I'm a big fan of the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). I enjoy showing people just how easy it is to create, scale, and backup a DB Instance running MySQL, SQL Server, or Oracle Database with just a few clicks...

Preview Text: It's very nice to be back at JavaOne. Last year it was my first opportunity to meet so many people - the guys at Oracle who work really hard to make sure Java has its own identity; the JUG Leaders and Duchess folk; the JCP EC committee members; and loads of people who live and work in the area who I wouldn't normally...

As I mentioned on the last Java Posse podcast, our planned JavaOne party fell through due to no one's fault but my own (too busy with new company, let things go unmanaged too long, etc.). We will make up for it at Devoxx this year, but in the meantime we will instead have a get together tonight (Monday 1st Oct) at Kate O'Brien's Irish Pub in San Francisco. Because of another thing going on, we won't be out there until 11ish but that shouldn't stop you getting into the mood before we arrive if you want to. Kate O'Brien's details are here: http://www.kateobriens.com/ We will aim to be there by 11, but could be a shade later depending on circumstances beyond our control. Rest assured that we will put in a showing however, we might even get there early - stranger things have happened. Thanks, and sorry for dropping the ball on a more official presence at JavaOne - all I will say is that being your own boss is a surprising amount of work. Dick Wall

Every dominant programming language on the market today leverages the powerful idea of closures, spare one. The one that's lagging behind? It's Java, and for years it's seemed like nothing would get done about it. But all of that will change with Java 8. And it'll completely change the way you write your programs as well.

One of the presentations I most eagerly anticipated for JavaOne 2012 was Brian Goetz's "The Road to Lambda." The taste of Lambda at last night's Technical Keynote only added to the anticipation. Preview Text: One of the presentations I most eagerly anticipated for JavaOne 2012 was Brian Goetz's "The Road to Lambda." Here...

CppDepend is a tool for analyzing complex C++ applications. Using the Clang parser and a custom query language based on LINQ, developers can write scripts that examine complex relationships between classes and methods. These can be used for general exploration or to build up static code analysis rules. CppDepend is licensed for both Windows and Linux. By Jonathan Allen

If the community edition of the JBoss enterprise Java application server could no longer be called JBoss, what other name would you choose? JOpen? JWorker? JFree? JMinion? JBoss community users get to decide.

Managing the navigation flow of complex applications has always been a pain with Java based web applications. Apaches MyFaces addressed the issue with CODI. SpringSource dealt with the problem with Spring Web Flow, and Oracle even had their ADF tasks. But finally in JSF 2.2, Oracle has standardized web flow development with FacesFlows.

Original author is Jan Machacek Preview Text: If the adoption of Scala and Akka is the aim, then Rod Johnson joining Typesafe is definitely good news. He brings a name (and experience) that the target companies may recognise. Legacy Sponsored: unsponsored

Find me (Kevin Farnham, your friendly Java.net editor) at JavaOne (try the Exhibition Hall first, the Hilton Lobby second, or follow @kevin_farnham on Twitter to find me) to participate in a Java.net Lighting Interview - 3 quick questions, and you're done! The interviews will be published on Java.net in as near real time as our editorial staff can publish them, and we'll post the links to the interviews on the @javanetbuzz Twitter account and on the Java.net home page. Find me!

Java EE 7 and Java SE 8 will offer new capabilities in JavaScript programming and multicore processors, but PaaS cloud enhancements have been deferred

AMD said Monday that it's going to contribute to the Sumatra OpenJDK Project, which is focused on bringing heterogeneous computing capabilities to Java for server and cloud environments. Sumatra will explore how the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), as well as the Java language and APIs, might be enhanced to let applications take advantage of graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration, either in discrete graphics cards or high-performance graphics processor cores such as those found in AMD accelerated processing units (APUs).

