Smalltalk with James Robertson

The Object-Arts people have put up a very detailed post on the subject, and some videos.

Technorati Tags: dolphin, mac

Sprint just got into the iPhone game:

For Sprint, the iPhone could be its savior, or its doom. The company has arranged to buy at least 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years, a deal worth around $20 billion today, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Here's where I'm confused though:

• ATT "4G" is one variant of LTE
• Verizon "4G" is another (not necessarily compatible with ATT) variant of LTE
• Sprint "4G" is WiMax

Meanwhile, the 3G story is CDMA (Verizon, Sprint) and GSM (ATT). So... does Apple wait on 4G, or start slapping a huge number of radios in the phones (or have multiple SKUs, which they hate)? This doesn't give consumers as much choice as it sounds like, either - given the disparate networks in play, your phone is probably a brick if you decide to switch vendors....

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at some complex elements selections using JQuery. 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:

Patent Trolls aren't just an annoyance - they cost us real money:

Lawsuits from non-practicing entities, or NPEs -- better known as patent trolls -- have cost innovators $500 billion in lost wealth from 1990 through 2010, the BU study found. The study arrived at that figure by observing patent defendants' stock prices following a lawsuit, excluding general market trends and random stock movements.

I'm so pleased that Congress just made trolling easier...

Technorati Tags: patents, stupidity

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at basic database connectivity in VA Smalltalk - what to load, and how to connect. In future screencasts, we'll look at using the connection for things like queries. 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:

Today we'll look at basic database connectivity in VA Smalltalk. Rather than using the parts based connector technology, we'll be diving into the code. To get started, you'll want to load the database support into VA; in the screen capture below, we show the ODBC connectivity (and example) packages loaded. Note that you need to define an ODBC connection, and have a database locally accessible:

Next, you'll need to set up the connection, using code like this:

"Create the Connection Specification"
conSpec := AbtDatabaseConnectionSpec
forDbmClass: #AbtOdbcDatabaseManager
dataSourceName: 'winlocal'.
dict := (Dictionary new).
dict 
	at: 'winlocal' put: (conSpec dataSourceName);
	at: 'DBManager' put: (conSpec dbmClass);
	at: 'Prompt?' put: (conSpec promptEnabled).

That sets up a connection specification, saving it under the logical name winLocal. We can then refer to this connection specification by name in our code. Next, if you want to login with a prompt, simply do this:

"prompts"	
connection := conSpec connect.

You should see this:

If you want to save your login information in the same way you stored the connection information, that's simple enough as well:

"Create the Logon specification"
logonSpec := AbtDatabaseLogonSpec
	id: username
	password: password
	server: nil.
AbtDbmSystem 
	registerLogonSpec: logonSpec
	withAlias: 'winlocalSpec'.

Make sure you pass in the proper username and password. To connect using connection and login spec (and thus, getting no login prompt), do the following:

"connects with the alias"
connection := conSpec connectUsingAlias: 'winlocalSpec'.

Finally, after working with your database, make sure you close the connection:

"disconnect"
connection disconnect.

We'll look at actually using the connection for things like querying in a future tutorial.

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.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk, database

Tony Garnock-Jones has a build of GNU Smalltalk for OS X.

Technorati Tags: gst, gnu smalltalk

Welcome to episode 48 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck.

This week James and David talk about upgrading a large Smalltalk application - specifically, a VisualWorks 7.6 application being upgraded to VisualWorks 7.8. While the conversation hones in on a number of things specific to that upgrade path, the issues are similar to those any Smalltalk developer will face in an upgrade.

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!

Technorati Tags: visualworks, smalltalk, upgrade

Welcome to episode 48 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck.

This week James and David talk about upgrading a large Smalltalk application - specifically, a VisualWorks 7.6 application being upgraded to VisualWorks 7.8. While the conversation hones in on a number of things specific to that upgrade path, the issues are similar to those any Smalltalk developer will face in an upgrade.

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!

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, visualworks, upgrade

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at a system level settings 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:

.

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:

Today we'll look at a few more configuration options for VA Smalltalk - at the image level, rather than at the granularity of the coding assistance tools. To start, go to the launcher and select Options<<Open Preferences Window:

A Tabbed settings window comes up, with various options on the tabs:

For example - don't like the browser selections that VA picks for you? Go to the Individual Browser tab and change it:

Want to change the debugger selections? You can do that too:

It's probably worth your while spending a few minutes examine the various options

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.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk, settings

Gordon Weakliem nails it:

That’s the difference I see people missing all the time. They’re chattering about how Google might benefit, how this strengthens the Android platform. They’re missing the point. Apple and Amazon are increasingly in the content business, bringing a real stream of cash off of content, and particularly for Amazon, the hardware is just a necessary tool. They care about it the same way retailers care about their store because a good customer experience is critical if you want customers to spend money. But in the end, what they want is for you to use their device to spend money . People were misled thinking that Amazon was taking on the booksellers. Borders was just collateral damage.

