According to SYS-CON Media's worldwide network of software development activists, evangelists and executives - including the creator of Ruby on Rails, David Heinemeier Hansson  - 2006 promises to be a vintage year for software development... Take Microsoft, for example: A new client OS is on the way, Microsoft Vista, due late in 2006, giving rise to the obvious question: will the new cool 3D user interface be enough to move user to upgrade? We’ll see. Maybe the new built-in security, performance features, and integrated search will be enough to convince users – after all, why go to the Web if built-in web-enabled services and integrated information search allow the Web to come to you? Or consider the world of PDA Devices. Everyone is looking for the next killer Palm or BlackBerry.  But are they looking in the right direction for the next killer PDA? What... (more)

What's in a Specification?

This past month gave me a newfound respect for specification writers. I remember when James Davidson marshaled the early Servlet API and the lively discussions that ensued on the mailing lists, basically coordinating the entire operation (no JCP in those days, eh?!). The point is, at least there were discussions and, more important, a formalized document was produced at the end of the process. This past month I found myself dabbling in a number of technologies that sat outside the comfort of Javaland. For a project I'm involved with (Blog-City), I was tasked with building the XML-RPC interface for the widely used Blogger API. This XML-RPC API has a handful of methods for updating your blog site remotely, enabling you to view recent posts, upload and edit posts, and all the normal things you would expect. All seems pretty simple so far, but the problem is that the d... (more)

"Jini, Vidi, Vici" in 2004/5, Sun Hopes

As announced here by Sun's Onno Kluyt last week, March 23-25 sees the latest meeting of the community that has grown around Jini - the Java-based network technology that enables adaptive network-centric services based on shared memory (JavaSpaces) and code portability. For more information and for registering, interested developers can visit here. The event is being held in Boston, MA. Jennifer Kotzen, senior product marketing manager for Jini at Sun, has been talking about the technology - which Sun hasn't yet used in any products, although it does use it in the development of products for dynamic connectivity services. "Sun believes Jini's time is arriving, thanks to the advent of concepts such as grid, utility, and on-demand computing and with service-oriented architectures," Kotzen said. "Sun responds to market demands, and what we have seen is that the need tha... (more)

Java Viewpoint: Free But Shackled - The "Java Trap"

Headnote As of December 2006, Sun is in the middle of rereleasing its Java platform under the GNU GPL. When this license change is completed, we expect that Java will no longer be a trap. Nonetheless, the general issue described here will remain important, because any non-free library or programming platform can cause a similar problem. We must learn a lesson from the history of Java, so we can avoid other traps in the future. Please also see: The Javascript Trap •   •   • If your program is free software, it is basically ethical - but there is a trap you must be on guard for. Your program, though in itself free, may be restricted by non-free software that it depends on. Since the problem is most prominent today for Java programs, we call it the Java Trap. A program is free software if its users have certain crucial freedoms. Roughly speaking, they are: the freedom... (more)

Is Java Bigger than Sun? - The Java Ecosystem Debates the Future of Java

Sun's President: "JavaOne Wasn't About Sun" It was billed, to the press anyway, as a debate on "The Big Question." It brought together, in the general session hall yesterday morning at JavaOne in San Francisco's Moscone Center, seven highly vocal actors on the technology stage, including: Brian Behlendorf of the Apache Software Foundation; Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University; Sun's Rob Gingell, Chairman of the Java Community Process; Rod Smith, VP of Emerging Technologies at IBM; and the father of Java himself, Sun's James Gosling. But what was the question? Was it should Sun open-source Java? Or was it if Sun were to open-source Java what exactly would that mean? Or was it, more philosophically, is Java bigger than Sun alone - and if so, how can others who have invested heavily in it, like IBM, BEA, and Nokia for example, get a better seat at the table in ... (more)

Canoo Releases Visual Editor for Java Rich Internet Applications

Canoo Engineering, a Swiss software company specialized in products and services for enterprise web applications, has ported its Visual Editor for Java Rich Internet Applications (RIA) to Eclipse 3.2 and Eclipse Visual Editor 1.2. With this new release, the Canoo plug-in may now be used on Mac OS X platforms. ULC Visual Editor is a "drag-and-drop" user interface designer for UltraLightClient, a Java library for Rich Internet Application (RIA) development. New features include support of ULCLayeredPane, and more GridBagConstraint attributes in the Customize Layout dialog. The editor requires UltraLightClient 6.1.1 and Eclipse 3.2. Pricing ULC Visual Editor is available for purchase at www.canoo.com/ulc/. A developer license costs US$ 499. A free evaluation license can be ordered for a 15 day period. ... (more)

i-Technology Viewpoint: Is Anything More Social Than Computing?

