After Shockwave, Java is the most popular tool for developing free online games. It is a popular programming language which was developed by James Gosling during the 1990s. It is somewhat related to C but is much more simple, and is an object oriented language. Java was developed because C was considered to be too complex and when using it there were many errors.

C also lacked the ability for distributed programming. Gosling and his colleagues wanted to produce a system that could be used on various platforms, from computer to handheld devices. By 1994 Java begin to be used on the internet. They felt that the internet would become interactive, and this would be the perfect environment to use their programming language. They were right. Java has become one of the most well known platforms in use today on the internet.

Many developers of free online games have quickly realized its potential. While Shockwave has replaced Java as the most popular engine used for online games, Java is still the tool of choice among many developers. Java became very popular when Netscape decided to support the program with their browsers. Most people use Java by the “applets” which are supported by their online browsers.

Yahoo has often been credited with heavily using Java to produce online games. Yahoo games is the portion of their website in which players can play games by themselves or against other players. While most of these games are Java applets, others have to be downloaded onto the computer. Reviews are even featured where users can post their thoughts about the quality of the game. Yahoo is one of the most prominent promoters of free online games. Everything from fantasy sports to card games are available.

Despite this, there are some criticisms of the Java programming language. Shockwave has a 3D engine which is much more powerful, and many developers have chose it rather than Java. Others complain that it is not a very pure object oriented programming language. Those who dislike object oriented languages will not design free online games with Java. Programs written in Java may also run slower than programs written in other languages.

Despite these complaints, Java has become one of the most popular languages used for developing independent games. Advances in this language should allow it to produce games which are much higher in quality and graphical detail. Many popular games can be played at the Java website.

You’re not a programmer but you have a website. Would you like to add some JavaScript to it to make it look more dynamic and appealing? I have used JavaScript in many of the websites I have programmed, to do things that range from displaying today’s date to using Ajax. Of course I will not speak about Ajax in this article, Ajax would need an article on its own and is beyond the scope here. Just in case you’re wondering what Ajax is, it is a set of JavaScript instructions and classes that allow browsers to get information from a script in the server and update the page contents dynamically without having to reload the page. As I was saying, I will not discuss Ajax here. But I will share part of my knowledge and provide some ready-to-use code that you can easily add to your pages. The code pieces are independent, so you do not need to add them all. Each one works on its own. So let’s begin.

In case you’re wondering if you need anything special to run JavaScript, the answer is no. You just need your browser. The only trick is to have JavaScript enabled in the browser, which is how most people have it set.

I am not trying to teach you JavaScript here. I am just trying to provide you some snippets of code you can use directly of-the-shelf to enhance your pages.

Display today’s date

You can use this JavaScript small bit of code to display today’s date anywhere in the page. Just insert the code where you want the date to appear. Enclose all this code between script and /script tags.

var days = new Array(’Sunday’,'Monday’,'Tuesday’,'Wednesday’,'Thursday’,'Friday’,'Saturday’);

var months = new Array(’January’,'February’,'March’,'April’,'May’, ‘June’,'July’,'August’,'September’,'October’,'November’,'December’);

var d = new Date();

var weekDay = days[d.getDay()];

var month = months[d.getMonth()];

var day = d.getDate();

var year = d.getYear();

var suffix = ‘th’;

if (day == 1) suffix = ’st’;

else if (day == 2) suffix = ‘nd’;

else if (day == 3) suffix = ‘rd’;

document.write(weekDay ‘, ‘ month ‘ ‘ day suffix ‘, ‘ year);

This piece of code will display the date in this format: Monday, April 3rd, 2006 . If your site is in a language other than english, just replace the days and months names. You can replace the suffix letters so they don’t get displayed either, by changing ‘th’ to ”, ’st’ to ”, ‘nd’ to ” and ‘rd’ to ”. If you want to change how the date is displayed, to make it look like this, for example: Monday, 3 April 2006 , you need to move things around a little in the document.write line. This is how the document.write line should look to display the date in the format I just mentioned:

document.write(weekDay ‘, ‘ day ‘ ‘ month ‘ ‘ year);

You can notice we have removed the suffix part here.

