[@630]
Spidey 2 We went to see Spider-Man 2 last night. I think I liked it a tad better than the first one.   Where'd it all go? One year ago, Jonathan said Sun (and partners) would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to promote the Java platform. Excuse me for being blunt, but… Where did it all go? A new logo and website hardly seems worth that much. Someone mentioned they saw a Java commercial, once, during a Hockey game. Is that it?

[@453]

[@693]

[@685]
Contributions

Scott is saying that IBM hasn't contributed to Java nearly as much as Sun has. I say bullshit. It's not about how much you contribute but how good of a contribution you make.

IBM has created some amazingly useful Java-based technology. Proven technology too. The Enterprise world is eating it up. IBM is making a killing in the Enterprise Market. Sun is constantly left in the dust.

Scott, put your $ where your mouth is. Oops… I forgot… You got none left.

[@693]
Btw, Scott. IBM never said they would open source DB2. If you catch my drift.

It takes some serious marbles to refuse to listen to the company that is eating most of the pie you've baked, or maybe it's just plain stupidity.

[@647]
5.0???

What's with the new version number anyway? Isn't Java 2 at version 1.4 already confusing enough? What's next? Java Lite and Java Pro?

Johnathan, please try to keep your brain farts to yourself. Pretty please.

[@642]
3 steps forward, 5 steps back

Java 5.0 is a joke, seriously. Sun is pushing for Java on the desktop, but the next version of Java brings nothing to the table. Whether the improvements to the core language are useful to developers or not is irrelevant.

Java is a first-class citizen on the server, yet a third-class citizen on the desktop.

Java 5.0 doesn't improve the user experience one bit. It is still painful to use on the desktop. Executable launching is pathetic. Web Start is confusing to most. Platform integration is non-existent.

Sun is wasting efforts with whiz-bang projects like EmptyLooking Glass. Please fix Java's desktop usability and then, you may have a slim chance to make a dent on the desktop.

[@759]
What do I listen to?

Right now I'm partial to the following:

• Long Night, The Corrs
• Angels, Jessica Simpson or Robbie Williams
• The Reason, Hoobastank
• Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Santa Esmeralda
• Rock It Till You Drop It, Fefe Dobson
• I Don't Give, Avril Lavigne
• It's My Life, No Doubt
• Yeah!, Usher
• Everytime, Britney
• My Last Breath, Evanescence

[@462]
Gmail Policies

I was reading Gmail's Policies and noticed the following under Prohibited Actions:

Sell, trade, resell or otherwise exploit for any unauthorized commercial purpose or transfer any Gmail account

I wonder if Google is going to go after all of the people that have been selling invites on eBay. I hope they do.

[@073]
I guess not.

[@632]
Webcasts

In the last couple days I watched both Steve Jobs and Jonathan Schwartz keynotes.

I like Steve, he's a good speaker. On the other hand, Johnathan is apathetic as far as I'm concerned.

Steve really didn't have much to talk about. The whole thing could have been handled in 15 minutes. I'm also pretty tired of his old shtick. He really needs some new material.

I really had a hard time concentrating on what Johnathan was saying because of his monotone delivery, but he really made some interesting points.

The demos from both keynotes were laughable. I especially liked the Java Studio Creator one. Talk about showing absolutely nothing.

I have to tip my hat to Sun for really putting on a show; multiple angles, props, special effects, etc. Apple took its usual one lonely camera from the back of the room approach.

I have an idea for JavaOne 2005, let Steve Jobs open the show.

Creator

I spend a couple hours playing with Java Studio Creator. It didn't pass the "Can you do something really simple without looking at the documentation" test. But overall it wasn't that bad of an experience.

For some reason, the Sun Java Application Server was not installed the first time around. I couldn't figure out how to have Creator use the one already installed with J2EE 1.4. So, I re-installed.

Everything worked a lot better after that. I was able to create a new datasource (no MySQL by default, btw), create a few queries and display the results on various pages.

I think I'm most impressed with the ability to edit the code directly.

In many aspects it reminds me of the way Dreamweaver deals with datasources, result sets, etc.

If it is what Sun sees as a really easy-to-use RAD tool, Johnathan and Co. need to have another look at Visual Basic .NET.

Java Viruses

During his keynote, Scott McNealy asked if anyone could name a Java virus. Well, I sure can name a couple… and they were all engineered by Sun.

A virus by definition is an application which keeps on replicating itself. It does not necessarily have to be harmful. So…

Java Runtime Engine	Have you ever counted how many JRE are installed on your machine? Many applications install their own to ensure compatibility.
Sun Java System Application Server 8	Which is now installed (in different locations) with everything made by Sun (Creator, J2EE SDK, etc), or so it seems.

In my old Mac days, the top virus was called TeachText.

[@557]
WWDC As Frank and Russ mentioned, Apple is at it again. How ironic that during the week Apple pledges support to developers, it blatantly chooses to backstab them. It is becoming a habit. Talking about irony… Isn't it annoying that the keynote for a developer conference focuses so little on items of actual interest to developers? It's nice to hear about Apple introducing yet another set of overpriced monitors, but frankly, how does that help me develop for the Mac? FireIE Frank tell us why some people still use IE. I just switched to Firefox has my primary browser. I had been using MyIE for a while now, but I can no longer stand to deal with IE. The darn thing keeps on breaking on me, and I don't have time to fix it anymore. Unfortunately, like everybody else I'll still have to use IE to test things. It won't be too much of a hassle with Firefox's excellent “View This Page in IE” contextual menu option.