Java still in high demand in Oz

Skills shortages in Australia have pushed computer and communications salaries up 12% in the past six months, according to a survey from recruiter Ambition Technology, reports Australian IT.

Java is among the skills that are in highest demand. Other skills in high demand include .Net applications development experience and SAP and Oracle expertise.

According to the report, the intense demand for skills in Canberra is being driven by a number of major projects including the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs' $495 million Systems for People project.

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Dutch company O3Spaces has released Java collaboration software that it says rivals Microsoft's SharePoint by enabling users to access documents stored in O3Spaces via OpenOffice through an Ajax Web interface or an optional Java-based Desktop Assistant, reports PC World.

The new Workplace software works with open source suites StarOffice and OpenOffice.org. It is built in J2EE, on top of Apache Tomcat and the PostgreSQL database management system. It is designed to work with any LDAP directory service and runs on Linux, Solaris and 32-bit Windows.

Although OpenOffice.org and StarOffice can handle Office document formats, they have not included back-office tools such as SharePoint. O3Spaces is aiming to change that, saying it allows users to carry out most functions from within OpenOffice or StarOffice.

Java has dominated enterprise class code, but PHP is making inroads says an Indian doctor who recently shot to prominence for creating a software tool to make photo blogging easier, reports M&C News.

Tarique Sani, a paediatrician in Nagpur, used PHP and MySQL to create his Cheesecake Photo Blog tool aimed at helping anyone to keep a daily or regular online photo gallery on the Internet.

Sani believes it is possible to make a living out of writing free and open source software (FOSS). He has even written a guide to business models based on FOSS. Sani says PHP has a phenomenal potential for India and there is money to be made if it is built up properly.