Portable offline data for a web app - Derby on a stick

Well, my efforts to do the demo continued to run into obstacles, and was finally killed by the fact that at the last minute the USB reader on the demo machine set up for us in the session hall stopped working. So I had to talk about it and use the four words no demonstrator ever wants to say: “you get the idea.” But the session was well attended, the audience seemed interested, I got lots of positive feedback, and the subsequent Derby event was packed, so much so that we had to ask non-Derby Sun and IBM employees to leave so that the fire marshal wouldn't throw us out.

Before I forget, I want to remind you that what I almost demonstrated at the Apache Derby talk, and what I have demonstrated numerous times elsewhere on machines with a working USB port, was the portability of the data. Apache Derby data format is completely portable across platforms. So I was able to copy my database to a USB stick on Solaris, hand it to Dan, who plugged it into his XP machine. He then pointed is DerbyTax app to the USB stick, made some mods, handed it back to me, and I plugged it back into my Solaris machine and saw his mods.

You see what this implies, right? I can take my data with me, go to any machine that has Internet access, and keep going where I left off. I can keep all my docs, my blogs, my news reports, on my stick, and work anywhere, with a web-based app. I could even copy the entire app to the USB stick, so I can work offline, anywhere, on any machine. Cool stuff.