Friday, July 29, 2005

Logitech Brings Wireless Headphones to the iPod - Yahoo! News

Logitech Brings Wireless Headphones to the iPod - Yahoo! News: "Elizabeth Millard, toptechnews.com Thu Jul 28, 2:50 PM ET

The iPod's white headphones have become as iconic as the player itself. The bouncing white wires are often the only thing viewers can see in Apple Computer's (Nasdaq: AAPL - news) innovative advertisements for the digital music phenom. But for most users, those cords can be a hassle, especially for athletes that like the iPod's light weight but not the thin white tangle of cords.

Logitech thinks there is a better way, which is what led the company to release the Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod."

tecosystems: yubnub: Forget the Extension, There's a Better Way

tecosystems: yubnub: Forget the Extension, There's a Better Way: "July 18, 2005
yubnub: Forget the Extension, There's a Better Way"

Firefox shortcuts and the like.

Locating Bottlenecks in Your Code with the Event Profiler

Locating Bottlenecks in Your Code with the Event Profiler: "Locating Bottlenecks in Your Code with the Event Profiler

An Oracle JDeveloper How To Document
Written by Shay Shmeltzer, Oracle Corporation
July, 2005
Introduction

Oracle JDeveloper has three built-in profilers that can help you fine-tune your Java application. The profilers monitor Java programs as they run, and collect information about the events and memory consumption during the execution. Using the profilers you can find bottlenecks and memory leaks resulting in improved performance for your application. In this short how-to we focus on the event profiler. This profiler provides information about the events taking place in your application when it runs."

Programmers Heaven -> Design-Architecture-Document

Programmers Heaven -> Design-Architecture-Document: "Design Architecture Document: Business Object Model

by Mohammad S. Hefny

Overview

This document discusses design model of Business & Data-Tier used by HProg in developing data tier and business tier. This method was reached by collecting information and sharing knowledge with many parties to get enough experience to define such a model. We are happy to continue sharing this knowledge and getting feedback in order to enhance that model."

Programmers Heaven -> OR-mapping-tool

Programmers Heaven -> OR-mapping-tool: "Five reasons for using an O/R mapping tool

by Iqbal Khan

Why should you use an O/R mapping tool? I am not talking about a specific tool but rather all O/R mapping tools in general. There are a number of reasons for using an O/R mapping tool"

Java Search Engine

Java Search Engine: "Search Java-related sites"

This might actually be useful!

ONJava.com: Web Services Messaging with Apache Axis2: Concepts and Techniques

ONJava.com: Web Services Messaging with Apache Axis2: Concepts and Techniques: "Web Services Messaging with Apache Axis2: Concepts and Techniques
by Srinath Perera, Ajith Ranabahu
07/27/2005

Until recently, web service interactions were solely synchronous and request-response in nature. However, it soon became clear that the synchronous request-response type of interaction is a very small subset of messaging scenarios. Messaging is very important in constructing loosely coupled systems, and as a result, this limitation is critical. Web service specifications, such as WS-addressing and WSDL, have incorporated the concepts of messaging, and lay the foundation to cover a wider range of messaging scenarios. The Apache Axis2 architecture assumes neither one message exchange pattern, nor synchronous/asynchronous behavior. This article explains messaging concepts and how Axis2 can be used to implement several well-known messaging scenarios."

O'Reilly: What Is Vlogging (and How to Get Started)

O'Reilly: What Is Vlogging (and How to Get Started): "What Is Vlogging (and How to Get Started)
by Joshua Paul, author of Digital Video Hacks
07/27/2005

Vlogging
Vodcasting
Vlogging is short for video blogging, also known as vodcasting. When Apple enabled iTunes to subscribe to Podcasts, they opened the door to 'syndicated' feeds. Almost all blogs provide syndicated feeds--through RSS, Atom, and the like--and some feeds provide 'enclosures.' It is within the enclosures that the audio portion of any given podcast is provided. But enclosures aren't limited to audio. They can contain video, too. Vlogging is the practice of attaching video to RSS and Atom enclosures."

No I won't be doing this anytime soon.
[Listen carefully and you can almost hear the relief].

ONJava.com: What Is Business Process Modeling?

