diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 12d4f98..5a3799b 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -43,7 +43,9 @@
     <javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${deploy.dir}/classes"
            debug="on" optimize="off" deprecation="on"
            classpathref="clazzpath" includeAntRuntime="no"
-           source="1.5" target="1.5"/>
+           source="1.5" target="1.5">
+      <compilerarg value="-Xlint:unchecked"/>
+    </javac>
   </target>
 
   <!-- build the javadoc documentation -->
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java
index bfdd6f1..82e745b 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java
@@ -123,6 +123,7 @@ public class Application
         try {
             return createResource(CONFIG_FILE, false);
         } catch (Exception e) {
+            Thread.dumpStack();
             throw new RuntimeException("Invalid appbase '" + _vappbase + "'.");
         }
     }
@@ -131,7 +132,7 @@ public class Application
      * Returns a list of the code {@link Resource} objects used by this
      * application.
      */
-    public List getCodeResources ()
+    public List<Resource> getCodeResources ()
     {
         return _codes;
     }
@@ -140,7 +141,7 @@ public class Application
      * Returns a list of the non-code {@link Resource} objects used by
      * this application.
      */
-    public List getResources ()
+    public List<Resource> getResources ()
     {
         return _resources;
     }
@@ -188,7 +189,7 @@ public class Application
         throws IOException
     {
         // parse our configuration file
-        HashMap cdata = null;
+        HashMap<String, Object> cdata = null;
         try {
             cdata = ConfigUtil.parseConfig(_config, checkPlatform);
         } catch (FileNotFoundException fnfe) {
@@ -319,9 +320,10 @@ public class Application
         File file = getLocalPath("extra.txt");
         if (file.exists()) {
             try {
-                List args = ConfigUtil.parsePairs(file, false);
-                for (Iterator iter = args.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
-                    String[] pair = (String[])iter.next();
+                List<String[]> args = ConfigUtil.parsePairs(file, false);
+                for (Iterator<String[]> iter = args.iterator();
+                        iter.hasNext();) {
+                    String[] pair = iter.next();
                     _jvmargs.add(pair[0] + "=" + pair[1]);
                 }
             } catch (Throwable t) {
@@ -423,15 +425,15 @@ public class Application
     {
         // create our classpath
         StringBuffer cpbuf = new StringBuffer();
-        for (Iterator iter = _codes.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
+        for (Iterator<Resource> iter = _codes.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
             if (cpbuf.length() > 0) {
                 cpbuf.append(File.pathSeparator);
             }
-            Resource rsrc = (Resource)iter.next();
+            Resource rsrc = iter.next();
             cpbuf.append(rsrc.getLocal().getAbsolutePath());
         }
 
-        ArrayList args = new ArrayList();
+        ArrayList<String> args = new ArrayList<String>();
 
         // reconstruct the path to the JVM
         args.add(LaunchUtil.getJVMPath(_windebug));
@@ -468,16 +470,16 @@ public class Application
         }
 
         // add the JVM arguments
-        for (Iterator iter = _jvmargs.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
-            args.add(processArg((String)iter.next()));
+        for (Iterator<String> iter = _jvmargs.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
+            args.add(processArg(iter.next()));
         }
 
         // add the application class name
         args.add(_class);
 
         // finally add the application arguments
-        for (Iterator iter = _appargs.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
-            args.add(processArg((String)iter.next()));
+        for (Iterator<String> iter = _appargs.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
+            args.add(processArg(iter.next()));
         }
 
         String[] sargs = new String[args.size()];
@@ -618,20 +620,21 @@ public class Application
      */
     public List verifyResources (ProgressObserver obs)
     {
-        ArrayList rsrcs = new ArrayList(), failures = new ArrayList();
+        ArrayList<Resource> rsrcs = new ArrayList<Resource>();
+        ArrayList<Resource> failures = new ArrayList<Resource>();
         rsrcs.addAll(_codes);
         rsrcs.addAll(_resources);
 
