Year: 2003

Matt Raible:

Thanks to Karl for tipping me off that JDK 1.4.2 has been released. [Download, Release Notes]

Calvin Austin at java.sun.com:

By the end of 2003, Java developers will be able to get their hands on a beta version of Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 1.5 (J2SE 1.5). This release and the current 1.4 updates, 1.4.1 and 1.4.2, were covered in the J2SE roadmap session at the 2003 JavaOne Conference. If you were unable to attend the session, or want to refresh your memory, here are the key points from the talk.

I’m glad to see that they’re still working on bugfixes for the 1.4.x branch while pushing ahead with the 1.5 beta.  Look for the major changes in 1.5 though.

Jon Udell has great coverage of Echo.  With Dave Winer’s endorsement, it looks like all of the major blog vendors will be supporting this new format once it stabalizes.  It’ll happen sooner than you think too.

I’m passively watching the whole thing, confident that it will work out. 

This Infosync article notes that T-Mobile also has a $19.95/mo unlimited GPRS plan.  I’m going to stick with my initial 10MB/mo for $9.95/mo until I see exactly how much I use.  I’m pretty sure that each additional meg after that is only an additional dollar, so if I go over a little bit, it’s (hopefully) not a big deal.

Another question is what is T-Mobile’s definition of Unlimited?  Lets hope it’s not similar to the definition of Unmetered in Ireland.

I didn’t notice it yesterday, but Mono 0.25 has been released.  Thanks to OSNews for the link.  The release notes sport tons of additions and improvements all around.

Reasons for Forking a Linux Distribution by Zachary Welch is a long but worthwhile read on the squabbles of open source developers.  Here’s a one paragraph mission statement from the Zynot homepage:

The Zynot Foundation is a 501.c.3 non-profit organization that has been established to hold the source code, trademarks, and any other intellectual property developed by and for its community. Most notably, this entity will be responsible for the management of a fork of the Gentoo Distribution, ensuring that the involved intellectual property cannot be subverted by any single for-profit interest. The fork will be targeted at embedded users, enterprise users and developers. Initially, current Gentoo technology will be utilized, but future technologies will be developed and directed by the community.

I’ve been a casual Gentoo user.  I’ve installed it a few times, played around with it, managed to totally hose the OS one or twice.  When Moof pointed out the fork this morning, it struck me by suprise.  First, I had no idea that there was an embedded Gentoo project.  That totally rocks.  Second, all of these biz arguments and behind the scenes stuff isn’t reflected on the Gentoo front page.

How widespread is stuff like this in the Open Source world?  Probably more than you think.

ONJava has ten configuration tips for Tomcat.  I’m definately going to have to look into the part about vhosts.

Straight from Diego, the latest Google Toolbar has the following new features:

• Popup Blocker: Make surfing the web easier by stopping annoying popups.
• AutoFill: Automatically fill in a form with the click of a button.
• BlogThis: Create a weblog post pointing to the page you are visiting.

Yes, Google gets it, in case anyone was having doubts.

Note to Matt Raible: your post on getting back on the road to XHTML compliance keeps breaking my (Radio) aggregator!  🙂

It’s rather amusing.

Here’s a quick rundown of new releases:

• JEP-0102: Security Extensions (0.1)
• JEP-0101: Authentication using Jabber Tickets (0.1)
• JEP-0100: Gateway Interaction (0.1)
• JEP-0099: Query Action Protocol (0.1)
• JEP-0098: Enhanced Private XML Storage (0.1)
• JEP-0060: Publish Subscribe (0.11)

El Reg:

Motorola appears to have brought forward volume production of the next major G4-class PowerPC processor, the MPC7457, from Q4 to Q3.

Looks like you won’t be seeing a G5 powerbook anytime soon…

DPReview:

Leica has today announced the development of a Digital Module for the Leica R8 & R9. This new module has a ten megapixel Kodak sensor and has been developed in association with Imacon. The module is made up of two parts, a digital back which cliips onto the rear of the camera and a power unit which fits on the base. The digital back has a ten megapixel Kodak sensor which produces a FOV crop of 1.37x and has a sensitivity of ISO 100 to 800. Image formats will include RAW (Imacon 3F), storage by SD card.

