So I admit it – I am a greenhorn. I have never been to the
JavaOne conference before and I
really would love to go. Attending big conferences sometimes seems to be a waste of
time to many people. However with the large active community around Java and all the excitement currently
buzzing, it is pretty much a given that attending would be a valuable experience.
In the following I will highlight some sessions that would be of interest for myself,
just as a teaser. The session schedule for this years conference is
online now and whatever
you do with Java – there will be something of interest.
- Open Source Java
- A lot of new excitement is brewing around the GPL licensing of Java and there
are great opportunities to follow up on the progress and action in that field. In addition
the whole open source Java community is very active and there is an unbelievable amount of action
happening. Here are some related session that sound interesting and are of a more general scope:
Open-Source Java: Grokking the Future and New Opportunities(TS-7498)
by Simon Phipps,
Open-Source Java Projects: Meet the Sausage Makers Panel(TS-7497),
Java Technology Libre Panel (TS-7622) and
Open-Source Licensing Emergency Room Panel (TS-7495).If you are ready to get down and dirty you might want to check out one of these
How to Hack in the OpenJDK Project (TS-2800),
OpenJDK Project Q&A: Part 1 (BOF-2801), The Apache Harmony Project (TS-7820)
or check out if you favourite project has its own session. - Java and Ubuntu
- As a long time Ubuntu user I would love to know more about
packaging Java apps so I don’t have to fuzz around with manual installs.
This session is all about that Writing Java Platform Applications for Ubuntu(TS-7361). Perfect!
Maybe some of that stuff would even be helpful for Nexenta, once
I get to play with that ;-) - Java User Group Leader
- Thanks to Aaron Houston there is a JUG Leaders BOF with Sun Technology Outreach (BOF-1382)
which I would certainly attend. I could finally put a face to all the names on the JUG leaders list.
I am certain this would ignite some more fire for me running VIJUG. - JBPM
- One must do task for me would be to go to the jbpm session
jPDL: Simplified Workflow for Java Technology (TS-8612) and
catch up with Tom. Unfortunately I am a rather inactive committer at this stage, although at least an active
user of jbpm. - JBoss Seam
- All the sessions about JBoss Seam are of great interest to me, since I actively use it. So I would attend
Improve and Expand JavaServer Faces Technology with JBoss Seam (BOF-4400) although it might be a bit to much
at the beginner level,
Rapid Seam Application Development with the NetBeans IDE (BOF-9792) although I use IntelliJ,
Seam and SOA (TS-4092) although I play with Muleand
Web Beans Update (TS-4089) to see what is coming next. - Java Persistennce/EJB3
- Related to the JBoss Seam use is the Java Persistence API and there are lots of sessions about it.
Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1 Technology (TS-4247),
Java Persistence API: Best Practices and Tips (TS-4902),
Java Persistence 2.0 (TS-4945),
Java Persistence API: Portability Do’s and Don’ts (TS-4568) and
Java Persistence API: Best Practices and Tips (TS-4902).
There is bound to be some overlap, so attending all is probably a wast of time. - Keep seeing PermGen Space?
- If you are using dynamic deployment onto your appserver you are probably familiar with this sucker.
The „java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen Space“ Error Message Demystified (BOF 9982) is the session to go
to. It will certainly be helpful although potentially over my head, but hey .. I want to be challenged anyway. - Build and infrastructure stuff
- As a Maven user and having had Jason visit VIJUG and enjoying a presentation from him
I am very inclined to check out
Joyful Metamorphosis: Migrating a Large Enterprise Build from Ant to Maven (TS-7496).
Kind of related I would not mind to see what Kohsuke’s CI server is all about so
Hudson: Extensible Continuous Engine (BOF-9529) is another session to attend. And after build and continuous
integration comes shipping. So I will throw
Package, Protect, Promote: Essential Tools for Producing Competitive Commercial Desktop Applications (BOF-3373)
into the mix. - Digital Signal Processing
- Search Inside the Music: Using Signal Processing, Machine Learning, and 3-D
Visualizations to Discover New Music (TS-1548) sounds very interesting to me and I wouldn’t mind to
find out more about Java based signal processing in an easy manner like attending this session. Maybe I could apply some of that stuff to ECGs. - Java Posse
- A couple of months ago I started listening to the Java Posse and thoroughly enjoy my
weekly dosage. The Meet the Java Posse (BOF-1968) session is a must. There is no way attending this
session is not going to be very entertaining and refreshing. - Grails
- Okay… my Groovy skills are very rough but I am interested in Grails anyway.
Grails, Sails, and Trails: Rails Through a Coffee Filter (BOF-9843) and
Grails: Spring + Hibernate Development Reinvented (BOF-6133) might both give me a good idea of what it
can do. - Just for Blings
- With Java 6 the bling factor is getting really strong for Java apps. Interesting sessions about that are
the introduction of AB5k: An Advanced Open-Source Java Technology-Based Widget Container (BOF-1575),
3D stuff with The Java 3D API and Java Binding for OpenGL (BOF-3908) and
3-D Earth Visualization with NASA World Wind (TS-3489) and application development with
OpenLaszlo: From RIA to Ajax and Mobile (TS-6725) - Languages, Languages, Languages
- There are tracks about JRuby, PHP, Groovy and others but just for pure joy I might just check out
the very promising Form Follows Function F3 (TS-3420) and
The Scala Experience — Safe Programming Can Be Fun! (TS-2844) - Effective Java Reloaded
- Every Java developer should have read the book Effective Java from Joshua Bloch and now a new one is coming
out. The session for it is Effective Java™ Reloaded: This Time It’s for Real (TS-2689). You could even
try to be a groupie and give it a shot to get a signed copy ;-) - JINI
- Jini has been around forever, but with open sourcing it to Apache there seems more steam behind it again. So
maybe it is time to check out Straightforward Jini Network Technology (TS-1161) - Robotics with Java
- Last but not least after all this software stuff here are some cools sessions a bit closer to the metal.
All About Java Technology-Based Robotics (TS-1519),
SPOTBot: Turning a Sun SPOT into a Rugged and Affordable Mobile Robot (BOF-1891)
Sun SPOT in Action: 3-D, Virtual Reality, and Gaming (TS-1780)
Jeez … what a long list. I have no idea, if I would actually be able to cram all this into the few days the event
takes. Very importantly I would also want to connect with old friends and meet new ones. I would check out the java.net booth
and other exhibitors stands and just hang out with likeminded geeks.
Somehow I gotta make it possible to go. Maybe the promotion code for all VIJUG and VANJUG members
that gives us all a 100$ discount would help („JUGJ719 „). You should all use this code. If we get enough people using it we might get James Gosling to visit us or at least get a whole bunch of swag from Sun.
I firmly believe that I could learn a lot by hanging out there. Time to talk to my boss.
Hopefully see you all there.
manfred
Aaron posted a link to my post on the Java Champions page. Check it out here.
Aaron posted a link to my post on the Java Champions page. Check it out here.