Author: kevin

Microsoft have reversed their decision to not release any more versions of separate from Windows, and have announced they are planning on releasing beta versions of IE 7.0 this summer.

Previously Microsoft stated that the only future releases of IE would be bundled and presumably integrated into future releases of Windows, such as Longhorn, which may be released next year (2006).

One can only guess that they are feeling pressured to keep up the maintenance and security updates, and are also feeling pressure from the widespread adoption of Mozilla Firefox.

OnJava.com have a good introductory article on writing plugins for Eclipse.

Although it only gives simple examples its useful to get to grips with ‘where do I start?’. It mentioned the Graphical Editor Framework as well although doesn’t give any examples of how to use this frawework, which can be used produce graphical plugins (ability to produce diagrams etc)

One of the main problems (from a DBA perspective) is that using ORM tools like Hibernate reduces the control over the SQL that actuallu hits the database. With Hibernate, the SQL is generated and executed at runtime, leaving little opportunity for the DBA team to be involved in tuning the SQL for optimal performance.

iBATIS SQLMaps offers a framework which simplified the use of JDBC, but still allows the opportunity to tune and tweak the SQL, offering more fine tuned control.

Google have a new beta service on their site, Google Maps

The maps look very similar to Yahoo maps, but the interface is very slick, and it allows you to drag the map around to navigate. Also, searches for businesses place map pins on the map – when you mouse-over you get the business details. Pretty slick.