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JavaOne Day 4: Urgent Public Health Warning: Stomach Flu

The JavaOne conference team has been notified by the San Francisco Department of Public Health about an identified outbreak of a virus in the San Francisco area. Testing is still underway to identify the specific virus in question, but they believe it to be the Norovirus, a common cause of the "stomach flu", which can cause temporary flu-like symptoms for up to 48 hours. Part of the San Francisco area impacted includes the Moscone Center, the site of the JavaOne conference which is being held this week. We are working with the appropriate San Francisco Department of Public Health and Moscone representatives to mitigate the impact this will have on the conference and steps are being taken overnight to disinfect the facility. We have not received any indication that the show should end early, so will have the full schedule of events on Friday as planned. We hope to see you then.

Please see the attached notification from the Department of Public Health.

For further information, as well as Frequently Asked Questions related to the Norovirus, please visit the San Francisco Department of Public Health website at http://sfcdcp.org/norovirus.cfm

JavaOne 2008: Day 1, The Good, The Bad, and The Lame

Another year, another JavaOne.

It's always great to see so many old friends again.

This year seems to be continuing the attendance growth trend of the last couple of year so that's a good sign. Also, I've been able to find enough actually interesting and useful talks to keep from going back to sleep and that's an even better sign. In particular, this is starting to show how the "Java community" is growing up and outwards to encompass more than just the same old things.

Here's my list of the key things from Day 1:

JavaFX... NOT!

What a joke. JavaFX was announced with great fanfare at last year's JavaOne and yet what has actually been released in a year? Nothing of value. Just more hoopla and blah blah blah. Way too little, way too late. Especially now that Adobe has started opening up Flash and friends.

Indeed, with all of the improvements to the world of JavaScript/Ajax libraries, frameworks, and tools and most especially with the growing capabilities around the support of canvas in browsers, there's very little real reason to use those wretched "Rich Internet Application" packages like Flash and JavaFX.

JavaScript

Yep, there are now a number of sessions at JavaOne covering various aspects of JavaScript. Large rooms filled with Java developers who are using JavaScript is an interesting site to see.

As Roberto Chinici said in his talk, JavaScript Programming Language: The Language That Everybody Loves to Hate, JavaScript is basically yet another Lisp-1 language. Alas, as was so clearly shown in his talk, JavaScript is a really horrible implementation of Lisp-1 -- so many nasty corners, gotchas, and just plain bizarre things. That said, given JavaScript's ubiquity in web clients and its growing use on the server, it is pretty much required for all web developers to learn JavaScript.

JAX-RS: RESTful services in Java

Yes, REST is here to stay. JAX-RS is the attempt to standardize how to build RESTful services in Java. Basically, the approach is to use a number of new bits of library (such as the URI builder that makes working with URIs actually not a completely bug-inducing nightmare) and a bunch of new annotations.

There are already at least a few implementations out in the wild including the "Jersey" reference implementation and one for the Restlet framework.

The JAX-RS (aka JSR-311) draft specification has just been released for public review -- check it out and send in your comments.

As with JavaScript, everybody doing any web services in Java needs to at least check out JAX-RS (and Restlet).

Concurrency

Is there anybody left out there in Java-land that hasn't yet gotten the memo that concurrency is a big issue today and is becoming a huge issue moving forward?

Brian Goetz's talk, Let's Resync: What's New for Concurrency on the Java Platform, Standard Edition, was primarly about one key way to solve a number of problems was very well attended and people should check it out online.

Basically, coming in Java v7 is an addition to the java.util.concurrent library which adds a lot of support for building Fork-Join style concurrency solutions. For those who can't wait, check out Doug Lea's existing implementation that is part of his util.concurrent library.

Java v7 looks to have some nice features that both allow for very general Fork-Join solutions as well as things like the ParallelArray class which makes it ridiculously easy to concurrently process arrays of information. Joe Bob says: Check it out.

JavaOne 2007, Startup Camp 2

Is this really JavaOne? Walking around downtown San Francisco in May wearing a t-shirt and shorts and not freezing to death? Record setting heat must be boiling my brain!

