I finally ran my first bot! I don't know what problems others are having, but here's what I've discovered

You need Java 1.6. download here http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk-6u31-download-1501634.html

Set PATH to your java 1.6 folder. make sure you put this directory in front of any other java directories so your system uses this one.

I guess that was my biggest problem. I only had java 1.7 installed and it took awhile to clear this up.

all other instructions are found here http://aichallenge.org/ants_tutorial.php (a little obvious, i know :P)

In fact, I just used a 1.7 feature. You can write something like this.

List<Integer> integers = new ArrayList<>();

The 1.7 feature is the "<>" generic specifier on the right hand side. The Java 1.7 compiler is able to infer the correct type, which in this case is Integer.

It worked fine.