Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants

If this stat (from Dan Frommer by way of Henry Blodget) is just astonishing:

Kindle sales are now 35% of book sales when Kindle editions are available. Huge jump in Feb when Kindle 2 went on sale.

That's especially amazing when you consider just how few Kindles have been sold. If that number is accurate, it means that Kindle owners are using the devices pretty heavily.

Technorati Tags: amazon, kindle

I'm not sure I can see this being a good idea:

Pierced glasses are a pair of prescription eyeglasses that stay affixed to your ugly mug via a piercing through the nose.

Follow the link to see pics...

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at saving parcels, and what the various dialog options mean. To watch, click on the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly

You can also watch it on Vimeo:

Saving Parcels from James Robertson on Vimeo.

Or on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, parcels

I've been plugging away at my interface this morning, going through the admin APIs listed here. Funny thing about a bunch of those - they respond with 'unknown method'. That's not an error on my end - if it were, I'd get something like a parameter error. It looks like Facebook has some issues of its own :)

Technorati Tags: facebook, social media

This is where the people who only hang out with other bleeding edgers end up - so deep in the well that they can't tell how empty it really is. Steve Gillmor thinks that the "River of News" (i.e., Twitter) has won, and RSS has lost:

Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed - whatever they grew from, they morphed into a realtime CMS for the emerging media. Twitter, not RSS, became the early warning system for new content. Facebook, not RSS, became the social Rolodex for events, casual introductions to RSS’ lifeblood, the people behind the feeds. FriendFeed, not RSS, captured the commentsphere. RSS got locked out of its own party.

Reality looks a little different. Go ask a bunch of non-tech-heads whether they use RSS - you'll get lots of blank stares. Ask about Twitter - same blank stares. Even inside the tech community, only a minority of people use either RSS readers or Twitter.

Steve is like the infamous NYC voter from 1972 Manhattan, with no idea how Nixon won the election, because "no one I know voted for him". Out in the real world, there hasn't been a battle between RSS and Twitter, because most people don't know that either one of them even exists...

Technorati Tags: rss, twitter, social media

I've been plugging away at my Facebook interface, mapping the API listed here. I've got the whole Stream API covered now, and I ran into an interesting thing there. Here's the code I use to retrieve status updates:

connection login.
connection getSession.

statuses := connection streamGet.

The Status object has a status_id that looks like this: 103102927728. However, let's say you want to use that ID to grab all the comments to that update, or remove it, or add a new comment. Well, in that case you don't have the full ID yet - you need to prepend the user id you're using. So if your user id is 666777888, then the id to pass is '666777888_103102927728'. It took me a bit to figure that out, but now the API is working as I expect, and I was able to add comments, remove them, add posts, and remove those.

You can grab the work in progress from the public repository - package FacebookConnect.

Technorati Tags: facebook, social media

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at an API to Facebook Connect using Smalltalk. It's easy to create, with the HTTP and Security libraries in the product. The goal is to have a Facebook API that anyone can use. To watch, click on the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly

You can also watch it on Vimeo:

Connecting to Facebook from James Robertson on Vimeo.

Or on YouTube:

Travis has put together a screencast showing off how pre-reqs for packages work in the next release - as interesting as the update to that is the UI for it. Check it out.

Technorati Tags: vw, ui

The NYC Smalltalk User's Group is hosting Carl GUndel, who will be talking about RunBasic:

Please join us for our next presentation on Thursday , May 21st , 2009. Carl Gundel will present Run Basic, a web based BASIC IDE, an re-implementation of his original VisualWorks written BASIC IDE implemented using VisualWork's Seaside port.

You can get more details, including directions, at their site. If you want to hear more about RunBasic now, check out the two part podcast we did with Carl: Part 1, and Part 2.

Technorati Tags: seaside, basic, nyc

As it happens, the Facebook API is pretty easy to work with. I've made a lot of progress since the earlier post; I can now execute simple queries against the API and get useful data back. I also abstracted things out to a Connection class and a Session class, so the raw API isn't front and center anymore. Here's the usage model (bearing in mind that I'm building a desktop interface here):

holder := FacebookSecretHolder new
		apiKey: apiKey;
		secretKey: secret.


FacebookAPI new
	executeMethod:  method 
	withKey: holder apiKey
	withSecret: holder secretKey.

That sets up the necessary key information; here's the way you interact:

connection := Connection withSecretHolder: holder.
connection clearSession.
connection login.

At that point you have to deal with a web page; that's Facebook's API. If you're not logged in, you do that on the page. Then it's back to the app:

connection getSession.
ids := connection friendsGet.
connection getFriendsNamesFor: ids.
connection statusGet.
connection clearSession.

