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Submission + - Doctor Who? Find out this Sunday... (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by b06r011
b06r011 writes: The 12th actor to play Doctor Who will be revealed on BBC1 this Sunday at 1900. Rupert Grint and Peter Capaldi have been tipped as favourites to replace Matt Smith but that is no reason to stop idle speculation on a Friday afternooon. This all raises an interesting point though — particularly for Dr Who, where the replacement of an actor whilst maintaining the character is a key part of the plot. Would you rather find out in advance or wait until the end of the regeneration sequence?

Submission + - Using Java in Low Latency Environments

Submitted by twofishy
twofishy writes: Something I've noticed amongst financial service companies in London is a growing use of Java in preference to c/c++ for exchange systems, High Frequency Trading and over low-latency work. InfoQ has a good written panel discussion with Peter Lawrey, Martin Thompson, Todd L. Montgomery and Andy Piper. From the article:

Often the faster an algorithm can be put into the market, the more advantage it has. Many algorithms have a shelf life and quicker time to market is key in taking advantage of that. With the community around Java and the options available, it can definitely be a competitive advantage, as opposed to C or C++ where the options may not be as broad for the use case. Sometimes, though, pure low latency can rule out other concerns. I think currently, the difference in performance between Java and C++ is so close that it's not a black and white decision based solely on speed. Improvements in GC techniques, JIT optimizations, and managed runtimes have made traditional Java weaknesses with respect to performance into some very compelling strengths that are not easy to ignore.

Submission + - Oracle Reinstates Free Time Zone Updates for Java 7 (infoq.com)

Submitted by twofishy
twofishy writes: The internet has been buzzing this week with the news that Oracle has ceased to provide free time zone updates outside of the standard JDK release cycle. However, at the end of yesterday the firm appeared to have a change of heart.

We never intended for a support contract to be required to keep JDK 7 up to date. TZUpdater was made unavailable on March 8 as part of the End of Public Updates for JDK 6, and as soon as we learned that this affected JDK 7 users we initiated the process of making it available for JDK 7 again.

Submission + - Oracle Introduces Insane New Java Numbering Scheme (infoq.com) 1

Submitted by twofishy
twofishy writes: "To avoid the confusion caused by renumbering releases", Oracle has announced that it is adopting a new numbering scheme for JDK 5.0, JDK 6 and JDK 7. "The next Limited Update for JDK 7 will be numbered 7u40, and the next 3 CPUs after that will be numbered 7u45, 7u51, and 7u55.” The vendor notes that a more elegant solution would require the changing of the version numbering scheme to accommodate different kinds of changes (for example by using 7u44-2 ). However this cannot be implemented outside of a major release, since doing so might break existing code that parses version strings (possibly including the Java auto-update system)

Comment Re:Discussion TFA/TFS is perhaps a proxy for (Score 1) 61

by twofishy (#43388877) Attached to: Apache Terminates Struts 1
Honestly it doesn't make that much difference these days. Spring and Java EE are both good choices. Java EE needs an app server but there are plenty of free options including Glassfish which is the reference implementation. I'd tend to choose Java EE over Spring because it is easier to "grow" as you need to in my opinion, and I don't think the learning curve is any bigger really. Plus the fact that it is backed by the major vendors means that if you need to tie into a banks MQ Series/CICS/whatever back-end it is that much easier to do. There is pretty much nothing you need to do in enterprise software that Java EE doesn't handle reasonably well with the possible exception of HFT - even in low latency environments Java is a pretty decent choice. 10 years ago I'd have gone the other way mainly because Spring was just so much simpler. These days Spring has got really kind of complex, the two more-or-less have feature parity, and Java EE has got simper, and they've kind of met in the middle. One downside of Java EE is the standard web framework - JSF. Whilst it has its uses for the most part there are simpler options for a "typical" architecture - JSON over REST being presented via JQuery. Spring MVC is a good choice, as is Struts 2.

Submission + - Apache Terminates Struts 1 (infoq.com)

Submitted by twofishy
twofishy writes: Struts 1, the venerable Java MVC Web framework, has reached End Of Life status, the Apache foundation has announced. In a sense, the move simply formalises what has already happened, as the Struts team have focused their efforts on version 2; the last release of Struts 1 was version 1.3.10 in December 2008. The change of status does mean however that, whilst the code and documentation will still be available, no further security patches or bug fixes will be issued.
Java

Submission + - Oracle and the Java Ecosystem (infoq.com)

Submitted by twofishy
twofishy writes: After an undeniably rocky start, which saw high profile resignations from the JCP, including Doug Lea (who remains active in the OpenJDK), and the Apache Software Foundation, Oracle is making significant efforts to re-engage with the wider Java ecosystem, a theme which it talked up at the most recent JavaOne conference. The company is working hard to engage with the Java User Group leaders and Java Champions, membership of the OpenJDK project is growing, and the company is making efforts to reform the Java Community Process to improve transparency. The firm has also published a clear, well-defined Java roadmap toward Java 8 and Java 9. Problems still exist however.
Apple

Submission + - Apple's App Store shame (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Why are there so many free games listed in the top 10 grossing games over in Apple's App Store? Because some feature exorbitant in-app purchase fees for virtual items.

ZDNet reports:

'Developing ‘free’ games aimed specifically at children, and then bundling ridiculously priced in-app purchases inside those ‘free’ games feels scammy to me. Sure, it’s not illegal, and it’s not against Apple’s developer terms and conditions, but Apple is a company that prides itself in protecting users from harm. Most of the game developers do make an attempt to warn users that the game ‘changes real money for additional in-app content’ but it’s a lame attempt. It’s easily missed, and kids aren’t going to read it anyway.'

Comment They won't (Score 1) 2

by twofishy (#29976292) Attached to: Adobe Blames Apple For Lack Of Flash On iPhone
Apple doesn't want to allow Java or Flash apps on their phone because then they loose control other what software is installed on the device and risk the revenue stream from iTunes. I think its actually more an anti-Java thing then an anti-Flash thing but since it has to be a legal restriction Apple perhaps can't come up with terms the exclude one and not the other. Sun actually did a port of Java to the iPhone last year but weren't allowed to release it. The two restrictions in the SDK License agreement are the refusual to allow downloaded card and the refusal to allow third party apps to run in the background. There's a decent summary of the issues here - http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/03/jme_iphone For this reason alone the phone I replace my BlackBerry with will be another BlackBerry. I like the iPhone though and hope one day Apple will relax a bit. If it had Java on it and I could run the various apps I could therefore run my life with on my BlackBerry I'd probobly buy it.

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