Wow, that was unexpected.  I’m sure it’ll be expensive, but it’s almost guarunteed to be a durable high quality solution for those that can afford it.

Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing:

Kevin Burton continues to make improvements to his program NewsMonster, a Mozilla-based RSS reader that uses a Whuffie-like reputation system to rank and suggest items and feeds to his readers. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for OS X yet (weird, considering that it’s all Mozilla-based), but Kevin promises that by end-of-week (apparently, he’s going to patch some longstanding Moz bugs and submit the changes to the Mozilla codebase).

More information can be found at the NewsMoster download page.

 OSNews:

Terra Soft said today that its Yellow Dog Linux will soon include support for 64-bit processing on the Power Mac G5. As an Apple Authorized Reseller, TerraSoft is receiving pre-orders for the new Macs.

Very cool.  I haven’t used YDL for some time now, but linux on Mac is a good thing.

I has arrived.  My new Nokia 3650 is here, charging beside me.  I’ve already been SMS’d by Russ and Jim.  Now begins the phone learning curve (round keypad!) as I familiarize myself with the Symbian OS.  The next step is to find a Bluetooth card for local connectivity.  I did pick up the $9.99/mo 10MB T-Zones (GPRS) plan, and I’ve only used a few kb so far.

This is going to be fun.

The Washington Post Business section today had a very interesting article on the doorstep delivery of the latest Harry Potter book.  Here’s a taste:

Early last week, Scholastic Corp., which holds the U.S. printing rights for the Harry Potter series, sent piles of books to Amazon’s five distribution centers — one in Nevada, Kansas and Delaware, and two in Kentucky. A special, secure “Harry Potter Zone” was set up in each of the fulfillment centers, which processed more than 2.2 million pounds of the books. The areas were encircled by an eight-foot-tall barrier, and only people with a special identification on their badges could enter. Guards patrolled the perimeters.

Juha noticed that the latest Top 500 Supercomputers list is out.

DPReview:

0700 CET: Olympus has today officially announced the Olympus E-1 digital SLR. The E-1 is the first Olympus removable lens digital SLR, it’s also the first digital SLR with an entirely new lens mount. Instead the E-1 conforms to the ‘4/3 System’ standard with a standard 4/3″ type CCD (18 x 13.5 mm) from Kodak (five megapixel) and the 4/3 System lens mount. Olympus has also confirmed five ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses and three flash units.

I’m personally not thrilled with the Olympys 4/3 digital SLR.  It seems like a duct-tape quick fix rather than a real solution.  I hope it does well, I just don’t have a lot of faith in it.

Update:

Embargo lifted, check out their preview.

Yesterday was a fairly busy day, with lots of announcements from Apple.  My new Nokia 3650 also shipped, should be here by 10:30am.  Without further delay, here’s the roundup:

• Safari 1.0 was released.  Dave Hyatt as always has coverage in his blog: Fonts in Safari and Safari Download Size.  With 1.0, developers will now be able to embed Safari in their applications.
• MacNN has a roundup of the major announcements.  They also have more information on the new Powermac G5’s.  64-bit OSX, baby!
• I spent part of the afternoon yesterday chatting with the guys in #mobitopia as well as hearing coverage from #openmac.
• I’m a little dissapointed at the proprietary lock-in going on with iChat AV.  You can use AIM or .Mac, but if you use any of the new whizzbang videoconferencing options, you’ve got to have a Mac on the other end.
• See also Scott Johnson’s rant entitled Apple, Panther and Paying Again for an OS Upgrade.
• See also Matthew “Silent Penguin” Langham’s post on the subject.
• MacCentral points to the Xcode environment, based on GCC3.3, sounds interesting.  More info about Xcode can be found at Apple’s Panther website.  It looks promising to me.
• The new G5’s are just plain SEXY.  They start at $1999, so I doubt there will ever be one on my desk, but that shouldn’t stop me from dreaming about it, should it?

Lots of happenings at WWDC today.