The friend query returns first and last names (it's getting minimal info back at the moment; the #getStatus returns the last 100 updates. Finally, #clearSession logs out. That's it - I'll do more tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: social media, facebook

According to Engadget, RIM still has the marketshare:

The handset might've been surpassed in functionality and looks by its Curve 8900 successor, but nothing's got an edge on the BlackBerry Curve 83XX series in smartphone sales. According to NPD, the handset overtook the erstwhile champ iPhone 3G in the category for the first quarter of 2009, while BlackBerry's own Storm and Pearl handsets took the third and fourth slots, with the T-Mobile G1 rounding out the ranks in fifth place.

It's easy to get caught up in the hype, but the folks at RIM seem to be quietly winning the game...

Technorati Tags: blackberry, iPhone

Last night I got some inspiration, and started taking a look at the Facebook Connect API. It didn't look too hard to deal with, and other than a couple of brain cramps on my part (quickly solved with help from the Smalltalk IRC channel), I got a basic interface created. Right now I can make API calls manually; I still have to actually create something useful to work with :)

Here's what I have so far, as the most basic way to make an API call:

url := 'http://api.facebook.com/restserver.php'.
parms := OrderedCollection new.
parms add: 'method' -> method.
parms add: 'api_key' -> apiKey.
parms add: 'v' -> '1.0'.
^FacebookAPI new
	executeAPIWithParameters:  parms 
	withKey: apiKey 
	withSecret: secret

To work with it, you'll need to go get an API key (along with a secret key) from Facebook. From There, it's all pretty simple. I've published it into the public repository - don't expect much yet, I put the barebones interface there as a starting point.

Technorati Tags: social media, facebook

Here's Arden Thomas' Minneapolis presentation "Better, Faster Cheaper" in video. I released the audio over the weekend as this week's podcast. You can grab Arden's slides here; to watch, click on the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at a small annoyance in VisualWorks - when you save a new UI using the GUI builder, it's easy to have it land in the "none" package. We look at how to deal with that problem today. To watch, click on the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly

You can also watch it on Vimeo:

How to get classes to land in the right package from James Robertson on Vimeo.

Or on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: GUI, smalltalk

It's easy to think that there's some deep reason behind things like this; quite often, it's based on something like simpler:

Alone in a room in his home in Bonn, Germany, Friedhelm Hillebrand sat at his typewriter, tapping out random sentences and questions on a sheet of paper. As he went along, Hillebrand counted the number of letters, numbers, punctuation marks and spaces on the page. Each blurb ran on for a line or two and nearly always clocked in under 160 characters.

That was back in 1985. It's kind of interesting to note that texts sent now are based on the size he came up with using a typewriter to experiment with...

This made my jaw drop:

London has launched an audacious bid to stage the Super Bowl within the next eight years, a move that would see the United States' biggest sporting event played overseas for the first time, the Sunday Telegraph has reported.

The NFL is denying this (follow the link for the denials), but they have played exhibition games there. It makes sense to me that the NFL would try to expand their horizons.

Technorati Tags: football, nfl

Looks like Hulu is crossing over to the mainstream with the signing of Disney/ABC - the reporting (Slashdot story here) seems to be of the "trouble for YouTube" variety, but I think the cable companies have a bigger problem. They don't like the idea of you watching TV (Hulu, iTunes) and movies (NetFlix, iTunes) online - they want you to pop for the "On Demand" channel. I think a lot of the rationale behind the caps (both the informal ones and the formal ones they have tried to float) trace back to this. Ultimately, the cable company is becoming a pipe, offering a commodity service. That's not a high markup service though, and rolling out improvements that you can charge more for (better bandwidth) cost real money. It's a real dilemma for them.

This week's podcast is from Arden Thomas' "Better, Faster, Cheaper" talk at our recent (April 29) one day event in Minneapolis. You can get Arden's slides here; he spoke about how Smalltalk can help you attain your goals with less wasted time, effort, and money. To listen now, click here.

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!

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, efficiency, minneapolis

I figured it was time to get rid of the "Come to the Seminar" teaser on the website; after all, it happened last Wednesday. As it happens, the text for that part of the main page is rotated in randomly - sometimes there's a VW graphic and a link to VW info, and other times there's an ObjectStudio graphic and a link to ObjectStudio info. So, I updated the pull file for that, kicked the website and... nothing.

Well, after pondering it for awhile, it turned out that I have been inadvertently caching the possible text rotations. There's supposed to be a random pick between two text snippets, but I was actually never clearing the collection to pick from - I was incrementally growing it. Once I updated the code to simply re-initialize the collection, it all worked. Dumb :)

When you notice that the ads for "male enhancement" and "burn fat fast" start coming on in rapid succession, it's usually a hint that it's way, way past your bedtime. Apparently, it's more than that: some of those diet pills are downright dangerous.

