Following last September’s sell-out edition, it’s now time to JAM again! Squadron and DonDisko proudly present the second edition of JAM FACTORY on the 11th of December, this time at Escape Club (ex-Dukes). The night will include a fusion of genre`s from Nu-Rave, Fidget House, Electro, Chicago House, Techno, to Italo Disco. Featuring Rudi, Mathematikal, Squeak and Fat 32. Tickets at €5 only! If you’re interested in selling tickets get in touch now

The programming languages taught in primary school based in the last century need to be updated for the web generation.

Nathan Torkington gives a very humorous talk about how we can spawn (pun intended) the next generation of open-source hackers and teach kids how to use computers. He talks about the process of introducing usable, modern computer hardware and software (with a focus on open-source) into a school environment which had previously been the bastion of randomly assorted technologies, none of which were functioning very well.

Torkington talks about various aspects of teaching kids and teachers alike. How do you teach young kids without computer experience how to program? He goes on to explore many different facets of the modern computer environment, from the components that make a computer to why people search the web for pictures of people getting their legs bitten off by sharks.

We hear about his discovery that robots, are not very cool, but in fact are really lame (or are they?) He also explains how he has effectively used Scratch, a relatively new programming language, to introduce young kids to the art of programming.

IT Conversations | O’Reilly Media Open Source Conference | Nathan Torkington (Free Podcast)

MP3 audio

Scratch is the cover story of the November 2009 issue of CACM, the monthly magazine of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Scratch is a visual programming language, developed in Squeak, that makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share these creations on the web. Aimed at children between the ages of 8 and 16, Scratch has developed a thriving community, with over 1000 new projects being uploaded to the site every day.

In inviting the Scratch team to submit an article, the editor of CACM explained his motivation: “A couple of days ago, a colleague of mine (CS faculty) told me how she tried to get her 10-year-old daughter interested in programming, and the only thing that appealed to her daughter (hugely) was Scratch.”

The submitted article is also available for viewing online.

Chris Hundhausen has a really important paper in the latest issue of ACM TOCHI: Can direct manipulation lower the barriers to computer programming and promote transfer of training?.

We’ve known for a couple decades now that programmers read and understand visual programs no better than textual programs — Thomas Green, Marian Petre, and Tom Moher settled that question a long time ago.  However, everybody experiences that starting with a visual programming language is easier than a textual language.  But does it transfer?  If you want students to eventually program in text, does starting out with Alice or Squeak or Etoys hurt? Given Chris found: “We found that the direct manipulation interface promoted significantly better initial programming outcomes, positive transfer to the textual interface, and significant differences in programming processes. Our results show that direct manipulation interfaces can provide novices with a ‘way in’ to traditional textual programming.”  I think that this is big news for computing educators.

Attention all Detroit, Michigan
Boomdizzle and Squeak Fans

Don’t miss Luther “Squeak” Jackson’s
Next live performance

Venue:  Niki’s Lounge
Thirsty Thursdays with Angie Starr of WGPR
Location:  734 Beaubien, Detroit, MI 48226
Cost:  Free Before 9pm, $5 Thereafter
Host:  Angie Starr-WGPR 107.5-
Hosts Website:  WGPRDETROIT.com

See Boomdizzle All-Star Luther “Squeak” Jackson perform his single “My Dreams” live at Niki’s in Detroit.

Watch Luther “Squeak” Jacksons interview on WGPR Detroit urban contemporary radio.

[1]

With the 1.0-beta.1 release of the GemTools Client, we’re doing two things:

1. Conforming to the new Metacello configuration naming convention.
2. Getting ready for the imminent GLASS 1.0-beta.0 release.

GemTools 1.0-beta.1 features:

• Convert to using ConfigurationOfGemTools.
• Nicer info dialog when Undefined symbols and Unsent messages are clean
• Support for GemStone/S 3.0 GciErrSType
• Change restore from backup done message … do not prompt to start Seaside gems if Seaside is not installed
• Replace dialogs that are calling “ifNotEmpty:” with: “isEmptyOrNil” (from Gerhard)
• autoAbort _before_ commands is now optional (off by default)

If you’ve already installed the GemTools Client 1.0-beta.0, then you want to follow the Update instructions. To install the GemTools Client in a virgin Squeak or Pharo image jump to the Install instructions.

