I don't see why should Sun give the settlement money to anyone? or fund any open sourcing efforts? The deal is between Sun and Microsoft; so the settlement too. The best thing that Sun should do is to revive (and restructure) themselves with the settlement prceeds, and take their own control of the Java platform, the way they want to steer it.

Lotta blowhard nonsense from the JavaLobby geeks. Go away if you don''t like what Sun does. Don''t use Java. In fact, all of you Java users go away if you don''t like what Sun does and give up Java.

I think we all need to realize that our beloved language is steadily approaching the downward curve in the language life cycle. Like most languages, it has bloated and is now adding features to make it too complex to be worth the effort for the wide group of developers it has reached. (Generics ... bleh.) No big deal, this is normal. It has been a good 10 years and soon ... soon, my friends, we will reach that terrible time of retraining in the Next Big Thing. Those of you too young to remember how this works, watch your elders and give them money.

But I want those diamonds. Mr. Kelly, you sound like a reasonable and trustworthy man. And I like always like to help a guy out. Can we talk about some of the details ... call me at home ... we''ll do lunch. I have many plain brown paper bags I can put at your disposal and I am sure we can work something out. Keep your chin up.

DEAR SIR,

MY NAME IS MR KELLY MUSA, SPECIAL DUTY ASSISTANT TO UNITA LEADER, JONAS SAVIMBI(DECEASED); ANGOLA''S JONAS SAVIMBI, LEGENDARY GUERRILLA LEADER OF UNITA (THE NATIONAL UNION FOR THE TOTAL INDEPENDENCE OF ANGOLA), WHO WAS KILLED BY COMMUNIST MPLA (POPULAR MOVEMENT FOR THE LIBERATION OF ANGOLA) FORCES IN COMBAT ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2002 .

PLEASE SEE SOME ANGOLA AND DIAMOND WEBSITES:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1839000/1839252.stm
http://www.the-idler.com/idler-02/3-16.html
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/tncs/angola.htm
http://www.un.org/peace/africa/diamond.html
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/subjindx/144diam.htm
http://www.idrc.ca/reports/read_article_english.cfm?article_num=1069
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/diamond/

IN ADDITION TO MY OFFICIAL JOB, I WAS ALSO IN CHARGE OF THE CONSOLIDATED BUDGET AND PERSONAL FINANCES OF THE LATE LEADER; THESE INCLUDE GIFTS,ANONYMOUS DONATIONS FROM INDIVIDUALS AND COUNTRIES; ALSO REVENUES FROM CRUDE OIL SALES AND DIAMOND/PRECIOUS STONES ETC.

WHEN UNITA FORTUNES AND CONDITIONS BEGAN TO DETERIORATE RAPIDLY, I TOOK THE PRECAUTION OF CONVERTING ALL LIQUID ASSETS INTO CUT DIAMONDS.
THE ESTIMATED VALUE OF THE DIAMONDS WHICH HAVE FULL GIA (GEMMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA) CERTIFICATION IS USD 75 MILLION (CALCULATED AT CURRENT AVERAGE MARKET PRICE OF USD2,500.00 PER CARAT). GRADED FROM GIA SCALE D TO M;EMERALD, HEART, MARQUISE, OVAL, PEAR, PRINCESS, RADIANT AND TRIANGLE(TRILLION) SHAPES; THE DIAMONDS ARE IN SMALL CARATS WHICH ARE VERY EASY TO BROKER.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR ME, AFTER JONAS SAVIMBI''S DEATH, MY PERSONAL SAFETY AND LIFE CAME UNDER THREAT BY GOVERNMENT SECURITY AGENTS, WHO PROMPTLY SEIZED MY INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT, AND FROZEN MY BANK ACCOUNTS. I EVENTUALLY THROUGH OUR SPECIAL CONTACT SHIPPED THROUGH A COURIER COMPANY THE DIAMOND CACHE WORTH ABOUT USD75 MILLION (CURRENT STREET VALUE) AND CASH MONEY OF USD 45 MILLION TO A NEARER COUNTRY COTE D'' IVOIRE , WHERE IT IS PRESENTLY KEPT IN A COURIER COMPANY´S BOUNDED WAREHOUSE (FULL INFORMATIONS TO BE DISCLOSED LATER TO YOU ON CONFIRMATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE TO ASSIST ME. I BELIEVE THE TIME IS NOW RIPE TO CLEAR THE DIAMONDS AND THE CASH MONEY TO SAFETY, AND I NEED YOUR HELP AND ASSISTANCE.

NOTE: THE COMPANY DOES NOT KNOW THE EXACT CONTENT OF THE BOX, AS THE CONTENT WAS DECLARED TO BE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS AND VALUABLES. THE SHIPMENT WAS DONE WITH DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY [NOT TO BE INSPECTED BY ANY AUTHORITY].

IF YOU AGREED TO HELP ME, THEN YOUR SHARE WILL BE 30% IN DIAMONDS OR USD 22.5 MILLION MINIMUM NET AFTER THE DIAMONDS ARE SOLD.

THERE IS NO RISK IN THIS VENTURE; AND BECAUSE THE DIAMONDS ARE FULLY CERTIFIED, YOU WILL NOT BE BREAKING YOUR COUNTRY´S OR INTERNATIONAL LAW!

