"consensus" model
leads to forks (Cuis, Pharo, others)
new VMs coming?
Pharo: 1.0 RC1
http://www.pharo-project.org/home
Clean MIT License
Lots of forward motion
Seaside home
"benevolent dictator" model
CUIS Smalltalk: version 2.0
http://www.jvuletich.org/Cuis/Index.html
Squeak Fork
intended to be smaller, cleaner, lighter
GNU ST: Version 3.1
http://smalltalk.gnu.org/
Mostly Paolo Bonzini
GPL, GNU project
file based (but going to an image)
concentrating on bringing in libraries from other Smalltalks
Runs best on Linux, often has issues elsewhere (as per our podcast)
VisualGST for GST - bring modern GUI tools to GST
Smalltalk/X: Version
http://www.exept.de/en/products/smalltalk-x/stx-overview
inline C, static compilation possible
can build DLLs and executables w/o image
x86 (Windows, Linux, Solaris FreeBSD) and Sparc
Can provide oter platforms on request
Free for most uses, they do sell commercial licenses and support/consulting
license: http://live.exept.de/doc/online/english/LICENCE_STX.html
VA Smalltalk: Version 8.0.1
http://instantiations.com/VAST/prod/vast.html
Now offers an NC/Academic version
Bringing in Seaside (no continuation support)
integrated the entire Instantiations suite of add on tools, giving product facelift
Dolphin Smalltalk: Version 6
http://www.object-arts.com/content/navigation/home.html
Community (free) and Commercial (cheap) versions
COM DLL and windows exe possible
Weird schism
Dolphin NG (Lesser Software)
Andy Bower's more recent statements about bringing Dolphin back
General sales model difficulty for niche products sold this way
Gemstone/S: Version 2.4
http://www.gemstone.com/products/gemstone
64 bit, probably first commercial 64 bit Smalltalk
OO DBMS
GLASS, most recent efforts in Smalltalk here
MagLev - Ruby in Gemstone/S
Lesser Smalltalk
http://www.lesser-software.com/lswvst.htm
hidden from view - no eval versions, pricing unclear
native for Windows
building compatible VM for VSE, and Dolphin
looks and sounds interesting, with the tight Windows integration
Smalltalk MT: Version 5.6
http://www.objectconnect.com/
Native, Multi-threaded for Windows
Aimed at games development on PCs
Small, fast executables
F-Script: Version 2.0
http://www.fscript.org/
Scripting for OS X, like AppleScript but with ST syntax
built on Cocoa, allows full access to Cocoa objects
Smalltalk SYX: version 0.1.7
http://code.google.com/p/syx/
Windows, Linux, OSX, embedded systems
Small, targeted at building embedded apps
Redline Smalltalk: In Development
http://twitter.com/smalltalkjvm
Smalltalk for the JVM
Nothing available yet; just the Twitter feed and some blog posts
Etoile: Version (in dev)
http://etoileos.com/
Built on GNUStep, an OSS fork of Nextstep (now Cocoa)
Larger project than Smalltalk - going for entire layer to run atop your OS
Smalltalk is a scripting tool in this effort
recently added more ST level tools (workspace)
Strongtalk: version 0.200
http://code.google.com/p/strongtalk/
Fast JIT for Smalltalk, bought by Sun years ago to speed up Java
open sourced in 2008
minimal progress since then, but active mailing list
Works on Windows, Linux
Zoku/Smalltalk: In Development
http://www.smalltalk.org/versions/ZokuSmalltalk.html
research project, Peter William Lount
to support his consulting business?
Sharp Smalltalk: version 1.1
http://www.refactory.com/Software/SharpSmalltalk/
Mostly moribund, seems mostly proof of concept
Smalltalk on .NET
Classes wrap .NET classes
Ambrai Smalltalk: Version: ?
http://www.ambrai.com/
For OS X, but back revs
intended to be native OS X Smalltalk
PIC/Smalltalk
http://www.huv.com/uSeeker/index.html
Smalltalk for embedded use in robots, Jon Hyland's work
VSE: Version 3.10/2000
Moribund, died in 1997
small, fairly fanatical fan base exists and uses it
Windows specific (was win 95 logo certified)
Is This August Football?
The way this Ravens/Patriots game started, it looked like it was going to be a complete laugher for the Ravens - 24 unanswered points with 2 turnovers. Then the Ravens returned the favor, and the Pats scored a TD, then went 3 and out after the second turnover. It still looks like the Ravens are in charge, but mostly, it looks like we rewound top August - it's that sloppy.
Content Control
Whether it's formally DRM or not, any content control system - no matter how well intentioned or well managed - has a future issue. I'll explain what I mean in a moment, but first, here's Engadget explaining the Keychest system Disney is touting at CES:
The easiest way to explain it is with an example and the most obvious to us is iTunes and Comcast. Both companies offer video on demand and use their own DRM to prevent copying. If both participated in KeyChest -- this isn't studio based -- and we bought a movie on iTunes, the next time we hit up Comcast VOD we'd be able to watch the same movie without paying again. The genius of the idea is how simple it is, basically the participantes report your purchases to the KeyChest and query it to see what else you bought.
