Netbeans

All is working, it seems a nice IDE even though I fail to understand how to make a GUI and none of the Java tutorials are very good.

All the Java tutorials either go into the very basics of what a variable is or they go into a whole load of theory and not very much actual programming.

Safe to say that Sun Microsystems site sucks in every possible way.

I wouldn't recommend NetBeans to others either, it may be somewhat interesting but it's a hassle to get it going right.

Smilies

=) =/ =\ =| =( =D =P =x =o =O -_- ^_^ o_o x_x ^-^ >_> XD :) :( :/ :S :x :[ :\ :< :> D: :D :'(

NetBeans/JDK Update

Well, it appears I actually downloaded the JDK this time but it turns out that NetBeans 5.5 wont look for JDK 7 and that I need to have JDK 5 or 6 installed.

Needless to say this is starting to frustrate me, especially since NetBeans lacks an option to manually search for a JDK.

Now on to downloading JDK 6 I suppose. If this doesn't work i'm going to give up on Java for at least this year.

JDK Update

Great, so I FINALLY finish a 30MB download of what I thought was the JDK7 download.
Ho, Ho, Ho, I was foolish to believe that a download on the JDK7 DOWNLOAD PAGE, would actually *gasp* be the JDK!

Turns out I downloaded a JRE that requires the JRE to run. Funny, isn't it; you might think that for a second Sun would try to attain some aspect of ease of use.

This is starting to turn out to be more hassle than what I believe it's worth, Java applications don't have a history of being able to use Windows themes; preferring to use their own dull grey theme to stand out and uglify the OS.

Privoxy

Privoxy is an awesome application/proxy once one learns to configure it.

The first time I used it was part of the Vidalia/Tor/Privoxy bundle where I thought it's only purpose was to be used as part of the Tor implementation, but after reading about it on Wikipedia a few years later I decided to give it another go.

I once again decided to go with the Vidalia bundle just for the sake of being able to use Tor if I ever wanted to.
The first thing I did after installing it was to comment out the Tor related preferences in configuration files, this allowed me to run Privoxy without having it try to pass everything to a non-existant port, yet by commenting and not deleting I allowed for it to be easily re-implemented if I ever decided to use it with Tor again.

According to the Wikipedia article (which lacked citation) the neilvandyke.action ruleset is one of the most popular rulesets avaliable for Privoxy, so I decided to add these rules into my Privoxy config.txt.
Avaliable as the'Main Configuration' or 'config.txt' file, the Main Configuration is meant to store data related to the running of Privoxy.
To install neilvankdyke.action look for a group of "actionsfile" entries and add "actionsfile neilvandyke" under "actionsfile user".

While there has been the occasional problem with page redirects and sites being blocked without notification my general experience with Privoxy has been highly positive and is something I would recommend to people with a knowledge of editing configuration files, of course there is a web interface which might prove to be accesible to those too afraid to modify configuration files; but the most power comes from direct editing.

Would you like a cup of Java with your NetBeans?

The Netbeans 5.5 CD I ordered a few weeks ago has now arrived.

Shame it doesn't include the JDK alone with it; All the differing versions of Java are somewhat confusing.
Should I download JDK6 which seems to be the stable version with development having ceased.
JDK7 which appears to be the new version.
Or OpenJDK which doesn't seem to actually be a JDK but rather just javac and the Java Virtual Machine.

I ended up deciding to go with JDK7, shall update after the download (30MB .jar file).

Bye Bye Laptop

After not only crashing, but now returning a BSOD on every boot I decided I had enough.
I rang Acer support and am now getting the laptop sent away due to possible heat damage.

Therefore I am now using my desktop for everything until the Laptop returns. :(
It's weird how everything looks so different without wide-screen and all the other differences my laptop makes.

I also forgot how slow and crapped up my desktop was.