ONJava.com: What Is Business Process Modeling?: "What Is Business Process Modeling?
by Mike Havey, author of Essential Business Process Modeling
07/20/2005

'The boxes and arrows of outrageous fortune ....' When a business analyst stands at a whiteboard, sketches the flowchart of a business process as a cluster of boxes linked by arrows (apologies to Shakespeare), and asks the software team to make it run, Business Process Modeling (BPM)--sometimes known as Business Process Management--comes to the rescue. BPM is a set of technologies and standards for the design, execution, administration, and monitoring of business processes. A business process is the flow or progression of activities (the 'boxes')--each of which represents the work of a person, an internal system, or the process of a partner company--toward some business goal."

James Gosling: on the Java Road

James Gosling: on the Java Road: "Wednesday July 27, 2005

Transcendental Meditation

I got into a conversation with some folks who've been moving a large sophisticated image processing application to Java. They've been getting great performance numbers, much to the surprise of the C crowd in their shop.

With one exception: code that invokes sin() and cos() heavily is somewhat slower. They asked me why this was happening. I had a pretty good idea, but I checked with Joe Darcy, our local Floating Point God, read the article to see what he had to say"

Warning this article contains Maths. Readers of a nervous disposition should look elsewhere. Exposure for long periods is known to produce side-effects - headaches, nausea, a general feeling of mental inadequacy. Go look at some flashing lights or something.... the probability of having an epileptic fit is 2 pi ^ 7 / 2 times more likely than understanding why this:
1.2246467991473532E-16
differs from this:
1.2246063538223773E-16.

A short but interesting read non-the-less.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

James Gosling: on the Java Road

James Gosling: on the Java Road: "Monday July 25, 2005

Happily Subversive?"

Will the father of Java be using Subversion for version control?

Book Excerpt: NetBeans IDE Field Guide

Book Excerpt: NetBeans IDE Field Guide: "NetBeans IDE Field Guide is the only comprehensive NetBeans 4.1 introductory guide and task reference--it's the fast-answers NetBeans 'cookbook' for every experienced Java developer. You'll learn how to use NetBeans 4.1 to build any Java application--even advanced J2EE software, web services, and mobile applications."

Getting Started With the Java Rule Engine API (JSR 94)

Getting Started With the Java Rule Engine API (JSR 94): "Getting Started With the Java Rule Engine API (JSR 94): Toward Rule-Based Applications

By Qusay H. Mahmoud, July 26, 2005

For many mission-critical applications, the process of automating business policies, procedures, and business logic is simply too dynamic to manage effectively as application source code. Using business rules can help you develop more agile applications. The Business Rules Group defines a business rule as a statement that defines or constrains some aspect of the business; a business rule is intended to assert business structure or to control or influence the business's behavior. A rule engine evaluates and executes rules, which are expressed as if-then statements. The power of business rules lies in their ability both to separate knowledge from its implementation logic and to be changed without changing source code."

Site has links to Jrules, Drules, and Jess, amonst others.

Sam Ruby: Sifting for Metadata

Sam Ruby: Sifting for Metadata: "Sifting for Metadata

Elias Torres: Atom undoubtedly will be the format and API of choice for all these content types, but its design was to be the minimal amount of metadata to communicate information and not a rich semantic framework to express it all.

Along the way, Elias notes the irony in that the output of a SPARQL query is not RDF/XML.

I agree that Atom isn’t intended to be a rich semantic framework, much in same way that HTTP was never intended to be a highly advanced distributed object system. I’ll also note in passing that RDF is multi-faceted."

Also - directly from the Elias Torrez article:

"Tags are just the tip of the iceberg, we need to start exploring richer metadata models and RDF is a good start."

Opinion: Eclipse Fails to Meet the Enterprise Java Developer's Needs

Opinion: Eclipse Fails to Meet the Enterprise Java Developer's Needs: "Opinion: Eclipse Fails to Meet the Enterprise Java Developer's Needs
This one-time Eclipse developer who's tried a variety of Java IDEs over the years now believes Eclipse is a functionally handicapped IDE that's languishing under the influence of commercial interests.

by Gerard Fernandes July 25, 2005"

An all too critical look at Eclipse, from an author who favours NetBeans. Lets all go back to basics and migrate to BlueJ! It doesn't offer any J2EE features but it is simple and easy to use... it just doesn't scale.