What makes the iPad - and now the Fire - compelling, is the content, and the ease with which you get content onto the device. Amazon gets that, just as Apple does. The others? Not so much.

I was speaking to my daughter about this yesterday. She likes her Android phone, but really, really hates the work she has to go through to get music on it. The specs are way less relevant than the apps and interfaces are.

Technorati Tags: iPad, kindle, android

PetitParser tutorials - video and slides - are available now.

A few weeks ago, my XBox Live account was blocked after a hacking event - someone managed to buy 10,000 MS points through my account. Microsoft was really good about things - they blocked the purchases (when I called my credit card company the charges had been reversed already), and, once the account was restored (today), they gave me:

• 2 months pre-paid XBox Live
• 800 Microsoft Points

They were really nice on the phone when I dealt with them, too. Heck, it doesn't even look like I've lost any of the achievements I picked up while I was offline, and the emails said that would happen. All in all, it went pretty well.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, xbox

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at the removeData() function. 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:

Technorati Tags: javascript, jquery, tutorial

I remember that year - in August, the Yankees were 14.5 games out, and the season looked like it was over. One amazing month and a one game playoff later, and the red Sox were down.

Now:

The Rays' win came four minutes after Boston blew a one-run lead in the ninth at Baltimore and lost 4-3. The Red Sox, who held a nine-game lead over the Rays in early September, and Tampa Bay began the final day of the regular season tied for the wild card.

The Sox blew a late game lead tonight, and the Rays came back from 7 down (sadly, against the Yankees). However, I'm happy to be back to normality, where the Red Sox choke at the end of the season, and the Yankees win the pennant :)

Technorati Tags: baseball

My daughter came home after a long Greyhound trip, complaining that her iPad didn't play sound through the headphones. On the off chance that I'd find something simple, I Googled - and it turned out that this thread gave me a solution. My guess? Some app left sound in a bad state, and Skype, when starting up, resets the bad state.

Technorati Tags: iPad

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the configurability of the new coding assistance feature of VA Smalltalk 8.5 (which was ,a href="blogView?entry=3494234789">covered in another screencast). 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:

Today we'll look at configuring the new Coding Assistance (auto complete) that is part of the new VA Smalltalk 8.5. To get there, go to the Options menu item in the launcher, and select the pull right for Code Assist. Note that you can turn it on and off, or select more granular options, which we'll do now:

Select the Edit option - you'll get a preferences window:

Now you can toggle any of the available settings - for instance, you can change the key for accepting an assist from <Enter> to <Tab>. The changes are immediate, and note that you can simply restore the defaults at any time.

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.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk, code completion

Cincom has updated the license for the download versions of VisualWorks and ObjectStudio - it seems to be a lot more reasonable than earlier drafts that were up on the site. More importantly, the license that comes with the download now matches what you'll find on the site, so there's no confusion as to what the terms are. Check it out.

Technorati Tags: cincom

The bizarro universe beast that is ACTA is still alive, and it looks like the power elites of the Western world want to ram it down all of our throats, regardless of how the law is supposed to work. Via Techdirt:

Despite serious Constitutional concerns in the US, and significant legal questions in the EU, it appears that the US and the EU, along with most of the other participants in the ACTA negotiations are planning to sign ACTA this weekend in Japan. In the US, this may very well lead to a Constitutional challenge. President Obama, via the USTR, is ignoring the Senate's oversight concerning treaties, by pretending ACTA is not a treaty, but rather an "executive agreement." Pretty much everyone else agrees that ACTA is a binding treaty -- in fact, EU negotiators have been quite vocal on that point.

All I can say is wow - the gall involved here is massive. If this thing is so important, it can go to the Senate and follow the process. The fact that the powers that be want to avoid that route is very, very telling.

I got a call from my daughter - her school basically closes down for a few days for the upcoming Jewish holidays, and she decided to come home - we looked into Greyhound. That's when the hilarity ensued, at least for some types of hilarity.

Try this: visit any airline website, or a site like Expedia. See if you can buy a ticket at any time of day. Gosh, it works. Now try looking into buying a Greyhound bus ticket at a time when one of the stations involved is closed for the day.

Not having noticed that the web is a 24x7 thing, they don't allow that. So... do they run little courier sacks between stations to handle the transactions? Do they have a teletype machine at the back of each station spewing out orders? Are they just stupid?

Technorati Tags: stupidity

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at some complex elements selections using JQuery. 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:

Technorati Tags: javascript, tutorial, jquery

Pharo based scripting is coming along:

Coral makes it possible to write shell scripts with Pharo. It’s actually several parts:

• A wrapper shell script
• To seamlessly invoke the VM from the command line.
• A tiny syntax extension
• Smalltalk has no syntax to declare classes and methods outside of the code browser. Coral’s syntax extension allows to declare classes, methods, and to evaluate code, all in a simple text file.
• A lighter, prepared image
• The Coral image is configured to launch quickly, without a graphical interface, and is preloaded with packages useful for scripting, like access to the system’s filesystem and processes.

If you follow the link, there's a video as well

Technorati Tags: pharo, scripting