updating the java jdk path in intellij idea on macos

I have a very short fuse when it comes to wading through bad advice found on the web, especially old technical advice. Case in point, how to update a current release of IntelliJ IDEA’s Java/JDK path to an external JDK already installed on your machine.

I’m currently trying to do some work with:

• Java/OpenJDK 11.0.5 LTS release distributed by AdoptOpenJDK using
• IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition 2019.2 on
• macOS Mojave 10.14.6.

When I started to try and use that Java release, IntelliJ couldn’t seem to find it, and I couldn’t seem to configure IntelliJ where to look. After looking at six-year-old directions via the web that were mostly right I finally figured it out. Here’s what to do with the latest release of IntelliJ.

Open the File menu and select Project Structure. This used to be buried in Other Settings, which is where all those older directions tell you to go. Now it’s out in the open, probably because of the shift from Java8 to Java9 and beyond that’s been occurring every six months since Java9 was released Setember 2018.

A dialog will show up as shown below.

In my example I’ve already set up to use Java 11.0.5. To add a new location, click the red folder on the far right, where you see the help balloon in the screen capture above. Clicking that will open a regular folder/file dialog allowing you to pick he location where your specific Java release is located on your Mac. Once you’ve set up the correct location click OK and go back to editing in the IntelliJ IDE.

I hate searching for technical information on the web, because it is without exception for older (many times far older) software than what you’re currently working with. The majority of it is old crap from Stack Overflow. And as far as I can tell, none of the search engines are capable of bubbling up current information, let alone correct information. I mean, you should have seen what I also got looking for the answer to this question.

You’re welcome.

i’m no longer adding hyperlinks to arcanesciencelab posts

I have given up placing HTML hyperlinks in my postings. I’ve never been a big fan of how the WWW eventually specified hyperlinking. It was originally envisioned as being bi-directional, but instead what we got was the outbound link and the back button, a barely usable solution. The reasons for my dropping hyperlinking are threefold.

1. The EU link tax. Yes, folks, the EU passed a link tax primarily aimed at news aggregators (specifically Google). As I read the body of the law passed by the Eurocrats, I shake my head in disbelief at their ignorance on how the Web really works. France is particularly egregious about rushing to implement this tax. If you want to read something more than what I’ve written here, search on the web for “Just As Everyone Predicted: EU Copyright Directive’s Link Tax Won’t Lead To Google Paying Publishers”. You can do this in your browser by highlight the text between quotes and then rich click and search.
2. Link rot. I don’t know how many times I’ve gone back to re-read one of my older award-winning posts, then clicked on some of the outbound links at random. Most of the time I can still reach the link, but a lot of times I either reach the site but the page is a 404, or else the site itself is completely gone. And the older the post, the worse that problem becomes. A very long time ago, on another blog I wrote on, I was all about keeping the links fresh and correct. But I quickly discovered the time I was spending cleaning up dead links was beginning to take too much of my time. I know the web is dynamic and in a constant, slow state of flux, but I don’t need to keep cleaning up the broken and borked links because something changed on the other end.
3. Manipulation of the back button functionality via JavaScript. When you click a link you expect to be to go back to where you started by hitting the back button. More and more sites are intercepting the back button and blocking you from leaving (I can still get out by just closing the tab). The most current example is Slashdot (/.). Click on a link to go into a story from the front page then try to go back and instead of hitting the front page I get a crap page telling me to stick around and read more, except it’s all click-bait, not something I would care to go to directly. I’ve pretty much given up going to Slashdot, and a lot of other sites that didn’t use to pull these kinds of shenanigans. I’m not interested in inadvertently sending a reader to such a site from my pages via hyperlink.

As of today I’m saying to entropy and general human greed, “OK, You win.” Hyperlinking on this site is a thing of the past. And in case you ask, no, I won’t go back to all my older posts and remove them. That’s as bad as finding and fixing all the broken links.