Be an Avalon Test Pilot and Build the Windows UIs of Tomorrow

Be an Avalon Test Pilot and Build the Windows UIs of Tomorrow: "Be an Avalon Test Pilot and Build the Windows UIs of Tomorrow
Avalon, the nascent framework for building next-generation user interfaces in Windows Vista, is available now in beta, but you don't have to wait for Vista (a.k.a. Longhorn) to get started. We unpacked it early in order to give you a jump start on building the UIs of tomorrow.

by Wei-Meng Lee July 22, 2005"


Microsoft picking up a few pointers from XUL?

Building 2-D Graphics Applications Using Java and SVG

Building 2-D Graphics Applications Using Java and SVG: "Building 2-D Graphics Applications Using Java and SVG
If you're tired of generating static bandwidth-heavy JPG files for charts, maps, and other graphic images in your Web applications, SVG provides a way to display and interact with dynamically-generated graphics in a browser.

by Puneet Sangal July 21, 2005

As Web applications become more sophisticated, developers increasingly need to be able to incorporate dynamic graphics and animation. Unfortunately, Web browsers were originally designed to display static HTML; displaying dynamic or animated content has always been a problem in Web applications.

Nevertheless, solutions exist. One way to display dynamic content is to use Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), a fairly recent (and still evolving) standard pioneered by Adobe, Sun Microsystems, Apple, IBM, and Kodak. SVG is basically an XML-based representation of graphical commands, used to define complex shapes such as Bezier curves."

Cross-platform Builds Made Easy: From Microsoft Visual Studio to ARMCC Using Ant and XSL

Cross-platform Builds Made Easy: From Microsoft Visual Studio to ARMCC Using Ant and XSL: "Cross-platform Builds Made Easy: From Microsoft Visual Studio to ARMCC Using Ant and XSL
Tired of keeping embedded make files in sync with your Microsoft Visual Studio project? Use Ant's XSL processor to convert Microsoft Visual Studio project files on-the-fly before cross-platform builds!

by Ray Rischpater, July 19, 2005
Aaron Wood and
Aleatha Parker-Wood"

Nah - forget that and Use Ant's XSLT for other things:

Performing XSLT Transformations

Using Ant to Apply XSLT As well as an inrto to XQuery.

Ant with Javascript

Ant Pretty Build is a tool to easily show and run Ant buildfiles directly from within a browser window.

An old example (2002) of Running Multiple XSLT Engines with Ant

Check the manual for more info

Generalized AJAX Response Handling for XML Content

Generalized AJAX Response Handling for XML Content: "Generalized AJAX Response Handling for XML Content
Making multiple simultaneous asynchronous requests in AJAX applications using the XmlHttpRequest object can be difficult, but this generalized XML response-handling code will help.

by Matt Warden July 18, 2005

AJAX is catching on, but handling multiple XML responses on the client side is difficult. Current methods of easing the hassle ignore important programming principles that are known to help avoid maintenance headaches down the road. This article presents an elegant method of handling any number of XML responses in an AJAX application, while adhering to the principles of abstraction and encapsulation.

The ability to asynchronously transfer XML documents between the client and server without refreshing the entire page opens up an entire field of possibilities for browser-based Web applications."

Hibernate Criteria API: Multi-Criteria Search Made Easy

Hibernate Criteria API: Multi-Criteria Search Made Easy: "Hibernate Criteria API: Multi-Criteria Search Made Easy
The Hibernate Criteria API, a powerful and flexible alternative to traditional HQL queries, makes writing all those tricky multi-criteria search functions—as well as dynamic queries in general—much easier.

by John Ferguson Smart July 27, 2005

Get comprehensive solutions for building software.

Multi-criteria search functionalities, which allow combinations of many optional criteria fields, are common in modern Web-enabled business applications (see Sidebar 1. When to Use Multi-Criteria Searches). An example of this functionality is an online accommodations database (see Figure 1) that allows users to search accommodations by country, availability, type (hotel, bed and breakfast, etc.), and capacity. All the criteria are optional, and the user may use any combination of criteria."

