Peer networks are really just logical graphs of computers, or, in many cases, logical graphs of connected applications. The physical topology of the peer network, means of communication, and weighting of the edges are all implementation-specific details that differ from P2P network to P2P network, but all of them can be reduced down at some point to a drawing containing nodes and edges.

IBM says it's found a way to make mashups secure enough for business. Because of inherent browser insecurity, mashups aren't really viable for widespread business adoption. But what's a little thing like viability compared to the pressure of keeping up with the Joneses - in this case the consumer mashup rage. So to keep the enterprise from hurting itself - and being held hostage by some cyber crook - IBM has come up with SMash, which basically lets information from different sources talk to each other - and create the one unified view mashups are famous for - but keeps them isolated so it's harder for malicious code to inject itself into the company system.

Parleys.com is a great Web site with lots of recoded videos of technical presentations on a wide variety of Java-related topics. While the original version of Parleys has been created in AJAX, more advanced Flex and AIR versions are now available too. I had a chance to chat with a man behind this project.

OpenLaszlo started life as a commercial product called Laszlo Presentation Server, first released in 2002. When development began in 2001, our goals were twofold -- first, to enable the delivery of rich applications that run in any web browser without installation; and, second, to make the development of these applications more web-like -- i.e., to use a markup language and script to describe rich interactive applications, just as HTML describes hypertext documents. Remember that in 2001, the mainstream way to create interactive applications was to use C++ and Windows -- platform-specific tools that result in applications requiring installation.

After IMPACT 2007 in Orlando, Java Developer's Journal had the opportunity to talk with Sandy Carter about IBM's new SOA announcements at the event, as she is responsible for driving IBM's cross-company, worldwide SOA marketing initiatives.

Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, has been kind enough to answer some questions for Java Developer's Journal. Rather than rattle off the usual ones about the name, about why Swing wasn't used, or how much influence IBM still has, Mike has fielded questions on some more current and topical subjects, as well as given us his insights onto the future. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Mike.

Recently I had a chance to chat with Maher Masri, the CEO of Genuitec, the company that offers the Eclipse-based Java IDE called MyEclipse. My goal was to find out why would I want to purchase this IDE if free Eclipse fits the bill for most of the developers.

Recently I was able to talk to Tim Cramer, executive director of tools at Sun, about NetBeans. Tim started in engineering doing supercomputer compiler work, moved to more generalized hardware compiler work, and naturally moved to JIT/dynamic compilers in Java during its first few years. Tim's first management job was in the Java performance group, working to improve the base performance of Java SE and EE. He followed as the director of NetBeans in August of 2004 and is now the executive director for all Java tools at Sun.

The Ruby programming language climbed up to the 13th place in the Tiobe index, it deserves to be taken seriously. Bruce Tate is a well know proponent of Ruby. While some people are quick to blame any Java developer who is looking into other languages,in my opinion it's an attitude of weak people. If we want Java keep evolving, we need to look around. I've asked Bruce several questions about this programming language.

Eclipse RCP is a very important strategy and future for us. We are seeing a lot of uptake, in particular ISVs, from organizations adopting RCP as the platform for building their next-generation products. That being said, Eclipse as a community is focused on a number of different areas including providing innovative solutions for enterprise Java developers.

In the seven brief years since selling Mecklermedia, the Chairman and CEO of Jupitermedia - Alan Meckler - appears to have packed in what most business leaders would happily have accepted as their lifetime's achievement. SYS-CON Media group publisher and editorial director Jeremy Geelan caught up with him to celebrate the new technology year, and here's what he had to say...

After BEA's announcement regarding their release of the BlueDragon BEA WebLogic Server, SYS-CON Media had the chance to talk with Blake Connell.

Nigel Cheshire's company, Enerjy, has just launched Enerjy CQ2, a code quality solution for Java development managers. In this exclusive Q&A with JDJ, Cheshire contends that software quality from 2002 to 2004 has diminished: 'As an industry, it's time to take this problem seriously.'