Update

With GemTools Client 1.0-beta.0 already installed, we need to update to using ConfigurationOfMetacello as well as ConfigurationOfGemTools:

1. Load the latest version of the ConfigurationOfMetacello package  from http://seaside.gemstone.com/ss/metacello.
2. Load the latest version of the ConfigurationOfGemTools package  from http://seaside.gemstone.com/ss/GLASSClient.
3. Execute the following expression in a workspace:

   ConfigurationOfMetacello loadLatestVersion.
   ConfigurationOfGemTools loadLatestVersion.

Then continue with Step 3 of the installation instructions.

Installation

If you haven’t already been using the GemTools 2.3.1 Preview for all platforms (which is based on Pharo), then you should download the preview GemTools client and follow the instructions for setting up your session to verify that you can connect to your stone. You’ll need the session information and the gci files from the Preview to get things running with the either Squeak or Pharo.

I’ve tested the installation procedure using Squeak3.10.2-Trunk-090912 and pharo1.0-10492-rc1dev09.11.1.

To load GemTools into a client image:

1. Load the latest version of the ConfigurationOfGemTools package  from http://seaside.gemstone.com/ss/GLASSClient.
2. Execute the following expression in a workspace:

   ConfigurationOfGemTools loadLatestVersion.

3. Execute the following expression to open the GemTools launcher:

   OGLauncher open

4. Copy the session information from your old GemTools Client to the new GemTools Client in your image. Use the Edit session menu item on the Session Menu in the launchers.
5. Save the image.
6. Copy the gci files (gciForWindows.dll, gciForLinux.so, and gciForMacintosh.so) from GemTools-2.3.1-preview.app/Contents/Resources in the one-click into the directory containing your image and changes files.
7. Press the Login button on the GemTools Launcher and you should be in business.

—–
[1]http://www.flickr.com/photos/randyweiner/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Dear dormouse

Squeak when you are

Squoken to.

Hai..hai…
So sorry, Squeak bukan ngga ada cerita lagi..Tapi sepanjang bulan Agustus, September, sampe Oktober ini fully booked for order..
Order yang kami terima bulan-bulan kemaren adalah kaos event, klub nongkrong, klub basket, sampe souvenir ulang tahun anak..jadi bukannya ngga mau bagi cerita…tapi tenaga kami yang ngga ada..
Anyway, Oktober ini Squeak punya seri baru animal box, berupa binatang -binatang yang berbentuk kotak..
4 binatang pertama: rabbit, cow, bear, bee..nanti bakal ada lagi kok lainnya..

[1]

Shortly after I announced the GemTools Client for Pharo, Gerhard Obermann jumped in and refactored a number of the GemTools menus using sub menus. Unfortunately, I got involved in a number of other tasks (including refining the Metacello API) before I could push his changes out. Now that Metacello is stabilized, it is time to revisit the installation and update procedures for the GemTools Client.

[Update 10/16/2009: fixed egregious errors in the installation instructions ... 2 steps and the first step was plain wrong:) ... thanks Gerhard]

[Update 11/04/2009] Please see the GemTools Client 1.0-beta.1 post for up-to-date instructions.

Installation

[Update 11/04/2009] Please see the GemTools Client 1.0-beta.1 post for up-to-date instructions.

If you haven’t already been using the GemTools 2.3.1 Preview for all platforms (which is based on Pharo), then you should download the preview GemTools client and follow the instructions for setting up your session to verify that you can connect to your stone. You’ll need the session information and the gci files from the Preview to get things running with the either Squeak or Pharo.

I’ve tested the installation procedure using Squeak3.10.2-Trunk-090912 and pharo1.0-10470-BETAdev09.10.2.

