A new version of VisualVM, the tool that makes visualizing the performance of Java SE applications easier, has just been released. Looking at the release notes VisualVM 1.3 has several new features and enhancements:

• Sampler added to core tool
• Sampler and Profiler presets
• Remote Heap Dumps
• Monitoring of remote hosts
• Custom sorting of hosts, applications, coredumps and snapshots
• New Tracer framework for probes
• New Threads Inspector plugin

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Following on from the problems that Eclipse users were experiencing with Java 6 Update 21, Oracle has rebuilt the release. If you look at the release notes it's now up to build 7. This build regresses the rebranding of the files' Company Name from "Oracle" back to "Sun Microsystems, Inc.".

This should mean that any Eclipse users who haven't upgraded to Java 6 Update 21 won't notice any problems when they do and for those who started using build 6 you can just download and reinstall with the latest Java update. It also gives Eclipse (and any other similarly affected applications) a chance to update their code in time for the release of JDK 7 when the rebranding changes will go ahead.

The annual JVM Summit is due to start in a couple of days (July 26-28, 2010) at Oracle's Sun Santa Clara campus. It's a chance for VM implementers to get together and talk about (amongst other things) the latest JVM optimizations for Java and other programming languages. A full schedule can be found on the JVM Summit wiki. The presentations will be recorded and uploaded at some point in the future. In the meantime, if you want to see what was presented in 2009 the videos are still on the InfoQ site.

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Just a bit of heads up if you're experiencing application crashing and "PermGen space" errors when using Eclipse with the latest Java 6 update 21 release. A minor rebranding change by Oracle has unexpectedly caused a bit of a headache for developers.

You can find out the full details on InfoQ in Eclipse and Java 6u21 problems along with a link to a very simple workaround fix. Oracle have regressed the change for the next Java 6 release and won't implement it again until JDK 7.

Edit (July 27, 2010): See Java 6 Update 21 Build 07 Released.

Through a three-part video series, Oracle has enlisted the help of aliens to get the message out about JavaOne to the developers on this planet. Episode one sees Kar-Rek, from the planet Lu-Zor, appearing on Earth to find out about Java - he needs to learn more in order to save his planet. So, if you do end up going to JavaOne this year it might be a good idea to keep a look out for some pointy ears. You never know when you could be mingling with developers from another planet. Incidentally, if you can't wait for the other episodes to be posted you might be able to find them on Oracle's Media Network...

Remember early bird registrations for JavaOne end today!

Baptiste Wicht on his blog has noticed that there has been an update to the proposal for the introduction of lambda expressions (closures) to Java. The proposal, State of the Lambda posted by Brian Goetz...

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Seeing as there's just been a new Java release it seems a good time to give a thought to downloading malware. Jerome Segura, over at the Malware Diaries gives a report about a bogus domain name that offers a "java update". The bogus download is a malware that will do your computer no good at all.

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JDK 6 Update 21 is now available to download from Oracle's SDN downloads page. Looking at the release notes Java SE 6 update 21 is a performance and bug fix release. It also includes the latest versions of the Java Hotspot VM (v17.0) and VisualVM (v1.2.2).

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If you're a regular visitor to the Sun Developer Network you should notice a bit of change on July 19th. Oracle will be merging "all non-obsolete content" found on java.sun.com and developers.sun.com across to the Oracle Technology Network site. Also moving is the system administrator's resource -BigAdmin. The assimilation does not automatically make SDN members Oracle Technology members. It also does not include the forums, wikis or blogs - their migration is a separate process sometime in the future.

More information about the merging of sites can be found in the official Big Website Merge FAQ.

There's a good interview over on the NetBeans Zone with Kirk Pepperdine talking to Geertjan Wielenga. In it he gives insights on the work he does to find performance issues in applications. Rather than diving straight into the code he looks for what he calls the "dominating consumer" through the use of profiling tools.

Kirk will be sharing his performance tips at JavaOne in a talk called Performance Tuning with Cheap Drink and Poor Tools.

In case you missed it, the new version of Eclipse was released last week. Helios (or if you prefer Eclipse v3.6) is the epic culmination of "39 different project teams, over 33 million lines of code are released and the work of 490 committers". It can be downloaded from the Eclipse site in 12 different packages depending on your development needs.

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If you're thinking about going to JavaOne but haven't registered yet don't forget that early bird registrations end on July 16th. After that the $400 discount is no longer offered.

You might also be interested in the news that the Java University will be running on the day after the main conference finishes. This is one of the conference add-ons that can be purchased with the registration. There are four full day courses or six half day courses available to choose from.

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Java has been given some wheels and is having a road trip across America, from coast to coast, to demonstrate some of its features - JavaFX, Java in embedded devices and more. Who's driving the Java bus? Well, Oracle is, in an effort to show its commitment to taking Java forward. There's already been a couple of stops but if you're interested there is still a chance to catch the roadshow in several cities:

• June 24th Burlington, MA
• June 26th Providence, RI
• June 28th Washington, DC
• July 2nd Charlottesville, VA

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Oracle’s Java Bus originally appeared on About.com Focus on Java on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 at 22:00:42.

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NetBeans 6.9 has officially been released and is available to download at the usual NetBeans page. Check out the release notes for any known issues and workarounds.

This release includes

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NetBeans 6.9 Released originally appeared on About.com Focus on Java on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 19:52:27.

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If you interested in developing applications using JavaFX TV you should have a look at the Tips for Developing on the JavaFX TV Platform article that's on the JavaFX website. It covers:

• typical JavaFX TV applications
• tips for programming with JavaFX TV
• the JavaFX TV user interface controls

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JavaFX TV Development Tips originally appeared on About.com Focus on Java on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 at 17:48:46.

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If you're going to the JavaOne conference you can now figure out the sessions you want to see. The JavaOne content catalog is up and ready for searching. The content catalog enables you to search by the individual Java tracks:

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JavaOne 2010 Sessions Online originally appeared on About.com Focus on Java on Friday, June 4th, 2010 at 07:00:19.

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The final version of NetBeans 6.9 can't be far away as the NetBeans 6.9 Release Candidate 2 is available to download. The release notes outline

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NetBeans 6.9 RC 2 Released originally appeared on About.com Focus on Java on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 10:00:50.

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The latest version of Robocode has just been released and is available to download from its SourceForge project. There's been a host of bug fixes and a few changes (including the ability to build robots using .NET). To see what's been fixed and changed, read through the beta 1, beta 2, and beta 3 posts.

Also, you can now

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Robocode 1.7.2.0 Released originally appeared on About.com Focus on Java on Sunday, May 30th, 2010 at 16:18:38.

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The Eclipse Foundation has found a home on Google Code for hosting open source projects based on the Eclipse Platform. Eclipse Labs offers the usual code repository and issue tracking for each project. The idea is to allows projects to gain exposure within the Eclipse community and potentially become an official Eclipse

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Eclipse Labs originally appeared on About.com Focus on Java on Friday, May 21st, 2010 at 08:07:12.

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Apple have released Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 2 (along with the corresponding Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 7). This is a security update release that correlates to security fixes made up to the latest Java (6 update 20) release from Oracle.

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Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 2 originally appeared on About.com Focus on Java on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 22:00:02.

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