Yet another J2EE vs. NET, Java vs. C# article. Worth a read though, this guy really knows what he's talking about.
It's also significant to note that several new C# features have already been proposed and will be implemented soon, making C# one of the freshest and quickly evolving languages on the market. The Java language, on the other hand, had a strong initial start and then essentially stagnated after Java 1.1.
I couldn't agree more - Java needs to move if it isn't to be left behind. In terms of features, James Strachan's J* proposal would be a good place to start, I think. In terms of the process, I think that Sun should free Java.
I make use of the JGL library (written by Graham Glass, author of the article) for sorting and filtering. Excellent stuff. I notice that version 4.0 is out, but that you have to pay for it. We are using 3.1.0, which was free (as in beer).
Update: Oh yes - 10 more things to go into Java 3.
We are sticking to JDBC at the moment on my projects. Since the prospect of our running the database on anything other than a '400 is just about zero for the foreseeable future ('cos we are interfacing with a rather old, but very capable and very large system), perhaps record level access shouldn't be ruled out?
Program Call Markup Language (PCML) is worth bearing in mind for some things, too.
Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam: how unwanted e-mails are taking over cyberspace
So it's not just me, then.