To load GemTools into a client image:

1. Load the latest version of the GemTools-Configuration package  from http://seaside.gemstone.com/ss/GLASSClient. GemTools-Configuraton-dkh.12 is currently the most recent version.
2. Execute the following expression in a workspace:

   GemToolsConfiguration loadLatestVersion.

3. Execute the following expression to open the GemTools launcher:

   OGLauncher open

4. Copy the session information from your old GemTools Client to the new GemTools Client in your image. Use the Edit session menu item on the Session Menu in the launchers.
5. Save the image.
6. Copy the gci files (gciForWindows.dll, gciForLinux.so, and gciForMacintosh.so) from GemTools-2.3.1-preview.app/Contents/Resources in the one-click into the directory containing your image and changes files.
7. Press the Login button on the GemTools Launcher and you should be in business.

Last December when I first introduced the GemTools Launcher, it took 6 steps to install the GemTools Client code:

In July I announced the GemTools Client for Pharo (based on version 0.9 of Metacello), it took 4 steps:

Today it takes only 2 steps:

The configuration class bootstraps Gofer and Metacello, then loads FFI and finally loads the OGLauncher application code. Danged close to a one-click install:)

Update

To update the GemTools Client to a later version, you can follow the instructions for the Update…menu.

If you have any trouble join and send mail to the GLASS Beta Mailing List.

—–
[1]Photo by Okinawa Soba (Creative Commons).

The Beat That Shakes The Mothership III at Amazonia

It’s the year 2079 A.D., somewhere far beyond the orbit of planet Neptune. On the lower deck of the Mothership, boys and girls from a thousand galaxies are dancing to funk and disco tracks from one hundred years ago, which Mathematikal are dropping and editing through use of their custom made ‘Math-Machines’, in real time. In the meantime, Squeak is going through the records in his bag, looking for the latest four to the floor beats and techno tracks, which he will be mixing into the Math boys’ disco-funk edits.

Back in the year 2009 A.D., we still lack a functioning time machine. The years of terrestrials and extraterrestrials coming together on the dance floor still seem to be relatively far away. The secrets of eternal youth and life seem even further. The Beat That Shakes The Mothership III, however, will be giving you a glimpse of the day when all is much nearer, this coming October 2nd.

Mathematikal and Squeak will be getting together for an entire 2-hour ‘versus’ set. It is promising to be disco music, funk music, rock music, electro and techno music. It is promising to be eclectic. It is promising to be fun.

Also DJ-ing on the night: Kenji, Chris Shannon, and John Collins.

TIX: 5 EUR @ the door

AGE: 17+ (ID cards to be presented on request)

It has been two months since the Squeak Oversight Board first put forward their “New Community Development Model”. At the time the proposal caused a lot of heated debate on the squeak-dev mailing list, with concerns being expressed that similar efforts in the past had had little lasting impact, and had caused great frustration for those pushing those earlier efforts.

The motives of the Board were to “get rid of as many hurdles as possible in the contribution process [and]  to enable the community at large to improve Squeak, the core of the system and its supporting libraries”.

So, two months down the line, how’s it doing?

If sheer volume is any criterion, it looks like a great success with over 500 packages uploaded as patches to 3.10.2 and over 40,000 downloads from the trunk (see bottom of the linked page for up to date statistics).

The results of all this activity are available to use and test in the daily updated image published at http://ftp.squeak.org/trunk/ (needs a recent VM). If you want to contribute, you can add new patches at http://source.squeak.org/inbox/, or ask one of the current developers for access to the developers repository at http://source.squeak.org/trunk.

If you just want to get an idea of what’s going on, check out the commit logs that are getting posted to the squeak-dev mailing list, and to the #squeak irc channel on freenode.

Question: My GE Clothes Dryer, Model Number: dclr333gt1ww, still squeaks after I replaced the little drum tabs. Where else should I look to solve this problem now?

GE Clothes Dryer, Model Number: dclr333gt1ww,

Answer: The first part of this answer comes from ApplianceAid.com.

For GE Clothes Dryers that squeak, listen to the noise carefully, a slow or fast noise can help point you in the direction to look for the trouble maker.

Slow squeaking or scraping noises: Check the front glides (there are 2 of them to change) or the rear bearing area, the rear bearing sleeve is inside the middle of the heater housing and the shaft part is attached to the back of the drum.

For help taking apart older GE Clothes Dryers, visit ApplianceAid.com

For other types of clothes dryers:

Check the parts that support the Clothes Dryer Drum:

• the center spindle that supports the clothes dryer drum,
• drum support rollers (it is recommended that the whole set be replaced at the same time)
• clothes dryer belt

Often times these parts wear out from normal wear and tear and simply need to be replaced. For example, a center spindle often supports the clothes dryer drum. This spindle may be a ball-and-socket support, or it may be a shaft inside a sleeve. When these component bearings get worn out, they may make a squealing or rubbing sound. Replace this bearing when it gets worn out.

HowStuffWorks has some good, generic, instructions on how to repair and replace dryer drum rollers.

Other causes for a noisy clothes dryer:

Sometimes the Clothes Dryer’s blower wheel gets clogged with lint and it simply just needs to be removed. Other times the blower wheel wears out and needs to be replaced.

Check inside the drum and make sure nothing is loose inside of it.

Remove the lint trap and look below the lint trap holder for any loose items that may have slipped through the cracks.

Clothes Dryer maintenance and repair kit. Avail. for $29.95

Make it easy on yourself, purchase a clothes dryer repair kit and get everything you need: 4 tri-rings, 2 support rollers, an idler pulley, a multi-rib belt, a clip, and instructions all for under $30 (not including tax and shipping.) It works on Whirlpool, Kenmore, Kitchen Aid, Roper, and other brands of dryers.

Chris Muller announced release 42 of Magma to the Squeak-dev mailing list. Magma is a multi-user object database for Squeak and Pharo images and which provides transparent access to a large-scale shared persistent object model. Magma release 42 brings unprecedented scale and availability of persistent domain models to Squeak users.  In particular, a single logical repository can now be served from multiple servers simultaneously, each hosting their own physical copy which are kept constantly up to date automatically.

There’s lots more information, introductory material and documentation at the Magma homepage.

LL Cool J and Boomdizzle.com

Announce New Single from

“All-Star Competition” Winner

Luther “Squeak” Jackson, Winner of Boomdizzle.com’s “All-Star Competition,” Drops Single “My Dreams” on iTunes and Lala

New York, NY (August 27, 2009) – LL Cool J and Boomdizzle Networks today announced that “My Dreams,” the first single from Luther “Squeak” Jackson, the Grand Prize-winner of the first annual “Boomdizzle All-Star Competition,” is available for purchase on both iTunes and Lala. Additionally, the “My Dreams” music video will be posted on Youtube, Boomdizzle, and Myspace.

After Boomdizzle announced their search for the next great artist, thousands of song entries poured in, but Jackson’s “My Dreams,” a very personal and moving song, stood out above the rest and was chosen as the winner by fans and the Boomdizzle “All-Star” panel including LL Cool J, Marley Marl, DJ Cut Creator and the Violator management team. As the grand-prize winner, the Detroit, MI native won a one-record single deal, and after performing with LL Cool J on his tour, Jackson’s single will now be available to his growing fan base.

“Boomdizzle was created to give aspiring artists, like Luther, a platform to be heard,” said LL Cool J, music icon and co-founder of Boomdizzle Networks. “Luther’s natural talent and personal story are so inspiring, and I’m thrilled to give him the opportunity to share his gift with the world. We are honored to have him as a part of the Boomdizzle family.”

“The past couple of months have been a dream come true,” said Jackson. “LL Cool J has always been an inspiration of mine, and I’m so grateful for the doors he has opened for me and his support of my music career.”

