Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

As Cooper noted the other day (so I am officially not the one letting the cat out of the bag), there is something new and exciting coming in the Java world - awesome even. It's a desktop container, you might call it a "box", that runs as many widgets as you want - maybe even 5000! Make that Awesome Box 5000.

It's a Joshy and Cooper project aimed squarely at JavaOne 2007 (along the Aerith 2006 lines).

It is a similar concept to Konfabulator/YahooWidget, Dashboard, and so on. The difference is, it's Java. A few people are bagging on it already as "slow and buggy", but it's brand spanking new - alpha - relax (and it is not as horrible as it has been panned to be, even this early). The significance of it is, Java, which means run the same config on multiple desktops (the plans are even such that you can import your prefs and it will auto configure, and share your configs with friends), and also means ultimately it can do a LOT more than scripting webby stuff.

I wrote a few "desklets" for it recently, mostly to get the feel for the container to see if I can actually help anywhere, and to try to get more comfortable with NetBeans. (NetBeans is not required, but when you are putting a Swing front end on your components it sure helps.) I dusted off my GWT Calculator, and GWT Yahtzee, and made them into "desklets." The YahtzeeDesklet version is actually a lot easier on the eyes than the GWT stuff (and no, UI obviously has never been my focus in the past - but I am becoming more interested, because of things like GWT and ab5k). And of course beyond my lame widgets the project already hosts quite a few other cool desklets - RSS readers, count down things, map and photo doo-dads, and so on (keep in mind it's still early though).

Oh and lastly, once again in my best Hammer pants, dah dah dah da da dah dah, you can't touch this: