Flipping arguments of 'equals' method, allows simplifying boolean expressions: now we can remove redundant null check before.
Example:

            String parent = dir.getParent();
            if (parent != null && parent.equals("/net")) {
                return true;
            }

Can be simplified to:
            String parent = dir.getParent();
            if ("/net".equals(parent)) {
                return true;
            }