If you’re wondering why would you like to display today’s date in the page, the answer I give you is: to provide your visitors the impression that your page is updated very often. That the page is up-to-date. Anyway, I think it is a nice touch.

Display a message in the status bar

You can use this small bit of JavaScript code to display a custom message in the browser’s status bar. Enclose all this code between script and /script tags.

window.status = ‘This is my message.’;

Paste this piece of code somewhere in the body of your page, and replace the This is my message text with the message you want to show.

You can combine both pieces of code and display today’s date on the status bar if you wish. Just use the code piece to display the date, and replace

document.write(weekDay ‘, ‘ month ‘ ‘ day suffix ‘, ‘ year);

with

window.status = weekDay ‘, ‘ month ‘ ‘ day suffix ‘, ‘ year;

There is much more you can do with JavaScript to implement dynamic functionality in your page, including animation and menus. You will find scripts on the web you can use for free to implement these, or you can get someone to program the exact utility you need. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these two snippets of code I provided today.

Java is a high level object oriented language. When we compile java code it first gets converted into highly efficient byte code by the java compiler. The generated byte code is then interpreted by a peace of software called java virtual machine.

What is java virtual machine? Java virtual machine is the software which interprets compiled java byte code and runs the java program. Java virtual machine is also known as JVM. As Java code is first compiled into byte code and then the java virtual machine interprets and runs the code, java has achieved the platform independence. Java virtual machine is available for almost all the platforms, right from windows to various handheld devices.

How Java Virtual Machine works ? JVM does not have any information regarding the programming language. It knows only binary format of the byte code. The class file generated by the java compiler contains the byte code in the format which JVM can understand. We can generate the byte code that adhers to this format in any programming language. Every java program must run within the boundries defined by the JVM. The code run inside the JVM can not go beyond the security constaints defined by the JVM. This is one of the reason why java application are considered as secure applications over internet.

World is shrinking and simultaneously technology is expanding. The latest to hit the technology bandwagon is java in mobile application. This technology is not new to the world but still many are unaware of it. Development of Java mobile applications requires expert programming personnel with sound understanding of the technology and usages. This is the reason why people and companies round the world prefer to go for outsourcing java work to other companies.

Softage is one of the leading information technology companies in Russia which has outshined its competitors in a very short span of time. Few years back no one ever thought that they will be using the phone with java compatibility but now it?s a reality. Java applications for latest cell phones and also the smart phones are riding high these days.

Now everyone round the globe want to use java compatible mobile phones as it adds enhanced functionality to the devices. But not everyone has the capability to exploit this technology as it involves a lot of research and sheer knowledge. That?s why people instead of trying themselves simply go for outsourcing java mobile application work to a professional. Using java application is a set of various stout integrated tools which are used for creating applications that minimize the development effort. Till now Nokia has successfully used this technology and the results have been awesome.

That?s why Softage provides complete java work and for that it has a range of tools that are specially designed for Java developers that make it effortless to competently create high-quality Java applications. This is the reason why, whenever anyone plans to go for outsourcing java, Softage is the first name that strikes the mind. There are various tools used in java applications and they are as follows:

? Eclipse IDE
? Series 40 Platform 2.0 SDKs.
? S60 Platform SDKs for Symbian OS, for Java.
? S60 Platform SDKs for Symbian OS, for Java.
? Series 80 Platform SDKs for Symbian OS, for Java

Moreover, it supports various key benefits such as:

? It supports industry leading Eclipse IDE
? It helps in development of MIDP and Personal Profile (PP) applications
? Moreover there is an additional MIDP development tools
? Last but not the least is the comprehensive support for PC-based testing of connected applications.

Thus, you can easily say that it is wise to go for outsourcing java instead of burning your own fingers. Softage?s expertise in java technology can provide complex and advanced solution your enterprise. Therefore what you are waiting for if you are looking for a company where you can go for outsourcing java then Softage is the best choice. For more information on outsourcing java, outsourcing java mobile application, java outsourcing, custom java programming and outsourcing software development please visit www.softage.ru.

