I have been coding the iCNS (iCite Name Service) application for the iCite net. This has been a good area to work on because iCNS doesn't deal with a lot of XML, and so I am deferring some decisions on what combination of XML tools / technologies to use until I get to back to the more elaborate XML coding on the iCite Container application.

iCNS allows information in the iCite net to have globally unique identifiers (i.e., unique within the iCite net). It is a mapping within the scope of Internet DNS (Domain Name Service) and network accessible URIs.

So, for example, a common usage is that a web page has one URL and later moves to a different URL. In the iCite net, that web page has an iCNS registered identifier that does not change.

With iCites, all links include these iCNS registered identifiers. So, for example, if a web page moves from one URL to another, all links to that page can be automatically updated to the new URL or otherwise that URL can be found by consulting iCNS for the new address.

I have been using Eclipse as my Java IDE and I think it is really great. I haven't used IntelliJ IDEA and know many people who love it, but without that experience myself, I have to say that Eclipse is the best IDE I have ever used and it totally makes coding fun!

I am working on the iCNS implementation now that persists the various iCNS registries (there are registries for iCites and iCite Containers—it is like DNS mapping both web servers and websites). I am starting to work with JDBM as a persistence mechanism, which looks like it will do the trick just right.