I spent most of Monday at the Startup Camp 2 festivities over at the old Argent Hotel. Startup Camp is an open space unconference hosted by Sun and run by the nice folks over at Mass Events Labs. If you've never participated in an open-space style conference, you definitely should -- but don't expect to just sit there -- it's really exactly what you make of it. Note that the notes from each section should eventually make it up to the wiki so check that out for more information.

I went to a session lead by Josh Berkus that was about MySql vs. PostgreSQL. It was much less contentious than I expected. :-) It's great to see PostgreSQL getting more exposure -- especially given how much (undue) credit MySQL gets around being "open source" when it's not completely true. I.e., when it comes down to it, the single biggest reason to chose one or the other is licensing. PostgreSQL's BSD license is a Very Good Thing(tm). In terms of performance, there's definitely a lot afoot with both projects... MySQL is getting better at vertical scaling and PostgreSQL is getting more horizontal support (for things like "clustering").

Another session that I went to was lead by Jason Hoffman of Joyent about the tradoffs of hosted vs. building and managing your own data centers especially as your service starts to grow and you need to start worrying about scale. What made this session cool is what open space conferences are all about -- audience participation. Lots of experienced folks in the audience sharing their war stories.

The money quote of the day came from Josh Berkus (gee, am I a stalker?): "Databases scale poorly." This basic sentiment came up over and over when talking about how to effectively and efficiently get better performance for those hard-earned (or hard-begged :-) startup dollars. Databases don't scale linearly in terms of cost. Moving business logic out of the database leads to up to a 5X improvement in terms of cost (according to a study by Sun). That's a big deal but I'll leave further exploration of that to a future blog.

The wackiest thing at Startup Camp 2 was the "Speed Geeking" general session. Think: speed dating for startups. Each startup that wanted to present itself was given a big round dinner table and had a few minutes to make their pitch/demo/whatever to each small group of interested people. I'm sorry but the Rate My Poop idea is not something that I even want think about -- I'm going to have nightmares.

I also attended a session on pricing of SaaS/"on demand" services. Alas, I hosed my notes of who was running that session -- my apologies. Lots of good discussion but two key takeways were to remember that it's not just "software" but also a "service" and that trust is a key component to any relationship.

JavaOne 2006: Questions

As JavaOne 2006 officially starts today, there are lots of excited attendees floating around with lots of questions in their heads: How do I write Java code to deal with all of these new multi-core chips? How do I create Java-based web services quickly and easily? Who's giving out the cool schwag? Where are the parties worth going to? What sessions should I attend? Is Ruby (and Ruby on Rails) really kicking Java's ass? Why hasn't Sun given me a T2000 server? Why is it so cold in San Francisco in May? What is Sun's marketing team going to try to shove down everybody's throat this year? You know, the usual gamut of questions. :-)

Of course, with Jonathan Schwartz taking over for Scooter, the key question for a lot of people is: "Will Sun 'open source' Java?" Well, perhaps a better way to phrase the question is: "How will Sun deal with the issue of 'open sourcing' Java? Will Sun continue pretending that Java is already "open source" or will they actually take a true leadership role in moving Java forward?

Frankly, given Jonathan's latest blog entry, it sounds like he's going to continue Sun's delusional posturing. If so, he's going to have lost his best opportunity to ensure Sun's continuance as a company, let alone as any kind of leader. We need look no further than the most recent round of SGI's implosion to see a very clear example of what happens when a once-dominant company gets so entrenched in their own delusions of grandeur that they fail to adapt to the reality all around them.

Hopefully, Sun will be able to overcome its own fear so as to be able to make the next step.

GPL v3, draft 1 released

The Free Software Foundation has released the first public draft of version 3 of the Gnu Public License. The rationale document might be a more interesting place to start reading to about what they've changed so far and why.

Updates:

Note that folks using non-Gecko based browsers are not able to view or add comments about the draft on the web site but you can submit comments via email.

For those who can't read the draft easily on the official website, Tim Bray has put up an easy to read version that is suitable for printing.

