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November 2006 Entries
Wow, looks like the Ebay knives are out at Skype; check this out. Skype, a leading VoIP services provider and a division of eBay, went through a major reorganization this morning, which included axing of the entire business development part of the company, barring a handful of country heads. Source: GigaOM Follow the links above and check out the full story over on Om's site. Technorati tags: Skype, Ebay, Sacking
Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines... Microsoft Corp. will host a news conference and live webcast to announce the availability of the Windows Vista™ operating system, the 2007 Microsoft® Office system and Exchange Server 2007 for business customers with volume license agreements. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer will celebrate this historic product launch, which coincides with Microsoft’s 20th year as a publicly traded company, by ringing the bell to open the NASDAQ market. Source: Microsoft You can catch a live broadcast of the news conference here.
This is why the MPAA doesn't want you to be able to rip your legally purchased DVDs/CDs With the purchase of the "Superman Returns" physical DVD, Wal-Mart said customers can also choose from three video download format options -- $1.97 for portable devices, $2.97 for PCs/laptops, and $3.97 for both portable players and PC/laptops. It's just another way for them to screw more money out of the consumer. Clearly, the retailer has never heard of fair use The retailer said the physical/digital DVD bundle would offer customers the flexibility to watch the Warner Bros. movie on their TV, portable devices as well as their computers. Wrong!! Fair use allows us to do this. If I've bought a DVD I should be able to watch it on any device I own, not only the ones the MPAA say I'm allowed to watch it on. This concept is totally corrupt and the government should put a stop to it. I mean I don't have to buy a different car to drive on different kinds of roads, I don't have to buy a different iron to iron different kinds of clothes and I don't have to buy different cups to drink different beverages; there is no justification for the MPAA to insist that I buy different formats of the same DVD to watch it on different devices. Source: CNN
Every now and then (okay, mostly once a week) the MPAA does something stupid and I feel like rushing to my blog and calling for the organisation to be banned, or at the very least for it's bosses to be taken out and public flogged; but then I realise there's no point, because stuff like this is going to cause the MPAA to self destruct; or at the very least, disappear up it's own backside. Los Angeles , CA - The MPAA is lobbying congress to push through a new bill that would make unauthorized home theaters illegal. The group feels that all theaters should be sanctioned, whether they be commercial settings or at home. MPAA head Dan Glickman says this needs to be regulated before things start getting too far out of control, "We didn't act early enough with the online sharing of our copyrighted content. This time we're not making the same mistake. We have a right to know what's showing in a theater." Source: BBspot Technorati tags: Home Theatre, MPAA
Blogs and other internet sites should be covered by a voluntary code of practice similar to that for newspapers in the UK, a conference has been told. Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin said he opposed government regulation of the internet, saying it should a place "in which views bloom". But unless there was a voluntary code of conduct there would be no form of redress for people angered at content. Source: BBC NEWS Oh dear; talk about a guy who doesn't get it. The last thing that blogs need is a code of conduct. Anyway, how would it work? Who would police it? I mean, if I broke the code of conduct, who'd know, who's going to check all the UK based blogs? Even if some government agency did that, why should it just be UK blogs that suffer this way? If I don't agree with the code of conduct, wouldn't I just host my blog somewhere else? However, where Tim misses the point the most is where he says "there would be no form of redress" . Of course there would! That's the whole point of blogging; it's to start a conversation. I say X, you disagree and say Y a third person says Z. That's what it's all about. It's not about getting redress for something you disagree with, it's about joining the global conversation. It's newspapers and other MSM where there is no conversation that need to look at changing, not blogs.
Problem You wish to reverse the characters or words in a string. Solution There are built in methods in Smalltalk to handle this. If you wish to reverse the characters in a string use... 'This is a string' reverse. If you wish to reverse the words in a string use... 'This is a string' subStrings reverse. As always, these examples should be executed in Dolphin Smalltalk.
Check this out and use it while you can. How long before Microsoft issue a patch to "fix" this? :) We knew it would be done sooner or later, and now that we have the mod to use your Zune as a portable hard drive, a method to bypass the Zune's WiFi sharing DRM is finally here. Source: Gizmodo
Nothing for us consumers though... :( Unfortunately, just as we predicted, all the proposed exemptions that would benefit consumers were denied (space-shifting, region coding, backing up DVDs). So, while we're pleased that film professors, archivists, cellphone recyclers, and security researchers were able to successfully navigate the exemption process, it appears that digital consumers still have no choice but to get Congress to amend the DMCA. We look forward to Rep. Rick Boucher reintroducing his DMCA reform bill, H.R. 1201, in the new Congress next year. Source: EFF Technorati tags: EFF, DMCA, Exemptions
Ofcom is legalising the use of FM transmitters that allow iPods and other MP3 players to play through car radios. The use of devices, such as Griffin's "iTrip", was banned in the UK as their transmissions can interfere with broadcasts by legal radio stations. Source: BBC NEWS
... to all my American friends :)
Yep, me too. But did you know you can get a royalty free license to use that UI in your own software? No? Well pop over to Jensen Harris' blog and find out more.
