Life As It Comes 
Eclipse Visualization3 Comments
A relatively widely-used IDE for Java is called Eclipse. There’s a project at UC Davis, called code_swarm, which has an interesting visualization of the development of the Eclipse IDE over the years. You can check it out here.
There are also visualizations for Python, PostgreSQL, and Apache.
Apache Harmony Requests JCK1 Comment
Big news in the open Java community. Apache Harmony has requested in an open letter that Sun allow it to use the JCK freely.
I’m not sure what Sun will do here. If it does change the license to allow this, does that mean IBM will stop having to pay for it? It seems unlikely Sun will change the commercial license.
The JCK allows 3rd party Java/JVM distributors to test for compliance and claim compatibility with Sun Java. If you cannot pass the JCK, you cannot claim to be a true Java implementation.
IBM Java 6 Early Release Program2 Comments
OSNews has linked to the availability of an initial drop of IBM SDK for Java 6.0.
From a security perspective, this most likely (though I have yet to confirm) represents our initial drop back on December 1st.