Assertion facility is added in J2SE 1.4. In order to support this facility J2SE 1.4 added the keyword assert to the language, and AssertionError class. An assertion checks a boolean-typed expression that must be true during program runtime execution. The assertion facility can be enabled or disable at runtime.

Declaring Assertion

Assertion statements have two forms as given below

assert expression; assert expression1 : expression2;

The first form is simple form of assertion, while second form takes another expression. In both of the form boolean expression represents condition that must be evaluate to true runtime.

If the condition evaluates to false and assertions are enabled, AssertionError will be thrown at runtime.

Some examples that use simple assertion form are as follows.

assert value > 5 ; assert accontBalance > 0; assert isStatusEnabled();

The expression that has to be asserted runtime must be boolean value. In third example isStatusEnabled() must return boolean value. If condition evaluates to true, execution continues normally, otherwise the AssertionError is thrown.

Following program uses simple form of assertion

//AssertionDemo.java Class AssertionDemo{

Public static void main(String args[]){ System.out.println( withdrawMoney(1000,500) ); System.out.println( withdrawMoney(1000,2000) );

}

public double withdrawMoney(double balance , double amount){ assert balance >= amount; return balance - amount;

} }

In above given example, main method calls withdrawMoney method with balance and amount as arguments. The withdrawMoney method has a assert statement that checks whether the balance is grater than or equal to amount to be withdrawn. In first call the method will execute without any exception, but in second call it AssertionError is thrown if the assertion is enabled at runtime.

Enabling Assertion

By default assertion are not enabled, but compiler complains if assert is used as an identifier or label. The following command will compile AssertionDemo with assertion enabled.

javac -source 1.4 AssertionDemo.java

The resulting AssertionDemo class file will contain assertion code.

By default assertion are disabled in Java runtime environment. The argument -eanbleassertion or -ea will enables assertion, while -disableassertion or -da will disable assertions at runtime.

The following command will run AssertionDemo with assertion enabled.

Java -ea AssertionDemo or Java -enableassertion AssertionDemo

Second form of Assertion

The second for of assertion takes another expression as an argument.

The syntax is,

assert expression1 : expression2;

where expression1 is the condition and must evaluate to true at runtime.

This statement is equivalent to

assert expression1 : throw new AssertionError(expression2);

Note: AssertionError is unchecked exception, because it is inherited from Error class.

Here, expression2 must evaluate to some value.

By default AssertionError doesn’t provide useful message so this form can be helpful to display some informative message to the user.

Sun Java Certification exams are the best way to demonstrate your skills in Java technologies. These certifications are industry recognized and worldwide programs that focus on critical job roles in software application development and enterprise architecture. Sun’s philosophy is that certification is central to the learning process as it provides validation of skill sets required for the specific job roles.

Which certifications are available?

Sun offers the following certifications for professionals in Java technology:

- Sun Certified Java Associate (SCJA) - Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) - Sun Certified Java Developer (SCJD) - Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD) - Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD) - Sun Certified Developer for Java Web Services (SCDJWS) - Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer (SCMAD) - Sun Certified Enterprise Architect (SCEA)

The SCJA certification has only one exam that covers basic knowledge of OO concepts, the Java programming language and general knowledge of Java platforms and technologies. For more information, you can refer to SCJA exam details.

The SCJP certification, which is the most popular of all certification exams, is for programmers experienced in Java programming language. It has one exam that covers the fundamentals of the Java programming language. For more information, you can refer to SCJP exam details.

To achieve the SCJD certification, a candidate must successfully complete two elements: a programming assignment and an essay exam. This certification covers advanced Java concepts and APIs. For more information, you can refer to SCJD exam details.

The SCWCD certification is for developers specializing in the application of Java Server Pages and Servlet technologies used to present Web services and dynamic Web content. For more information, you can refer to SCBCD exam details.

The SCBCD certification is for Enterprise JavaBeans developers who are responsible for designing, developing, testing, deploying, and integrating EJB applications. For more information, you can refer to SCBCD exam exam details.

