Apple has released updated versions of Java for Mac OS X 1.5 Leopard and Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

These updates fix the critical security flaws found in Apple's Java implementation by Landon Fuller

These security fixes can be downloaded automatically by the OS X Software Update mechanism.

The fixes are described as:

Leopard: Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 4 delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5.7 and later. This release updates Java SE 6 to version 1.6.0_13, J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_19, and J2SE 1.4.2 to 1.4.2_21.

Tiger: Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 9 delivers improved reliability, security and compatibility for J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.4.11 and later. This release updates J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_19 and J2SE 1.4.2 to version 1.4.2_21.

JDK 6u14 and JRE 6u14 are now available for download from Sun, or through the Java updater.

This new version contains many new features including:

• Support for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2
• Blacklist Jar filtering
• Improved reliability and performance in the HotSpot VM.
• A preliminary version of the new G1 garbage collector.
• Upgraded JAX WS and JAXB.
• Upgraded JavaDB.
• Updated VisualVM.
• Numerous bug fixes.

Packt is pleased to announce a new book on Seam 2.x that teaches developers to integrate technologies like JSF, EJB, JPA with Seam. Written by David Salter, Seam 2.x Web Development helps readers develop rich web applications using Seam 2.x, Facelets, and RichFaces, and deploy them on the JBoss Application Server.

The Seam framework from JBoss allows developers to use JSF, Facelets, EJB, and JPA to write conversational web applications. But at first they would have to learn how these standard technologies are integrated using Seam, and how they can be built upon using additional Seam components. This book will teach developers just that in order to help them build a Java web application quickly.

This book provides a practical approach to developing Seam applications highlighting good development practices. The reader will understand the fundamentals of Seam and why it is different from many other web frameworks. They will learn to test Seam components and web pages in a Seam application.

Developers will learn how to utilize the RichFaces library to develop advanced, rich user interfaces including AJAX technologies to improve the user experience. By using the Java Persistence API (JPA), they will also learn to develop persistent applications. Users will learn to build conversational web applications that can run over multiple browser windows and secure applications, using role-based security, CAPTCHA, and OpenId.

Java EE developers interested in developing with Seam 2.x will find this book useful. The book is out now and available from Packt. For more information, please visit http://www.packtpub.com/seam-2-x-web-development/book

Google Guice version 2 has been released and is now available for download.

Guice is described as alleviating

the need for factories and the use of new in your Java code. Think of Guice's @Inject as the new new. You will still need to write factories in some cases, but your code will not depend directly on them. Your code will be easier to change, unit test and reuse in other contexts.

Guice embraces Java's type safe nature, especially when it comes to features introduced in Java 5 such as generics and annotations. You might think of Guice as filling in missing features for core Java. Ideally, the language itself would provide most of the same features, but until such a language comes along, we have Guice.

According to Jesse Wilson of the Google Developer Team, Guice is used in almost every Java based application at Google, including AdWords, Google Docs and GMail.

Version 2 of Guice provides many new features which are listed on the project's Wiki.

Packt today launches the new Packt Author of the Year 2009 Award, with the winner receiving a $1000 cash prize and a commemorative trophy.

The Packt Author Award 2009 is open to authors of all Packt books published during 2008, including revised editions of older titles. The first prize will be $1000 cash and a commemorative plaque.

"In April 2009, Packt Publishing reaches its fifth birthday," says Packt Editorial Director Louay Fatoohi. "We are leaving our preschool years behind and we wish to celebrate with a thank you present to our most essential asset – our authors”"

Packt’s first book was released in April 2004. Since then it has published over 200 titles in printed and electronic form. In total, Packt has published work from over 250 authors.

Packt will use an open vote to select five finalists from among the eligible authors. These finalists will have their work examined by a panel of judges, who will select the overall winner based on the quality of their work, and their contribution to the tech community.

This is the first time that a tech publisher has recognized the work of their authors in this way.

The judges are:
• Cristian Darie, an experienced author who has published titles with Packt, Wrox, Apress, and SitePoint
• Louay Fatoohi, editorial director for Packt Publishing
• Solveig Haugland, OpenOffice.org trainer, author, and founder of getOpenOffice.org
• Louis Suarez-Potts, OpenOffice.org Community Manager and Chair of the OOo Community Council

Readers who have enjoyed any of the Packt books published during 2008 should visit http://authors.packtpub.com/content/packt-author-award-2009 and place a vote for the author(s) of their favourite title.

DZone.com has just released the latest in its series of RefCardz. This latest cheat sheet is for IntelliJ IDEA 8.1.

The DZone Refcards are "Free Cheat Sheets for Developers" and provide a wealth of information on key topic of interest to many types of developers, including Java developers.

With this latest ref card, all of the popular Java IDEs are now covered:

• Getting Started With Eclipse
• NetBeans IDE Java Editor
• IntelliJ IDEA 8.1

There are now over 50 RefCardz available with more in the pipeline. The RefCardz schedule references future releases for JavaFX, JSF 2.0, Spring Dynamic Modules and Maven.

Packt is delighted to announce the launch of our Packt Author Website. Available at http://authors.packtpub.com, this new website is designed to be a one-stop resource for potential authors, covering all aspects of developing a book title – from the initial idea, right through to the editorial and publication processes that drive a book to market.

Packt Publishing is an IT publishing company that focuses on producing cutting-edge books for communities of Developers, Administrators, and Newbies alike. We develop books and publications that share the experiences of IT professionals in adapting and customizing today's systems, applications, and frameworks. Established in 2004, the company has published more than 230 titles.

