Occasionally into any technology writer's life, a little rain must fall. Sometimes of course it's not so much a little rain as a full-blown typhoon, such as when free and open source software (also known as FOSS for short) blows in as a development methodology.

It's hard to find great Java applications. Next month's JDJ contains our Editors' Choice Awards, and so far for me it has the feel of a repeat - even though I decided to focus on applications I've been using day-to-day outside my own personal development environment. That's frustrating.

Who is right about Java? Is it software executive Tod Nielsen, whose advice - in reference to J2EE - is 'simplify and accelerate'? Is it Eric S. Raymond, who says, as often and as loudly as possible, 'Let Java go' - i.e., open source it? Is it Javalobby's founder Rick Ross, who says, 'Let's rally the industry into action and create a cooperative industry alliance for Java platform marketing'?

Two conversations over the past few days started a train of thought about where Java is right now, as did the settlement between Microsoft and Sun, the new JCP revision, and the new 1.5 JDK. One conversation was with the author of a messaging system, talking about the use of his SDK to create a simple grid or service-based system.

Joseph Ottinger, JDJ's editor-in-chief, throws out some article ideas he'd like to see in upcoming issues...and underlines, in so doing, just how much Java there is 'out there' these days.

The first time I read Mike Wilson's book, The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: *God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison, during the summer of 1999, technology IPOs and dot.coms were at their peak, not to mention Greenspan's irrational exuberance.

There is no magic bullet. Managers and developers alike have a tendency to look for a simple, one-shot solution to address a series of complicated issues, even while we all acknowledge that there is no philosopher's stone. That fails to stop us, though - the search continues for some mythical fountain of ability (located in Florida or India, surely) against all applications of reason and sanity.

We've all heard the news: JBoss has received $10 million in funding and now it's time to sit back and mull it over. Without a doubt this infusion of capital is a signal of confidence for JBoss Group. But is this investment a good thing for open source? Not an unimportant question for those of us who have decided to use open source in our enterprise applications.

While browsing through a book on Web services (XML and Web Services Unleashed by Ron Schmelzer), some things jumped out at me. First, it's really scary how many options we have in Java. A few months ago Alan Williamson asked, 'Haven't We Got Enough to Remember As It Is?' (JDJ, Vol. 8, issue 12), and he's dead on - and it gets worse all the time.

I have a love/hate relationship with J2EE. I love the idea of standards that we can all use in our development to improve interoperability, ease integration issues, create a pool of skilled developers, etc. I hate the idea that I have to wait years for the standards to evolve and become usable.

IT development organizations tend to comprise Business Developers and/or Technology Elites, or a mixture of the two. The latter group basically has all they ever want or need from the Java community - tools, technologies, documentation, standards. But what about the Business Developers?

In the Java community you have two schools of thought: the zealots, if you will, who feel that pure Java is worth the attempt, and the compromisers, who feel it's more important to use Java no matter what.

I'm a firm believer in seasons of work for a specific job. The season of writing for me is coming to a nice close - this is my last editorial for JDJ (though I still have reviews that I have to get on with). It's been fun watching the Java world open up before me during the working day, blogging something, and then enjoying the feedback.

Recently I was giving a demo of Java Web Start (JWS) to a customer and while they appreciated that systems management issues had been addressed, someone in the audience said 'it's just client/client all over again - not really client/server.' Her point was that true client/server is about the runtime separation of the two environments, not just deployment magic.

With this January issue, JDJ is entering its ninth successful year of publication, and we have achieved this success by serving the most influential readers - like yourself - around the globe.

Depending on who you talk to, the response you get when you mention the words 'Web' and 'services' in the same sentence can vary from a big smile to an amazingly serious frown. It's easy to develop an application or Web site that uses the Amazon API and the Google API to great effect.

The journey of a developer is never completed - due to constantly learning, retooling, and grasping new concepts. It's this continual learning that lures many to our profession.

It's that time of year, when the air is crisp and cool, and lights fill the air with the glint of good cheer and renewal. It's when wishes are fulfilled; when revitalization is just around the corner. Here Joe Ottinger takes some time to share some of the things he'd like to see for the next year, and about the people for whom he'd like to see them.

I may not believe in the existence of someone who can span the globe in a number of hours, along with a collection of antler-based creatures (one with a red nose, the others not). However, it doesn't stop me from making a list of stuff that I want for Christmas. Apologies in advance if you do not partake in these celebrations.

In Cordrey's last column as J2ME editor, he writes of how a convergence of circumstances has made this an opportune time for him to sign off. With the January issue of JDJ, the J2ME section will be merged into the enterprise section. 'This reflects, in my opinion,' says Cordrey, 'a truth that some of the greatest benefits of J2ME will be realized through its symbiosis with J2EE.'

I want a wireless handheld device that works with me and doesn't make me jump through hoops just because I want to use Java. I don't even want to know Java is running; I just want it to do its job and make my life easier.

