The Star Trek universe has inspired many technology ideas but I'm disappointed I don't have a transporter yet. One Star Trek technology that has been available for sometime is the particle system. No, this is not an exotic propulsion system for your flying car. The particle system was invented to animate the Genesis effect in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. While the Genesis device was used to transform a barren planet into one full of life, we can adopt this technology for more modest effects in Java3D.

I'm really jazzed about Java 5.0! We've been treated over the years to incremental improvements in JVM performance. JDK 1.2 brought us the collections framework as well as Swing, the thread context class loader, and improvements in RMI. JDK 1.3 and 1.4 continued in the same vain with logical improvements to libraries, JVM enhancements, and performance upgrades. Although this article doesn't intend to take trip down memory lane, it's important to understand that Java 5.0 brings a truly remarkable and rich set of new tools to our programming landscape as compared to other JDK releases.

'Ten years after we officially launched Java in May 1995, our dream of a ubiquitous software platform to power a networked world has actually come true,' writes SpikeSource CEO Kim Polese as she looks back on the early days of Java, in which she played an integral part. 'Today, some form of Java runs on 1.4 billion devices,' she continues, 'and there are more than 4.5 million Java developers worldwide.'

'In the first year, we've moved from the courtroom to the computer lab. Now we're moving from the lab to the market.' So said Steve Ballmer, referring to relations between Microsoft and Sun, as the two companies announced a series of measures to enhance product interoperability, including the development of new specifications that enable Web single sign-on (SSO) between systems that use Liberty and WS-* Web service architectures.

The Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) is a set of packages that enable secure Internet communications. It implements a Java version of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols. It includes functionality for data encryption, server authentication, message integrity, and optional client authentication.

Apache members have voted to create a Java virtual machine, to be available under the Apache open-source license, that will enable Java to run on Windows PCs.

Leonid Reiman, Russia's Minister of Information Technologies and Communications, outlined what he termed a 'comprehensive' new government program to make Russia a leading player in the global IT market. Speaking in London, Reiman said that 'the program is an integral part of the government's strategy to shift Russia away from dependency on fuel exports toward a knowledge- and service- based economy.'

The reason .NET 'presses a lot of the right buttons,' writes Duncan Mills, is that: 'It's a Meta-Framework - a one-stop shop.' In the J2EE world, on the other hand, while there is no doubt that there are a lot of fantastic point solutions and frameworks out there, as standalone islands of functionality they have a much harder sell in the corporate market. 'Are fully fledged meta-frameworks possible in the open standards J2EE space?' Mills asks, then goes on to show why in his view the answer is yes.

Yakov Fain reaches Lesson 11 in his popular 'Java basics' series. This time he deals with how and why Java programmers working on large projects that have lots of classes usually organize them in different packages; and explores the new element introduced in Java 5.0 called static imports.

Instantiations Inc. aims to enable developers to create 'elegant' swing form windows with its new WindowBuilder Pro 4.0 software. WindowBuilder Pro installs into any Eclipse-based development tool, including Rational Application Developer, and provides a Java GUI construction environment.

Back in October 1996, in an attempt to eliminate the need for this bloated syntax, Microsoft introduced an object-oriented method pointer into J++ called a 'delegate.' Sun Microsystems, citing the delegate as language pollution, sued Microsoft a year later for violating its Java license agreement. Had the delegate become part of Java, would Swing programming be easier? Could that technique have solved many of the Swing threading headaches that we're faced with today?

Last month I took a trip down memory lane, revisiting the history of J2SE. Apart from trying to remember key events, squeezing 10 years of history into one page was a challenge. I had to relegate many significant technologies to a sentence or two and some I didn't cover at all. However, looking at the future of Java is like looking at NASA's Apollo plans after the first walk on the moon.

Google is giving people the ability to upload video files and send them across the Internet.

At the Open Source Business Conference taking place today in San Francisco, Sun's President and COO, Jonathan Schwartz emphasized that 'free' equates not to 'no revenue' but instead to 'more opportunity to create revenue.'

Now that Yahoo! Mail has matched the Gmail offer of 1GB storage to its free e-mail customers, Google is doing the obvious thing and pulling ahead again, reopening 'the one-gig gap' between its Gmail service and all-comers.

Since Adobe released the first public PDF Reference in 1993, a number of PDF utilities and libraries, supporting all kinds of languages and platforms, have been made available to users and developers alike. However, support for Adobe's technology has lagged in Java application development.

Having already spent $111M acquiring PeopleSoft, Oracle has now taken charges in its latest quarter in connection with the acquisition so substantial that its quarterly earnings dropped 15%. We are beyond satisfied,' Oracle Co-President Safra Catz nevertheless told reporters, adding: 'We are thrilled with how it is going.'

Barry Diller, owner of Expedia.com, CitySearch and dating site Match.com, is adding Ask Jeeves to his portfolio of Internet properties. In 2004, Ask Jeeves reported pro forma revenue of $314 million, up 63% year-over-year.

This year will mark the tenth anniversary of the official launch of Java technology. It seems like only yesterday. No doubt there will be celebrations similar to the five-year anniversary, so I thought I would take this opportunity to step back in time and track Java's course.

In an acquisition that, combined with IBM's middleware portfolio, will strengthen its leadership in key on demand initiatives such as business intelligence, business performance management, business transformation, multi-channel commerce, RFID, merger and acquisition consolidation, master data management, and regulatory compliance, IBM this morning announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a leading provider of enterprise data integration software, Ascential Software, in an all cash transaction at a price of approximately $1.1 billion or $18.50 per share.

