[hardwired]

parameterized types are only available if source level is 5.0
Generics was introduced in j2se 1.5. You can check the version of java at the prompt with >java -version
The method format(String, Object[]) in the type String is not applicable for the arguments (String, double)
The String.format method was also new in j2se 1.5
Looks like your ide might have a format method used for writing out arrays.

Code:

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.*;

public class Thumbnail {
    private JLabel getContent(BufferedImage image) {
        BufferedImage thumb = scaleImage(image);
        ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(thumb);
        JLabel label = new JLabel(icon, JLabel.CENTER);
        return label;
    }

    private BufferedImage scaleImage(BufferedImage src) {
        int w = 75;   // thumbnail
        int h = 100;  // dimensions
        int type = BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB;
        BufferedImage dst = new BufferedImage(w, h, type);
        Graphics2D g2 = dst.createGraphics();
        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_INTERPOLATION,
                            RenderingHints.VALUE_INTERPOLATION_BICUBIC);
        g2.setBackground(UIManager.getColor("Panel.background"));
        g2.clearRect(0,0,w,h);
        double xScale = (double)w/src.getWidth();
        double yScale = (double)h/src.getHeight();
        double scale = Math.min(xScale, yScale);    // fit
                       //Math.max(xScale, yScale);  // fill
        double x = (w - scale*src.getWidth())/2;
        double y = (h - scale*src.getHeight())/2;
        AffineTransform at = AffineTransform.getTranslateInstance(x,y);
        at.scale(scale, scale);
        g2.drawRenderedImage(src, at);
        g2.dispose();
        return dst;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        String path = "http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/" +
                      "1999/12/images/a/formats/full_jpg.jpg";
        URL url = new URL(path);
        URLConnection uc = url.openConnection();
        uc.connect();
        InputStream is = uc.getInputStream();
        BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(is);
        System.out.printf("imageWidth = %d  imageHeight = %d%n",
                           image.getWidth(), image.getHeight());
        is.close();
        JFrame f = new JFrame();
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.add(new Thumbnail().getContent(image));
        f.setSize(300,175);
        f.setLocation(200,200);
        f.setVisible(true);
    }
}