Sun have a good article on Getting Started with Java Management Extensions (JMX) on their site, giving a good overview of the technology, how it is architected, how it is used. There is also a brief section giving an overview of the JMX implementation in J2SE 1.5
Book summary – “Debugging the Development Process” by Steve Maguire
I’ve posted a summary of the excellent book “Debugging the Development Process” by Steve Maguire, to my Book Summaries section.
This is an excellent book, recommended reading for any team/project lead, and also well worthwhile for any developer who wants to understand how they can work more effectively in a project environment (“Work smarter, not harder”).
I particularly like the main gist of this book, that so much time and effort is wasted on projects on “misguided effort”. A project/team can be made to be far more effective if the main goal is identified and held as the number 1 priority. I have seen this time and time again on projects – people get sidetracked off onto issues, either administrative or other non-essential development tasks, that do not contribute to the main goal in any way. An effective team/project lead needs to keep the teams focus, and shield the team from non-essential tasks.
Is Apple’s iMac Mini a good deal?
Apple released their new iMac Mini this week, which without keyboard, mouse and monitor is selling for $499 in its base config. For that you get:
- 1.25GHz G4 processor
- 256MB of RAM
- 40GB hard drive
- combo CD burner and DVD-ROM drive
- ATI Radeon 9200 graphics chip (32MB)
- FireWire port
- 2 USB
- Ethernet
- a modem
- digital and analog outputs for connecting a monitor
This seems like a good deal, and compared to other Macs, this probably is a good deal. However compared to a similarly featured PC, you could still probably get a PC for cheaper. But if you want an entry level Mac, then this is definitely the one to get. Plus compared to PCs, this is definitely pretty cool looking 🙂
Eclipse 3.1.0 M4 includes J2SE1.5 support
Eclipse 3.1.0 build M4 (released in December 2004) now contains full support for all J2SE 1.5 new language features. This is the first Eclipse build to include support for 1.5.
Further details in the 3.1 M4 release notes