'One of the thing that Web services does is open up your internal business applications to the outside world, to other business partners, or to your employees...so security becomes a very important aspect because basically you are managing your business in the open,' JCP Program Chairperson Onno Kluyt told SYS-CON.TV (http://www.sys-con.tv) in an interview about standards, security, and the Java Community Process program.

'We do plan to ease the commercial use restrictions on the Java source code, but I will not comment any further on that,' said Sun's Matt Thompson last week, in a Technical Exchange panel discussion called 'Empowering Software R&D with Open Communities' held in the Hyatt Regency Harbor Room at the EclipseCon 2005 conference.

Although some folks were predicting a 'bloodbath,' the App Server Shoot-Out at Web Services Edge 2005 in Boston did not result in any serious injuries. Instead, Anne Thomas Manes, VP and Research Director at Burton Group, brought together representatives from a wide assortment of application server vendors for a lively panel conversation.

Saying that its support of the open source scripting language PHP does not reflect any dissatisfaction with Java, IBM is partnering with Zend Technologies to create Zend Core, a bundling of IBM's Cloudscape database based on Apache Software Foundation Derby and Zend's open source PHP environment.

'One of my resolutions this year is to start teaching part-time Java-related classes in some college,' writes JDJ editorial board member Yakov Fain. 'That's why I started browsing the computer science course lists that are being offered this year. While graduate-level programs offer many interesting courses, the situation is different in the undergrad world.'

Extreme Programming (XP) has been an accepted form of software development for about eight years now. Many of the concepts found in this lightweight method of development have been implemented into the software shops without even the awareness that they were XP techniques. XP takes many of its fundamentals from other iterative development methodologies, including RAD and JAD.

As open source technology is gaining more popularity in the press and among the general population, there still seems to be a lack of knowledge of what is available via open source amid many software development projects. While the mainstream media and the average computer user thinks of Linux whenever the term open source is brought up, this article looks at the amazing wealth of technology available to Java software development teams.

IBM has announced the results from its 2004 Global Business Security Index Report and provided an early look at potential security threats in 2005.

What does Apple have in common with Google, Ikea, Starbucks, and Al Jazeera? Answer: it has been rated one of the 'most influential brands of 2004' in a survey of about 2,000 advertising executives, brand managers and academics, conducted by the online magazine, Brandchannel. In fact, Apple came in at No. 1 - edging out Google, that took the top slot in the same survey one year ago.

An 'Internet advertising agency' last November successfully registered the domain name OpenJava.org, leading to speculation that Sun has no immediate plans to follow up on its OpenSolaris.org strategy with a similar open-sourcing of Java.

The recent HP management re-org have prompted recent concerns over Carly Fiorina and her performance, particularly in that this re-org slammed the company's underperforming PC business into its perenially successful printer division, a move that could, as the thinking goes, drag down the entire combined division. Fiorina, reports West Coast Bureau Chief Roger Strukhoff, is facing 'a skeptical business press' including an article in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle by Benjamin Pimentel.

In a passing remark about how 'there may someday be a redistributable JVM RPM at jpackage,' a mailing list last week prompted new speculation that IBM's version of open-source Java might be on its way since 'someday' - apparently - 'may even be next week.'

'Sunshine returned recently to Silicon Valley after two weeks of Seattle-like storms and overcast skies,' writes our West Coast Bureau Chief, Roger Strukhoff, reporting from from Mountain View, CA. 'Now comes news of fair weather for Mountain View-based Mozilla's Firefox browser, which is reportedly eating up as much as one percentage point per month of the browser market recently dominated by that dour giant from the grey Northwest.'

Up to 5,000 Oracle/PeopleSoft employees are about to be fired. 'What's not known,' write Roger Strukhoff and Matt Vande Voorde, reporting direct from Pleasanton, CA yesterday, 'is how many of those jobs will be plucked from the sprawling PeopleSoft campus, which dominates the Hacienda Business Park in Pleasanton and is a major employer and economic driver in this region.'

Although Larry Ellison has promised Oracle will be supporting PeopleSoft's products for the next 10 years, that hasn't blunted his determination to dispense with a huge number of its employees. When the stock market closes today, Oracle will announce the casualty figures, certain to be 'several thousand' according to rumors and likely to be as many as 4,500.

With PeopleSoft finally in its pocket, reports Maureen O'Gara, Oracle is expected to start firing people wholesale today, January 14. Some 6,000 people, mostly PeopleSoft folk, roughly 11% of the total headcount - perhaps as much as 25%-50% of PeopleSoft's staff - are initially supposed to be cut from the combined companies.

Did the geek-fest just finished in Las Vegas, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2005, herald the return of technology and the beginning of the 'post-PC' world?

Having written about Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) programming for almost five years now, I've been frustrated by the slow adoption of the J2ME platform, as have many of the early devotees. Those of us who saw Sun demonstrate Java running on Palm OS back in 1999 were hoping that the wireless Java revolution was just around the corner. The introduction of J2ME generated a lot of hype and excitement (and confusion) in the Java development community.

'Stop saying that 'Java is not Open Source,' and realize that 'Sun's implementation is not open source.' Even better, stop saying that 'Our implementation is open source,' it is not you know that, and this is OK, we're not blaming you, we want to work with you.' As part of our end of year round-up of the Best of 2004, read Bruno Souza's answers to Sun's Onno Kluyt, who earlier this year asked what the open-sourcing of Java would make possible that people can't already do today with Java.

No sooner had we begun our reader-driven quest for the top twenty software people in the world than - by popular acclaim, as they say - we're going to extend the field to choose from...from forty to over a hundred. Here we bring you a sneak peek at the sixty contenders that we'll be adding now to the poll, with thanks to everyone who has proferred suggestions. Even 100 won't do this subject justice, but it will be interesting to see how the i-Technology community decides to rank them, when voting on this new, expanded group begins in February.