This is a portable Japanese Kanji character dictionary that can be used to search for any commonly used Japanese Kanji character by the following criteria: Japanese reading of the character and number of brush strokes. Search results contain all characters that match the criteria, which when selected are displayed with common Japanese readings and meanings in English for each character. There is a history function that saves up to 18 of the most recently searched and selected characters. Users can choose between two Kanji databases from which search results are taken: 1) The full database which contains 1926 Kanji characters, and 2) The basic database which contains 1000 Kanji characters.

Q "How does it feel to have won the Grand Prize?"

A "It is a wonderful surprise and a great honor, especially with all the skilled DoJa programmers out there. This prize is a strong incentive to keep on developing new and innovative applications, using the potential of mobility and the large customer base around the World. I would like to thank the organizers of this highly stimulating contest and do hope it will be the first of a long series."

Q "What is your advice to aspiring DoJa programmers?"

A "Go ahead, try it, just take the time to build a few Hello World; check the numerous tutorials on the web. DoJa is an API which is designed to design easily good-looking user interfaces, while retaining the basic structure of Java. Keep your application small and efficient, it is an excellent school for code optimization. Check the excellent forums like DDN's for answers to most questions, and don't hesitate to ask for help if you have checked the answer isn't to be found. Last piece of advice : until the international developer base expands, you will find it useful to learn Japanese."

The best utility application submitted. Number keys to be used were well chosen, the placement of items on the screen is nicely designed, and the fact that you can perform searches with little key manipulation is quite good. Being able to perform searches without data transfer makes this a truly portable application. This is a great example of data at your fingertips any time you want it.

For first time users though, the GUI may be a bit difficult to understand. The transition from the search screen to the criteria entry screen and how to navigate between Kanji and Japanese kun-yomi readings, etc. are kind of difficult to understand. Since most of the time, data is displayed on the upper portion of the screen, it would have been good to have key navigation listings for inexperienced users on the bottom portion of the screen. Accessing the history is easy for beginners though. It may be asking for a lot, but if there was a function that places a mark next to search results that have already been searched in the past, it might be an effective feature for studying Kanji.

The object of the game is quite simple: Take your jet plane on a joyride through a horizontally and vertically winding tunnel in outer space. If you’re skillful enough, you can advance to more difficult stages where the winding tunnel becomes increasingly difficult to steer through. As simple as the object of the game may be, surviving by staying inside the tunnel without crashing is quite challenging and exciting.

Q "How does it feel to have won the Award of Excellence?"

A "I can hardly express how excited I was hearing that my DoJa application has been awarded the Award of Excellence. I feel deeply honoured to be a prize winner in the first DoJa application contest!"

Q "What is your advice to aspiring DoJa programmers?"

A "Learn from others. There are some really good websites revealing the secrets behind DoJa programming. I know I learned a lot from the articles on DDN. In a similar fashion, I would like to share my programming secrets with others. Feel free to visit my website: http://helderman.hobby.nl/i/"

The most enjoyable application submitted. Movement through the tunnel is smooth and works nicely. The graphics including the explosion of the plane when the game ends are of high quality. With a substantial level of difficulty, you find yourself losing track of time as you play this challenging game over and over. It appears to be a traditional wire frame racing game. The background flows very smoothly.

Unfortunately the rigid key-triggered movements do not allow for equally smooth maneuvering of the vehicle. There is still data storage space available to be used. Sound effects for instance might have made it a game of higher quality.

A puzzle game based on the well known game "su doku." This application employs an algorithm that solves puzzles published in popular magazines such as "Times". There are some puzzles built into the application with level of difficulty from easy to hard. The application also includes plenty of user-friendly settings, including language selection between English and French.

Q "How does it feel to have won the Honorable Mention award?"

A "I feel very happy, because this prize represent concretely that a simple idea like my program (a kind of Sudoku game) can win, even if it is not in 3D, with bleeping sound and graphics effects."

Q "What is your advice to aspiring DoJa programmers?"

A "Share you questions, share your answers (the DoJa-developer website is good for that), and share your knowledge by using (and releasing) open sources programs. Also, don’t go programming for the DoJa platform before testing all your algorithm (especially if you have complex data structure). Test the algorithm on a classic Main console program, use a good IDE and Debugger (like Eclipse). Be warned that debugging a graphic DoJa appli can be very tricky."

The most user friendly application submitted. The help menu, options and other detailed settings built in are very impressive. Definitely a high quality package but could have been more original. It would be nice to see the contestant try to make a new, original puzzle game next time.

Being able to change the level of difficulty is a good feature. The features for displaying both a blank grid and grids with puzzles that you can find in popular magazines shows that the contestant took into consideration what puzzle lovers like. There is some data storage space available so it might have been good if there was a tutorial for people not familiar with su doku.