Planetary Orbits: Elliptical Animations with ActionScript

Planetary Orbits: Elliptical Animations with ActionScript: "
Planetary Orbits: Elliptical Animations with ActionScript
Bringing some degree of realism to a simulation of planetary orbits requires elliptical, not circular, paths. This article will show you how to create them. Also included is a major execution order 'gotcha' that you may not be aware of!

by Rich Shupe July 25, 2005"

UML for the Software Developer, Part 6: Interaction Diagrams

UML for the Software Developer, Part 6: Interaction Diagrams: "UML for the Software Developer, Part 6: Interaction Diagrams
Interaction or sequence diagrams are the critical link between the static class diagrams and how the classes behave. A well-defined sequence diagram will find missing classes, elucidate the sequence of events for class interaction, and define the methods needed for each class.

by Mark Goetsch July 22, 2005

Sequence diagrams are used to map out class interactions. A sequence diagram is made up of objects, each with its own object lifeline. Interactions between the objects occur by messages that are sent from one object to the next. By convention, the messages are sent from left to right across the flow of a diagram, with the message returns being sent back right to left. There are situations where two objects are communicating back and forth or in sequence diagrams with multiple sets of actions where the messages will not follow the convention but those should be minimized as much as possible. Objects can create and destroy other objects; they can communicate synchronously and asynchronously; and act upon themselves."

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

fabFORCE.net

fabFORCE.net: " General Information - What is DBDesigner 4?

DBDesigner 4 is a visual database design system that integrates database design, modeling, creation and maintenance into a single, seamless environment.

It combines professional features and a clear and simple user interface to offer the most efficient way to handle your databases.

DBDesigner 4 compares to products like Oracle's Designer©, IBM's Rational Rose©, Computer Associates's ERwin© and theKompany's DataArchitect© but is an Open Source Project available for Microsoft Windows© 2k/XP and Linux KDE/Gnome. It is release on the GPL."

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Managing XML Encryption with Java

Managing XML Encryption with Java: "Managing XML Encryption with Java
XML is a text format, and as such, provides no wire security by itself; however, using standard Java encryption techniques, you can transmit and receive XML securely.

by Jeff Hanson July 20, 2005"

Sunday, July 17, 2005

LJ107:

LJ107:: "The Technorati Story: How a New Web-Services Product Grew out
of a Research Assignment

When Doc and I started doing research for this feature, I was still something of a blogging neophyte. While I was experienced with all the components of the LAMP platform (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl and Python), had an account with Advogato and had even set up my own blog using Moveable Type, I was mostly a blog software consumer. This project gave me a chance to hack."

techno.blog("Dion"): Native XML support in Dolphin

techno.blog("Dion"): Native XML support in Dolphin: "July 17, 2005
Native XML support in Dolphin
Category: Groovy, Java, JavaScript, Tech

Kirill Grouchnikov's discusses thoughts on native XML support in Dolphin. There are definitely some interesting items, but I really hope that Sun takes a LONG look at what comes from C# 3.0 (send someone to PDC guys!), and look at the current E4X. It was BEA after all that came up with E4X!

Even look at Groovy's XML builders and parsing w/ GPath."

BBC - OpenSource

BBC - OpenSource: "This site provides information about and links to BBC open source projects. It lists projects developed by the BBC where the source code has been released as open source. The site doesn't cover the many open source projects to which the BBC has contributed, but only those that the BBC has initiated and managed itself."

Nothing of immediate use to me - but may be worth keeping an eye on.

Friday, July 15, 2005

ONJava.com: Taking JUnit Out of the Box

ONJava.com: Taking JUnit Out of the Box: "Taking JUnit Out of the Box
by Amir Shevat
07/13/2005

'Nobody likes bugs.' Most articles about testing utilities start with this sentence. And it's true--we would all like our code to act exactly as we planned it to work. But like a rebellious child, when we release our code into the world it has a tendency to act as if it has a will of its own. Fortunately, unlike in parenthood, there are things we can do to make our code behave exactly as we would like.

There are many tools designed to help up test, analyze, and debug programs. One of the most well-known tools is JUnit, a framework that helps software and QA engineers test units of code. Almost everyone that encounters JUnit has a strong feeling about it: either they like it or they don't. One of the main complaints about JUnit is that it lacks the ability to test complex scenarios."