Helge Städtler of the University of Bremen quotes my assertion that "Computing ... is one of the most social technological innovations in the last thousand years" and speculates on whether the existence of Social Software doesn't necessarily imply the co-existence of Social Hardware. I think that Social Computing, the term that I have sought to coin and introduce rapidly into the i-Technology lexicon, most definitely includes hardware. That, in fact, is its strength: whereas social software might, at best, include Flickr-type destination sites, or networking applications like LinkedIn, the ambits of Social Computing are much, much broader. Skype is social computing at its most powerful; and according to my definition of social computing, Steve Deering, Technical Leader at Cisco Systems and inventor of IP Multicast, is a social computing pioneer par excellence. The bea... (more)

Where Are RIA Technologies Headed in 2008?

I am always being told off by i-technologists for quoting Picasso as having said that computers are useless. But I still love his reasoning? "Because they can only give you answers." Picasso, like AJAXWorld Magazine, liked questions. So we thought we would share with you what some of the world's leading rich Internet application pioneers are thinking may be the next questions that we need to see answered. From that readers can themselves infer where AJAX is headed. What are the top questions to ask next about AJAX? Eric Miraglia of Yahoo! 1.  (From March'08) How do I calculate the ROI of building my RIA on the iPhone SDK vs using AJAX? 2.  How do I assess the performance of my app and decide what to do next to make it faster?  3.  When it comes to accessibility, how do I know what's required of me for my rich web apps?  Beyond what's required, what makes good business se... (more)

Job Trends: JSF Catches Swing

Rick Hightower's Blog JSF did well in 2007. Let's put it this way: If job demand for the Struts framework and JSF were a stocks and you invested in it in April of 2005 by July of 2007 you would barely break even with Struts but with JSF your investment would have grown 700% as of July 2007. (According to indeed.com.) Note: Struts continues to do really well; it is still number 1. Yet after Struts, JSF is doing well and Struts growth is as flat as EJBs. See how JSF does against all other competitors in Rick's next graph, which can be found along with the rest of this article at his blog here. ... (more)

High Performance and Grid Computing in the Cloud

The HPCcloud discussion group has been created in order to address the growing interest in High Performance Computing and Grid Computing in the Cloud. The purpose of this group is to present experiences and scenarios by individuals, organizations and projects to illustrate how Cloud computing can enhance the different types of distributed and high performance computing infrastructures in science and engineering. The group covers the following aspects about innovative potential, benefits and challenges of new Cloud technologies and services in High Performance Computing (HPC) and Grid Computing research and business: Cultural, security, political and legal barriers to implementing Cloud provisioning models in HPC and Grid environments Architectures for integration of Cloud technologies and services with HPC and Grid infrastructures Standardization of interactions b... (more)

Cloud Computing Bootcamp Returns to New York City April 20, 2010

Cloud Computing Bootcamp 2010 East No one can properly understand anything related to enterprise-level Cloud Computing without having first gained a deep understanding of the capabilities of different Cloud players.. Cloud Expo's pioneering Cloud Computing Bootcamp is designed with that in mind. It is a one-day, fully immersive deep-dive into the Cloud, in which the sessions during the day seek to give delegates a deep understanding of the capabilities of different Cloud players and how they address rapidly changing market demands. Click Here to Register Now for Cloud Computing Bootcamp 2010 East and Save! The ever-popular Bootcamp, which is now held regularly around the world, is being held next in conjunction the 5th Cloud Expo in New York, NY (April 20, 2010). It is led by our 2010 Bootcamp Instructor Larry Carvalho (pictured below). Cloud Expo's pioneering Cloud C... (more)