The SCEA certification is an advanced certification for professionals aspiring to be J2EE enterprise architects, who are responsible for designing and architecting J2EE compliant applications. For more information, you can refer to SCEA exam details.

The SCDJWS certification is for developers who create Web services for applications using Java technology components and the SCMAD certification is for developers who create mobile applications using Java technologies for cell phones or “smart” devices. You can find more information about these exams at SCDJWS exam and SCMAD exam . Top Which certification is right for me?

If you are planning to enter a career in application development or software project management using Java technology, SCJA would be the best choice.

Achieving the SCJP certification provides clear evidence that a programmer understands the basic syntax and structure of the Java programming language. If your aim is to demonstrate superior programming skills in J2SE, this certification would be right for you.

Once you have the basic certifications, you can pursue advanced certifications that help enable career growth into more specific job roles like Mobile Application Developer or Business Component Developer according to your area of interest. All the specialized certifications (other than the Enterprise Architect, which is an advanced certification) mandate you to be a Sun Certified Java Programmer as a pre-requisite. Summary Deciding to go for a Sun certification is a big step that demands dedication and effort.

To prepare for any of these certification exams, the candidate is recommended to have six to twelve months of work experience in the particular technology. Even for an experienced professional, an intensive study plan that focuses on the certification exam objectives is often necessary for success. Good Luck to all the Sun certification aspirants
About the Author

Seema Manivannan has a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical and Electronics and a PG in Advanced Computing. Her work experience of over eight years includes software development, teaching, and content development in Java and related technologies. She holds SCJA, SCJP, SCWCD, SCBCD, and IBM 484 (J2EE) certifications.

She has been with Whizlabs for over four years, where she has authored different exam simulators based on Sun certif

If you are a techno savvy and keeps a close eye on changing technology then you must have noticed that now more and more people are outsourcing java work. Java isn?t a new technology but it is slowly evolving. With each passing day new and modern changes are occurring and this field is gaining more popularity and importance. The complex methodology and management of java development makes outsourcing of Java to the organization with required expertise a preferred trend in the industry.

Outsourcing java work to an expert company not only ensures the quality but also professional product. The biggest advantage of outsourcing java is that it is very economical and also you don?t have to waste time in hiring people who are expert in this technology. In fact outsourcing java will help you in availing the services and technology of an expert. But prior outsourcing java work makes sure that the chosen company is best in the business and also holds years of IT experience. This is when Softage marks its importance.

Softage is Russia’s leading IT services provider having years of professional experience. Backed by years of experience Softage is the best company for outsourcing java work as it provides remote support and maintenance. Apart from that Softage primarily focuses on inventing innovative services that ensures high performance, high efficiency and cost effective development strategies. And all this is done in the given time line to meet the global competition requirements of its clients.

It is always advisable for outsourcing java to a company which houses experienced and technically qualified java professionals which ensures best services and that too in perfect quality. The biggest highlight of outsourcing java to Softage is that, Softage has devised an experienced management and efficient business policies that easily meet global requirements. Moreover, Softage is one such IT service provider in Russia that possesses the essential domain knowledge and simultaneously provides variety of services that are best suitable for your web development strategy and these services are powered by using Java and other advanced technologies.

Just about all of the contextual advertising services and many other types of services use JavaScript to include their ads on your website. This is great because it’s easy to put the code on your website, have ads running and then forget about it. But what about those users who have Javascript turned off?

Well first of all they won’t see anything. Your content that is below it will just move into the space and you won’t get credit for the adview or the chance to have a click or sale from that user. Analysis of my last 1 million unique visitors shows that 7.5% of them have JavaScript turned off.

7.5% of 1 million is 75,000 unique visitors! That’s 75,000 people who would be viewing the site without any ads and without me having a chance to monetize their visit in any way!

So, how can you solve this issue?

Well thankfully browsers have built into them an alternative tag for JavaScript and it’s called the *noscript* tag. This tag has been around forever and is nothing new. It also doesn’t modify existing JavaScript on your page and therefore can be implemented without violating any of the Terms of Service from Google, Yahoo, Chitika or any other services.

So how can you implement this into your page so that something will show where your ads normally do and what can you put there?