Simon Phipps and Danese Cooper co-wrote their notes from the release presentation.

DSLs feelin' groovy (or, graduating from elementary school)

Ben Galbraith has posted the first of a series of blog entries about How I Learned to Love Domain-Specific Languages. It's great that more and more people are starting to see the value of explicit, focused languages over ridiculously inhumane "formats" like XML. Hopefully, we're finally reaching a tipping point.

Explicit DSLs feel weird to a lot of programmers because there's been so little mainstream focus on them. I.e., as shown by one of the comments, developers have been herded and otherwise sucked in by shiny-looking tools (by poor education, management, laziness, peer-pressure, ignorance, lack of training, marketing hype, etc.) and haven't (consciously) realized the power of domain languages. It's amazingly odd to me how little energy has been applied to languages among mainstream developers given how much programmer time is spent arguing about the minutia of programming languages and tools.

The fact is that we're already surrounded by and are constantly implementing "DSLs". Look at the "language" of printf and friends, the declarative "specification" of makefiles, the myriad "protocols" that we deal with everyday like HTTP, SMTP, SSH, and FTP, the "APIs" of code libraries, the "design patterns" embodied in frameworks, the analogies and "metaphors" we use to described software architectures, the implicit languages that we create each time we define a class, the jargon we use to talk with each other, etc.

A big part of the problem that I see happening right now is that too much of the discussion around "DSLs" is being framed as some sort of "either/or" / "black/white" conflict when it's really just a more conscious and explicit approach to things that we've already been doing. Whether it's the hype juggernaut of Ruby on Rails or the Java is old, boring, bloated, etc. ideas exemplified by Beyond Java or the "IDE" wars between Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, and Emacs, or whatever, the biggest issue with this "us/them" thinking, IMHO, is that people are fighting the wrong fights. The leverage that matters most is the ability of developers to think and communicate clearly with themselves, each other, systems, business folks, and users. Biologically and sociologically, human are built to be linguistic.

That is, languages are fundamental to how we work internally and with each other. Sure, we have various tools to help us communicate but isn't it clear that e.g., PowerPoint isn't the point, it's just a tool — and, alas, a tool that usually induces poor communication rather than enriching conversations). On the other hand, look at the "modern" killer apps and how they are all about helping us (manage our) communicating: email, web, blogs, P2P, wifi, cell phones, faxes, VoIP, agile/XP, open source, etc. I.e., we've graduated from the elementary school building blocks (word processing, spreadsheets, databases, Belief of Control, etc.) to the middle school of communication. Now, we just need to learn and develop languages and tools built around this new level of understanding and put aside our old, comfortable, but ultimately dead-end habits.

Metcalfe's Law broken

Way back when, Bob Metcalfe, one of the creators of ethernet, coined a formula that says that the value of a network grows on the order of n². During the internet boom, that so-called "law" was used in bazillions of pitches to (attempt to) justify all sorts of aggressive growth strategies.

Andrew Odlyzko and Benjamin Tilly have recently written a paper, A refutation of Metcalfe’s Law and a better estimate for the value of networks and network interconnections which dissects Metcalfe's law (and Sarnoff's law). They also present arguments for a better rule of thumb: the value of a network grows on the order of n log (n). This new guideline seems to fit our intuition as well as actual practice much better.

Googlezon

EPIC 2014 is an 8 minute, Flash movie from the year 2014 about a very 1984-ish outcome to the juggernaut that is Google.

Hilarious, in a scary way. :-)

Successive Embellishment

Growing up, one of the things that I was taught was that embellishing was wrong. That was confusing to me since the actual definition of embellish is: "To make beautiful, as by ornamentation; decorate." Of course, my mom and various "teachers" really meant to teach me that telling lies is a Bad Thing(tm). Alas, like so many of us, precision in language isn't much of a priority — we over-rely upon the communication of our emotionalism to impart our intent.

