Back with a not-so-weekly news update…
* Try out Windows 7 Beta in VirtualBox
… on Windows, Mac, Linux, or Solaris
* Ten examples of SOA at work, circa 2008
… interesting requirements/uses
… SOA projects add value even while budgets shrink
* Year in Review: Java development in 2009
… New directions for the Java platform
* Sun’s JDK7, OpenJDK & IcedTea: Disambiguation
… what’s coming (maybe)
Category: general, java, netbeans, open source, virtualbox
Posted by: Mike Wright on: January 16, 2009
This isn’t new news, but still interesting: How to make money with free software
Category: general, open source
Posted by: Mike Wright on: January 8, 2009
As we approach the end of the year, here are some more SOA, Virtualization, Cloud Computing links for the week:
* Five fearless predictions for SOA 2009
* Give It Time: An SOA Lesson from My Great-Grandmother
* SOA Success Depends on Service Integration -Using JBI and Open ESB
* Sun revs VirtualBox desktop virtualization - Put your chip in a (virtual) box
* Ten Key Reasons Enterprise Cloud Computing Is Going Places
Category: cloud computing, jbi, open-esb, virtualbox
Posted by: Mike Wright on: December 19, 2008
In the Open ESB project (and its documentation, examples, wiki pages) there are too many references to .jar files where technically speaking the artifacts are actually misnamed zip files. Even some of the tooling file wizards default to looking for .jar file extension names for artifacts that the JSR-208 specification clearly describes as zip files.
This has lead to some confusion. One customer reasonably asked if he could just add an Open JBI Component .jar file to his classpath (no, since the component archives are actually zip files containing jbi.xml and implementation files).
When using some NetBeans-based tools, I always have to remember to change the file pattern filter from the inappropriate default *.jar to find a .zip file I’m trying to install or deploy.
Technically, jar files contain class files and can be added to a classpath. JBI archives (components and service assemblies) really should be (named as) zip files, since they almost never can be added to a classpath (I’ll leave it as an exercise how to make a JBI archive actually also usable on a classpath, but I haven’t seen a use-case for this yet).
JBI zip files usually contain nested archives (sometimes also misnamed as .jar files). In the case of a component installation archive, the nested files are, in fact, .jar files containing the actual component implementation. However, theoretically they could just contain class files, and these don’t have to be in the standard place for class files within a normal jar file.
For JBI Service Assemblies, the nested Service Unit archives are zip files, generally containing XML. However, the Service Units can contain anything in addition to the jbi.xml; the rest is specified to be “opaque” to the JBI management layer and only needs to make sense to the target component. (In rare cases, a Service Unit could contain classes or nested jar files, if it was being deployed to some JBI Binding or Engine that was provisioned somehow via compiled Java instead of XML.)
So, if you create a JBI artifact, try to remember to name it with a .zip file extension. Please 
Category: glassfish esb, jbi, netbeans, open-esb
Posted by: Mike Wright on: December 19, 2008
Things are slowing down for the holidays. 
Here’s are my picks for this week:
* Sun Talks (a Little) About Cloud Plans
* Sun Lays Out Cloud Computing Strategy
* What SOA can learn from cloud computing. And, the other way around.
* Five things that are saving SOA, Recession Edition
Category: cloud computing, general, open source
Posted by: Mike Wright on: December 12, 2008
While enjoying the Northern California fall foliage, I’ve added this week’s links:
* Sun launches JavaFX Platform
* NetBeans 6.5 supports JavaFX Platform
(some news from last week: Fuji Milestone 3 wiki, screencast)
Category: general, open source, project fuji
Posted by: Mike Wright on: December 5, 2008
SOA, as in “Serving Our Appetites,” news:
* Bobby Flay’s Sweet Potato Soup recipe
* Giada De Laurentiis & Turkey Bolognese
* Alton Brown making breakfast hash
more SOA news next week…
Category: general
Posted by: Mike Wright on: November 28, 2008
…Get the blue screen
What if the Matrix ran on Windows?
I’d recommend switching to Open Solaris or Ubuntu
Category: general
Posted by: Mike Wright on: November 22, 2008
Some weekly SOA news:
Category: camel se, glassfish, glassfish esb, netbeans, open-esb
Posted by: Mike Wright on: November 21, 2008
From a recent JavaWorld article:
Category: glassfish, mysql, netbeans, open source
Posted by: Mike Wright on: November 21, 2008