I am always on the look out for good questions to ask candidates in an interview. Not the 'How many oranges can I fit in this room?' kind of nonsense (the stock response to which is apparently 'with or without us standing in it?').

We tend to see the United States through a lens made up of its major population centers: New York; Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Miami; Atlanta; Chicago; and a few others. That's because these are the places that have things 'going on,' and as a result we get a skewed picture not only of what the United States is about, but of what the United States actually is.

Having ridden the storm of the dot-com decline, it's nice to see the worldwide press having a semi-upbeat tone about the tech economy. Java, as a language, rode the crest of the wave; it could do no wrong and Java developers were the geeks among geeks.

Samuel Johnson said, 'When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.' While Sun's current situation may not be dire enough to be considered analogous to facing the hangman's rope, it is clear that economic distress is forcing Sun to change its mindset.

Is Sun justified in their use of the Java brand for something that is clearly not very Java!

Every month we're told again and again how Java is on its way out. A multibillion-dollar company tells us that, while hiring other large companies to say the same thing.

A few months ago I wrote an editorial on the touchy subject of proper testing (Vol. 8, issue 6). Thanks to you there was much support (and a volume of information from Parasoft and how JTest linked with unit testing; this opened my eyes!).

At a training session I recently attended, a presenter mentioned that his cell phone crashes whenever he runs a simple MIDlet that he wrote. While it may have been inevitable that poor-quality environments would make it onto J2ME platforms, it's still distressing to see some J2ME development proceeding down the trail blazed by the megacorp in Redmond.

Many readers ask how we do it and what it takes to bring each issue of JDJ together every month. I am fortunate to be part of a great team at JDJ. We hang out regularly in an IRC chat room, exchanging ideas and thoughts, and helping each other. Most of the magazine is constructed and planned from this 'infamous' chat room; while we are strewn all over the globe, each of us in separate time zones, in our heads we're all sitting around the same 'virtual' table. When a story breaks, we're available to react immediately. It's a different sense of community than you get from e-mail - a lot more personal and not as cold.

Sun's 10,000,000 developer mark is annoying me. I was surprised they had the gumption to say it in the first place and, as it sinks in, the implications are staggering. The implications aren't new, mind you - Sun also admitted they'd dropped the ball on marketing Java. It's just become more surprising to me over time.

I can contain my annoyance no longer. I've watched comments, blogs, and industrial news come and go; I've had sleepless nights and gone off my food. My argument? The name 'Java 2 Standard Edition' should be changed to 'Core Java,' from a marketing point of view. If there is one thing I've noticed over the last year or so, it's the growing belief that J2EE (the not-so-core Java) doesn't need the 'Standard Edition,' and I don't see much in the way of an explanation as to what's required to get all this technology working.

Despite my years in the industry and ingrained cynicism, I'm still surprised at how many software development organizations do little or nothing to promote learning and best practices among their staff. In an industry that is subject to near-constant change, and where software quality is frequently bemoaned, it seems incredibly short-sighted when an organization doesn't have policies and procedures to help their software development staff enhance their skills, and learn and apply best practices. The most that many organizations do is send employees to occasional training, and even that is largely happenstance, based upon immediate circumstances or serendipity and not part of any plan.

It has been a very busy month. SYS-CON Media recently began its complete overhaul of the LinuxWorld.com Web site, which we now publish as the online counterpart to LinuxWorld Magazine, which we're launching this month at LinuxWorld in San Francisco.

Chaos. Anthropomorphically speaking, it wants to go everywhere. Order. It wants to be everywhere too, and is willing to fight chaos to do it. Michael Moorcock used to write lots of fundamentally depressing books about this very idea, and you can see it everywhere today ­ politically speaking, in the U.S.

The JavaOne conference passed me by this year, as did the previous seven. I never get the time to attend these things since I'm in the UK and it's a long journey. So I sat back in my big developer's chair and watched the Java world pass by like Weblogs in the night.

I'm just back from vacation, and after six days of sun on the beach in the morning and on the tennis court in the afternoon, sun addled is a good description of my frame of mind. Also account for liberal quantities of beer throughout the week, and I'll be happy if I'm somewhat coherent in this editorial.

I've recently returned from the razzmatazz of the eighth JavaOne in San Francisco. The 2003 conference was characterized by a massive drive back to the developer, with Sun Microsystems attempting to win back our hearts and put its arm around us all in a virtual hug.

In my last editorial (Vol. 8, issue 6), I argued that we, as an industry, have too much innovation. We have solutions pouring out our ears, stuff we often don't need, yet we use it anyway. This month, I'd like to clarify that somewhat: we need more innovation.

J2SE is going through a bit of an overhaul at the moment, with the release of J2SDK 1.5 (project name 'Tiger') due at the end of 2003. Sun Microsystems ran a feature article in May about this release that included a Q&A with Joshua Bloch, a senior staff engineer at Sun.