The single thing that Adam Kolawa in 2004 (prophetically) said he'd like to change about Java's history is its separation from Microsoft. 'I think it is a shame that the technologies from both sides cannot be used together,' he says, in an exclusive interview with JDJ. 'Java seemed to be the perfect technology to bring Microsoft into the world of coexistence, and I think this opportunity got lost.'

Anthony Scotney is a science graduate of the University of Tasmania with majors in computer science and information systems. After graduating he established JadeLiquid Software Pty Ltd. to develop software tools that would enhance the Java programming language. JadeLiquid Software has received several awards and grants in recognition of its success including Tasmanian Export Award Finalist 2003 and 2004 and awarded the 2004 Microsoft Emerging ICT Business Award. Anthony himself was awarded the prestigious 2004 Pearcey Award for innovative and pioneering achievement and contributions to research and development in information technology. He also was named 2005 Tasmanian Young Achiever of the year.

Nigel Cheshire's company, Enerjy, has just launched Enerjy CQ2, a code quality solution for Java development managers. In this exclusive Q&A with JDJ he contends that software quality from 2002 to 2004 has diminished: 'As an industry, it's time to take this problem seriously.'

Adobe Systems Incorporated announced significant enhancements to its Adobe LiveCycle server platform. The software is built on a common server architecture based on Java 2 Enterprise Edition and XML. Available now, new Adobe LiveCycle software tightly integrates document services to automate people-centric processes for improving customer communications, increasing internal efficiencies and helping meet compliance initiatives.

A few weeks ago Agitar Software announced that Kent Beck had joined their team. I sat down and talked with Alberto Savoia, CTO, and Kent Beck, Agitar Fellow, to find out what prompted the move and what Agitar is up to that is so exciting.

For those involved in the maintenance and programming of databases, object-relational (O/R) mapping and TopLink have been almost synonymous for 10 years. An innovator in the ORM space for an entire decade, TopLink was started in 1994 as an independent company and was acquired by Oracle from the defunct WebGain in June of 2002.

Swainson: 'Let's start by defining 'on demand.' First, on demand reflects what our customers are doing with their businesses - streamlining their business processes to make them more flexible and adaptive to new markets and opportunities. They use information technology as a tool to integrate these processes, so obviously IT is a critical enabler of on demand.'

Who Is David Litwack? Litwack is responsible for the development and advancement of Novell's secure Web services strategy, a position he assumed in July 2002 following Novell's acquisition of SilverStream Software, a company for which he'd served as president and CEO since 1997. He is also a member of Novell's Worldwide Management Committee. JDJ spoke with him on May 21, 2004 exclusively about a range of contemporary computing issues.

In July IBM announced that the Rational tool set would be fully integrated within the Eclipse tool set and would provide an integrated set of tools to support the full life cycle of software development. Recently I was able to interview Lee Nackman, the CTO of the Rational division of IBM.

On June 1, 2004, the Eclipse Board of Directors named Mike Milinkovich the executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. The hunt had been on since Eclipse became an independent entity earlier this year. Here JDJ's Eclipse editor, Bill Dudney, talks exclusively with Milinkovich about the direction he wants to take Eclipse and what his vision is for the community.

A relative newcomer to the Java market, Quest Software's avowed mission is 'to simplify IT management.' JDJ asks Quest chairman and CEO Vincent C. (Vinny) Smith about J2EE, .NET, Web services, SOAs, the overall landscape for IT organizations, and the future of the technology space as he sees it - including the growth of the corporate Java market.

David Litwack is responsible for the development and advancement of Novell's secure Web services strategy, a position he assumed in July 2002 following Novell's acquisition of SilverStream Software, a company for which he'd served as president and CEO since 1997. He is also a member of Novell's Worldwide Management Committee. JDJ speaks with him about a range of contemporary computing issues.

How can Swing be made more tenable to a broader range of developers? Amy Fowler, a senior staff engineer at Sun Microsystems and one of the founding members of the Java Swing GUI Toolkit, discusses Swing, JSF, and the Java Desktop Network Component project. 'Swing is indeed broad and fine grained, she says. 'This was intentional. We didn't want to limit the kinds of GUIs that could be developed in Java.'