The author website contains information on submitting title ideas, understanding the writing process, how our editorial team operates, and all Packt's latest news. There are articles on topics such as Why You Might Want to Write a Book, and Our History with Open Source. With regular updates from Authors, Packt Editors and the Marketing team, the site will develop into an invaluable resource for people who want to know more about writing for Packt, and how to make it happen.


Packt invites aspiring authors to visit the website at http://authors.packtpub.com. For more information, please write to us at author@packtpub.com.

Hi,

Here is an update on JAX India 2009, an International Conference on Java Technologies to be held in Bangalore between April 06 and 10.

1) Liferay, SAP, Signsoft, isc2 and many other companies have stepped in as sponsors to support the popular event.

2) Some of the renowned speakers, who have confirmed their participation, are:

*· Axel Angeli, Logosworld, SOA Evangelist
*· Neal Ford, Software Thinker, Meme Wrangler @ ThoughtWorks Inc.
*· Prakash G.R, Eclipse Platform UI Team, IBM
*· Harshad Oak, Rightrix Solutions
*· Chris Aniszczyk, IBM Lotus
*· Steven Bristol, Ruby on Rails Core Contributor,
*· Michael Johann, IT Consultant, Guru
*· Mike Keith, Java EE Expert @ Oracle Corp.
*· Kito Mann, Editor-in-chief of JSF Central and the author of JSF in Action
*· Ketan Padegaonkar, Consultant and Developer at ThoughtWorks
*· Craig Russell, Architect at Sun Microsystems

3) The agenda of the conference has been finalized to include following tracks and toopics

Java

*· Ten Ways to Destroy Your Object Relational Mapping Project
*· Don't Know Jack About Object-Relational Mapping?
*· What's new in Spring 3
*· Spring and JPA

Eclipse

*· Eclipse Commands
*· OSGi for Eclipse Developers
*· Single Sourcing: Extend your RCP Application to the Web with RAP
*· Eclipse User Interface Testing with SWTBot, Part 1
*· Eclipse User Interface Testing with SWTBot, Part 2
*· OSGi Service Platform by example
*· Open Source Java Persistence
*· Eclipse Modeling – Overview
*· Eclipse RT, the Runtime Project
*· Intro to Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform)
*· Advanced Eclipse RCP development

Architecture

*· Social Computing, Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 with Liferay.
*· So you want to be an Architect
*· Lucky Number 6 for Java EE
*· OSGi and Java EE: Friends or Foes?
*· Spring Dynamic Modules by example
*· Test-Driven Design
*· Unit Testing that Sucks Less: Small Things that Make a Big Difference

Web

*· Google Web Toolkit: Making a better Web
*· Writing Killer JSF 2.0 UI Components
*· JSF 2.0 in Action

SOA

*· Event Driven Architecture with Esper
*· The brave new world of cloud computing
*· Atomic Communication Patterns for the Enterprise Service Bus

Agile

*· Communication Skills for Geeks
*· Dynamic Languages
*· All About Merb
*· REST with Rails
*· Introduction to JRuby
*· Introduction to JRuby on Rails
*· Dive Into Grails

As you know, JAX India 2009 has been planned to meet the needs of IT professionals at every level. Whether you are a decision maker seeking to evaluate technologies or a developer looking for a window to latest developments or an entrepreneur pursuing business opportunities, JAX India 2009 is the right destination to head to.

For more information contact JAX Hotline:
Mobile: +91 98457 30380, 99867 17738, Tel: +91 80 41124392 / 93
Email: info@jaxindia.com
Website : www.jaxindia.com

With best wishes,
JAX Team

JBoss have released the first public beta of JOPR.

JOPR is described as "an enterprise management solution for JBoss middleware projects and other application technologies."

JOPR allows users to manage the application server and some third party products such as Hibernate, PostgreSQL, Tomcat and JMX Servers via a plugin system.

JBoss have released a "sneak peek" which includes details and screen shots of the new features. Amongst the features are many UI changes such as a navigation tree, subsystems view and a more streamlined UI.

Since this is a beta product, JBoss are asking for users to try the system and report feedback prior to the product being made available as GA.

Brussels, Belgium – JavaBlackBelt, a leader in Java learning and now powered by over 50,000 developers in its European community, today announced the opening of its web 2.0-based Java skills management services to enterprises in the US and India. Specifically, it has reached agreement with Boston-based Global Force DIRECT™ for distribution rights across these regions.

The JavaBlackBelt service, driven by crowd-sourcing/moderation, already offers the world’s most
comprehensive, state-of-the-art digest of Java skills questions. From the site, developers take online assessments served from the digest across seven levels and 19 categories. Managers access a rich set of online skill performance reports, learning path creation/tracking tools, and the ability to incorporate enterprise content into their Java skills management.

JGAP is a sophisticated Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming package written in Java.

JGAP version 3.4 is an enhancement release, driving Genetic Programming capabilities to a new level. Among the extensions are:
* A new popular example: Mona Lisa Painting Problem, available for GA as well as for GP
* Enhancement of evolution cycle of Genetic Programming
* Javadoc-enhancements and new JUnit tests
* Some bug fixes

This release can be downloaded here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11618&package_id=48940

For more information visit the JGAP homepage at http://jgap.sf.net

Klaus Meffert for the JGAP team