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED AND PREPARED TO ASSIST ME, PLEASE SEND ME IMMEDIATELY THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

(1) YOUR COMPLETE NAME;
(2) YOUR FULL ADDRESS;
(3) YOUR TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS.

Thanks as I wait to hear from you soon.

Your''s SINCERELY,
MR. KELLY

Thanks for the comment, Mozilla User. For a while, I thought it was just something wrong with my system...
I think we all have to remember that companies will do what is in their best interest first. Altruistic and magnanimous actions come after the bottom line is achieved. As others have posted, it is imperative on the Java community to come together and demonstrate that Java can deliver superior performance and ease-of-use than Microsoft technologies, while additionally maintaining cross-platform ease.

My $0.02 (Cdn)

"Swing is the wrong focus as well. How can Java possibly compete with Flash? As soon as developers take a serious look at MX Studio they won''t look back."

That's just FUD. The real Swing competitor is SWT.

Despite I agree with the author. I see Sun
doesn''t have any economical advantage but
marketing on Java carrying Sun''s name along with.

They tried do do like ibm, an use free software
to sell they machines, but they weren''t so
competent on it too. But then they also hurt
Solaris

So while blood floods, they could thing no other
way, they had already sacrificed their OS, now
they will put windows on it and try to sell
their machines. Like IBM did, but with linux...

They couldn''t make java free, and this was the
reason, Java was the only flag on advanced
champs which annoys microsoft, since their .net
toy doesn''t work, but only works by marketing.
People put it on their business and may happily
shake the .net confetti to their customers
(people and enterprise of those which buy
computer by its GHz, not the real throughput
benches) and think they use the better
technology. M$ couldn''t let they discover they
are throwing out money for something that
doesn''t even work well.

So if they had left java free, they wouldn''t
have anything to sell to M$.

I heard some days ago a professor saying about
what is today something like NASA. NASA is an
marketing agency, sounds terrible, but, if they
doesn''t work on getting the beautiful photos and
interesting stories, they won''t get the money
they need for the real research, the things
which will on future end benefit us. Sad, but
that''s real.

Sun needs M$ marketing to sell their machines,
Linux on their machines had hurt Solaris, and
Java as it is today, isn''t their technology
anymore, they just own the word "java". Even ibm
calls it''s product Websphere with much more
success, not java, so none other the technical
field people knows about java.

But on end I''m worried about M$ plans on killing
Java, first they put it into their own ground,
then they make everything work so well around
java on their windows machines, but java. They
already bought apple for stopping java spread...

Well, if that happens, and since the money M$
gave to Sun only to will keep it alive won''t go
to Java, since this goes against M$ interests,
one of these things could still save us, and our
long investments on learning java. First, Sun
doesn''t let M$ kill java (!!? Sun is almost
died), Second, Sun makes java free and doesn''t
leave this for M$ blood suckers. Or last, the
real Java technology players, jcp workers, joint
around classpath, and just leave the
empty "java" word for Sun, and M$ to put the
empty package on their heads.

Again SYS-CON

shows its

unwillingness

to support

open source

projects like

Mozilla.

For those of you

who read this

article using

Mozilla, you would

understand that

reading long articles

in narrow columns

is most annoying.

The conduct is worrisome, and what''s at stake is the value of the Java platform.

Swing is the wrong focus as well. How can Java possibly compete with Flash? As soon as developers take a serious look at MX Studio they won''t look back.

> It was first reported in The Register, which said he was > quitting Sun in "disgust." Sun's people got hold of the > story and quickly re-spun it to be just "coincidental
> timing." I don't know which angle, if either, is closer > to the truth.

..well, you say you worked closely with Rich, so you know him and can ask him, right? Or, would that be "focusing on the wrong issue"? ;-)

> What does Sun stand for, now?

Perhaps they just intend to attempt to defeat Microsoft in the marketplace and on the strength of their products, rather than in the courtroom?

Not that from looking at the public information they seem to have a terribly clear plan on how to do so, mind you, but it's a theory that settling their lawsuits would be in no way inconsistent with.

McNealy had presented the fight in apocalyptic terms: "Mankind vs Microsoft."

Sun staff must be wondering if the company, which defined itself by its opposition to Microsoft, has a reason to exist.

What does Sun stand for, now?

McNealy finally grew up, and therefore Sun's corporate policy with respect to Microsoft finally grew up. They were fighting a losing battle against the software titan and Linux--and McNealy must have known this for a long time, because the deal recently struck with Microsoft had actually been in the works for a good long while. Corporate contacts were reportedly telling him to grow up, and it looks as if he has, if not in spirit, then at least in practice.

They are a power player and have no intention of fading away, and they have invested far too much in Java to let it fade away either. And regarding Java itself, there are great things that both Sun and Microsoft have done for it (from a purely objective standpoint of programming, this is very true, and if you can''t see that, you're blinded by dogma). The agreement between Sun and Microsoft is specifically designed to facilitate interoperability, and of course this includes Java, and Java components and applications.

Java is being driven largely by other companies... IBM, BEA, Oracle, and Borland... I don't see that Sun makes a lot on Java. The real competitor to Windows is and always will be Linux not Java