Hat tip Rob Fahrni

Technorati Tags: news

There's an actual marketplace open for selling Twitter names - check out http://tweexchange.com. Add one more thing to the list of protections a company needs to worry about beyond domain squatting.

There's also a weird side to this: people who've built up large lists of followers offering to sell their accounts. Right on the top of the page is a banner claiming that "CNN just bought CNNBRK". I don't know how much of a market there is in this, but a glance at the exchange page shows a few hopeful squatters...

Technorati Tags: social media, twitter

Dare Obasanjo explains the key difference between Facebook and Twitter :)

I don't know why, but I find this topic fascinating: how far removed from the normal web experience some environments are - specifically, secure environments. Take this Slashdot post, which says in part:

I work routinely in environments where a camera cannot physically be present (e.g., federal court), which really limits what I can carry with me. For instance, I'm a Mac guy, but there's no way to order a MacBook without a built-in webcam

A bunch of us ran into this problem during a customer meeting in Germany last year: due to (very real) concerns about industrial espionage, there was a "no camera" policy. There we all were, with out MacBooks - and no way to give a demo or presentation. We got someone to vouch for us, but it was an interesting problem.

Going back to the article, people who work in these environments do have a problem. Getting a modern phone or laptop without a camera is a hard. In some environments, people work mostly on closed networks with no internet access - can you imagine trying to attract a fresh out of college kid to deal with that? No net, no iPod, no portable devices that can record audio, video, or data, period. In other words, your work day is like a day in 1990 :)

It's an interesting divide to me, and I know it's not one I'd be able to deal with easily :)

Technorati Tags: security, gadgets

Michael has added publishing to Monticello to our bag of tools; this is in addition to the reading that he spoke about here.

As a continuation from my previous post on Monticello loading/merging/importing, we now have the ability to publish the Monticello .mcz files to contribute code back to the Squeak community as well.

You can watch the video demo here; this should make interop with the Squeak community a whole lot easier.

Technorati Tags: monticello, squeak, version control

I'm starting to get some of the audio and video from our event processed; I'll have one of Arden's talks out as this week's podcast, and the matching video will go online after the audio gets posted. The rest of the content will start showing up after that, probably one talk a week or so.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, minneapolis

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at how to find objects - classes and methods - using the launcher and browser. To watch, click on the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly

You can also watch it on Vimeo:

Finding Classes and Methods from James Robertson on Vimeo.

Or on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, code browser

The title of this post can probably be said of many people - in certain circles, me included. The interesting thing now is the "certain circles" part. It was a lot easier to make dumb mistakes as recently as a decade ago - the mistake happened, you moved past it, people tended to forget.

That was before the net, before social networks, before blogs. Now, any mistake you make will be recorded for all time, so long as anyone is there to see it. More to the point, it's immediately findable, via the wonder of Google. If you work online at all, you have a personal brand - whether you like it or not.

That means that everything you do in public will add to your personal brand.

That gets me to the best (current) bad example of this: Matt Aimonetti. He gave a controversial talk at a recent Ruby conference, and - for the foreseeable future, that's what he'll be known for. It doesn't matter what you think of his slides, or of how it's all been perceived. What matters is that he's known for that, and it's going to drag behind him forever. Right now, the second hit on a Google search for his name turns up his explanation for that talk. Never mind his explanation and whether it's good or bad; the important thing is this: he's now tagged as controversial, and will likely stay that way for a long while.

That's what happens now - you build your personal brand at all times now, and no public (and it's hard to know what isn't public anymore; consider Facebook and photos/videos) actions are guaranteed to disappear from view. Anything I did in college or in my 20's lives on in memory only. It's not like that anymore, and anything I do from here on out is "on the record" as well. It may not be fair, but life isn't fair - it is what it is.

Technorati Tags: personal brand, social media

Oh Noes, the intertubes are going down in flames. Engadget explains :)

Apple is serious about gaming - they just hired away one of Microsoft's top Xbox guys. From Gizmodo:

Anybody who said Apple wasn't serious about gaming can swallow their pundit nuggets right now: They just hired Richard Teversham, Xbox Europe's (now former) senior director of business, insights and strategy.

So with the rumors about Apple buying tablet size screens and the popularity of games for the iPhone, it makes me go "hmmm" about what they're up to. I think they've decided to go sideways at the console space...

Technorati Tags: apple

We had a great event yesterday; lots of good content, and a great crowd showed up to take it in. Here are a few photos:

You can check out the entire gallery here; I'll be pushing a bunch of these photos to Facebook as well. Audio and Video from the event should be out soon.