         // total up the file size of the resources to validate
         long totalSize = 0L;
-        for (Iterator iter = rsrcs.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
-            Resource rsrc = (Resource)iter.next();
+        for (Iterator<Resource> iter = rsrcs.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
+            Resource rsrc = iter.next();
             totalSize += rsrc.getLocal().length();
         }
 
         MetaProgressObserver mpobs = new MetaProgressObserver(obs, totalSize);
-        for (Iterator iter = rsrcs.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
-            Resource rsrc = (Resource)iter.next();
+        for (Iterator<Resource> iter = rsrcs.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
+            Resource rsrc = iter.next();
             mpobs.startElement(rsrc.getLocal().length());
 
             if (rsrc.isMarkedValid()) {
@@ -684,10 +687,10 @@ public class Application
 
     /** Clears all validation marker files for the resources in the
      * supplied iterator. */
-    protected void clearValidationMarkers (Iterator iter)
+    protected void clearValidationMarkers (Iterator<Resource> iter)
     {
         while (iter.hasNext()) {
-            ((Resource)iter.next()).clearMarker();
+            iter.next().clearMarker();
         }
     }
 
@@ -761,7 +764,8 @@ public class Application
     }
 
     /** Used to parse rectangle specifications from the config file. */
-    protected Rectangle parseRect (HashMap cdata, String name, Rectangle def)
+    protected Rectangle parseRect (HashMap<String, Object> cdata,
+        String name, Rectangle def)
     {
         String value = (String)cdata.get(name);
         if (!StringUtil.isBlank(value)) {
@@ -777,7 +781,8 @@ public class Application
     }
 
     /** Used to parse color specifications from the config file. */
-    protected Color parseColor (HashMap cdata, String name, Color def)
+    protected Color parseColor (HashMap<String, Object> cdata, String name,
+            Color def)
     {
         String value = (String)cdata.get(name);
         if (!StringUtil.isBlank(value)) {
@@ -804,9 +809,9 @@ public class Application
     protected String _name;
     protected boolean _windebug;
 
-    protected ArrayList _codes = new ArrayList();
-    protected ArrayList _resources = new ArrayList();
+    protected ArrayList<Resource> _codes = new ArrayList<Resource>();
+    protected ArrayList<Resource> _resources = new ArrayList<Resource>();
 
-    protected ArrayList _jvmargs = new ArrayList();
-    protected ArrayList _appargs = new ArrayList();
+    protected ArrayList<String> _jvmargs = new ArrayList<String>();
+    protected ArrayList<String> _appargs = new ArrayList<String>();
 }
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Digest.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Digest.java
index 7599151..f305154 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Digest.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Digest.java
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ public class Digest
     {
         try {
             String cmd5 = resource.computeDigest(getMessageDigest(), obs);
-            String emd5 = (String)_digests.get(resource.getPath());
+            String emd5 = _digests.get(resource.getPath());
             if (cmd5.equals(emd5)) {
                 return true;
             }
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ public class Digest
      * Creates a digest file at the specified location using the supplied
      * list of resources.
      */
-    public static void createDigest (List resources, File output)
+    public static void createDigest (List<Resource> resources, File output)
         throws IOException
     {
         MessageDigest md = getMessageDigest();
@@ -111,8 +111,8 @@ public class Digest
             new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream(output), "UTF-8"));
 
         // compute and append the MD5 digest of each resource in the list
-        for (Iterator iter = resources.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
-            Resource rsrc = (Resource)iter.next();
+        for (Iterator<Resource> iter = resources.iterator(); iter.hasNext();) {
+            Resource rsrc = iter.next();
             String path = rsrc.getPath();
             try {
                 String digest = rsrc.computeDigest(md, null);
@@ -152,6 +152,6 @@ public class Digest
         data.append(path).append(" = ").append(digest).append("\n");
     }
 
-    protected HashMap _digests = new HashMap();
+    protected HashMap<String, String> _digests = new HashMap<String, String>();
     protected String _metaDigest = "";
 }
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Resource.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Resource.java
index 536ff29..13284b7 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Resource.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Resource.java
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 
-import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.security.MessageDigest;
 