While the technology was very different, PlaysForSure offered the same advantages - and when MS got tired of it, both their partners and the customers of those partners were left with content that was in limbo. Keychest suffers the same defect. What if companies like those in the example sign up, and, down the road, one or more of them starts to bail out. Over time, as the number of companies left supporting the technology shrinks, the chances of a PlaysForSure limbo result just grows.
The thing the studios (et. al.) need to get through their thick skulls is this: the amount of piracy done by end consumers is trivial. The big problem is the theft on their end (when bootleg copies appear before release, it wasn't some kid with Bittorrent), and the "professional" thieves who create copies from video made off the screen by early viewings. Those holes can be made smaller via better security measures - and they are where the big wins are. All of the efforts on the consumer side just irritate people and make their lives harder, while accomplishing very, very little.
Plugging Things into VW on Windows
Here's something that hasn't been possible in VisualWorks before the 7.7 release:
That's the QuickTime ActiveX control embedded in a VW Window, with a small list of movies in the listbox to load. I think Monday's screencast will be on this :)
Technorati Tags: windows, visualworks, ActiveX
Weather Front, or Line of Attack?
I realize that this is a computer model of a frontal system, but boy, that's the smoothest line for such a thing that I've ever seen:
With all that cold, rainy weather moving through Florida, my Dad has got to be pretty miserable - he moved down there to get away from winter and play golf at this time of year :)
Podcast Later Today
We'll be doing the podcast later today - I don't have a time yet, because Michael is still jetlagged :) We'll probably be on justin.tv as well - just watch the Twitter feed for announcements.
Our plan is to talk about "the state of Smalltalk" - by which I mean that we'll talk about the state of the various Smalltalk implementations, as we see them. I'm sure that will generate plenty fo feedback all by itself, as we are hardly unbiased observers :) Listen in and let us know what you think.
Welcome to Support
Google is learning that selling a product directly brings with it some obligations: support:
But Google is selling the phone directly to end-users. That means many users are turning to it first, and the search giant doesn't have the kind of customer support that mobile-phone users are accustomed to. Google appears to be only accepting e-mail customer queries, to which it pledges to reply in one to two days -- far too long, say most people who are complaining online.
This all reminds me of something that happened in the Smalltalk space years ago. There was an enterprise solution for a particular niche that was being sold as a "consulting solution" - meaning, when you bought the software, you bought a few consultants (at cost) to install it, tweak it, and get it running in your environment. It was a small but lucrative business, and one of the larger consulting outfits decided that they wanted to jump into the space - so they bought the software. They didn't buy the smaller firm outright though, so they got none of the expertise. They decided that they wanted to just "put the software in a box" and sell it as a regular product.
That's when they learned that vendors have things like support staffs, 800 call in lines, dedicated email support (this was long before online forums popped up). I recall a bunch of us at ParcPlace (that's how long ago this was) snickering at all of this, because, working for a vendor, this was all pretty obvious to us.
Fast forward to today, and Google is having the same lesson pounded into it. They want to get by with the level of email support they've been offering for things like Google Reader. The services they've offered to the public in the past have been free, so having slow turn around email has been sufficient. When you start selling a real product, for real money, that people wll naturally need some level of support on - the rules all change.
I wonder how Google will deal with this: they can either stop selling direct, or they can add a real support group. It should be fun to watch...
Technorati Tags: sales model, customer support
The Pernicious Impact of Long Copyright Terms
Rogers Cadenhead goes into depth about the loss of a dead friend's online works - the friend's heirs don't have any interest in letting the material be archived. Their reason's aren't what interests me here - it's this:
For works created on the web, however, the only thing keeping them around is an active publisher or a copyright license that permits others to reprint the material. A copyright holder who wanted a web site to disappear completely could take it offline, demand its removal from all archives and never allow republication. Leslie's work will not begin passing into the public domain until 2065.
Think about how far out that is - no one who knew the person he's talking about will be around then. The lesson here, to me, is simple: the term for copyright is just too long. As it stands now, copyright law protects the interests of the big players, and works against the interests of the rest of us.
Technorati Tags: law
Lost FTW
I find this amusing - the White House decided not to preempt the big "Lost" season opener for the annual State of the Union Speech. I suspect they didn't want a modern day Heidi incident on their hands :)
Technorati Tags: Lost
Chrome Motors To Extensions
The dev (unstable) build of Chrome for Mac now has extension support - I'm guessing that I'll be able to shelve Safari and Firefox on a more permanent basis soon. Not quite yet though:
The dev channel edition of Chrome lives up to its label; according to Laforge, the Mac preview crashes when the user adds a new bookmark folder if sync is enabled.
Chrome usage is going up, too - it's apparently up to 4.6% of all browser usage.
New VisualGST
VisualGST has made it to release 0.7 - looks like some good stuff made it into the build. We did a podcast with Gwenael on this at ESUG last year.
