Retirement Calculator

I updated and installed a Retirement Calculator servlet that I wrote back in 1999. The source code is available.

Switched to LGPLv3

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) recently published version 3 of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPLv3). This update to the popular non-viral Open Source license covers patent usage, implied but not explicit in previous versions. It also blocks "tivoization" which is described in the FSF release announcement.

Today I switched the Open Source license for the CroftSoft Code Library over to the LGPLv3 since I think preventing tivoization is a good idea. I can foresee that in the near future it will become more common to have code running in devices within or permanently attached to our bodies, especially as neuroprosthetics technology advances. Having the option to modify this code seems like it should be a basic right.

CroftSoft Skipper

Today I published CroftSoft Skipper. Like the previously released CroftSoft Slideshow, CroftSoft Skipper will display a slideshow of the photos on your computer. The feature that makes CroftSoft Skipper smart is "skip weighting": when you skip a photo you do not like, that photo is less likely to be randomly selected for display in the future.

Enumerated Accessors

As an update to the "Persistent Data" chapter in my book Advanced Java Game Programming, I have written a new tutorial, Enumerated Accessors. Data management and persistence are simplified by using new features that have been added to the Java programming language such as enumerated types and JAXB.

Wireshark

I recently used the Open Source packet sniffer Wireshark to decode a custom client-server protocol for relaying telemetry data. Without the use of the packet sniffer, I might have been stuck with no way to progress. I have added Wireshark to my list of Links to useful free and Open Source software development tools.

Interface Seq

I wrote a tutorial for Inteface Seq, a Java interface I created to provide read-only access to a sequence such as an object array or a List.

World Community Grid

My new development desktop has two quad-core processors. I was feeling a little inefficient with all of this computing power sitting around mostly unused so I decided to revisit distributed computing projects. In particular, I was interested in contributing my idle CPU cycles to biomedical research. I settled on the World Community Grid with the Open Source BOINC client.

Mozilla Firefox 2

The web browser Mozilla Firefox 2 was released last week. It is included in my list of useful Open Source software on the CroftSoft Links webpage.

Interface Slot

I wrote a Java programming tutorial on Interface Slot, a new interface class to be used as a mail slot for receiving messages to be processed, stored, or relayed.