In Spiral Learning, Kathy Sierra talks about the need to and benefits of iterating quickly through the entire cycle of learning. If I may be so bold, what she's talking about is the notion of Successive Embellishment. Basically, start small and simple and then iterate. But, rather than the traditional view of us following the spiral inward, tighter and tighter, we're going the other way: we follow the spiral outward, embellishing what we've already done — not only makes it more beautiful but also more valuable.

Your homework, should you accept it, is to connect Successive Embellishment with the notion of Passionate Curiousity.

Passionately Curious

What do you really look at when you're hiring people?

Does your team fall into the various mental traps that Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his latest book, Blink? I.e., do you look for people who fit your conscious and/or unconscious biases? Wouldn't it help if, like the symphony committees, we only hired people based on their ability to code where we could not see them?

Does your team fall into the hiring hubris fallacy that Joel talked about recently? Is this just another example of the Lake Wobegon Effect where organizations are trying to make themselves feel better? Wouldn't it help if we only hired people we thought were better than us?

Does your team fall into the Certification Fallacy -- believing that a certificate means that a person is good/qualified/etc.? Do you only look for resumes that have the ridiculous laundry lists of keywords that the HR people can put into their filtering software? Wouldn't it help if we actually looked at what the actual work that a person has produced?

Or, is your team tragically hip and hires open-source commit sluts? Wouldn't it help if we actually spent some time working with people and the software that they've worked on?

When it all comes down to it, aren't we really looking for how we connect our true passionate curiosity with each other?

Software Freedom Law Center

Eben Moglen heads up this new organization, the Software Freedom Law Center, to "provide provide legal representation and other law related services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software." The center has been established with a $4 million fund raised through the OSDL.

Note that the free assistance is only available to eligible (i.e., non-profit) F/OSS projects that can't afford their own legal representation. The center will also provide services on a fee basis.

MacWorld 2005: Boom and Bust

MacWorld Expo 2005 is the consumer-focused show/exhibit/conference for all things related to Apple Computers. I've been going to the show for the last two years because Steve Jobs is funny as a keynote speaker and because I switched to a 17" Al-PowerBook when they came out. Alas, in stark contrast from years past, Apple seems to have stopped giving out goodies to attendees of the keynote (which, lets face it, is the real reason that a geek would want to sit through hours of rah rah marketing amongst a sea of Apple fanatics :-). Now that you have some idea of my bias, here's my take what did and did not get announced...

iLife vs. iWork

Lots of improvements to the various applications which are part of the "iLife" suite (iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, and GarageBand). Basically, the key takeaways are that Apple is lowering the price to $79, they seem to be listening to the user base and actually implementing a lot of features that people have been clamoring for (such as multi-track recording in GarageBand) while redesigning the internals (to better support e.g., RAW image formats and Hi-Definition Video) and externals (to actually make the programs easier to use). There's definitely a lesson in there for software developers.

Apple also introduced the new iWork suite of so-called productivity applications. [I qualify such things as "so-called" because of the inordinate amount of time and effort that we spend using them but that doesn't result in anything useful.] iWork consists of a significantly upgraded Keynote presentation maker and the new Pages document maker. I call Pages a document maker rather than a word processor because it's really targeted at the user who wants to quickly create various types of complete documents. How so? One of the areas that Steve Jobs hammered on in the keynote is how all of the Apple applications are trying to help users get started via e.g., "Themes" (ala Keynote), "Books" (aka photo albums in iPhoto), and "Templates" in Pages. I.e., Apple is working to help kickstart their users. That way, users can quickly focus on (a) adding content and (b) tweak the look rather than getting stuck in the purgatory that is a blank page. Yes, other folks have tried the same thing but it's definition instructional to see how a bit of extra focus on the aesthetics and actual user experience goes a long way. Lest I become repetitive, I'll refrain from saying that there's a lesson in there for software developers.