J2SE 5.0 Performance White Paper

J2SE 5.0 Performance White Paper: "Introduction

While J2SE 5.0 has added many new features Sun Microsystems has also been working to continue to improve scalability and performance, with a new emphasis on startup time and memory footprint.

This guide gives an overview of the performance and scalability improvements made in the J2SE 5.0 release along with various benchmarks to demonstrate the impact of these improvements."

javaHispano. Tu lenguaje, tu comunidad. (Cañamo v0.8-dev)

javaHispano. Tu lenguaje, tu comunidad. (Cañamo v0.8-dev): "Chet Haase

Chet is an engineer on the Java2D team at Sun Microsystems, and spends most of his time working on hardware acceleration issues. He is also the engineering lead for the next release of J2SE (6.0) and has written several articles for magazines like Java Developer's Journal."

Article covers material on Java 2D and 3D and provides various links
: "June 2005

Have you ever had to stress test an application only to discover that you couldn’t make sense of the results? Maybe the problem isn’t in the application. Maybe the problem was all in the way that you configured your stress test harness. If you have been in this situation or you are about to embark on a stress testing exercise, here are a few things that you need to consider."

Java User Groups: Java Technology Pointers

Java User Groups: Java Technology Pointers: "The 'Java Pointers' email has now morphed to a 'Java Pointers' web site and is really a collage of URLs that I try very hard to keep current. The content of the 'Java Pointers' completely changes from month to month as new articles and information appears. I really welcome developers sending me current and topical information. Also if something is wrong - let me know - I will change it. Send me email at charles.ditzel@sun.com and please include the line 'Java Pointers' in the subject."

An absolutely AWESOME collection of links.

2005 JavaOne conference - Daily Prompt, Thursday

2005 JavaOne conference - Daily Prompt, Thursday: "Daily Prompt for Thursday: Thursday Already?

By Robert Eckstein, Thursday, June 30, 2005

It's Thursday already. Who would have thought that the week would go by so fast? Did you catch those 'Extreme GUI Makeover' talks? Wow! Never in my wildest dreams could I have bent and twisted the Swing and 2D APIs to make Java GUIs look like a Mac. (And I co-authored a book on JFC/Swing!) And those fresh GUI components from the JNDC group look pretty slick. Who would have thought that a simple drop-shadow border could make components look so good! Be sure to check those out on java.net as well. Another great talk was Wednesday's 'Coding Across Continents: Technologies for Remote, Real-Time, Collaborative Software Development,' a great way to get Java developers from all over the world to code great programs together."

More on that here:Getting Started With JavaSpaces Technology: Beyond Conventional Distributed Programming Paradigms

By Qusay H. Mamoud, July 12, 2005
The Java programming language continues to be the language of choice for implementing enterprise and distributed applications. This can be attributed to its platform independence, simple object-oriented model, clean syntax, and built-in support for building blocks (such as threads and sockets) for distributed application development.

Building distributed applications is difficult because you must take into account several issues, such as partial failure, increased latency, distributed persistence, and language compatibility.

RedNova News - Technology - Sharp Develops 'Two-Way Viewing' LCD

RedNova News - Technology - Sharp Develops 'Two-Way Viewing' LCD: "Sharp Develops 'Two-Way Viewing' LCD

TOKYO -- Will the digital age bring an end to squabbles over which TV channel to watch? Sharp Corp. is coming out with a new product that may help. The Japanese electronics firm has developed a liquid-crystal display that shows totally different images to people viewing the screen from the left and the right."

Wow

Desktop port proliferation a security risk?

Desktop port proliferation a security risk?: "Desktop port proliferation a security risk?
Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus 2005-07-13

Software maker Opera's decision to support BitTorrent has added to some security experts' worries that applications which require open connections through firewalls are becoming increasingly popular."