How do five of IBM's most highly-placed executives, the five GMs of its Software Group, see the future unfolding in areas like grid and autonomic computing, security, systems management, application development, and SOAs? What's the current story with DB2, how do Tivoli and Lotus fit in with everything, and what's the role of Eclipse in the next generation of software and systems development? JDJ meets the upper echelon of IBM's management.

Anyone in the i-technology world engaged in developing, deploying, integrating, or managing software applications knows Borland Software Corporation - BORL as it's known on the NASDAQ - to be the company that above all aims to let clients deploy online applications that are compatible with different platforms.

In February 2004 David Skok's new VC firm - Matrix Partners - orchestrated, with Accel, a $10 million investment in JBoss, Inc. This first round of funding in an open source company was a bold play, but then David Skok, famous in the Java arena as the founder of SilverStream Software - acquired by Novell in 2002 - is no stranger to bold moves.

Exclusive: JDJ interviews...Alfred Chuang - Founder, President, and CEO of BEA Systems: 'It's not Java on the desktop that is going to keep Microsoft from owning all computing,' he says, 'it's Java on the server. The better enterprise Java gets, the more powerful applications can be, and there's nothing Microsoft can do to get in the way of that.'

Last year I was introduced to the No Fluff, Just Stuff (NFJS) Software symposium in Atlanta. It was a high-quality experience in every aspect. The speakers delivered more than technical information, they delivered an insight into what was happening in our industry.

JDJ's Alan Williamson caught up with the well-known Java luminary Richard Monson-Haefel just after his recent appointment to the JCP Executive Committee. Alan asked Richard a broad range of questions including his view on how Java as a language has matured and what we are likely to see in the next year.

Recently, Jason Bell had the opportunity to talk with Bruce Eckel, noted author of Thinking in Java and Thinking in C++.

JDJ asked Grady Booch of UML and Rational fame to answer your toughest questions. One of the original developers of the Unified Modeling Language (UML), Booch is recognized internationally for his innovative work in software architecture, modeling, and software engineering processes.

Yesterday a new entity burst onto the US corporate stage - 'Core Developers Network LLC.' Its aim: to provide consultancy services to a wide range of Java open-source technologies as well as some mainstream products such as Oracle. What's the big deal? Well, there is none. It's just another company coming onto the market and we wish them the best of luck in their new venture, especially in this still-slow economy. But looking at the core individuals of this new company, we do see something a little more interesting. The clue is in their name: Core Developers Network. They are some of the core developers of the popular open-source project JBoss. Now the story does get a little more colorful from here on in.

Here is your chance to get the inside track on WebLogic: Eric Stahl of BEA answered readers' tough questions about BEA products and where they're headed in the coming year. Eric has spent the last three years at BEA Systems and is currently the director of product marketing for WebLogic Server and WebLogic JRockit. Eric's team is focused on product communications, developer relations, market analysis, competitive analysis, analyst relations, benchmarking, and other product-focused activities.

Alan Williamson took some time with James Gosling to discuss the latest goings-on with Java and what James was up to.

Tony de la Lama is vice president and general manager of Java solutions for Borland. He is responsible for the strategic and technical direction, business development, engineering, and marketing efforts of Borland's core Java products, including the JBuilder development platform. JDJ readers asked him the following questions about Borland and Java.

Don Ferguson is IBM's lead for the EJB and J2EE specification evolution. His work has focused on CORBA-based SM solutions and frameworks, and evolved into an effort to define frameworks and system structure for CORBA-based object transaction monitors. The early design and prototype of these systems produced the IBM Component Broker and WebSphere family of products. JDJ readers asked him the following questions about IBM and Java.

Java developers will have noticed in the past few weeks that Sun has already begun to crank up a new 'unified' approach to its software business. Sun gave JDJ an exclusive chance to ask questions, offering you the reader the opportunity to ask Jonathan Schwartz, the dynamic young executive VP of Sun's new Software Group, what's going on at Sun.