Weblogs

Of Fonts and Java2D: A poorly-rendered typeface can really ruin my day. This entry describes my past and recent efforts to get beautiful type in my Java Swing applications.
Posted by javaben on January 25, 2008 at 08:08 PST | Permalink | Discuss (28)  

Java on Leopard: The New Rendering Pipeline: Why you should accept that the new pipeline is a Good Thing and move on.
Posted by javaben on October 31, 2007 at 09:44 PST | Permalink | Discuss (21)  

More on Leopard's Java 1.5: The Release Notes Michael Urban Should Have Read: A journey through OS X 10.5 Leopard's release notes shows some pretty interesting tidbits.
Posted by javaben on October 31, 2007 at 04:24 PST | Permalink | Discuss (65)  

The (Java on OS X) Sky is Falling!: With a tip of the hat to Casablanca, I'm shocked--SHOCKED--to read the really rather embarrassing blog entries from folks in the community about the state of Java in Apple's latest OS release.
Posted by javaben on October 30, 2007 at 17:32 PST | Permalink | Discuss (19)  

Desktop Matters Blogging: Catch some of the news from Desktop Matters
Posted by javaben on March 09, 2007 at 11:55 PST | Permalink | Discuss (1)  

Open Party During Desktop Matters: If you can't make it to the Desktop Matters conference this week, consider joining us for the party.
Posted by javaben on March 07, 2007 at 12:58 PST | Permalink | Discuss (1)  

Dramatically Faster JavaScript in Firefox: I just posted a podcast exploring when Firefox will see dramatically increased JavaScript speeds thanks to the Tamarin project.
Posted by javaben on February 07, 2007 at 10:56 PST | Permalink | Discuss (4)  

I Love Intelligent Tools...: After years of use, IntelliJ IDEA still makes me smile.
Posted by javaben on January 17, 2007 at 23:54 PST | Permalink | Discuss (10)  

Desktop Matters Agenda Updated: Check out desktopmatters.com; we've updated the agenda.
Posted by javaben on December 18, 2006 at 11:17 PST | Permalink | Discuss (3)  

Desktop Matters Open for Registration: Desktop Matters is March 8-9 in San Jose, California; check out www.desktopmatters.com
Posted by javaben on December 01, 2006 at 13:32 PST | Permalink | Discuss (4)  

The Desktop Matters: I'm happy to announce Desktop Matters, a desktop-focused conference to take place in February 2007 in the Bay Area, California
Posted by javaben on November 06, 2006 at 09:07 PST | Permalink | Discuss (6)  

Heaps of Memory: Is there a way to determine the largest set of strongly referenced heap data a process creates at any one time?
Posted by javaben on October 21, 2006 at 08:59 PST | Permalink | Discuss (4)  

Ajax and Desktop Conferences: Dion Almaer and I were given the opportunity to deliver a talk on Ajax at JavaOne earlier this year. Many of you told us was that you wished we went into greater depth. I'm happy to say that the Ajax firehouse is wide open: Dion and I are hosting a conference in Boston next month. Also, I'm soliciting some feedback for a Desktop Developer's Conference (again).
Posted by javaben on September 25, 2006 at 16:00 PST | Permalink | Discuss (10)  

Curse You, Duke!: Why can't Java have a recognizable noun as a mascot? Ever since JavaOne 2006, I've had to deal with all kinds of questions about Duke...
Posted by javaben on August 30, 2006 at 06:44 PST | Permalink | Discuss (6)  

JavaBeans, Binding, and AOP: My friend Richard Bair recently reminded us what JavaBeans are; I'd like to pick up where his discussion left off, touching on binding and AOP on the way.
Posted by javaben on June 01, 2006 at 09:19 PST | Permalink | Discuss (8)  

A Desktop Application Developer's Conference?: Too many of us really don't understand good UI design principles. Often, we haven't taken the time to check out what our (WinForms, Cocoa, SWT, etc.) neighbors are up to. And, of course, we all have more to learn about how to use our toolkit of choice more effectively. Do you think it would be a good idea to hold a 1-2 day Desktop Application Development conference?
Posted by javaben on April 24, 2006 at 21:01 PST | Permalink | Discuss (16)  

International "Focus Abuse Awareness" Month: Please, please, can we just all work together for a world where the active window keeps focus until the user decides otherwise?
Posted by javaben on April 17, 2006 at 23:03 PST | Permalink | Discuss (9)  

Finally... Client Properties You Can Use: I often use client properties to extend Swing components... and now I can manipulate them in a GUI builder.
Posted by javaben on April 13, 2006 at 09:42 PST | Permalink | Discuss (11)  