@@ -204,7 +203,8 @@ public class Resource
         if (target.getPath().endsWith(".jar")) {
             JarFile jar = new JarFile(target);
             try {
-                SortableArrayList entries = new SortableArrayList();
+                SortableArrayList<JarEntry> entries =
+                    new SortableArrayList<JarEntry>();
                 CollectionUtil.addAll(entries, jar.entries());
                 entries.sort(ENTRY_COMP);
 
@@ -272,10 +272,9 @@ public class Resource
     protected boolean _unpack;
 
     /** Used to sort the entries in a jar file. */
-    protected static final Comparator ENTRY_COMP = new Comparator() {
-        public int compare (Object o1, Object o2) {
-            JarEntry e1 = (JarEntry)o1;
-            JarEntry e2 = (JarEntry)o2;
+    protected static final Comparator<JarEntry> ENTRY_COMP =
+            new Comparator<JarEntry>() {
+        public int compare (JarEntry e1, JarEntry e2) {
             return e1.getName().compareTo(e2.getName());
         }
     };
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/AbortPanel.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/AbortPanel.java
index 89dd79b..b5705e7 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/AbortPanel.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/AbortPanel.java
@@ -12,11 +12,9 @@ import java.util.ResourceBundle;
 
 import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
 import javax.swing.JButton;
-import javax.swing.JDialog;
 import javax.swing.JFrame;
 import javax.swing.JLabel;
 import javax.swing.JPanel;
-import javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;
 
 import com.samskivert.swing.GroupLayout;
 import com.samskivert.swing.Spacer;
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/Getdown.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/Getdown.java
index 9fb0d3c..d0252d0 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/Getdown.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/Getdown.java
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
 import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
 
 import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
-import javax.swing.JDialog;
 import javax.swing.JFrame;
 
 import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
@@ -26,7 +25,6 @@ import java.io.PrintStream;
 import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
 import java.net.URL;
 
-import java.text.MessageFormat;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Iterator;
@@ -390,7 +388,7 @@ public class Getdown extends Thread
         final Resource patch = _app.getPatchResource();
         if (patch != null) {
             // download the patch file...
-            ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
+            ArrayList<Resource> list = new ArrayList<Resource>();
             list.add(patch);
             download(list);
 
@@ -495,8 +493,7 @@ public class Getdown extends Thread
                 InputStream stderr = proc.getErrorStream();
                 BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
                     new InputStreamReader(stderr));
-                String line = null;
-                while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
+                while (reader.readLine() != null) {
                     // nothing doing!
                 }
                 Log.info("Process exited: " + proc.waitFor());
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/StatusPanel.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/StatusPanel.java
index d55b4b0..30a819c 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/StatusPanel.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/launcher/StatusPanel.java
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 
 package com.threerings.getdown.launcher;
 
-import java.awt.Color;
 import java.awt.Dimension;
 import java.awt.Font;
 import java.awt.Graphics2D;
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/Differ.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/Differ.java
index 38f5008..e769eeb 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/Differ.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/Differ.java
@@ -3,14 +3,12 @@
 
 package com.threerings.getdown.tools;
 
-import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
 import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
-import java.io.OutputStream;
 
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Enumeration;
@@ -75,13 +73,13 @@ public class Differ
 
         Application oapp = new Application(ovdir, null);
         oapp.init(false);
-        ArrayList orsrcs = new ArrayList();
+        ArrayList<Resource> orsrcs = new ArrayList<Resource>();
         orsrcs.addAll(oapp.getCodeResources());
         orsrcs.addAll(oapp.getResources());
 
         Application napp = new Application(nvdir, null);
         napp.init(false);
-        ArrayList nrsrcs = new ArrayList();
+        ArrayList<Resource> nrsrcs = new ArrayList<Resource>();
         nrsrcs.addAll(napp.getCodeResources());
         nrsrcs.addAll(napp.getResources());
 