Is it just me, or are the following rules for speakers at Smalltalk Solutions designed to put people off? Sure come speak at our event, all you have to do is pay your way here, pay your accommodation and pay to register at the conference and we'll let you talk. Gee thanks. Do you think that anyone with anything worth saying will want to pay for the privilege of saying it, or will it just be people with marketing budgets trying to sell you stuff? Smalltalk Solution speakers have the opportunity to reach the broader IT360° audiences. As with previous years, one presenter per accepted session will receive complimentary conference registration. Travel, hotel and all other expenses will be at the presenter’s expense and each additional presenter in a session will also be required to register for the conference in order to enter the conference area. Source: Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants
More Microsoft / Novell blow back BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Supporters of PC operating system Linux are preparing to counter a recent deal penned by Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) which establishes for the first time the principle of paying the software giant for the operating system, whose license requires it to be free. Source: Yahoo! News Technorati tags: Microsoft, Linux, Novell
Hanging out here with Doc Searls for a couple of days last week was like what I'm looking for, but I want ten Docs, and I want to be around them 200 days a year, developing ideas across disciplines. This is what my soul yearns for, not fame, or wealth, more like fullfillment. Source: Scripting News: 11/19/2006 Hey Dave, I agree with you, but do they all have to live near you in SF? If you use some collaborative software you can spread the love. Something like Groove for example, though I think you are on Mac now aren't you?
The BBC is to pay viewers who send in user-generated content, but only for material that is "particularly editorially important or unique", MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal. Source: MediaGuardian.co.uk (Registration required) This is important news for people like me (vloggers) who work in the "user generated content" space. Not because anyone is going to get rich off of providing such content for the BBC, but because it's the first time that, the so called, main stream media has recognised the value of such content.
TechEd that is; but don't forget that you can still see 6TB of video goodness over on their site. Technorati tags: TechEd-ITForum
The MPAA studios are at it again, snatching away our fair use rights, so they can sell them back to us for an "additional fee." In a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, Paramount Pictures v. Load 'N Go Video, the MPAA member companies have sued a small business for loading DVDs onto personal media players (e.g., iPod Video) on behalf of customers. Source: EFF: DeepLinks What Load 'N' Go Video did was to sell customers a digital media player (e.g. a video iPod) and DVDs. The company would then rip the DVD onto the player for you and then ship both player and DVDs to you. So, you own the player and you own the DVDs and they put *your* DVDs onto *your* player for you, a sort of value added service if you like. Okay, no problem there surely. Ah but hold on, you didn't account for the muppet mentality of the MPAA did you; oh no! Because you see, dear reader, when *your* DVDs were ripped to *your* player then the encryption was broken and that is against the DMCA. If you want *your* DVDs on *your* player then you have to purchase another copy in that format! Yeah right! This is almost like state sponsored racketeering.
...anybody who has got Linux in their data center today sort of has an undisclosed balance sheet liability, because it's not just Microsoft patents. Source: Seattlepi.com Now I've heard this kind of veiled threat before; you know the, "you can't use Linux as you'll have to pay damages for your patent infringements", argument. In the past I've always thought it was just FUD. This is the first time I've heard someone so far up the food chain, as it were, say it. Does anyone know if there is any mileage in this?
Yahoo! Maps is coming out of Beta today. Check out our more detailed notes on the Yahoo! Local & Maps Blog. Since we released the beta version, we’ve spent our time optimizing the product and responding to user feedback to make it ready for mainstream use. The new Yahoo! Maps gives our users a more expedient method of finding locations and getting driving directions, and is an even more powerful tool within Yahoo! Local. Source: Yahoo! Search blog Hold on; what are they doing?! Don't they understand that Web 2.0 apps aren't supposed to come out of beta; ever?! Hey, just ask Google. If this goes on, people are going to expect us to deliver stuff, and that'd never do. Bah, shame on you Yahoo! :) Technorati tags: Yahoo, Maps, Beta
Problem You need to remove leading and trailing white space from a string. Solution A quick search of the class String shows us the method trimBlanks which answers a copy of the receiver with leading and trailing whites space removed. Evaluate the following code in Dolphin Smalltalk for an example. ' hello ' trimBlanks
Problem You have several small strings that you need to concatenate into a larger string Solution Obviously there is the concatenation operator that will do the job for us. Evaluate the code below in Dolphin Smalltalk for an example. 'Hello ' , 'world!'
However, if you have more than a couple of strings to concatenate, then that is not very efficient. In Smalltalk strings are constant. Evaluating the code below results in a walkback.
