Java 6 Update 10 released

Looks like Java 6 Update 10 has been officially released - for some reason Sun seem to be keeping it quiet, which seems a little odd, considering how significant this release should be for client-side Java and Java FX.

Windows and Linux users go get it: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp. OS X users, bang your head on your desk in frustration at Apple's lousy Java support.

Fail blog

A photo I took is potentially going to be included on Fail Blog - it's obviously the best one, so please vote it up!


more fail, owned and pwned pics and videos

Debugging Applets on OS X

So, despite Apple's best efforts to hide the Java Preferences dialog in OS X (Applications/Utilities/Java/Java Preferences in case you're still looking) enough people must have found it by now for Apple to move to the next step: cripple the dialog itself.

After installing the latest Java Update from Apple I noticed a redesigned Java Preferences dialog, which was certainly more compact than the previous version, mainly because Apple have removed the Applet runtime parameters field. So, if you want to set up your applet for remote debugging, change the default heap size or pass any other runtime parameter you now have to go an edit a file manually, as described at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3210

This may be fine for developers, although I don't see how it is an improvement over editing via the dialog that was there before this update, but instructing non-technical users on how to set up debugging or heap parameters for applets just got more difficult for no good reason.