From a gossip- and conspiracy-addict's point of view, it's quite interesting to note how iWork does not contain either a spreadsheet or a personal-scale database. This is a deft deflection of the whole question of whether Apple is going to war with Microsoft in the work applications space. As with the iPod strategy, Apple is playing from their strengths and can slowly encroach into the MS Office market with each new generation of the suite. I don't know what Apple may be playing with in terms of spreadsheets but they certainly have a strong, existing community around the FileMaker database system. At $79 for the suite, there's hope yet that ridiculous pricing for office suites will be improving in the future -- but I won't be holding my breath.

mini-Mac

Oh, yeah, well that's what the new Mac mini should be called. There's plenty of folks getting all excited about this but I'm a bit skeptical. $499 sounds like a good price but that's for a machine which only has 256MB of RAM. Going to a realistic 1GB of RAM will cost you another $425 (buying it from Apple) -- that's highway robbery. To get a "Super" CD/DVD drive instead of the baseline "Combo" drive adds another $100. Apple is pitching the mini-Mac as a good machine for things like build farms (and hence, cheap render farms and the like) but note that the mini-Mac doesn't have gigabit-ethernet -- only 100Mbit.

Now, all that said, I think there are a couple of interesting markets where the mini-Mac will be effective. The first is to upgrade the machines of the relatives who are always bugging you to keep their MS Windows boxes running (but aren't anywhere near ready for e.g., Linux). If they already have a nice monitor then getting them a mini-Mac seems like a very reasonable option. I switched my Dad and one of my Aunts to 17" iMacs awhile back and even with the transition pains, my support load has dropped dramatically (i.e., it's almost all just senile user errors these days :-). The second interesting use is for people who travel but don't really need or can't afford a desktop replacement laptop. If you're not a power user then having a nice monitor, etc. at work and at home and just throw the mini-Mac in a bag and you're all set.

iPod Kerfluffle

Well, Apple finally answered my complaint about the high price of the iPod mini... Apple has released the iPod Shuffle. This time, they hit the price points spot on with a $99 base model which has 512MB of flash memory and a 1GB version for $149. The iPod shuffle is a brilliant answer to the flash-base MP3 player market. It's tiny, it has a very competitive price/capability ratio, and it's simple. The genius is that Apple simplified the entire model of how a flash-based player works. How? They completely got rid of the general purpose display. How can they do that and still create a usable device? They realized that all of the heavy lifting with the tiny device would be done in the iTunes software when you've connected the device to your computer. That is to say that Apple looked at the notion of mobile music playing as a complete system and focused making the systemic experience better. The iPod Shuffle is going to decimate the competition. There's a big lesson here for people who consider themselves architects.

Now, for some balance, the prices and capabilities of the iPod mini and the full-scale iPods still a bit sore spot. Given the unit volumes that Apple is selling iPods, the price/capability ratio sucks. I was hoping for a shock and awe announcement of a new high-end iPod that had built-in WiFi and support for WiFi delivered VOIP telecommunications. Now that would be a brilliant bit of sidestepping of the whole cellular carrier wars and would drive the mobile communication market into new territory.

Java Developers Get the Shaft

In the past, Apple has said that they care about Java. Alas, the patterns of fact show that to be a very arguable point. Java support on the Apple platform has always been and continues to be a third-class citizen. Heck, developers in general are only, at best, considered second-class citizens by Apple. The fact is that the Mac OS X 10.4 ('Tiger') release is at least 6 months late and that Apple has locked Java v1.5 to the Tiger release. Jobs was extremely vague about the release date for Tiger, saying that it will be out in the first half of 2005. That means that Java v1.5 support on the Apple platform will be about 1 year behind the Sun FCS release. Yeah, sure, that's commitment to Java and Java developers. Various folks have been pestering Apple to release a version that runs under the current Mac OS X 10.3. The gossip that I've heard is that Apple has cut back on the staffing of the Java team and just doesn't have the resources to make that happen. For shame! Of course, there are lessons in here about how backwards businesses are in their indignant misunderstanding of the value of developers as business catalysts but I won't bore you with that rant. :-)

JCK's New Bait-n-Switch Licensing

Sun's Graham Hamilton has just announced the release of the Java Compatibility Kit (JCK) for J2SE under a read-only license.

Whoopity do!