'hello' at: 1 put: $H
So, that means that to concatenate a string you have to create a string big enough to hold both strings and then copy them into it. Not very efficient if you are doing it over and over. The solution is to use streams. The following code should be more efficient.
| aStream aString |
aStream := String new writeStream.
aStream nextPutAll: 'abc'.
aStream nextPutAll: 'def'.
aStream nextPutAll: 'xyz'.
aString:= ''.
aString:= aStream contents.
Umm, I said it should be more efficient, but it isn't. If you put a milliesecondsToRun block around the two pieces of code above you'll find the second is not more efficient if done a number of times. So why's that then? We proved above that it should be.
Well the thing is we constructed the string as String new, and so it has to grow as the concatenations exceed its size. The trick here is that you have to have a rough idea of how big the string will be in the end and dimension the string to an appropriate size; something like the following code would be better
| aStream aString |
aStream := (String new: 10) writeStream.
aStream nextPutAll: 'abc'.
aStream nextPutAll: 'def'.
aStream nextPutAll: 'xyz'.
aString:= ''.
aString:= aStream contents.
I tend not to engage in a battle of wits with James McGovern as he is clearly unarmed. However today he writes If the right thing happens Ruby on Rails will take an implementation leadership position over Smalltalk in 2007 further frustrating those whose job is to evangelize selling Evian to a drowning man Smalltalk. Even a moment of analysis would show that this statement is ludicrous. Ruby on Rails, whilst a great platform (I use it myself) is a platform for web applications (although I accept that Ruby itself is not) whilst Smalltalk can be used for desktop, server or web applications. Is James really suggesting that there will be more web apps written in RoR than *all* types of apps written in Smalltalk? If so, I'd love to see the facts that support that assertion.
Ken Moss says... Today, we are excited to announce that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! are coming together in support of the SiteMaps protocol. The goal of this effort is to improve search results for customers around the world. This protocol enables site owners everywhere to tell search engines about the content on their site instead of having to rely solely on crawl algorithms to find it. Source: Live Search's WebLog This is good news and will make life easier for us web devs. Now there will be a unified method of letting search engines know the structure of our web sites. If you want to find out more about sitemaps you can check out the web site at http://www.sitemaps.org/
Over on his site, Om Malik is trying to find the enthusiasm to review the new Zune after reading a ton of negative publicity on the device. That's not really what got my attention though. Om says... I have a new Lenovo laptop sitting next to me, loaned by Lenovo people just for this specific review. He says it's "seriously sweet". Now, I'm thinking of buying one of these myself, so it's a pity he's not reviewing that. Maybe if I ask nicely he'll throw in that review for nothing. Whadda ya say Om? :)
The Mac maker has placed an order for 12 million iPhones to be built by a Taiwanese contract manufacturer, according to an analyst citing reports from Asia. Hon Hai Precision, whose customers include Apple, Cisco, Dell, Nokia, and Sony, has received the order, according to a Taiwan media report cited by UBS Investment Research. Source: RED HERRING If this is true it's great news. Not because the mobile phone market needs more competition but because any new "iPhone" will look gorgeous and will be erogonamically well designed, which let's face it, most mobile phones these days are not :) Technorati tags: iPhone, Apple, Cell Phone
Scott Erickson, a senior director of product management for Microsoft's Zune effort, said Microsoft is working on Vista compatibility Source: ZDNet.com They are working on Vista compatibility?! Why, did they think the Zune wouldn't have to be Vista compatible? Okay, I get that Vista RTM'd just days before the Zune came out and so there was no way that the Zune would be compatible from the get go; but Microsoft must have known this. Why wasn't there a PR plan in place with information abounding telling everyone how there was going to be an upgrade path and what that path was. No score for Microsoft PR on this front. :( Technorati tags: Zune, Vista
Now you see, this is almost funny :) Buried in my email this evening I found a cease and desist letter from an attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, representing their client YouTube. We’ve been accused of a number of things: violating YouTube’s Terms of Use, of “tortious interference of a business relationship, and in fact, many business relationships,” of committing an “unfair business practice,” and “false advertising.” The attorney goes on to demand that we cease and desist in from engaging in these various actions or face legal remedies. Source: Techcrunch
Microsoft Corp. plans to add a video-sharing feature to its Zune player and will eventually sell a model that combines the device with a phone, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said. Source: Bloomberg.com Technorati tags: Zune, Video
... and you can catch up with all the arrivals and last minute rehearsals over on the VirtualSide site. Technorati tags: TechEd-ITForum
When it comes to the hardware, we're pretty much set; we all now know the Zune inside and out. But how it interacts with the software, the marketplace, etc. -- that's where the magic happens. Or doesn't. We really wanted to give the Zune the benefit of the doubt. We hoped installing the Zune software and getting our player running would be as seamless and painless as getting iTunes and an iPod running on your machine, since that is, after all, what it's up against. (Granted, not even iTunes is bereft of major problems on major releases.) Unfortunately, the reality of our experience with the first version of the Zune software this afternoon is much like that of many version 1 software experiences. It sucks. Source: Engadget Hmm, not a huge surprise there, version 1 software is often buggy and hard to use. The real test will be how quickly Microsoft release updates and how effective they are. As the article points out, even the iPod (the gadget Zune must beat) is not perfect in this respect. I think it's a case of wait and see and the moment. Technorati tags: Microsoft, Zune
So I went to Soapbox to upload some video I shot this week-end, and would you believe it, one of my videos was on the front page. Cool! That's the first time I've gone there and seen one of my own videos. Which would have been more impressive if it didn't take me a few seconds of "hmm, that looks familiar" before I recognised my own video :) 
People across the UK have observed a two-minute silence to mark Armistice Day, the start of a weekend of events honouring Britain's war dead. Source: BBC NEWS
...does it mean I'm not a proper developer? :) 
There's a cool new competition from Microsoft to build an addon for IE7. Get more details here.