Technorati Tags: minneapolis, cincom

PCWorld reports on the rumors that Verizon is talking to MS about phones:

Microsoft denies rumors of a Zune phone, but the idea has some merit. Is this just Verizon's ploy to get Apple to play ball?

While everyone counts MS out of the phone game (just do a few Google searches to get an idea as to how little regard their mobile devices have now), one thing people need to keep in mind is how long a game MS is willing to play. They have a huge pile of cash on hand, and a history of patience. Think back to the early days of Windows: no one took Windows 1.0 or 2.0n seriously, and even 3 was chuckled at before it took off. After Windows 95, it was MS' turn to laugh all the way to the bank.

So with that in mind, look at the phone space again. The big play seems to be coming in games and video, and MS has been doing pretty well there with the XBox 360. It's not unreasonable to ponder a mobile Zune phone that synchs nicely with Windows and the 360. While Apple owns all the buzz in the smartphone space right now, the second spot is wide open - the gPhone isn't really taking off, and Palm is in "last chance" mode with the Pre (I'll get to the Blackberry below).

If Microsoft wants to take a real stab at this space, I think the field is still open to them. RIM seems to have a solid lock on that #2 spot, but consider: how safe is their hold on the corporate connectivity space if Microsoft actually comes after them with a device that works well and talks to Outlook (and the rest of Office)?

Meanwhile, it's not at all clear to me what Verizon is up to. Do they actually want the iPhone, or are they just trying to make ATT have to pay more to keep the exclusive contract?

Technorati Tags: ms, apple, zune, iphone, verizon, att

Last night's problem seems to have vanished; I can't really see taking the MBP to the Apple Store and telling them it wouldn't boot last night, but everything's ok now. What would they look for, gremlins?

Anyway, it's cool that everything seems to be normal. One thing that kept the panic in the background though: I have time machine backups through the time I left the house on Tuesday, so the only things I would have lost would have been the emails - the two screencasts aren't on my home backup, but they are on the server in Cincinnati. Knowing you have backups certainly helps ease the alarm.

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at some interesting class querying capabilities that are available directly in the browser - as opposed to having to know the specific messages to send in a workspace. To watch, click on the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly

You can also watch it on Vimeo:

Querying a Class in the Browser from James Robertson on Vimeo.

Or on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, browser

Last talk of the day - Arden is doing a demo with Web velocity, building the mappings to the db tables on the fly, and then using the scaffolding to quickly build up a CRUD app in the browser. People seem interested in this :)

Technorati Tags: minneapolis, seaside, web velocity

Georg is giving a fun talk about what Smalltalk does best: enable "Design for Change". One of his examples is the "Search for the Bach House" project he spoke about at ESUG last summer. He's taken the "Yes we Can" political phrase and related it to Smalltalk's roots and design goals, which is a nifty way of looking at it. Another example he's giving: SeaBreeze, the gui/design editor his team has built for Seaside.

Technorati Tags: stic, minneapolis

I can't post live, because the hotel's WiFi doesn't work in the ballrooms. The morning talks have gone pretty well. Randal talked about dynamic languages and why they're cool - he'll be posting the slides later this week. I gave a talk this morning, ranging over a bunch of cool things in Smalltalk (cross platform, debugging), and ending with a brief Web Velocity demo. You'll be able to see the app I demoed later this week - I'll be taking it live.

As I write this, Andreas Hiltner is talking about ObjectStudio, and he'll be demonstrating the Modeling and Mapping Tools (which are being upgraded for OS8.2) in a few minutes. Good stuff.

I'll be posting video and audio from this conference over the next few weeks on our site; stay tuned to the video feed and the podcast feed for that!

Technorati Tags: minneapolis, objectstudio, seaside, web velocity, visualworks

Hmm - so now the Mac is starting up fine. Is there a problem, or did it get into some weird "I think I'm still asleep mode" earlier? I'll head to the Apple sure. In the meantime, the next few posts were made this afternoon and morning when I had no laptop connectivity (in the ballroom), so bear that in mind while reading :)

My macbook pro is not booting, so it's off to the Apple Store as soon as I get home tomorrow. At least I have AppleCare.

Well, this should be fun to watch: Warner has sent a DMCA takedown notice to Larry Lessig. He plans to fight it, of course - it's one of his own presentations. I wonder if this was a planned thing, or if their bots managed to hit him by accident?

Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at how you can adjust method visibility (across packages and inheritance) in the browser. To watch, click on the viewer below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly

You can also watch it on Vimeo:

Method Visibility in the Browser from James Robertson on Vimeo.

Or on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, browser