If, heaven forbid, one wants to actually use the JCK at all, you are required to either submit to the onerous SCSL (Sun Community Source License) or upcoming JDL (Java Development License). If you want to use it commercially, you have negotiate a commercial license with Sun (at least $50,000.00).

Geez, doesn't this remind you of Microsoft's incredibly lame "shared source" insanity?

As always, I'm a firm believer that, hey, it's Sun's property and they can do whatever they please with it but Sun's mealy-mouthed, half-assed, Janus-faced approach to "opening" up Java is, frankly, insulting. Sun: if you want to continue with your dictatorial control of Java, just be honest and say so but stop all of the weasely, self-righteous BS -- or return to your bold roots and get serious about truly opening Java up to the world.

Keys to Debugging

My buddy Terence Parr just published an article on developerWorks called Learn the Essentials of Debugging. In it, he brings up a number of essential debugging facets: Reproducibility, Reduction, Deduction, Experimentation, Experience, and Tenacity. Those six are certainly important but they aren't the whole story.

The first one that I'll add (based on the classic, nagging wife story... :-) is: Ask for help! Tom did what he could to figure out the problem and then he asked for help. Unfortunately, the boys forgot to ask me (an email expert that they know) and wasted a lot of their time -- the quoted-printable issue was the first thing that came to my mind. Doh!

However, like any problem solving process, the most crucial aspect of debugging is a more subtle issue... Admit that there is a problem. Now, obviously, Tom certainly realized there was a problem because he was actually testing his code and paying attention to the results. But, look around you. Have you noticed how many "issues" are missed, denied, and otherwise ignored? Look at the various bug databases (like the Java BugParade) where real, serious issues are ignored or outright denied for years. And, heck, at least someone bothered to recognize those problems and report them. Think about how many problems are completely missed because so many developers do only lackadaisical testing (let alone documentation or design work). Even more insidious are the higher-level dysfunctions such as the head-in-the-sand denials that I pointed out in Anatomy of Insanity?.

Humane development processes attempt to address this issue in various specific ways such as pair programming, code reviews, test-driven development, etc. The fundamental technique is increasing the cyclic rate of feedback at each level so that we will get used to listening to the feedback and then act in response to what we learned.

Is it stew, yet?

Before directing you to an essay on Language Oriented Programming, I want to make one other comment about this particular pumpkin soup. We're eating it today and yet I made it Tuesday night. I learned this at a restaurant I worked in. The chef served "yesterday's soup" instead of "the soup of the day". He said that most people know that soup always tastes better the next day so that's when he serves it. This gets to John Mitchell's Slack post. It would be nice to have the time to work ahead on some project and let it sit. You could then come back to it in a couple of days and have the fresh perspective to improve it before serving.

In XP, one of the benefits of pair programming is the difference of perspectives between the current driver and the copilot. Another refreshing perspective change comes when shifting between the two roles. One of the biggest benefits of test-driven development is the forced change in perspective as you shift back and forth between test writing and code writing.

If you're not working in a pair, you can simulate this yourself by working on a task for awhile and then put it aside and come back to it later.

Obviously, the relatively short granularities on the order of minutes are good for getting some kinds of perspective, it's critical to also sprinkle in the larger granularities of days and weeks. There's nothing like a sleep cycle or three to let your brain disengage consciously but continue percolating on it unconsciously to brew some fresh thinking.

Refactoring Java?

In the spirit of If you could get rid of one thing from Java..., if you could, what one thing about Java would you "fix"? This question is as inclusive as you want to make it. You want Java "open-sourced"? Or you'd like generics implemented "properly" instead of via type erasure? Or you want Sun to fix the insane version numbering scheme for Java? Share it here.

"The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress." --Joseph Joubert

If you could get rid of one thing from Java...?

In the spirit of If I could add one thing to Java, I'd like to know what one thing you would take out of Java, if you had the chance. Not add, extend, tweak, exchange, or change but just what you would get rid of completely.

"You know you've achieved perfection in design,
  not when you have nothing more to add,
  but when you have nothing more to take away." --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

((((DO SOMETHING!) SMALL) USEFUL) NOW!)

