Given the current state of Blu-ray authoring tools, it would surely be interesting if this new Java scripting language announced by Sun today could be used for authoring BD-Java. I’m still in cold NJ at the moment and thus am far from the action (so to speak), but I would easily bet my house that it will not be used for BD-J (at least not fairly soon).
Well, one can only hope, and I’ll be sure to ask around when I arrive in San Francisco tomorrow!
Did you know that a Java browser has now surpassed Apple’s Safari in usage in at least one country?
That’s right, folks! Old Steve Jobs, he of the infamous “Java applets aren’t worth a look anymore” is sure gonna be surprised if he finds out that our old friend Opera Mini has a larger market share than Safari in the Ukraine. Well, ok, so it’s Ukraine, and both actually made up a fraction of a percentage of total browser usage, but it’s a start!
But the interesting thing here is that a MOBILE browser actually managed to surpass a desktop browser!!!
Here’s more numbers for Opera Mini from January 2007, when Opera Mini celebrated it’s first birthday:
And it’s not just Opera Mini, but rather common Java ME apps as well. Here’s one app that I’ve never heard of until today called Reporo, but which accumulated more than 45,000 downloads just last week!
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.
It looks like the hype about Ruby has gone down the drain, which is pretty much what I expected given that RoR really has nothing going for it beyond the hype (and that Tate guy who’s all over the book circuit). It’s interesting that around a year ago I came back on the blog scene and was inundated with raving Ruby lunatics after I inadvertantly slighted the language.
Now, there are more and more people starting to wonder whether RoR has peaked.
Interestingly the bloom seems to be off the rose for Ruby, but feel free to tell me if I am wrong. - Bill Roth of JDJ
Ruby on Rails - Has the Hype Ended? Since the beginning of the new year I have had trouble finding good, generalized content pertaining to Ruby on Rails. The past three months really haven’t seen much activity about Rails at all - Teej at my.9rules
It doesn’t really help RoR that JRuby, Grails, and Groovy seem to be making strong inroads into the Java community mindshare, with Grails beating RoR handily in a recent performance benchmark.
So, bye bye RoR from the hype scene - we barely knew ya - sniff, sniff 
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.