@@ -95,7 +93,7 @@ public class Differ
             // for each file in the new application, it either already
             // exists in the old application, or it is new
             for (int ii = 0; ii < nrsrcs.size(); ii++) {
-                Resource rsrc = (Resource)nrsrcs.get(ii);
+                Resource rsrc = nrsrcs.get(ii);
                 int oidx = orsrcs.indexOf(rsrc);
                 Resource orsrc = (oidx == -1) ?
                     null : (Resource)orsrcs.remove(oidx);
@@ -147,7 +145,7 @@ public class Differ
 
             // now any file remaining in orsrcs needs to be removed
             for (int ii = 0; ii < orsrcs.size(); ii++) {
-                Resource rsrc = (Resource)orsrcs.get(ii);
+                Resource rsrc = orsrcs.get(ii);
                 // simply add an entry with the resource name and the
                 // deletion suffix
                 if (verbose) {
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/DigesterTask.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/DigesterTask.java
index bbc11f6..59d9355 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/DigesterTask.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/DigesterTask.java
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import org.apache.tools.ant.Task;
 
 import com.threerings.getdown.data.Application;
 import com.threerings.getdown.data.Digest;
+import com.threerings.getdown.data.Resource;
 
 /**
  * An ant task used to create a <code>digest.txt</code> for a Getdown
@@ -60,7 +61,7 @@ public class DigesterTask extends Task
         Application app = new Application(appdir, null);
         app.init(false);
 
-        ArrayList rsrcs = new ArrayList();
+        ArrayList<Resource> rsrcs = new ArrayList<Resource>();
         rsrcs.add(app.getConfigResource());
         rsrcs.addAll(app.getCodeResources());
         rsrcs.addAll(app.getResources());
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/JarDiffPatcher.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/JarDiffPatcher.java
index 4b901b7..162ddcc 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/JarDiffPatcher.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/tools/JarDiffPatcher.java
@@ -62,21 +62,21 @@ public class JarDiffPatcher
         JarOutputStream jos = new JarOutputStream(target);
         JarFile oldJar = new JarFile(oldFile);
         JarFile jarDiff = new JarFile(diffFile);
-        Set ignoreSet = new HashSet();
+        Set<String> ignoreSet = new HashSet<String>();
 
-        Map renameMap = new HashMap();
+        Map<String, String> renameMap = new HashMap<String, String>();
         determineNameMapping(jarDiff, ignoreSet, renameMap);
 
         // get all keys in renameMap
         Object[] keys = renameMap.keySet().toArray();
 
         // Files to implicit move
-        Set oldjarNames  = new HashSet();
+        Set<String> oldjarNames  = new HashSet<String>();
 	    
-        Enumeration oldEntries = oldJar.entries();
+        Enumeration<JarEntry> oldEntries = oldJar.entries();
         if (oldEntries != null) {
             while  (oldEntries.hasMoreElements()) {
-                oldjarNames.add(((JarEntry)oldEntries.nextElement()).getName());
+                oldjarNames.add(oldEntries.nextElement().getName());
             }
         }
 	   
@@ -94,10 +94,10 @@ public class JarDiffPatcher
         size -= ignoreSet.size();
 
         // Add content from JARDiff 
-        Enumeration entries = jarDiff.entries();
+        Enumeration<JarEntry> entries = jarDiff.entries();
         if (entries != null) {
             while (entries.hasMoreElements()) {
-                JarEntry entry = (JarEntry)entries.nextElement();
+                JarEntry entry = entries.nextElement();
                 if (!INDEX_NAME.equals(entry.getName())) {
                     updateObserver(observer, currentEntry, size);
                     currentEntry++;
@@ -188,55 +188,56 @@ public class JarDiffPatcher
 	}
     }
 