Program Directors interested in spinning “My Dreams” can get the mp3 by sending a request to admin@boomdizzle.com

Visit www.boomdizzle.com to see Luther Squeak Jackson and get other great music from Boomdizzle finalists and artists. The next major Boomdizzle competition will be announced shortly.

Boomdizzle is a multi-million dollar, digital music and entertainment venture which provides a world-wide digital platform for existing and new artists to create, promote, perform, and distribute music and entertainment. By providing all of the services traditionally offered by major entertainment labels, Boomdizzle gives every artist the opportunity to become the next superstar.

Want to be famous? Visit www.boomdizzle.com and see if you have what it takes.

+ MATHEMATIKAL – SQUEAK! – BJAN-JENSEN – DALE 

Tickets are out now at only €15 and can be bought from any one of the following outlets:

Exit, Fact, Royal Impact, Dr. Juice & Ryans Irish Pub + selected runners

Anyone interested in being a runner for the event, kindly contact us on info@dondisko.com

The 4th of September sees the intoduction of Jam Factory brought to you by Squadron & DonDisko. This will be a series of parties promoting local talent. The events will include a fusion of genre’s that will come together on one night! We will dance to the electronic sounds, from Nu-Rave, Fidget House, Electro, Chicago House, Detroit Techno, to Italo Disco.

The first edition of Jam Factory will take place in the unique Buskett Roadhouse Terrace.

On the Decks

FAT32
MANTHRAX
BJAN JENSEN
MATHEMATIKAL
SQUEAK

Get ready to JAM!

The enormous discussion on “Lisp and Smalltalk are dead” (latest count: over 2,900 views) has spawned a parallel thread of discussion within the College of Computing.  One of the points of discussion that I found particularly interesting is the discussion of Vinny’s comment, about how Smalltalk wouldn’t be so bad if he could use it in the editor of his choice.

At first, I thought that was an entirely orthogonal issue.  What does the editor have to do with the expressiveness of the language?  Amy Bruckman called me on that point, and now I see her point.  The user interface does matter.  How well the interface supports the language does matter.  One of the biggest complaints that students had with Squeak when I taught it was the user interface. Complaints ranged from how unpleasant the colors were (which were changeable, but as Nudge points out, when the default doesn’t work well, people aren’t willing to make the choice) to how hard it was to find the menu item you wanted.  I chalked that up to being part of the learning curve, but maybe that’s the point.

I’ve been exploring some other languages recently like Ruby, Scala, and various Lisp/Scheme implementations.  I’m surprised at how few of these have editors or IDEs that come with them.  (With the great exception of DrScheme which is my favorite pedagogical IDE.)  Most of these have some kind of Eclipse plug-in, which doesn’t do me any good at all.  I have never been able to get Eclipse to install properly, and never got my head around how to use it.  On the other hand, they all have Emacs plug-ins, too.  I can use Emacs.  I’m not great at it (I’m a vi guy from my internship at Bell Labs in 1982), but I can use it.  And for the most part, it’s all the same then — it’s reliable and relatively consistent, whatever language I’m playing with.

Several years ago, Don Gentner and Jakob Nielsen wrote a great paper called The Anti-Mac Interface. They considered what kind of interface you’d get if you reliable broke every one of the Mac’s UI guidelines.  They found that you resulted in a consistent and powerful user interface.  It was no longer good for novices doing occasional tasks.  It was great for experts doing regular tasks and who wanted shortcuts and macros.

Nudge points out that the surface level matters, and if that isn’t smooth, people are discouraged from looking deeper.  The user interface level to these tools matter, and if they’re not understandable, nobody gets to the expressiveness.

El pasado 25 de julio RAP CEIBAL estuvo presente en el festival organizado en Porto Alegre sobre Squeak-Etoys y los voluntarios Melina Soarez y Charles Soarez del RAP CEIBAL del núcleo local de Río Branco presentaron junto a la compañera de Montevideo Maria Méndez un taller de introducción a la programación en Etoys.

RAPEROS de Río Branco y Montevideo brindaron un Taller (Oficina) en Squeakfest 2009