The Java programming language has been around just about as long as the computer has. It can allow you to do some amazing things on your website without a lot of 
complicated code. Once a developer writes a code, it will run on almost all operating systems and browsers. Java uses a class file as the basis for it’s operation and can run on any Java virtual machine.
James Gosling at Sum Microsystems initially developed the programming language in 1995. Sun Microsystems is now a part of Oracle who is the current developer of the platform. The language uses the C++ on your computer to help implement the commands.
Java quickly became very popular with webmasters, as the small applets were easy to configure and relatively secure. The name Java was given to the platform because most of the programmers would drink large quantities of coffee (java) while developing the language.
Java runs on many devices that we normally do not think about such as parking meters, data centers, game consoles and super computers. It is found almost everywhere and many webmasters use the language for performing tasks such as news scrollers, web cams, special effects and more.
Once upon a time, Java was easy for the end user on a computer to implement. Today, things are much different. Several security flaws have been found in the platform and hackers are having a heyday trying to get people to click on their malicious code in order to inject Malware into an unsuspecting computer user. In order for this to happen, you have to be on an infected website.
This malicious code cannot be implemented unless you actually visit an off the wall infected website or click a spam e-mail from your e-mail account. Regardless, Oracle has done nothing to actually fix the security issue but rather they have taken a stand of simply blocking most Java applications instead. This practice has made Java almost impossible to use and I am sure will soon lead to most people simply abandoning the platform.
At first, Oracle allowed you to at least decide on if you wanted to open the applet or not. That worked out fine for almost everybody. In the latest update, Java will block most applications from running including those from trusted sites such as the National Weather Service. In order to run these apps, you either have to set your security settings in your Java console to “Medium” or else you have the add the Url you are trying to open in the exception box.
Running the Java console on “Medium” is essentially the same as what it used to do before the update. Instead of blocking almost everything, it will give you a prompt to click on whether or not you want to allow the app to run. For almost all users, this setting is totally sufficient. It will let you run what you want to and let you stop running anything you do not want to run.
So where does the future of Java lie? Well, we do know that id future versions just keep blocking more and more apps on the web; their program will be virtually useless. What Oracle needs to do is address the actual problem and not just take a shortcut and block everything and then say it is fixed. Unfortunately, that is exactly what they have done.
Article Posted by, Ross Deprey The owner of Computer Geeks
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