via Toby DiPasquale. nice tip

'gcprof is a simple utility for profile allocation and garbage collection activity in the JVM [...] Profile allocation and garbage collection activity in the JVM. The gcprof command runs a java command under profiling. Allocation and collection statistics are printed periodically. If -n or -no are provided, statistics are also reported in terms of the given application metric. Total allocation, allocation rate, and a survival histogram is given. The intended use for this tool is twofold: (1) monitor and test garbage allocation and GC behavior, and (2) inform GC tuning.'

'GC Strategies for Event Processing Systems on the JVM'

Fascinating. Evading the Java GC by reimplementing a slab allocator, basically

'SoftReferences are the cheap, crappy caching mechanism [...] perfect for when you'd like your cache to be cleared at random times and in random order.'