This week’s Java roundup for February 12th, 2024 features news highlighting: new JEP candidates, JEP 465 and JEP 466, milestone and point releases of Spring Framework, Spring Data, Micrometer and Project Reactor, Hibernate Search 7.1.0-RC1 and Infinispan 15.0.0.Dev01.
OpenJDK
JEP 466, Class-File API (Second Preview), has been promoted from its JEP Draft 8324965 to Candidate status. This JEP proposes a second round of preview to obtain feedback from the previous round of preview: JEP 457, Class-File API (Preview), to be delivered in the upcoming release of JDK 22. This feature provides an API for parsing, generating, and transforming Java class files. This will initially serve as an internal replacement for ASM, the Java bytecode manipulation and analysis framework, in the JDK with plans to have it opened as a public API. Goetz has characterized ASM as “an old codebase with plenty of legacy baggage” and provided background information on how this draft will evolve and ultimately replace ASM.
JEP 465, String Templates, has been promoted from its JEP Draft 8323333 to Candidate status. This JEP proposes to finalize this feature after two rounds of preview, namely JEP 459, String Templates (Second Preview), to be delivered in the upcoming release of JDK 22, and JEP 430, String Templates (Preview), delivered in JDK 21. This feature enhances the Java programming language with string templates, string literals containing embedded expressions, that are interpreted at runtime where the embedded expressions are evaluated and verified. Further details on JEP 430 may be found in this InfoQ news story.
Archie Cobbs, Founder and CEO at PatientEXP, and Gavin Bierman, Consulting Member of Technical Staff at Oracle, have introduced JEP Draft 8325803, Flexible Constructor Bodies (Second Preview), a JEP that proposes a second round of preview and a name change to obtain feedback from the previous round of preview, namely JEP 447, Statements before super(…) (Preview), to be delivered in the upcoming release of JDK 22. This feature allows statements that do not reference an instance being created to appear before the this() or super() calls in a constructor; and preserve existing safety and initialization guarantees for constructors. Changes in this JEP include: a treatment of local classes; and a relaxation of the restriction that fields can not be accessed before an explicit constructor invocation to a requirement that fields can not be read before an explicit constructor invocation. Gavin Bierman, consulting member of technical staff at Oracle, has provided an initial specification of this JEP for the Java community to review and provide feedback.
Build 36 of the JDK 22 early-access builds was also made available this past week featuring updates from Build 35 that include fixes to various issues. Further details on this build may be found in the release notes.
The release of Spring Framework 6.1.4 delivers bug fixes, improvements in documentation, dependency upgrades, and many new features such as: allow subclasses of the BeanPropertyRowMapper class to customize mapped names; a refactor of the ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource class to allow subclasses to reuse collecting and merging algorithms when overriding the getMergedProperties() method; and reject multiple declarations of the @HttpExchange annotation on the same element instead of logging a warning. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.
Similarly, versions 6.0.17 and 5.3.32 of Spring Framework have also been released featuring bug fixes, improvements in documentation and new features: allow the @CrossOrigin annotation to provide a Access-Control-Allow-Private-Network header from an application to Google Chrome if the Access-Control-Request-Private-Network header (Private Network Access) is sent in the preflight request; and avoid early resolution of the getMostSpecificMethod() method defined in the ClassUtils class from within the CommonAnnotationBeanPostProcessor class due to it being called at an outer level before finding an annotation. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes for version 6.0.17 and version 5.3.32.
The first milestone release of Spring Data 2024.0.0 ships with new features such as: support for Value Expressions that align closer with the Spring Framework @Value annotation for improved representation of Spring Expression Language (SpEL) expressions (#…), property placeholders ($…), or both; compatibility with the MongoDB 5.0 driver; and the ability to create explicit transactions around the database operations within the Neo4jTemplate and ReactiveNeo4jTemplate classes that avoids confusion around multiple transactions being on the driver level if there are more than one query involved in this operation. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.
Similarly, versions 2023.1.3 and 2023.0.9 of Spring Data have been released providing bug fixes and respective dependency upgrades to sub-projects such as: Spring Data Commons 3.2.9 and 3.1.9; Spring Data MongoDB 4.2.9 and 4.1.9; Spring Data Elasticsearch 5.2.9 and 5.1.9; and Spring Data Neo4j 7.2.9 and 7.1.9. These versions may also be consumed by the upcoming releases of Spring Boot 3.2.3 and 3.1.9, respectively.
Open Liberty
IBM has released version 24.0.0.2-beta of Open Liberty featuring back-channel logout support for OpenID Connect clients and servers. A back-channel logout allows OpenID Connect servers to directly notify OpenID Connect clients of a user logout so that each OpenID Connect client can also locally logout the user. This direct communication resolves the issue in which this communication only happened via iFrames that were embedded in the OpenID Connect client’s web page.