Lazarus, Ajax, and San Francisco: After months of dormancy, I resurrect my Java.net blog.
Posted by javaben on February 04, 2006 at 09:22 PST | Permalink | Discuss (2)  

Embarassing Moments at JavaOne (and OSCON): There are two experiences in my life that caused me such embarassment that though years have passed, when I reflect back upon them for more than a few seconds, I find myself subconciously curling up into the fetal position with a pained expression burned into my face. These are *not* those experiences.
Posted by javaben on November 19, 2005 at 10:22 PST | Permalink | Discuss (0)  

Give Me My Commodity Text Widget Features, Please: One of OS X's pioneering features was giving check-as-you-type, right-click-suggest spell checking to every application that wanted it, free of charge. The next text widget feature I want to see commoditized is auto-complete.
Posted by javaben on November 19, 2005 at 09:18 PST | Permalink | Discuss (6)  

How I Learned to Love Domain-Specific Languages (in Three Parts): XML is well-understood and ubiquitous with Java -- but are domain-specific languages better suited for many tasks?
Posted by javaben on November 16, 2005 at 20:14 PST | Permalink | Discuss (20)  

Avalon Everywhere? Cross-platform Microsoft?:
Posted by javaben on September 13, 2005 at 16:00 PST | Permalink | Discuss (14)  

C# 3.0: Relational Language Operatings, Type Inference, and More:
Posted by javaben on September 13, 2005 at 14:01 PST | Permalink | Discuss (7)  

My Ultimate Home Office: I've just upgraded my home office; tell me what about yours -- and point out what I'm missing.
Posted by javaben on September 07, 2005 at 13:41 PST | Permalink | Discuss (9)  

XML, Readers, and Streams: A Cautionary Tale: If a system's glitches can be compared to fish, I want to tell you about my white whale.
Posted by javaben on September 03, 2005 at 22:47 PST | Permalink | Discuss (5)  

Successful GUI Building... Today: The HackNot blog recently slammed the use of GUI builders; I think that sentiment is entirely wrong. Here's why.
Posted by javaben on August 01, 2005 at 04:58 PST | Permalink | Discuss (31)  

Classloading in J2EE Applications: We're increasingly seeing frameworks co-exist in an application that in turn rely on different versions of the same libraries. And the solution is?
Posted by javaben on June 17, 2005 at 09:40 PST | Permalink | Discuss (13)  

Greasemonkey Goodness: Firefox's Greasemonkey extension is another piece of web technology that changes the game... are there any analogs for Java desktop applications?
Posted by javaben on June 14, 2005 at 23:06 PST | Permalink | Discuss (6)  

SVG Goodness: After a *long* time rotting on the W3C website, SVG is finally getting some uptake... and Java is well-position to take advantage of the fun.
Posted by javaben on June 14, 2005 at 00:30 PST | Permalink | Discuss (4)  

Suddenly, it all makes sense...: IBM's strategy gets comprehensive?
Posted by javaben on May 12, 2005 at 07:54 PST | Permalink | Discuss (4)  

Ajax, and Mobile Phone Fatigue: I'm sick of mobile phone evangelism. And, a bit about Ajax.
Posted by javaben on May 09, 2005 at 10:36 PST | Permalink | Discuss (6)  

Microsoft Technical Summit, Threads, and Swing: An experience at the recent Microsoft Technical Summit and how it relates to concurrency and Swing.
Posted by javaben on April 09, 2005 at 12:51 PST | Permalink | Discuss (24)  

Finally... Interactive JavaDocs: Rick Ross and Matt Schmidt from Javalobby have put together a very useful new tool for the community: www.jdocs.com.
Posted by javaben on August 10, 2004 at 09:06 PST | Permalink | Discuss (10)  

Is an avalanche coming?: How long will corporate America put up with the high prices and low quality of the software industry? A handful of major corporations have decided "enough is enough" and have banded together to form their own "software co-op". What impact will this have on our industry?
Posted by javaben on April 13, 2004 at 19:36 PST | Permalink | Discuss (10)  

Commoditization of Basic IT Infrastructure is a Bad Thing?: Jonathan Schwartz's recent article has many Java developers shaking their heads in disgust -- but I think his views (and Sun's software strategy) has many CIO's and this Java developer shaking their heads in a different direction.
Posted by javaben on February 10, 2004 at 20:36 PST | Permalink | Discuss (7)  

Java in Your Stereo?: Why listen to the radio when you can own a Java-powered portable WiFi-enabled streaming audio player?
Posted by javaben on January 17, 2004 at 16:19 PST | Permalink | Discuss (7)