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Close Call

Posted by editor on October 2, 2007 at 9:43 AM EDT

Bringing mobile Java developers together

I usually get up around 5:20 AM... well, that's when the alarm goes off... it's often more like 5:40 before I'm actually in front of the computer and starting work on the front page. Today, just before the 6 AM exercise break (400 cal. of Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2), I got an instant message from Mobile & Embedded community lead Roger Brinkley.

Remember: it's just before 6 AM in the East. And I know Roger's in the Mountain time zone, where it's just before 4. So he's been up all night working on something big.

How big?

How about a whole new conference, just for Java ME developers?

He said "you guys are the first to know", as he sent me the URL for the the Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Conference, to be held January 22-24, 2008 at the Santa Clara Auditorium.

But why a conference just for ME? Consider it part of the ongoing trend towards smaller, more focused conferences (Desktop Matters, for example), as the page notes that:

At the present time there is no dedicated mobile Java developer conferences with deep technical content. We have consistently heard from developers at Sun Tech Days and JavaOne about the need for such a conference. Developers want a conference solely devoted to the Java Mobile space where they can learn about the technical content.

Some of the specifics of the conference are still being worked on, such as the cost (they intend to keep it under US$200), and the various kinds of content (technical sessions, lightning talks, hands-on labs, etc.), so be sure to keep an eye on the page for more information. Registration for the conference opens November 1, and the Call for Papers is underway as part of a forum thread.

And yeah, the home page's link to the Call for Papers currently goes to the Mobile Aerith project instead, but give Roger a break: he was up really late on this. I'm sure he'll fix it when he gets up in a few hours.

Also in Java Today, the latest edition, issue 140, of the JavaTools Community Newsletter is out, with tool-related news from around the web, a new community project (JSON Library), two graduations (IntelliJ-Plugins and ON), and a Tool Tip on using HTML files in the project web site using a SVN repository.

Over on O'Reilly's Beautiful Code site, blogger Michael Feathers wonders Will Java 7 Be Beautiful? "Java seems to be going through its mid-life crisis. A year or two ago, there was a massive push to get closures into Java. No doubt this was inspired by the upsurge in interest in functional programming languages and abetted by the rising use of languages like Python and Ruby which show us daily how convenient blocks are." But he finds himself wondering if closures might end up feeling tacked-on, like the OO extensions to Fortran, Cobol, and Ada.

Today's Forums have some reactions to the release of the user-facing JDK 6.0 Update N Early Access, in new forums for 6uN Early Access and Java Quick Starter. In Re: Installing 6uN over 6u2, radvani7 reports, "I figured out the problem with my installation and am posting it here for reference by anyone else who is having trouble getting this build to be recognized by Java Plugin. The problem with the installer on my machine was that it did not create the necessary registry keys (obviously I'm using Windows), which are used by Firefox to scan for your Java Plugin and Runtime. I had to add these keys manually."

Project Wonderland's developers have a major announcement, posted by paulby: Voicebridge has been open sourced. "The Voicebridge is the technology we use to provide the high quality audio features within Wonderland. The great news is that the project has now been released as open source, https://jvoicebridge.dev.java.net/. This is great news as we can now integrate the audio system into the binary and source releases of Wonderland. We will be updating the builds and ant scripts to integrate the components over the next few days."

finite9 wonders if there's no firefox plugin for 64-bit version of jre 6? "I run Ubuntu 64-bit and I download the jre6 from java.com but when I unpack the zipped package, there is no plugins directory. If I download the 32-bit linux package then there is a plugins directory and there is a mozilla firefox plugin. Why is there no plugin for the 64-bit version?"

Today's Weblogs also feature responses to the early access release of the "consumer JDK". Chet Haase starts with Early Access Granted: Java SE 6 Update N. "Java SE 6 Update N (formerly known as "The Consumer JRE"), the update released aimed at making Desktop Java more consumer-friendly, is available for early access testing. Try it out and let us know how it works for you."

Not everyone is satisfied with the contorted name of the new version. Kirill Grouchnikov asks, Java SE 6 Update N. Is that a real name now? "In what appears to be the latest installment in the naming saga of Java releases, Sun officially renamed the "Consumer JRE" to "Java SE 6 Update N". Originally pioneered by Ethan Nicholas, it had a few sexy names, such as Java Browser Edition, Java Kernel and lately Consumer JRE. And now the official name is out, ant it is the most unpalatable name for a Java release that i have ever heard."

Finally, Kohsuke Kawaguchi announces More Hudson plugins: "Perforce plugin and VMWare plugin are the new additions to the family."

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Bringing mobile Java developers together
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