Private Message Inbox size seems to be related to postcount.
I had it too. Now that I have more posts, the limit is gone.
(it’s a very annoying ‘feature’)
ok i see, i misunderstood your post a bit. I agree this would be a good solution.
[edit]
but i would like to have a way to start the app without deploying it in the webstart cache. For example you could start http://izpack.org/ with the “kernelinstaller” (remember it should behave like java.exe).
This would provide custom branded application installer which deals with jre installation too. Even better, since its the java kernel - the whole jre should be downloaded and installed while the user is going through the ipack wizard of the app (in best case).
we have a lot of cool stuff in java land - we need only someone without the “not invented here” issue gluing it together
My strategy is this: On windows I ship a whole private JRE, inside a self unpacking / self installing exe. On Mac I just require OSX 10.5, then just use JNLP. This is cos you can assume Java 1.5, which is the min java version for my game.
My rationale was this: Bandwidth and diskspace are getting cheaper every year. On the other hand, the cost for me to support random Windows users who haven’t installed java properly is high. So shipping the whole JRE wins in the end.
If / when java kernel settles down I will use that, I just can’t be bothered to hack bits out of the JRE just to save Windows users a couple of minutes in downloads.
In my day, on the ZX spectrum, you had to go 2 hours on the bus to buy the game and when you had it you had to wait 5 mins just to load it AND WE WERE BLOODY GRATEFUL! 
josh
[quote]In my day, on the ZX spectrum, you had to go 2 hours on the bus to buy the game and when you had it you had to wait 5 mins just to load it AND WE WERE BLOODY GRATEFUL!
[/quote]
you mean you ahd to ride busses? lol ;D
This is one (big) reason why i probably wont be making any more java games (except maybe 4k :).
About a year ago I made a puzzle game java applet (http://spacetaken.net/laz3r/). It is a pretty simple game and has little in the way of polish.
Very recently I have been learning flash, using the free flex2 sdk to write flash applets in pure actionscript 3. I converted my laz3r game into flash, added (very little) extra polish, and submitted it to kongregate as something of an experiment - http://www.kongregate.com/games/gareth0/faze.
Right now - in less than 48 hours since upping it - the flash version has had 9326 plays, which is an order of magnitude greater than the applet version has ever had, and I have got a few dollars of ad revenue to boot. Which is just great, basically.
EDIT: I guess the point is that it is far easier for me to get feedback (and people playing my games, which is good by itself) using flash.
People are more familiar with flash it’s true - for this sort of game flash is the better choice, but for anything more serious flash won’t do: way too slow: I’m playing with an idea ATM that flash simply can’t do.
Flash is an excellent quick-hit delivery method; for a simple game it’s very good, but no way can it complete with java for serious stuff (Runescape, Bang-howdy &c).
Thinking about it, how many of the java4K games could have been done in flash? Only the simplest judging from the flash 4K contest!
My opinion on this is that games made by individuals, etc, will be moving more and more to online deals, which makes c++ kind of a dead horse. Security is a bigger concern every year. Java applets aren’t all that popular, but I think people are more willing to go that rout than download and install an untrusted game. C++ is also much more prone to buffer overload attacks. So Flex or Java or possibly Google’s o3d are something to look into. Java is still one of the better choices because of the option of using hardware acceleration and the fact that it’s more mature, although also more bloated.
I fully agree with the above post, all is going to be online tomorrow : games but also other software as : office one /grahpics/sound/video/etc… . security bother a lot of developpers including me as it restrcits a lot possibilities but it is something requiered and very important. so java is still a good choice as long as it dont become as uncompatible as VisualBasic…
you are certainly right from an economic point of view nowadays… bacause there is no real Casual Java game portal but maybe in the futur there will be some once the new plugin will be deployed
NB: something funny is that your Applet just runned fine when the flash (or the web site) has crashed my browser twice 
perhaps a flash based jvm would be useful for us java game developers?