-    protected void determineNameMapping (JarFile jarDiff, Set ignoreSet,
-                                         Map renameMap)
+    protected void determineNameMapping (JarFile jarDiff, Set<String> ignoreSet,
+                                         Map<String, String> renameMap)
         throws IOException
     {
         InputStream is = jarDiff.getInputStream(jarDiff.getEntry(INDEX_NAME));
         if (is == null) {
-	    throw new IOException("error.noindex");
-	}
+            throw new IOException("error.noindex");
+        }
 
         LineNumberReader indexReader =
             new LineNumberReader(new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8"));
         String line = indexReader.readLine();
         if (line == null || !line.equals(VERSION_HEADER)) {
-	    throw new IOException("jardiff.error.badheader: " + line);
+            throw new IOException("jardiff.error.badheader: " + line);
         }
 
         while ((line = indexReader.readLine()) != null) {
             if (line.startsWith(REMOVE_COMMAND)) {
-                List sub = getSubpaths(
+                List<String> sub = getSubpaths(
                     line.substring(REMOVE_COMMAND.length()));
                 
                 if (sub.size() != 1) {
-		    throw new IOException("error.badremove: " + line);
+                    throw new IOException("error.badremove: " + line);
                 }
                 ignoreSet.add(sub.get(0));
 
             } else if (line.startsWith(MOVE_COMMAND)) {
-                List sub = getSubpaths(line.substring(MOVE_COMMAND.length()));
+                List<String> sub = getSubpaths(line.substring(
+                    MOVE_COMMAND.length()));
                 if (sub.size() != 2) {
-		    throw new IOException("error.badmove: " + line);
+                    throw new IOException("error.badmove: " + line);
                 }
 
-		// target of move should be the key
+        		// target of move should be the key
                 if (renameMap.put(sub.get(1), sub.get(0)) != null) {
-		    // invalid move - should not move to same target twice
-		    throw new IOException("error.badmove: " + line);
-		}
+        		    // invalid move - should not move to same target twice
+        		    throw new IOException("error.badmove: " + line);
+        		}
 
             } else if (line.length() > 0) {
-		throw new IOException("error.badcommand: " + line);
+                throw new IOException("error.badcommand: " + line);
             }
         }
     }
     
-    protected List getSubpaths (String path)
+    protected List<String> getSubpaths (String path)
     {
         int index = 0;
         int length = path.length();
-        ArrayList sub = new ArrayList();
+        ArrayList<String> sub = new ArrayList<String>();
         
         while (index < length) {
             while (index < length && Character.isWhitespace
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/util/ConfigUtil.java b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/util/ConfigUtil.java
index 3eb7237..23bcaa7 100644
--- a/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/util/ConfigUtil.java
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/getdown/util/ConfigUtil.java
@@ -33,10 +33,10 @@ public class ConfigUtil
      * @return a list of <code>String[]</code> instances containing the
      * key/value pairs in the order they were parsed from the file.
      */
-    public static List parsePairs (File config, boolean checkPlatform)
+    public static List<String[]> parsePairs (File config, boolean checkPlatform)
         throws IOException
     {
-        ArrayList pairs = new ArrayList();
+        ArrayList<String[]> pairs = new ArrayList<String[]>();
         String osname = System.getProperty("os.name");
         osname = (osname == null) ? "" : osname.toLowerCase();
 
@@ -118,12 +118,16 @@ public class ConfigUtil
      * of strings if more than one key/value pair in the config file was
      * associated with the same key.
      */
-    public static HashMap parseConfig (File config, boolean checkPlatform)
+    public static HashMap<String, Object> parseConfig (File config,
+            boolean checkPlatform)
         throws IOException
     {
-        List pairs = parsePairs(config, checkPlatform);
-        HashMap data = new HashMap();
+        List<String[]> pairs = parsePairs(config, checkPlatform);
+        HashMap<String, Object> data = new HashMap<String, Object>();
 
+        // I thought that we could use HashMap<String, String[]> and put
+        // new String[] {pair[1]} for the null case, but it mysteriously dies
+        // on launch, so leaving it as HashMap<String, Object> for now
         for (Iterator iter = pairs.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
             String[] pair = (String[])iter.next();
             Object value = data.get(pair[0]);