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Ben Galbraith

Ben Galbraith is a frequent technical speaker, occasional consultant, and author of several Java-related books. He is a co-founder of Ajaxian.com, an experienced Chief Technical Officer and Enterprise Java Architect, and is presently a consultant specializing in enterprise architecture and Swing/Ajax development. Ben wrote his first computer program when he was six years old, started his first business at ten, and entered the IT workforce just after turning twelve. For the past few years, he's been professionally coding in Java. In 2005, Ben delivered over a hundred technical presentations at venues including JavaOne, JavaPolis, and the No Fluff Just Stuff Java Symposiums.

 

javaben's blog

Of Fonts and Java2D

Posted by javaben on January 25, 2008 at 11:08 AM EST

The other day I googled for information on nice-looking fonts for Java2D and found nothing; this entry is largely to help future googlers.

A poorly-rendered typeface can really ruin my day. I'm passionate about creating beautiful software. Well, for the sake of those who've seen my code, I should clarify: beautiful user interfaces.

Java on Leopard: The New Rendering Pipeline

Posted by javaben on October 31, 2007 at 12:44 PM EDT

In my recent duo of "Whiners! No whining!" blog posts, I made a statement with which some commenters have taken issue:

More on Leopard's Java 1.5: The Release Notes Michael Urban Should Have Read

Posted by javaben on October 31, 2007 at 7:24 AM EDT

I recently blogged about the recent Mac whining from the Java community. Subsequently, I browsed through OS X 10.5 Leopard's Java release notes.

The (Java on OS X) Sky is Falling!

Posted by javaben on October 30, 2007 at 8:32 PM EDT

With a tip of the hat to Casablanca, I'm shocked--SHOCKED--to read the really rather embarrassing blog entries from folks in the community about the state of Java in Apple's latest OS release (see David Herron's blog for a round up of some).

Please.

It turns out that Swing in Leopard represents a huge le

Desktop Matters Blogging

Posted by javaben on March 9, 2007 at 2:55 PM EST

I'm blogging about Desktop Matters over at my personal blog. Some of the interesting news so far is that JIDE is open-sourcing 1/3 of their code, a new cross-platform look-and-feel designed by Sun called Nimbus, and more...

Open Party During Desktop Matters

Posted by javaben on March 7, 2007 at 3:58 PM EST

Hard to believe that Desktop Matters is finally upon us.

Dramatically Faster JavaScript in Firefox

Posted by javaben on February 7, 2007 at 1:56 PM EST

When Adobe donated their JIT-compiling JavaScript VM to the Mozilla Foundation in Nov. '06, it had some pretty huge implications. The VM boosted Flash's own JavaScript execution speed by 10x -- seeing those kinds of improvements in Firefox could enable a whole new class of "thicker" web applications. So, when will we see it? And, why did Adobe donate the code?

I Love Intelligent Tools...

Posted by javaben on January 18, 2007 at 2:54 AM EST

I’m writing some Java2D code, and I notice that IDEA (my code editor) highlighted parts of my code:

IDEA highlighting my awful code

Check out the caption at the bottom of the window. It turns out (as any good Java2D programmer knows) I’m reversing the width and height arguments — but how did IDEA know?

Desktop Matters Agenda Updated

Posted by javaben on December 18, 2006 at 2:17 PM EST

Continuing my series of updates on Desktop Matters, I'm happy to say we've given the agenda much more shape since my last posting. The show continues to be one track, but we've expanded out a touch to one and a half days.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Desktop Matters Open for Registration

Posted by javaben on December 1, 2006 at 4:32 PM EST

We've got the final dates locked in for Desktop Matters: March 8-9 in at the Wyndham in San Jose, California.