In this edition, I'll introduce a new feature that allows you to keep track of your favorite tools and libraries, and display them on your proagora.com profile if you wish to. We also announce the Java2Days conference.

Whatever you're doing with Java, you have to deal with a lot of tools and libraries. If you need to find new ones, you can consult JavaToolbox.com, and SharpToolbox.com for .NET. You'll find there more than 2000 tools, libraries and add-ins! The main goal of these sites has always been to help you to quickly identify the tools you need.

One thing that has been missing on JavaToolbox.com and SharpToolbox.com until recently is the ability for you to keep track of your favorite tools. I'm glad to announce that from now on you can easily add tools to a personal watch list. This will allow you to find all your tools in one place. You'll then be able to see in a blink whether these tools have been updated. We'll also email you when one of your favorite tools gets updated.

Another thing that this update offers you is the ability to show to your peers which tools you use. This can easily be done by displaying the brand new JavaToolbox and/or SharpToolbox Favorites widget.

In order to be able to manage favorites, all that is needed is proagora.com account. With your account, you can sign in on JavaToolbox.com or SharpToolbox.com and start adding tools to your personal list of favorites.

If you want to display your favorites on your blog or your website, you can simply copy and paste the HTML block you'll find on the "My Favorites" page (here is the same page on SharpToolbox.com).

In addition to displaying your favorite tools on your blog or website, you can display them on your proagora.com profile if you want to. You don't automatically have a public profile on proagora.com when you first create your account, but if you decide to create one, you'll be able to choose whether your favorite Java and .NET tools are displayed on it. Of course, I encourage you to publish your profile :-)
You can see what it all looks like at the bottom of my own proagora.com profile.

You can also use RSS to follow your favorite Java and .NET tools.

Of course, you can also share your RSS feeds with someone else. But what's much more interesting is that you can reuse your personal RSS documents and do whatever you want with them. After all, it's just XML that you can parse and transform easily.

I hope you'll find these new features useful. As usual, your feedback and suggestions are welcome!

I'd like to thank Tobin Harris for the fruitful discussion about these features and for the great suggestion of providing widgets.

I'd like to end this edition of our newsletter with the announcement of the Java2Days Java technologies conference.
This conference is a brand new event in Eastern Europe focused on highlighting today’s cutting edge trends in Java development. The major purpose of this event is to become a place for passionate Java developers to get in touch with the latest technologies, to become a significant part of the global Java community and to learn from the best speakers.
The speakers who have already confirmed their participation are: Reza Rahman, Josh Long, John Willis, Heath Kesler, Talip Ozturk, Rob Harrop, Bruno Bossola and Andrew Lombardi.
The event takes place October 8-9 in Sofia, Bulgaria. A special 20% discount is available till September 15.
More information about pricing, terms and how to register can be found on java2days.com.

That's all for today. Feel free to contact me anytime with questions or suggestions.