You can use any type of affiliate marketing or commission systems out there. The simplest is to place some Amazon books or products in the noscript code. You can see an example of how I did this with some code and some images of a website with Javascript turned on and off at: http://onlineads.diggersrealm.com/advertising/monetizing_from_those_with_javascript_turned_off.html

Here’s how you implement it. Using Google AdSense as an example, you place their code that they give you on your website. Then just below that you place a noscript set of tags. Inside those tags you place what you want to appear if the end user doesn’t have it Javascript turned on. I have included some books from Amazon in a simple table, but you can always put text links or other forms of advertising there.

You can include whatever you’d like in place of what appears. It doesn’t need to conform to the same size or width of the Google ad, so if you just want a 120×20 button or some text there that’s fine.

That’s about all there is to it.

About the Author: Dan Amato runs Inside Online Advertising a resource for getting the most out of the advertising on your website. It includes real world examples and references real websites.

Softage is one of the leading information technology companies in Russia which has outshined its competitors in a very short span of time. Few years back no one ever thought that they will be using the phone with java compatibility but now it?s a reality. Java applications for latest cell phones and also the smart phones are riding high these days.

Now everyone round the globe want to use java compatible mobile phones as it adds enhanced functionality to the devices. But not everyone has the capability to exploit this technology as it involves a lot of research and sheer knowledge. That?s why people instead of trying themselves simply go for outsourcing java mobile application work to a professional. Using java application is a set of various stout integrated tools which are used for creating applications that minimize the development effort. Till now Nokia has successfully used this technology and the results have been awesome.

That?s why Softage provides complete java work and for that it has a range of tools that are specially designed for Java developers that make it effortless to competently create high-quality Java applications. This is the reason why, whenever anyone plans to go for outsourcing java, Softage is the first name that strikes the mind. There are various tools used in java applications and they are as follows:

• Eclipse IDE
• Series 40 Platform 2.0 SDKs.
• S60 Platform SDKs for Symbian OS, for Java.
• S60 Platform SDKs for Symbian OS, for Java.
• Series 80 Platform SDKs for Symbian OS, for Java

Moreover, it supports various key benefits such as:

• It supports industry leading Eclipse IDE
• It helps in development of MIDP and Personal Profile (PP) applications
• Moreover there is an additional MIDP development tools
• Last but not the least is the comprehensive support for PC-based testing of connected applications.

Thus, you can easily say that it is wise to go for outsourcing java instead of burning your own fingers. Softage?s expertise in java technology can provide complex and advanced solution your enterprise. Therefore what you are waiting for if you are looking for a company where you can go for outsourcing java then Softage is the best choice. For more information on outsourcing java, outsourcing java mobile application, java outsourcing, custom java programming and outsourcing software development please visit www.softage.ru.

What in the world is going on in the marketplace? Technology is moving so fast that it is sometimes a little difficult to tell what is happening.

Let?s take a short trip back to the past.

It wasn?t too long ago that applications were designed, developed, and deployed on a single machine. For those of you that can remember the early days of the personal computer era, things like dbase, FoxBASE, and the like might ring a bell. Everything ran on the same machine — the user interface, the business rules, and the database services.

Then along came local area networks, which ushered in the era of clientserver applications. Now the user interface and the business rules sat on the PC and sent requests to a client-server DBMS such as Oracle or SQL Server, while on the server side, records were processed and results were returned to the client.

As LANs matured and their reliability improved, application development went through yet another evolution, namely, the advent of 3-tier architecture. This transformation resulted in the user interface, business rules, and data services each becoming its own independent logical element in the application architecture. The physical world may have implemented each element on a separate machine, but that was not required.

The main advantage of the 3-tier model is that business logic could now be broken up into components, where they could be used not only in one but many applications. Additionally, changes to business logic in the server did not require the calling party or client to change at all. In other words, the details of the implementation of business logic or the function is not important, as long as the way it is called and the type of information that it returns do not change. Let?s face it, the world is changing quickly and we need to be able to adjust without having to re-deploy.

