March 2006 – Page 8 – Kev's Development Toolbox

March 15, 2006

Blown away by EJB3.0 simplicity

Sometimes you just have to try things out to appreciate just how easy something is, or to appreciate the significance of a technology change.

This past week I have been experimenting with the JBoss EJB3.0 implementation on their 4.0.4RC1 server and built a simple web app using Session Beans and Entity Beans. Once I worked out by trial and error how to configure various parts and had some working code, it hit me at that point how easy the EJB3.0 programming model really is. I’ve been tracking the various public drafts of the spec over ther last year or so, but this was the first time I took the plunge and actually wrote some code. Now I fully appreciate the significance of the change in the programming model. It is ridiculously simple. This is the way EJB development should have been from day 1.

Every enterprise developer needs to get out there and start playing with this technology. The Java EE world is changing, and from what I’ve seen so far, it is a huge and very significant change for the better.

March 15, 2006

Win a 64bit dual-core workstation by downloading Java EE 5 SDK Preview

Sun have a competition and inventive for developers to download their preview of the Java EE 5.0 SDK and Sun Application Server PE 9 – after downloading and installing the app server there is a link in the admin console to register for a chance to with a 64bit dual-core workstation.

See here for more info.

March 15, 2006

Interview with Josh Bloch and Neil Gafter on ‘Java Puzzlers’

java.sun.com have an interview with Josh Bloch and Neil Gafter on their new Java book ‘ Java Puzzlers.

See my previous comments about the book here.

March 15, 2006

Sony confirm launch date for PS3 – November 2006 worldwide

In a Game Developers meeting today in Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment President Ken Kutagri confirmed a delay for shipping the PS3 – the launch will be in November 2006 (in time for Thanksgiving in the US), and will simultaneously launch worldwide.

Other details confirmed:

the PS3 will depend on a 60GB HD, but it is not yet confirmed if the console will come with the hard drive as standard or as an optional add on. If it is a separate purchase this seems odd since the annoucement also urged developers to develop games to be dependent on the drive being present. It is expected that all games will make use of the hard drive being installed to avoid a situation where some games are developed to make use of the drive and some don’t.
The hard drive will come with Linux installed, and is expected to have ‘home media server’ type functionality. It has been speculated for a while now if this would also include Tivo like functionality
Since the operating system will be on a hard drive, the console will be fully updatable, presumably over an internet connection with downloadable patches and updates
Sony also confirm the development of a XBox-Live like online service, called ‘Playstation Network Platform’, and it was also mentioned in the meeting that the service would be free for users.