Ahhhhh, one more bug day tucked away to bed. Feels good. It's a serious kick in the pants to use the very same technology as a tool that you are building as a platform. A living lab so to speak. We live with the proof every day and nothing feels better.

Regarding bug day, some new names dialed in this go around which is always welcomed. Nothing like proofing your work, processes, etc with a fresh set of untainted eyes asking all the right questions. Several vetrans joined in as well with the general observation that "This is no longer JXTA 1.0 ... this baby rocks." I'd wag that the overall performance has improved by a factor of 10 to 15. This is just a gut feel based on using MyJXTA for several iterations and again using it today as both a communications tool and a JXTA 2.3 test bed. We should have proof point numbers to publish shortly as 2.3 bakes off. It just gets better and better. Maturing quite nicely and very much deserving of a 2.3 revision number.

One of the principal MyJXTA means of deployment is WebStart/JNLP. I love JNLP and am very much convinced it is the way. That said, there seems to be a vexing problem in the 1.4.2 distribution whereby the cache gets a bit sticking, refusing to pull down new jars from time to time. I've resolved this by upgrading to 1.5b and configuring it to delegate to 1.4.2, which is the runtime JXTA requires at present. Easy enough ... or so I think. The unfortunate problem is that this bar is just too high for many folks for a number of entirely valid reasons. What troubles me about this is that for every individual that takes the time to bring to my attention that things are not always rosy in practice that a significantly larger number of well intended folks silently, well, give up. I don't like that ... not at all ... which is why I also provision as easy as possible alternative means of distribution like including binaries with one command start up sequences (eg java -jar foo.jar) and an uber build all in 2 Ant commands process. I use the later literally in my day-to-day ... walk the walk, feel the pain, and fix the problems.

So, at present, I have two items I would love to get closure on:

• does WebStart 1.4.2 have a sticky cache or am I missing something
• my jar manifest Class-Path of 401 chars in length fails

Next up:

• enable Maven JXTA nightlies
• JavaOne 2004

and then ...

my wife and I are off to a much anticipated trip to DisneyLand with our 3.5 yr old son Trey. This should be a huge blast. Life is good!

Java == platform independence
XML == application independence
JXTA == network independence

Secure End-to-End Computing

in my ears: Pulp/This is Hardcore/Like a Friend

Cool. Looks like timf has siblings working at Sun. Two of my brothers work at Sun as well. Further, I have worked directly with both of them on projects in the past and had an extreme blast in doing so. I'd do it again in a heart beat, if the conditions were just right ... small/fast/aggressive initiative/team/schedule kind of gig. The best kind.

Java == platform independence
XML == application independence
JXTA == network independence

Secure End-to-End Computing

in my ears: New Order/Substance/Kiss of Death