Amazon finished private beta testing and has entered into public unlimited beta of its cloud database service named SimpleDB. SimpleDB is meant to be a simple to be accessed database in the cloud, and Amazon is offering limited access to it for free.

Two months after Java 6 update 10 was released, Sun has just released update 11. For many users the new version will automatically be detected and installed, but you can always get it from the Sun Java site.

Sun has now decided to cease funding for the SwingX project altogether, as announced via a post to SwingLabs' forum by Jeanette Winzenburg . This has angered many in the Swing development community where there is a growing view that the core Swing APIs are being relegated to a supporting GUI library for the newer JavaFX technology

In order to modularize JDK 7 in the next year or so, and in order better to inform the work of JSR 294, Sun will shortly propose to create Project Jigsaw within the OpenJDK Community. This effort will, of necessity, create a simple, low-level module system whose design will be focused narrowly upon the goal of modularizing the JDK. This module system will be available for developers to use in their own code, and will be fully supported by Sun, but it will not be an official part of the Java SE 7 Platform Specification and might not be supported by other SE 7 implementations. If and when a future version of the Java SE Platform includes a specific module system then Sun will provide a means to migrate Jigsaw modules up to that standard. In the meantime we’ll actively seek ways in which to interoperate with other module systems, and in particular with OSGi.

Just like any language, developers can write code in PHP that ranges in quality from truly awful to very good. In this article, learn good programming habits that can help you bridge the productivity gap. Building code that is easy to read, understand, and maintain will enable you to debug, fix, and extend your code with lower risk.

Spam on the Web is one of the biggest threats to a modern Web developer. The "bad guys" become more and more sophisticated every year in how to vandalize and proliferate ads over any Web 2.0 page they can grasp. This two-part installment provides a thorough guide to anti-spam techniques. This first article explains how to assess whether a visitor is a spammer and how to organize site workflow to discourage spam.

Maybe you have been wondering why I’ve been so quiet on the blog. Maybe you’re on the Grails-User or Grails-Dev mailing list and have been wondering where all my questions about the corner cases of GORM have originated. Maybe you’ve been watching my GitHub work and noticing it’s trailed off recently. Or maybe this will come as a complete surprise to you.

Last night Rod Johnson kicked-off the 2008 springOne conference with a keynote emphasizing the new SpringSource slogan "Weapons for the War on Java Complexity." During the first day of the conference, no technology fit that billing more than Grails.

First release is OUT :)

There are many untold stories in the world today. From saving lives to sacrificing your self for the greater good. Stories are past down from generation to generation and I want to make sure there is another story that is told to every programmer in the world. It is the story of those who write perfect code.

For those anticipating the imminent JavaFX 1.0 launch, a few more relevant details emerged during yesterday’s AYDJ podcast:

Spring Python has just released 0.9.0. This release includes a key update to springpython.security.web module, where authorization has been patched to support CherryPy 3.1. Sylvain helped by providing key patches to integrate Spring Wiki with CherryPy 3.1, and I adapted these to support the PetClinic app. This valuable feature will help demonstrate all the various features of Spring Python during the "Introduction to Spring Python" demo scheduled later this week during the SpringOne conference.

SpringSource and the Grails development team are pleased to announce the 1.1 Beta 1 release of the Grails web application development framework.

In the comment section on the last entry, Viswanath has asked whether the next release of Flamingo is nearing. I do not have definitive answer to this question, as the goal of release 4.0 of Flamingo is to close all the existing functionality gaps.

Stacked is an Open Source version of StackOverflow.com - check it out. There's even a Screenshot and a Video showing it of :)

Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations are the most basic database operations, but they are also the most crucial. CRUD operations are usually done using the Structured Query Language (SQL) on relational database systems. As the Web is becoming more data-oriented, there is a need to shift from SQL-based CRUD operations to semantic Web-based CRUD operations. In this article, learn how to use PHP to perform CRUD operations over the semantic Web.

All from google interviews: questions, answers, puzzles, algorithms and real interview stories including phone interviews. If you want to be hired by google read this frist!

With their recent purchase by Embarcadero Technologies, Delphi has a new focus. The core product, Delphi 2009, is being focused squarely on Win32 development. Meanwhile, recent changes in Microsoft's licensing program have given the .NET version of Delphi a new outlet.

MySQL, the most popular open source database, releases today, November 27, 2008, its version 5.1 GA (General Availability). Downloads are available for all operating systems.

A list of a several CS-related blogs to possibly add to your aggregator.

The Beta 3 release of Programming Clojure is available today, and includes the following additions and enhancements:

Great examples of the new 3D features in Flash Player 10. This really raises the bar for real time 3D for the masses.

Man makes nice software. Sells it. Makes $100,000 in 5 months

People have been wondering for some time about the release date of Jboss AS 5. As many of you know, Jboss 5 has been in development for quite some time and its release has been highly anticipated.

Here are some Swing links that you might have missed during the last week