Quarkus 3.7.3, the third maintenance release, provides bug fixes, dependency upgrades and notable changes such as: a performance improvement in the OidcTestSecurityIdentityAugmentor class by setting generation of the privateKey attribute as final and static; the ability to use multiple instances of the @TestConfigProperty annotation on both classes and methods that allows for overriding multiple configuration values per test method; and a resolution to an IndexOutOfBoundsException from the getUriInfo() and getMatchedURIs() methods, defined in the Jakarta RESTful Web Services ContainerRequestContext and UriInfo interfaces, respectively, in which setting the value in the quarkus.http.root-path property that does not end in a slash. More details on this release may be found in the changelog.
Hibernate
The first release candidate of Hibernate Search 7.1.0 features: improved entity registration in the standalone POJO mapper via the new @SearchEntity annotation; a new query string predicate, queryString, that matches documents according to a structured query, provided as a string, to allow building more advanced query strings; and a new knn query, introduced in Elasticsearch 8.12, to remove some of the limitations on vector search capabilities.
Infinispan
Version 15.0.0.Dev09 of Infinispan ships with dependency upgrades and notable changes such as: a resolution to a “flaky test failure” from within the testExpirationCompactionOnLogFile() method defined in the SoftIndexFileStoreFileStatsTest class; a move of the TimeoutException class to the org.infinispan.commons package to reside in the same package as the CacheException class; and a mask of Hot Rod and database credentials when serializing configuration. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes.
Micrometer
Version 1.13.0-M1 of Micrometer Metrics delivers bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features such as: remove an unnecessary call to the getConventionName() method, defined in the Meter.Id class, from within the PrometheusMeterRegistry class due to a duplicate calculation of the collector name; add a log entry for when the value returned by the record() method, defined in the AbstractTimer class, is negative; and add a database tag to DefaultMongoCommandTagsProvider class to support the databaseName property name for command events added in MongoDB 4.11.0. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.
Similarly, versions 1.12.3 and 1.11.9 of Micrometer Metrics ship with dependency upgrades and notable bug fixes such as: a NoSuchMethodException upon using the @MeterTag annotation on a package private method; an ArithmeticException upon calculating a modulus from the TimeWindowMax class if the durationBetweenRotatesMillis field is set to 0; and a continuous integration failure using ZGC from within the sizeMetricsNotSetToZero() method defined in the JvmGcMetricsTest class. Further details on these releases may be found in the release notes for version 1.12.3 and version 1.11.9.
Version 1.3.0-M1 of Micrometer Tracing provides bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features: a new TestSpanReporter class, an implementation of the SpanReporter interface, that can store implementations of the FinishedSpan interface upon span reporting that allows one API to handle spans for tests regardless of used tracer; an update to Zipkin Brave 6.0, a distributed tracing instrumentation library, that avoids use of an internal type not supported by Brave 6.0; and reuse of the W3CPropagation class that avoids a significant behavior bug. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.
Similarly, version 1.2.3 and 1.1.10 of Micrometer Tracing ship with dependency upgrades and notable bug fixes: a missing user-defined tag from the OtelBaggageManager class despite creating the span; test failures after upgrading to Spring Boot 3.2.1 due to the lack of some attributes in the Log4j Mapped Diagnostic Context. Further details on these releases may be found in the release notes for version 1.2.3 and version 1.1.10.
Project Reactor
Project Reactor 2023.0.3, the third maintenance release, provides dependency upgrades to reactor-core 3.6.3, reactor-netty 1.1.16 and reactor-kafka 1.3.23. There was also a realignment to version 2023.0.3 with the reactor-pool 1.0.5, reactor-addons 3.5.1 and reactor-kotlin-extensions 1.2.2 artifacts that remain unchanged. More details on this release may be found in the changelog.
Next, Project Reactor 2022.0.16, the sixteenth maintenance release, provides dependency upgrades to, reactor-netty 1.1.16 and reactor-kafka 1.3.23 . There was also a realignment to version 2022.0.16 with the reactor-core 3.5.14, reactor-pool 1.0.5, reactor-addons 3.5.1 and reactor-kotlin-extensions 1.2.2 artifacts that remain unchanged. Further details on this release may be found in the changelog.
And finally, the release of Project Reactor 2020.0.41, codenamed Europium-SR41, provides dependency upgrades to reactor-netty 1.0.42 and reactor-kafka 1.3.23. There was also a realignment to version 2020.0.41 with the reactor-core 3.4.35, reactor-pool 0.2.12, reactor-addons 3.4.10, reactor-kotlin-extensions 1.1.10 and reactor-rabbitmq 1.5.6 artifacts that remain unchanged. More details on this release may be found in the changelog.
The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