Bring Java's System.currentTimeMillis() Back into the Fold for Transaction Monitoring

Bring Java's System.currentTimeMillis() Back into the Fold for Transaction Monitoring: "Bring Java's System.currentTimeMillis() Back into the Fold for Transaction Monitoring
Many developers need to capture transaction times for high-volume transactional systems, but have avoided using Java's System.currentTimeMillis() due to rumors of poor performance. Find out why currentTimeMillis() has gotten a bad rap.

by Javid Jamae July 14, 2005"

Thursday, July 14, 2005

JCS - Java Caching System

JCS - Java Caching System: "JCS is a distributed caching system written in java for server-side java applications. It is intended to speed up dynamic web applications by providing a means to manage cached data of various dynamic natures. Like any caching system, the JCS is most useful for high read, low put applications. Dynamic content and reporting systems can benefit most. However, any site that repeatedly constructs pages, dropdowns, or common search results from a database that is updated at intervals (rather than across categories continuously) can improve performance and scalability by implementing caching. Latency times drop sharply and bottlenecks move away from the database in an effectively cached system. "

JBoss.com - Javassist

JBoss.com - Javassist: "Javassist (Java programming assistant) is a load-time reflective system for Java. It is a class library for editing bytecodes in Java; it enables Java programs to define a new class at runtime and to modify a class file before the JVM loads it. Unlike other similar systems, Javassist provides source-level abstraction; programmers can modify a class file without detailed knowledge of the Java bytecode. They do not have to even write an inserted bytecode sequence; Javassist instead can compile a fragment of source text on line (for example, just a single statement). This ease of use is a unique feature of Javassit against other tools."

Code Generation Network - Alex Rojkov on Bytecode Generation

Code Generation Network - Alex Rojkov on Bytecode Generation: "Why generate source and then compile it? Alex Rojkov asked himself this question and decided to start generating the Java bytecodes directly. This isn't entirely new. AspectJ uses bytecode generation and manipulation. XSLT has been compiled into Java bytecode to run more efficiently. And now we see Alex Rojkov using a bytecode generator to build an O/R mapping layer for Java applications. "

ASM - Home Page

ASM - Home Page: "ASM is a Java bytecode manipulation framework. It can be used to dynamically generate stub classes or other proxy classes, directly in binary form, or to dynamically modify classes at load time, i.e., just before they are loaded into the Java Virtual Machine."

Eclipse.TechForge.com :: JUnit 4.0 coming soon

Eclipse.TechForge.com :: JUnit 4.0 coming soon: "JUnit 4.0 coming soon
By: Philippe Ombredanne on Mon, 11 July 2005 01:00:00

Eugene Kuleshov writes: 'Everybody is shouting about JUnit4 that Kent Beck and Erich Gamma had been cooking since March. So, I've decided to take a look at the code and in order to get better idea what those guys been doing I pulled project code from Version4 branch of JUnit CVS repository..'

So JUnit 4.0 is coming out soon. With contenders like TestNG showing up on the horizon, a new release is welcomed: the last release of JUnit was made in September 2002. And with Erich Gamma and Kent Beck known to be Eclipse fans, expect continuing first class JUnit tooling in future versions of Eclipse."

Article is from techforge a set of specific technology channels that appear to be a spin off from sourceforge, the first being eclipse.techforge.com

TestNG vs JUnit.... TestNG is regarded by many as the superior Unit Testing framework, but lacks the momentum of it's more popular cousin. Has JUnit learned any lessons from it's main competitor?

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Metaboli: Games on demand

Metaboli: Games on demand: "Metaboli is an independent European company registered in France. Founded in 2002, Metaboli is a team of gamers from around the world including France, Italy, Canada and the UK. Metaboli’s aim is to give gamers a way of getting more games for an affordable price over their broadband connection. Now in full European expansion, Metaboli has launched its unique service in the UK. "

Sunday, July 10, 2005

BioJava

BioJava: "About BioJava

BioJava is an open-source project dedicated to providing a Java framework for processing biological data. It include objects for manipulating sequences, file parsers, DAS client and server suport, access to BioSQL and Ensembl databases, and powerful analysis and statistical routines including a dynamic programming toolkit."

