A discussion started here on the Squeak developer list about Squeak not running well on Windows Vista. The solution to the problem is here. It turned out it was an incompatibility between Squeak and some anti-virus software, named NOD32. There may be similar problems caused by other anti-virus software, since it had to do with [...]
Archive for May, 2007
Squeak/anti-virus problem solved
Posted in Squeak on May 29, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Thoughts on the 3D GUI
Posted in Squeak, Technology and Software on May 28, 2007 | 4 Comments »
I got into a discussion with Giles Bowkett last week about 3D GUIs (see the comments on his post). It provoked some thought for me. Giles pointed me to an article on Jakob Nielsen’s assessment of 3D UIs. It’s almost 10 years old, though. Nielsen makes some good points, but it sounded to me like it was in the [...]
The OLPC on 60 Minutes
Posted in Education, Technology and Software on May 22, 2007 | 2 Comments »
The CBS show “60 Minutes” did a segment on the One Laptop Per Child project this past Sunday, with Nicholas Negroponte. It was good to see. The first half of the segment was devoted to Negroponte’s inspiration for the project, and seeing it to fruition. They showed children in one or two developing countries using [...]
The future is not now
Posted in Analysis, History, Information Technology, Programming on May 16, 2007 | 3 Comments »
I found this post, by Steve Yegge, through reddit. In a lot of ways he’s saying what I’ve read Alan Kay to say, only more bluntly: The current “state of the art” in the tech industry sucks. We build software like the Egyptians built pyramids. There are better hardware designs out there that have been ignored for decades, and the programming languages that [...]
Corrections to C# and Smalltalk case study #1
Posted in .Net, Programming, Squeak on May 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve uploaded some corrections to both the C# and Smalltalk versions of my first case study of these two. I’ve put up a new C# version. The old one is still there (and can be referenced from the post I just linked to). The link to the new version is below. I’ve replaced the Smalltalk [...]
C# (1.x) and Smalltalk case study #1
Posted in .Net, Programming, Squeak on May 12, 2007 | 9 Comments »
As promised here is the first case study I did comparing the “stylings” of C# and Smalltalk. I used C# 1.0 code on the .Net CLR 1.0/1.1. I set up a programming problem for myself, creating a business object, and looked at how well each language handled it. I was inspired to do this by Hacknot’s “Invasion of [...]
Lisp: Surprise! You’re soaking in it
Posted in Programming, Tutorial on May 10, 2007 | 20 Comments »
This is the best introductory, conceptual article on Lisp I’ve ever seen. It’s written by Slava Akhmechet.
Lispers have long felt that it’s very difficult to get lay programmers to understand Lisp, because there’s no common context to help people relate to its unique syntax and powerful features. Slava went against the grain and managed to pull it [...]
Syd Mead: Visual Futurist now on DVD
Posted in Art on May 9, 2007 | 1 Comment »
I received the following notice yesterday from Joaquin Montalvan:
Dear MARK,
…just thought I’d let you know that THE WAIT IS OVER!!!
“VISUAL FUTURIST: the art & life of syd mead” is
“Officially” available to the public at Syd Mead’s “Official”
Website here: http://www.sydmead.com/features/documentary/
JOAQUIN MONTALVAN
Sledgehammer Films
==========================
Great news! It is on the pricey side, $29.99 for the DVD, plus $7.50 S&H [...]
In defense of dynamic languages
Posted in Analysis, Programming on May 5, 2007 | 14 Comments »
A couple weeks ago I happened upon an article by Hacknot called “Invasion Of The Dynamic Language Weenies”. It starts out well enough, complaining that our industry is dominated by unsubstantiated claims (what else is new?). I’m going to use the pronoun “he”, because 1) I don’t know this person’s real name, and 2) it’s a safe [...]
