Last month, Oracle dropped Java 22, adding a fresh batch of performance, stability, and security features to the venerable programming platform. This latest iteration introduces 12 JDK Enhancement Proposals (JEPs) aimed at refining everything from the Java language to its array of development tools. Though not a long-term support (LTS) release (the next LTS is Java 23), this release is a significant upgrade that includes new features focused on better enabling the use of Java for building AI applications.
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Posted by John K. Waters on April 10, 20240 comments
When I first began using the term "prompt engineering" last year, I thought the eye rolling would knock the planet off its axis. I got a similar reaction a dozen years earlier when I proposed writing a book on "social media" to an east coast publisher. And don't get me started on the initial feedback on "the cloud."
Technology nomenclature is a writhing beast, and prompt engineering hit the zeitgeist like a breaching humpback soaking eager whale watchers. This discipline, essentially undifferentiated before the precipitous rise of ChatGPT and other advanced machine learning large language models (LLMs) we're calling "AI," is now commanding a salary range of between $250k and $375k USD, according to Forbes
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Posted by John K. Waters on October 9, 20230 comments
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.
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Posted by John K. Waters on September 27, 20230 comments
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.
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Posted by John K. Waters on May 15, 20230 comments
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."
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Posted by John K. Waters on April 27, 20230 comments
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."
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Posted by John K. Waters on March 16, 20230 comments
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.
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Posted by John K. Waters on January 24, 20230 comments
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.
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Posted by John K. Waters on December 12, 20220 comments