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Javalobby - Java J2EE Programming Forums - Java to EXE - Why, When, When Not and How

Javalobby - Java J2EE Programming Forums - Java to EXE - Why, When, When Not and How: "Java to EXE - Why, When, When Not and How

'How do I make an .EXE file from my Java application?', 'Need help converting jar to exe', 'Is it possible to create a Windows executable using Java?' --- these and similar questions are among the most popular topics on Java developer forums. Should you start such a topic today, you are likely to encounter the following three types of replies:"

Java Gets Sub-Pixel Antialiasing – How Big a Deal is It?- ADTmag.com

Java Gets Sub-Pixel Antialiasing – How Big a Deal is It?- ADTmag.com: "Java Gets Sub-Pixel Antialiasing – How Big a Deal is It?
6/8/2005

By Matt Stephens
Related Articles
Oracle and Sun Team Up on EJB 3.0
IBM Extends Java License, Supports Solaris 10
ARM RCT Reduces Java Memory Footprint in Mobile Devices
There’s More to Java vs. .NET Than Technology
Open-source users find rewards in collaborative development

Featured Articles
Software configuration management shop talk
Fed regs and the return of the IT audit


The latest snapshot build of Java 6 (aka Mustang) provides subpixel antialiasing. For users of LCD screens (i.e. an increasing number of users), their Java-based UIs will finally be able to stand proud next to their WinXP brethren – that is, after Mustang has been released next year and gradually trickles into critical mass a couple more years after its release. There’s a thread about the new feature at JavaLobby."

Wired News: Software Taming Gene Data Pool

Wired News: Software Taming Gene Data Pool: "By Kristen Philipkoski

02:00 AM Feb. 02, 2005 PT

Scientists can read the activity of any given gene thanks to technologies called microarrays. They reveal whether a gene is turned on or off, and whether that gene is naughty or nice. But the mountains of information microarrays create often languish in obscure databases.

Now, software engineers are finally getting together with biologists to translate the pile of letters and numbers into scientific discoveries."

Occasional XSLT for Experienced Software Developers

Occasional XSLT for Experienced Software Developers: "Occasional XSLT for Experienced Software Developers
Although using XSLT to process XML is increasingly common, most developers still use it only occasionally—and often treat it as just another procedural language. But that's not the best way to use XSLT. Learn how to simplify and improve your XSLT processing using event-driven and declarative techniques.

by Alexander Mikhailian July 8, 2005

XML appears in some form in most modern applications—and often needs to be transformed from one form into another: merged, split, massaged, or simply reformatted into HTML. In most cases, it's far more robust and efficient to use XSLT to perform such transformations than to use common programming languages such as Java, VB.NET, or C#. But because XSLT is an add-on rather than a core language, most developers use XSLT only occasionally, and have neither time nor resources to dive into the peculiarities of XSLT development or to explore the paradigms of functional and flow-driven programming that efficient use of XSLT requires."

Thursday, July 07, 2005

www.welie.com -- patterns in Interaction Design

www.welie.com -- patterns in Interaction Design: "Web Design patterns"

Noddyish Web design concepts

ONJava.com: Getting Started with Maven

ONJava.com: Getting Started with Maven: "Getting Started with Maven
by Timothy M. O'Brien, Vincent Massol

Editor's Note: About the tenth time you write the same Ant targets to compile your code, JAR or WAR it, generate Javadocs, etc., you surely must wonder if there's a less tedious way to do things. Maven offers an alternative, by moving your concerns up from the task level to the project-management level: Maven projects already know how to build and bundle code, run tests, generate documentation, and host a project web page.

O'Reilly's new Maven: A Developer's Notebook helps you get your projects up and running quickly, and then offers an in-depth survey of Maven's more advanced features, like its plugins and support for team collaboration. In the sample chapter 'Maven Jump-Start' (656K PDF), authors Vincent Massol and Timothy M. O'Brien show you how to install Maven, kick off your first build, and start investigating its features for integrating with IDEs and source control systems."

ONJava.com: Generics in J2SE 5.0

ONJava.com: Generics in J2SE 5.0: "Generics in J2SE 5.0
by Budi Kurniawan
07/06/2005

Generics are the most important feature in J2SE 5.0. They enable you to write a type (a class or an interface) and create an instance of it by passing a reference type or reference types. The instance will then be restricted to only working with the type(s). For instance, the java.util.List interface in Java 5 has been made generic. When creating a List object, you pass a Java type to it and produce a List instance that can only work with objects of that type. That is, if you pass String, the List instance can only hold String objects; if you pass Integer, the instance can only store Integer objects. In addition to parameterized types, you can create parameterized methods, too."