As you may or may not be aware, this week is JavaOne, Oracle’s annual conference incorporating all things Java, as part of OpenWorld. Unsurprisingly, many interesting projects have rolled out major updates to coincide with the events, providing a smorgasbord of new stuff to get our teeth into. Here’s our pick of the most exciting releases so far. The first release of the Maven Integration for WTP project under the Eclipse.org umbrella, m2e-wtp 0.16.0 is mostly a bug fix release, but also includes changes to the "Eclipse to Maven Project Conversion" area, allowing pure Eclipse JavaEE projects to be ported to Maven (download here). It may be unfashionable, but MySQL is still the king. At last weekend’s MySQL Connect conference (another part of Oracle OpenWorld), they took the wrapping off of MySQL 5.6 Release Candidate 1. This latest version is described as “simply a better MySQL with across the board improvements that hit every functional area of the database kernel, bringing benefits whether you deploy on-premise or in the cloud”, and a blog post illustrates some of the performance improvements, as well as the technical details of the update depth. 5.6 RC1 is available to download now, with the GA promised to arrive “soon”. A whole bunch of JBoss projects have been updated over the past few days: TorqueBox has seen a bug-fix only release, 2.1.2; Drools, the business logic integration platform has released 5.4.0, containing a range of small improvements; version 2.3.0.Final of open source web framework Seam; and Errai 2.1, which is mostly “preview” features to allow feedback before version 3.0. The latest version of enterprise management solution for server-side apps, RHQ 4.5.0, includes a “truly modular approach” to JavaScript CLI scripts, allowing your script to “require” other scripts. This release also introduces CLI support for Python, and an enhanced version of the rest API. Release notes are here, and you can download it from the SourceForge repository. JBoss Forge 1.1.0.Final was introduced to the world via an exceptionally joyful blog post ladened with smilies and exclamation marks. This release includes improvements to the “Did you mean ?” feature, metamodel generation based on the persistence provider, and “Colossal changes to our most beloved plugins ever !!!” Plus, from now on, Forge can be updated merely by typing forge update - though for now you’ll have to rely on the download page. Finally, data virtualization system Teiid has seen the release Teiid 8.2 Alpha 2, with 8.2 touted as a “feature packed release with a long overdue feature of exception handling in virtual procedures” as well as native query support and integration of object/document based stores. “There is still plenty of time to get some more small features in,” writes Ramesh Reddy, who recommends visiting the forums to help provide feedback (download it here).

Let's take a quick look at what happened in AWS-land last week: Monday, September 24 The good folks at Newvem published an article on Getting Started with AWS Direct Connect. Tuesday, September 25 NASDAQ OMX announced FinQloud, a cloud solution...

One of the key advantages that customers and partners are telling us they really appreciate about AWS is its unique ability to cut down the time required to evaluate new software stacks. These "solution appliances" can now be easily deployed...

As JavaOne kicks into gear, many attendees were wondering which technology would feature most at Sunday’s JavaOne Strategy Keynote. To some, it probably felt a little like déjà vu as Oracle put plenty of emphasis on their Rich Internet Application platform, JavaFX. Java’s steward has spent many years now trying to atone for their errors in the bungled 1.x series in 2009. Developers just didn’t see the need for it (some still might not now) and Oracle’s promised client revolution never materialised. Why would you want to learn a new scripting language when there are arguably better alternatives? At the time, client-side Java just wasn’t worth the effort. Fast forward to late 2011, when JavaFX 2.0 arrived with a new set of Java APIs opening up the capabilities to all, which you’d no doubt agree is far more compelling. Still, Oracle still faces an uphill struggle to convince Java developers who’d dabbled with the RIA technology the first time round to come back to the rebooted version. Strategic usability moves over the past year from the JavaFX team paved the way for some to jump back, but possibly not as many as Oracle wanted. At last year’s JavaOne, the drive to make JavaFX properly open source began, revealing that 2.x would be open source. This week, they promised that JavaFX would be fully open source by the end of the year. Seeing JavaFX running on a Raspberry Pi at this year’s keynote might be the concrete proof needed that JavaFX was worth picking up. Oracle’s VP of Development, Nandini Ramani, announced that JavaFX would be coming to ARM devices through a developer preview, much in keeping Oracle’s recent embedded moves. This new willingness to embrace emerging technologies could be the lifesaver that JavaFX needs to create a community around it. But for JavaFX to truly get the support it needs, there needs to be innovations within desktop Java, too. Coupled with the keynote, rich web application experts Canoo were the first of many to make a big announcement, open sourcing their remoting solution Dolphin under an Apache 2.0 license. The bridging project tackles a common complaint of Canoo’s customers - they want to keep application logic on the server, whilst fully exploiting all the client technologies available to them (JavaFX, Swing, SWT and Eclipse RCP for example). The disconnect between Enterprise Java and Desktop Java is a well-known issue within the space, which until now hadn’t really been tackled. Dolphin builds upon REST to link the server and client, in what Canoo are calling a ‘shared presentation model’ - the server decides how to display the application, while the client chooses what to display, splitting the load. Dolphin isn’t yet at a 1.0 version, which could put people off, but Canoo say that it is in production environment, with some of their business partners using it with JavaFX, Swing and Eclipse RCP. They’ve also offered commercial Dolphin support to anyone who might be considering using the tool within architecture or as part of a new project. With projects such as Dolphin giving developers what they actually want, is it time to dub JavaFX “the comeback kid”? Could it even replace Swing in the long run? This tweet (retweeted 13 times) from Red Hat Principal Software Engineer Dan Allen suggest it might have turned the tide. Every year I've watched #javaone, I've seen #javafx demos. 2012 is the first year I've thought "okay, now this is relevant." #javaone — Dan Allen (@mojavelinux) October 1, 2012 After five years of Oracle lauding it without much substance, it seems JavaFX is may actually be showing some promise. The problem is that a JSR is only coming with Java 9 (2015). By that time, will it lose its relevancy once more?