This is as good a reason as any not to buy a Zune. It rewards the music companies for their racketeering and extends the life of the discredited concept of DRM. Pity, as the Zune could have been the stick with which to beat Apple for it's proprietory nonsense. In a rare move, Microsoft said yesterday that it had agreed to pay a percentage of the sales of its new portable media player to the Universal Music Group. Universal Music, a unit of Vivendi, will receive a royalty on the Zune player in exchange for licensing its recordings for Microsoft’s new digital music service, the companies said. Source: New York Times
I've posted the latest installment of Carnoustie Golf Links' preparations for The Open 2007 on the site.
... and by "there" I mean TechEd in Barcelona, there's a great web site showing videos and podcasts of all the great stuff we are missing. Technorati tags: TechEd-ITForum
Today at work I had to find the IP address of the client machine (don't ask) so I thought I'd post the code here so I'd know where to look for it the next time :) private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string hostName = Dns.GetHostName();
IPHostEntry hostEntry =
Dns.GetHostEntry(hostName);
foreach (IPAddress a in hostEntry.AddressList)
{
this.textBox1.Text += a.ToString() +
Environment.NewLine;
}
}
The Web 2.0 conference hasn’t even begun, and you can feel the fatigue. You can almost predict the marketing “spin” coming over next few days, that is enough to make you groan. Source: GigaOM Oh dear, it sounds like the Web 2.0 bubble is bursting. Anyway, us video bloggers are Web 3.0 these days :) Technorati tags: Web 2.0, Bubble
A list of 13 "enemies of the internet" has been released by human rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF). For the first time, Egypt has been added to the list while Nepal, Libya and the Maldives have all been removed. Source: BBC NEWS
People who have bought music from Microsoft's MSN Music store could face problems if they decide to buy the firm's new Zune portable player. Microsoft has said it will stop selling music from MSN music from 14 November, when Zune goes on sale in the US. But in a move that could alienate some customers, MSN-bought tracks will not be compatible with the new gadget. Source: BBC NEWS Jeez, how did someone at Microsoft not catch this?! I mean, it's not like it's rocket science or anything!
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - news), the No. 2 U.S. telecommunications company, is in advanced talks with YouTube Inc. to bring the Web site's videos to cellphones and television sets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Source: Yahoo! News If this takes off on mobile phones like it has on the PC, then this could be huge for Verizon. Hmmm, well worth keeping an eye on the situation here.
Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. Source: BBC NEWS The timing of this verdict, so close to the US elections, can only be coincidence; can't it?
Last night we went to the firework display that the Carnoustie Coastguard put on every year, it's kind of an annual tradition now. Anyway here's a video of the festivities for those of you playing along at home :)
Video: Carnoustie Guy Fawkes Display
Well the Vloggies are over for this year and we didn't win. Not to worry though, there's always next year. A list of the winners can be found here and a list of the community's choices can be found here. Congratulations to all the winners. Technorati tags: Vloggies
Google is engaged in a frantic round of negotiations aimed at persuading traditional media companies to supply their content to YouTube, the video website it bought last month for $1.65bn, and ward off a potentially crippling round of lawsuits. Source: FT.com Technorati tags: Google, YouTube, Legal
Common sense to prevail it seems :) On Oct. 16, Microsoft issued the new user license for Vista, including terms that would have limited the ability of those who buy a boxed copy of the operating system to transfer that license. Under the proposed terms, users could have made such a switch only one time. However, the new restriction prompted an outcry among hardware enthusiasts and others. Microsoft is returning the licensing terms to basically what they were in Windows XP--users can transfer their license to a new PC an unlimited number of times, provided they uninstall and stop using it on the prior machine. Source: CNET News.com
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