improving Java apps on MacOS X

A cool article on the JDC (first of a series): Bringing your Java Application to Mac OS X. Cool suggestions, mostly handled through properties, which means that portability is not broken (since the properties are ignored in other platforms) -- and no need to work with any MRJ-specific classes.

dilbert does XP

For the record, I've used eXtreme Programming, and it works. It's not for everyone, no. And for when it doesn't work, there's Dilbert to show us what happens.

on the sun/ms trial

Salon has an article today on the Sun/Microsoft Trial (and the recent decision by the judge that Microsoft will have to ship the JVM in every copy of Windows within 120 days): Is there Hope for Java?. As usual the title has little to do with the contents of the article (though Salon is usually more restrained in this sense than most). Choice quote:

[...] Java has made gains in non-Windows environments. The language is, according to some, the most widely used language for network servers and mobile devices. Sun estimates there are about 3 million Java developers, and Java has become a primary language taught in college computer science courses. There are no firm numbers, but Java could be the most popular programming language in the world. In other words, if Java -- a new, improved, fast version of Java -- finds itself on every copy of Windows, there won't be a shortage of developers to build Java-based Windows programs.