Oracle JDK 21 LTS Release: More Features from Loom, Panama, and Generational ZGC

Java 21 has arrived, and with it the latest implementation of Oracle's Java Development Kit (JDK). Oracle JDK 21 is a long-term support release (LTS) focused on serious performance improvements, stability enhancements, and security upgrades.

As an LTS release, JDK 21 will receive eight years of support from Oracle. The company also announced that it will provide support for Java 11 through "at least" January 2032. The eight-year extension was a response to "customer feedback in the Java ecosystem," said Sharat Chander, Director of Java SE Product Management at Oracle, in a blog post.

Posted by John K. Waters on September 27, 20230 comments

Waratek Adds Log4J Scanner and API Security to its Java Security Platform

The Java security specialists at Dublin-based Waratek have released a new Log4J Vulnerability Scanner and added API security to their Java Security Platform, the company announced recently.

Posted by John K. Waters on June 28, 20230 comments

One on One with Automated Software Testing Expert Phil Japikse

The upcoming Visual Studio Live 2-Day Hands-On Training Seminar (June 5-6, online), organized by the hard-working folks at 1105 Media (my boss) promises to be a killer opportunity for developers to update their skills and knowledge on an increasingly important topic with the potential to make their lives much easier: automated software testing.

Posted by John K. Waters on May 15, 20230 comments

Open-Source Leadership to the European Commission: CRA Rules Pose Tech and Economic Risks to EU

New cybersecurity rules for digital products proposed by the European Commission pose "unnecessary economic and technological risks to the European Union," according to a group of 12 open-source software leadership organizations.

In an open letter to the Commission published last week, the group stated: "We write to express our concern that the greater open-source community has been underrepresented during the development of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) to date and wish to ensure this is remedied throughout the co-legislative process by lending our support."

Posted by John K. Waters on April 27, 20230 comments

Microsoft Unveils Copilot-Assisted Future for Devs

Microsoft announced the next step in its evolving generative AI strategy on Thursday with news that its ubiquitous Office suite will soon support natural language (NL) interactions. But while NL-powered versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams are sure to grab mainstream headlines, developers learned that Redmond is also AI-enabling components of the Microsoft Power Platform with GitHub's Copilot tool.

Three of the four components that comprise the Power Platform—Power Apps (low/no code development), Power Automate (process automation, formerly "Flow"), and Power Virtual Agents (intelligent virtual bots)—will soon include "a Copilot experience."

Posted by John K. Waters on March 16, 20230 comments

My 'Conversation' with ChatGPT about What Devs Need to Know

I've been on this beat for a long time, and I can't remember a piece of software catching fire with the mainstream media—from cable news to late-night talk shows—quite like ChatGPT. The folks at OpenAI, which developed the conversational chatbot, claimed an increase of 1 million users in one week in December. Microsoft just announced a new multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment in the organization that "extends our ongoing collaboration." Needless to say, getting an interview with the folks at OpenAI has been a challenge…which is why I decided to pose some questions directly to the AI-driven natural language processing tool's public demo on the Web.

Posted by John K. Waters on January 24, 20230 comments

Welcome to the Fediverse!

An estimated 140,000 Twitter users have declared their intention to abandon the social media platform and move to the self-hosted social networking service Mastodon. According to some industry watchers, Mastodon has been growing by more than a million users per month since Twitter was acquired by Tesla founder Elon Musk. Last month, Mastodon reported (ironically, with a tweet) that the platform had just passed the two-million active user mark, bolstering its claim to being the largest decentralized social network on the Internet.

Posted by John K. Waters on December 12, 20220 comments

Class-Action Lawsuit Claims GitHub Copilot is Violating Open-Source Licenses

GitHub rolled out a slew of product announcements at its annual GitHub Universe developer conference earlier this month. As we reported, expanded access for business users of its Copilot AI pair programming service generated the loudest buzz. (The company calls the new offering "Copilot for Business.")

Posted by John K. Waters on November 22, 20220 comments

Java has a 'Commanding Lead' with App Log Data

New Relic just released its 2022 State of Logs Report, which captured the data gathered from millions of applications within the New Relic observability platform to provide an in-depth look at the use and management of logs.

The publication of a report on log data stats is not the sexiest tech news to cross my desk, but amid the Sturm und Drang of the current landscape the report's authors offer some appealingly quotidian insights into an activity that is, let's face it, critical to every business in every industry.

Posted by John K. Waters on October 16, 20220 comments