Here's my problem as sent to Sun Microsystems Java Support...

Even though the Java Control Panel, and verifying installation through this site show that I have the latest version, and some earlier ones enabled, as follows, java -version shows

java version "1.3.1_02"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.3.1_02-b02)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.3.1_02-b02, mixed mode)

Control Panel shows:

1.4 1.4.2_06 http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_06\bin\javaw.exe true
1.4 1.4.2_04 http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_04\bin\javaw.exe true
1.4 1.4.2_05 http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_05\bin\javaw.exe true
1.5 1.5.0_04 http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_04\bin\javaw.exe true
1.5 1.5.0_02 http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_02\bin\javaw.exe true

Some java apps aren't running, and the vendor says my version is too low. What's up? What can I do to correct this problem?

Here's Sun's Answer...

Thank you very much for your interest in Java(TM) technology. We highly encourage you to spend some time reading the solutions published on the Java.com Help and FAQ pages.

You have JRE 5.0 (1.5.0_04) which is the current version of the JRE. Please contact the vendor and ask for the specific version of the JRE that you need. You can download archived JRE from this site.
http://java.sun.com/products/archive/index.html

Also, you can check to see if Java is correctly installed on your system. Are you able to run this test applet on our help site?
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml

Thank you very much for contacting Sun Microsystems. Java.com – The Source for Java Technology.

Regards,
Consumer Java Support
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

At least they're polite, though it did take five days to get this non-answer to me.

Of course, as with any multi-vendor problem, it's rather like when you get eggs not to your liking at a restaurant. Do you blame the cook or the hen?

Of course, the test that they ask me to do is the test on their site that I told them I did.

'Tis most odd. Why does my laptop run a 1.3 version of JVM/JRE from command line, but 1.5 if run through the GUI. Why does the Java Control Panel show various versions of 1.4 and the latest 1.5, but not any 1.3 versions though that is what the command line shows.

Actually, I found the answer on my own. Let's blame Oracle. An installation of Oracle9i seems to be the have changed some path information.

We've had a great time in SoCal working with our new customer. There's a lot of work ahead of us, in transforming the information gathered and the function mapping we've done so far, into a full-fledged Strategy Document - in one week.

Work wise the week was great. Otherwise, today was a bad day. It started with my partner, Clarise, slipping on someone's dropped room key card, and falling flat on her back in the hotel's stone-tiled lobby. Luckily, she wasn't seriously hurt. When we arrived at the customer's site, her laptop chirped and stated that there was no bootable drive; as it also couldn't find the optical drive, we're guessing the IDE controller has failed, or - with any luck - the cable is just loose. When we got back to our rooms, our key cards wouldn't unlock the doors. At the registration desk, we were informed that our reservations were only until Friday. We did have copies of our Expedia reservations, but they were locked in the rooms. It took the hotel over 15 minutes to find the record and discover that indeed, our customer had booked us through Saturday.

But we had a lot of fun with the customer's crew. We're looking forward to setting up a collaboration site for this project, using open source software for a project blog, wiki and more. We'll be developing the strategy document using the wiki. All in all, a lot to do, and a lot to look forward to.

The trip down to SoCal was uneventful.

Generally, I like to drive down CA-1 [the Cabrillo Highway in NoCal and the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH in SoCal]. 'Tis a beautiful drive, with the ocean pounding away at the cliffs for most of it. It can take 11 hours though, and this trip we wanted to get down south quickly. And we wanted to see how well they had put our Highlander back together after the accident. So, we took I-5.

The I-5 goes down the central valley of California, an agricultural region similar to the midwest of the USA. San Luis Reservoir affords some great views, but mostly it is sear, dry land speckled with vineyards and orchards. Along the drive, you can see the aqueducts.

The brown grasses punctuated by the greenery of forced agriculture really strikes home how vulnerable California is to drought, and how dependent we are on diverting waterways, dams and irrigation. All in all, an interesting trip.

The Highlander did fine, though there is this hum from the rear. /sigh

We're looking forward to our meetings later today. This should prove to be a very interesting engagement for us.

We're headed to SoCal to kick-off a new project. Three days of Discovery and then back home to write the Strategy Document and then back down to present it, we're shooting for the week of August 8.

We may have to delay the presentation, though. The project involves decision support & data warehousing using open source projects, and LinuxWorld SF05 is the week of August 8. Serendipitous, no?

I've found the Konfabulator widgets to be very cool. The RSS widgets remind me of Pointcast in many ways - updated and current web content streamed to your desktop on your schedule.

I think that Yahoo!'s purchase of Konfabulator will make for a very interesting opening of Yahoo!'s API.

I also find the idea of widgets for TiVo very interesting, truly reflecting the convergence of entertainment, communications and computing. Especially as TiVo has opened their API to encourage outside extensions of the TiVo platform.

Now, using widgets for web services and SOA may finally help that technology take off the way feed syndication has.

via SiliconBeat

Update: one problem with posting after midnight - you sometimes forget what blog you're in. Sorry Clarise, I didn't mean to post this in Yackity, but in my Cynosural Blog.