Rewrite of Bookmarks Code Planned - MozillaZine Talkback

Rewrite of Bookmarks Code Planned - MozillaZine Talkback: "Rewrite of Bookmarks Code Planned
Wednesday July 6th, 2005

Vladimir Vukićević has announced that he plans to completely rewrite the bookmarks code used by Mozilla Firefox. The revamped bookmarks system should be simpler, more flexible and allow bookmarks to be used in new ways. Vlad explains, 'The first order of business is to come up with a list of things that we'd like to be able to do with bookmarks, and then to create a data API that can support all these things in a fairly generic fashion.'"

.net - .web builder - Studio MX: Interactive timeline

.net - .web builder - Studio MX: Interactive timeline: "Studio MX: Interactive timeline

This month we demonstrate how to build a dynamic, interactive timeline with Flash MX 2004

This month, we’re going to look at creating a typical Flash app: the timeline. A great method of displaying chronological data, the Flash timeline has been implemented by the BBC, Motown Records and countless entertainment and lifestyle sites. What’s crucial, of course, is that we ensure our timeline is reusable, and with this in mind we’ll base our code around dynamic information."


Been there, done that.

NewsForge | Do you eXist?

NewsForge | Do you eXist?: "Do you eXist?
Thursday July 07, 2005 (07:00 PM GMT)
By: Mark Alexander Bain

If you are planning to build an online knowledge base, XML might be your best choice for a repository format, because of its ease of development, its platform independence, and the fact that it is in an open and human friendly format. If you use XML then eXist, an open source XML database, may help you to do the job effectively. With eXist you can build collections of XML documents, index them, and retrieve data using the XQuery language."

NewsForge | An introduction to Delta Debugging

NewsForge | An introduction to Delta Debugging: "An introduction to Delta Debugging
Wednesday July 06, 2005 (07:00 PM GMT)
By: Alessandro Giusti

Every developer knows that debugging -- the process of finding and fixing defects in program code -- is an important process. Often, the effort devoted to it outweighs the cost of all the other software development phases. Debugging is unpredictable, since a single bug can hold clueless developers hostage for long time. And unfortunately, debugging has always been a mostly manual affair -- but that's about to change, with the advent of Delta Debugging."

Cafe con Leche News Sunday, July 3, 2005

Cafe con Leche News Sunday, July 3, 2005: "XML News from Sunday, July 3, 2005

The XML Apache Project has released XMLBeans 2.0, one of many XML data binding frameworks for Java. This one is based on the W3C XML Schema Language and also provides access to the full underlying XML Infoset through an XML Cursor API. New features in 2.0 include:

* XQuery/XPath integration
* DOM Level 2
* Support for custom methods to generated XMLBeans.
* Error codes
* Fail-fast behavior for simple types
* Access to the post schema validation infoset during validation
* Java 1.5 Generics in generated code if you like.
* Tools for generating schemas from instance documents and vice versa"

XML.com: Push, Pull, Next!

XML.com: Push, Pull, Next!: "Push, Pull, Next!
by Bob DuCharme
July 06, 2005

In a recent weblog post, XML.com's 'Python and XML' columnist Uche Ogbuji provided a nice collection of links to discussions about the push vs. pull styles of XSLT stylesheet development. What do we mean by 'push' and 'pull'? As a short example of each, let's look at two approaches to converting the following DocBook document to XHTML"

Wed Yourself to UML with the Power of Associations, Part 2

Wed Yourself to UML with the Power of Associations, Part 2: "Wed Yourself to UML with the Power of Associations, Part 2
By thinking of associations as marriages, we've hit on a way of making even complex associations easy to learn. In part 2 of this series on UML associations, we look at a way of upgrading associations to classes, in order to use instantiation.

by Anneke Kleppe, July 6, 2005
Jos Warmer

In the first article in this series, we explained the concept of associations in UML and showed how to implement them. This article takes that knowledge one step further and explains the UML association class and its implementation. The implementation examples are again written in Java, but you can translate them to another programming language easily. The code examples are all completely generated by the UML/OCL tool called Octopus, which can be downloaded from http://www.klasse.nl/english/research/octopus-intro.html."