Not the VisualWorks you were Looking For
I just had to chuckle at this. Not the VW my readers are looking for, I think :)
Limiting the Browser View and Projects
After doing today's screencast, I got to thinking about the older idea of Smalltalk projects. Squeak still has them, I think - you could create a "project" and get a set of tools that opened in a pre-defined way. Taking the idea of a limited browser view and projects together though, and I think you could build a lightweight project browser. Consider the idea:
Instead of just "select some packages and limit the view", what if you could select some packages, give that selection set a name, and then save that name? Then, instead of having to recreate a selection set as you worked in an image, you could bounce between named "projects". Sound like a reasonable idea?
Technorati Tags: project view
Thursday Next
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My sister got me the first three books in the "Thursday Next" series - I'm currently reading The Eyre Affair |
Technorati Tags: scifi, fantasy, alternate reality
Overheard
This was funny, passed by on IRC a moment ago:
and why doesn't the windows malicious software removal tool uninstall windows?
One of life's imponderables, that...
Limiting the Browser View
When you are working in Smalltalk, you typically work in a small number of packages and bundles. If the names of those are separated (alphabetically speaking), going back and forth in the browser can mean a lot of scrolling. So - today's screencast introduces a small package you can load that lets you limit the package view to a small number of packages/bundles you select.
If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: code browser, code visibility
Not Snowmageddon
Today's snow was good for a 2 hour school delay though:
And after the driveway clearing...
Automating Smalltalk Builds
Awhile back, Randy Coulman did some work to integrate Smalltalk (VisualWorks) with Cruise Control - now it looks like some Squeakers have done something similar with Hudson:
Yanni Chiu created a project "Hudson Build" allowing you automate a build through a shell script run by Hudson, and view the SUnit test results through Hudson. Lukas now uses this to build seaside and pharo smalltalk images and monitor the builds in his Hudson server.
This is the kind of thing I'd like to see more of...
Technorati Tags: continuous integration, build
Who Owns What We Produce?
Mark Bernstein notes that we can't freely transfer most software (he uses OS X as an example, but most commercial software works the same way). He then asks:
But you can use TextEdit (which comes with Mac OS X) to write a text file, which you can save, copy, and sell without further obligation to Apple.
Question: how do we know we can do this? Where is it written?
Similarly, how do we know, when buying a typewriter, that its manufacturer doesn't acquire some rights to whatever we produce with the typewriter?
Excellent question. Copyright law is the legal answer, but never mind that; consider how Copyright law has been twisted of late...
Smalltalk on the Road
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The Smalltalk team at Cincom is getting ready to come out to see you - we'll be visiting the following cities soon:
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These are all free events - you can register for any of them by following this link. Each of them is a half day, 9 AM - 1 PM. We'll see you on the road!
Technorati Tags: cincom, roadshow, conference
Upcoming Outage
Slicehost just sent me a message telling me that the server hosting my slice will need a reboot, and it's scheduled for sometime between 6 pm and 7pm (est) today. So, expect to see the site down for a bit when that happens :)
The Reading List
Over there on the right (assuming you're reading this from the site) is a new section - a Reading List. The books there are ones I've either just read, or am reading now. At the moment, I'm in the third one in that list, A Storm of Swords. It's a good book, and I'm sure that I'll soon be joining the legions of people who want martin to produce another book already :)
Full disclosure though - the links are Amazon affiliate links, so if you follow them and then buy the book, a few pennies come my way. Doesn't cost you anything extra, but it will help keep the lights on over this blog :)
A Real World Series?
When I've traveled, I've sometimes had people make fun of the baseball World Series, since, outside of one team in Canada, it's a US thing. Well, it looks like talk are underway between MLB and their Japanese counterparts to do something about that:
In meetings with Japanese commissioner Ryozo Kato in Milwaukee, MLB commissioner Bud Selig proposed that the Japanese and U.S. champions play each other, the Nikkansports newspaper reported Thursday.
That would be pretty awesome, but there are complications. Like, when would it take place? November? If so, it would probably have to be like the Superbowl, played in a neutral location with good weather. You wouldn't want a series between, say, the Chicago White Sox and a Japanese team in the middle of November - you could get snow outs.
If that gets resolved though, it would be really cool.
Technorati Tags: baseball, world series
What's the ROI on That?
I completely agree with the rant David Meerman Scott let loose here on ROI and social media/web marketing. A lot of people ask for that, but honestly: what's the ROI on things like a print ad, or a TV ad, or a radio spot? There's no good way to track that, and there never has been - but since these methods are well known, they are comfortable.
I have no idea what the ROI is of the Smalltalk channels I've set up on YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook - but I know that they generate interest from people who wouldn't necessarily have found Smalltalk if all we had was our own website.
All you can do is plug away, put out material your target audience will think is interesting, and give it time to work. Expecting a spreadsheet number under ROI is just fooling yourself.
Finding References to Primitives
Sometimes it's useful to be able to track down all references to a specific primitive - primitives being the call interface between the image and the VM. Today's screencast shows you how to do that:
If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: code browser, primitive