Of course, the initial implementation of the 3-tier model (later to become the n-tier) was primarily on common machines and operating systems such as Intel, Windows, and Unix. Vendors each supported their own brand of components. Microsoft supported COM, followed by DCOM. IBM promoted CORBA, and Sun touted RMI. Each of these middle tier component flavors was proprietary and did not provide for inter-operability and communication among disparate pieces. In order for a Microsoft application to talk with a CORBA component another piece of software was required for translation. The same was true for apps trying to communicate with DCOM objects as well.

All of this made it difficult for diverse systems to talk to one another, creating an increasingly significant problem, as Internet business-tobusiness applications became the focus. The web, a relatively recent addition to the overall IT architecture, has dramatically changed the way we look at application development and correspondingly the deployment of
associated services.

If you log on to Land?s End, for example, it?s not unlikely that the underlying application will have to utilize components developed by a number of other parties such as AMEX, MasterCard, Visa, UPS, FedEx, along with a host of internal systems to provide the total consumer shopping experience.

Sun, with it?s Java language, was in the right place at the right time. Java?s ability to be compiled to byte code and run on any machine that had a Java Virtual Machine gave it portability. The fact that it was designed to be totally object oriented, target web-based applications, and observe security issues associated with distributed apps gave it tremendous appeal to corporate clients.

Visual Basic, on the other hand, earned its stripes in the Windows-based application development world. It?s easy to develop apps that leveraged the Window?s Operating System, and as it VB evolved it took on more and more features that made it increasingly object oriented, capable of creating reusable COM/DCOM objects, and a viable tool for web-based applications. Today, Microsoft claims that there are more than 3 million Visual Basic programmers in the world.

Introduced in 1991, Visual Basic has gone through 6 versions. Each oneincreased power, features, flexibility, and capability, leading up to two major programming languages — Java and Visual Basic, with each camp feeling that their product is better.

The fact is that language is not truly the key. The winner will be the framework/platform that enables the design, development, and deployment of applications and takes advantage of services or
components distributed throughout the web.

With the pending release of the next version of Visual Studio (of which VB is a part), Microsoft has decided to radically change the way that their language suite works. The next version of Visual Studio will be called Visual Studio.Net or VS.Net, and the next version of Visual Basic will be titled VB.Net. There are many new features and capabilities, but in my opinion, there are two major changes that will move Microsoft to the center stage.

First, VS.Net will be a common development environment into which C#,C , and VB along with about 14 other non-Microsoft languages will connect. Language will be a matter of preference. This is largely due to the fact that they will all compile down to the same level by utilizing a common run-time module. In addition, they will all share the same class libraries.

What this means is that an application comprised of components and services can be developed by a team of developers in several different languages with the assurance that it will all work together.

If one were to look closely, one could see that the general architecture that makes Java so popular is that the output of the compiler is not necessarily tied to the chip set or operating system. It would not surprise me if Microsoft made the run-time module, which is similar in nature to the Java Virtual Machine, available to the standards committees to be ported to other platforms. If this were to happen, VS.Net and VB.Net could take a major leap forward in the language race.

The second major event that parallels the introduction of VS.Net is the advent of SOAP. Remember our previous discussion concerning different types of components trying to work with each other? SOAP or Simple Object Access Protocol, is an open standard based on XML or Extensible Markup Language, that IBM, Sun, and Microsoft have agreed upon now makes it possible for components, developed with competing standards, to communicate. XML is used to describe the underlying elements of a class including the methods, associated arguments, and return values. While SOAP on the other hand, describes the interface including the path to the XML document. This will remove a significant obstacle to inter-operability in building applications using distributed web-services.

To summarize, Java and Visual Basic are currently in strong competition with one another. A recent check with ComputerJobs.Com shows that jobs requiring Java, Visual Basic, and C , the distribution is 55%, 35%, and 10%. With VS.Net/VB.Net, SOAP, and the freedom to choose language independent of platform, one can expect this distribution to shift from Java to non-Java languages. In fact, with VS.Net hosting almost 20 different programming languages (including a Java implementation from Rational) and compiling to a common byte-code level, personal preference will surely rule the day.