Rod Johnson’s move away from the Spring Framework, which he has overseen since its creation 2003, has been known for a while. In July, Johnson announced his departure from VMware in a blog post entitled ‘Oh the Places You’ll Go!’, writing that he was “ready for some different challenges”. Today, just in time for the beginning of JavaOne, it emerged that Johnson is to join Typesafe, the company behind Scala, Akka and Play, as a member of the Board of Directors. While the press release doesn’t specify what Johnson’s new role will involve, the company says that he will bring “more than 15 years of experience in the Java infrastructure software space”. Typesafe is a rising star within the Java industry: in August, Typesafe raised $14m in capital funding, and Johnson’s involvement is merely the latest triumph for the company. The Scala language’s high-profile fans include Twitter, who switched away from Ruby in favour of Scala several years ago. Johnson, who is no stranger to building a platform from scratch, makes perfect sense for the burgeoning company - especially one working on a language billed as “the next Spring”. Having created the Spring Framework in 2003, he soon founded the SpringSource in the subsequent year, and has continued to oversee its development (and success) over the past nine years. Hopefully the future of the Spring Framework is still in safe hands. In his parting blogpost, Johnson insisted that he will “always be part of the Spring community, and will continue to contribute ideas”. Indeed, the momentum generated by Johnson over the past nine years should leave it in good stead.

Well now. I got here, San Francisco, on Friday night in one piece for another JavaOne 2012 conference. Sunday, today, is the first day of the conference. What will 2013 bring to the Java community world wide? What sort of technology will become more recognised? Preview Text: Well now. I got here, San Francisco, on Friday night in one piece for...

Whether you are a beginner with Spring or an experienced Spring professional there is always a SpringSource training for you. SpringSource offers several learning paths including the Spring developer path with Core Spring, Enterprise Integration with Spring and Spring Web. Now is your chance to win one of these SpringSource trainings. SpringSource is giving away a free SpringSource Spring training seat worth over $2,500. Sign up for the SpringSource newsletter before October 20, 2012 to join this contest. Winners will be announced on October 21, 2012. Winners will receive a referral code that can be used at the Spring Education Site for a training of choice. Click Here To Join The Contest

Mark Reinhold started off the JavaOne 2012 Technical Keynote. He said this year's edition would be a little different because it would use largely the same example to illustrate various aspects of Java rather than standalone individual coverage of each component of Java. Preview Text: Mark Reinhold started off the JavaOne 2012 Technical...

Jeff Gilfelt, the developer behind the Action Bar Style Generator and other Android utils, published the first Android Template Project for the upcoming Android Tools I mentioned yesterday. Download DZone's Brand New Android Refcard! Preview Text: Jeff Gilfelt, the developer behind the Action Bar Style Generator and other Android utils,...

For a given WSDL, there are several different ways to generate Java web service code (CXF, Axis2, etc..). And depending on certain settings within the WSDL file and settings used by the relevant build tool, there are different ways of exposing those services described in the WSDL. This post will briefly document the generating of Java code for a WSDL using Maven and the jaxws wsimport...