We have grouped together a series of websites exploring different aspects in the pervasive java development community. Hopefully, people will find such resources helpful in understanding the rational and work involved when exploring these new fields.
Forget Microsoft’s Silverlight as the new Flash Killer. I stumbled upon Chris Oliver’s work with F3, a new declarative Java scripting language, and basically got floored when I saw his demos (you can view them via Web Start). Java has been rightly criticized as sometimes having heavy-looking, kludgy GUIs, but the next time someone disses on Java, just point him to F3 and watch his jaw drop all the way to the floor.
It’s too bad it took Sun more than 10 years to get it right. If they had moved out stuff like this earlier, we would never have been bothered by annoying Flash ad banners - we’d be bothered by annoying Java ad banners instead! 
Now, someone should port this over to CDC devices as soon as possible 
A year or so back I posted what I thought were the Top 10 Java killer apps in the mobile world. I’m looking to do the same again and would like feedback from people on what they believe are (1) the most popular Java ME apps; (2) What they believe are the most innovative and promising Java ME apps since that time. You can email me at asjbiotek_AT_gmail.com
In a similar vein to the Guide to Blu-ray BD-J, we have created a site dedicated to Java Sun SPOTS, which are MIDP-based (”Midlet”) wireless sensor systems that are the newest members of the Java ME family. There’s a short intro on Meeting the Sun SPOTs.
I like the idea of smart sensors that are programmable in Java, and the group within Sun that is doing this thinks they may be the next big thing in Java since El Duke jumped into its first Motorola cellphone. I ordered a kit and plan on having some fun with it over the next few weeks.
Check it out.
In case you missed the announcement:
Sun SPOTs Available Now
U.S. only — limited quantities.
$550 plus tax and shipping.Good News:
The first limited-production run of Sun SPOT Java Development Kits is now available for U.S. customers.*
The Sun SPOT development kit includes everything needed to start developing applications for your Sun SPOT:
two complete Sun SPOT devices with demo sensor boards
a base station Sun SPOT to connect to your development machine
software development tools
USB cable
The development tools are compatible with Windows XP with Java runtime, PPC Mac OS X 10.4 or better and most common Linux distributions. In addition, the API specification for the initial release of the Sun SPOT libraries is available for preview.BUY NOW - quantities are limited.
If you have any questions or feedback, please send a message to info@SunSpotWorld.com or join our forum.
For people interested in BD-Java and Cable Java development, JavaOne this year will have an entire day session on Blu-ray and Cable development:
JavaONE 2007: Java Technology in TV: Blu-ray Disc and Cable Day
I’ll be there as well, my first JavaOne!
It seems to be interesting…but too bad it’s not near LA, I’m a USC guy and I’d like to visit my old haunts in that city while over there 
I just went to a Spring seminar by the local Java SIG over at the Google.com offices in NYC, and having several hundred fellow developers around is pretty exciting - JavaOne will probably have 15,000-20,000 developers all crammed into the area…you’ll be able to smell GEEK sweat all the way to LA
Looks like there are several full-time openings for BD-J (for the Blu-ray discs) developers available. If you are particularly strong in Java ME (J2ME), or if you’ve ever dreamed of going under the lights in Holly-wood, that’s a plus.
Email me at “asjbiotek (at) gmail.com” and I’ll pass along your info.
While the language nuts continue to waste their time (and ours) trying to foment some sort of mass uprising against Java and other historically dominant languages, the vast majority of the world’s programmers (and companies) are voting with their feet.
I work with some people who are heavily involved in programmers and companies from rapidly emerging countries like China and India, and the overwhelming emphasis and need of these companies is for Java programmers and programmers of other dominant languages. For example, I know of a new development center that is opening in China, and the founders are actively looking for several thousand Java developers (including developers from here in the US) as staff.
I highly doubt, in this age when practicality seems to be the buzzword, and when overwhelmingly large numbers of people around the world are entering the programming field, that (r)evolutions in language use are possible. In today’s world, historical weight tends to acquire greater importance in the eyes of incoming developers and companies, many of whom are more concerned about the PRACTICAL USAGE of the language platform rather than on semantical differences.
So, while some people here continue to debate the importance of lines of code, and script elegance, and whatnot, the world moves on, developing a vast network of interlocked apps based on Java and other dominant platforms, and oblivious to the tiny useless chitterings of navel-gazing charlatans.
As the blog discipline and punish notes:
My gut is that programming language just isn’t such deciding factor anymore. I don’t believe this sort of language-oriented thinking is still valid today and, really, I don’t think it’s ever been valid. The language was never the real factor, it’s always been about what can be built upon the language. And when you consider this, it’s clear that abstractions and community are more important than any single linguistic quirk.
There seems to be a renaissance in Java jobs as the requests for Java programmers continue to outpace requests for any other platform or language in discussion groups and mailing lists.
I did a quick check on dice.com and found more than 15,000 Java jobs, which compares very nicely against about 13,000 overall Dotnet (and this includes all the cheap asp.net and perhaps “.net” that’s not related to dotnet at all), only about 5000 C# listings (what happened to all the C# is THE java-killer talk out there? LOL), about 1000 listings for PHP, and only 200 or so listings for Ruby (haha!!!).
I’ve also noticed how many Windows and other developers are being introduced to Java because of the success of Java ME’s MIDP, and I tell ya that just warms my heart!
So? You guys can gripe all you want about how heavy-weight EJBs are (I do and I use Spring, but so what? In this world there are niches for almost everything, so being heavyweight per se is NOT a bad thing), or how Java is so 1990s (duh! Guess they haven’t checked all the language popularity rankings recently, eh?), but just looking at all the stats, it looks like Java is THE platform for the 21st century!
And if anyone tells you otherwise, just tell them asj would like a little word with them - in private
Some VERY cool apps that have created, or are creating, quite a buzz not only in the Java world but in the larger populace. I’ve used most of the apps below, although I have yet to try a few.
Just for the few who might get confused, no, these are NOT desktop apps. Java SE does have its share of killer desktop apps (Azureus perhaps?), but Java ME (MIDP) is simply in another world entirely when it comes to possibilities. And btw, I am posting this using the KABLOG MIDP app on my Nokia 9300.
Wow! Well whaddaya know, some independent developers have started on this! Check out J2MEMap, which seems to be able to connect to GPS devices attached to or around the Java-enabled handset! VEDY VEDY cool indeed!
Cocoasoft also has a Karaoke app, and this was one app that was featured in Java.com, but honestly, a company that still has (c) 2004 on its website needs to get with it.
And if you just want the lyrics, LyricTracker from Corpris might be just what you need. It claims to offer 1 million available lyrics!
If you think your killer app could be just around the corner, you might want to visit some Java ME download sites (like this) to take a gander at the Java apps growing quietly in the most mundane of places.