My apologies for the somber note amidst the hype and hoopla over the upcoming JavaOne festivities.

Alas, Bob Bemer has passed away due to complications from cancer. Bob invented the ASCII data format and was an old-school computer geek. "He never got the coding out of his system. He was a coder until he couldn't code any more. He lived it and breathed it." said his son. R.I.P.

The title of this blog is Bob Bemer's motto: ((((DO SOMETHING!) SMALL) USEFUL) NOW!)

Sun says no decision on open-sourcing Java

Well, the earlier blather about the potential of open-sourcing Java seems to be squashed by this report.

The biggest thing, IMHO, is Gosling's quote implying that there is a serious discussion about this going on inside Sun.

Sun considering some sort of "open source" for Java, maybe

Gee, could this be any more wishy-washy? This article in the Inquirer quotes Sun's Java Technology Evangelist, Raghavan Srinivas saying that there will be an open sourced version of Java: "It might be today, tomorrow or two years down the road."

Ah, the original source article has a bit more information.

SubEthaEdit turns 2.0: Is that a good thing?

For the most part, SubEthaEdit is just a tidy little editor that runs only on Mac OS X. However, it's claim to fame is the fact that it supports concurrent editing of documents by multiple people. SubEthaEdit is a fascinating tool for collaborative editing things like conference notes or, heaven forbid, source code (i.e., pair programming where you don't have to strain your neck peering over each other's shoulders :-).

In the v1.0 days, the license was basically donation-ware and there was a clear statement in the FAQ that talked about them cleaning up the code to release it as "open source". Alas, in this v2.0 release, the license has gotten more pointedly commercial (with a non-commercial/demo/trial exclusion) and all mention of any open-source take has disappeared. Now, it's their code and they can do what they want with it but I must confess that I feel misled.

To add insult to injury, v2.0 has switched to a completely different protocol (based on BEEP, blech) and there's no interoperability between v1.0 and v2.0. What are they thinking?

Vote on the "JavaMasters" programming contest

Vote for you favorite entries in Sun's JavaMasters programming contest. Voting closes at the end of this month.

The Tar Pit of Programming

Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.'s classic, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering is the first selection for the java.net bookclub.

I'm honored to be the moderator for this first bookclub foray and I expect things to get boiling as we attempt to address the tar pits in which we are stuck. I hope that you will join us in examining and discussing the fads, fallacies, dreams, and harsh realities of modern sofware development.

Sun to meet with IBM on open-sourcing Java?

Eweek is claiming that, in reponse to IBM's open-letter to Sun to open-source Java, unnamed sources at Sun are telling Eweek that Sun representatives will meet with IBM to discuss open-sourcing Java.

IBM's open lettter to Sun: Open-Source Java

In response to Sun's Simon Phipps' rant about Eric Raymond's open letter to Sun to open-source Java, IBM Vice President Rod Smith has called for Sun to open-source Java in a letter to Sun Vice President Rob Gingell. Smith offers IBM's support to create an independent organization to control Java.

Sun's Phipps rants on Raymond's open-source rant

In an article in the UK's PC Pro magazine, Sun fires back over Open Source Java accusations, Simon Phipps, Sun's Chief Technology Evangelist and java.net blogger, rails about Eric Raymond's recent open letter to Sun, Let Java Go.

Seems pretty clear that both sides make some points and miss their marks. I don't have the time right now into a blow by blow analysis but I will say that I'm personally sick and tired of Open-Source fanatics saying that everything should be open sourced. It's Sun's property and they can do whatever they want to do with it (whether we like it or not). On the other side, I'm equally sick and tired of Sun saying that they do NOT have any extra level of control over the rest of the JCP powers -- that's patently false -- check out my earlier blog on that particular subject, Open, Independent JCP?.

JSR 166, A Case Study

Check out my Artima blog entry on the case study of JSR 166: Concurrency Utilities.

JSR 133 goes public

JSR 133 -- Java Memory Model and Thread Specification Revision has been released for public review. Note that the review period ends on March 7, 2004 so check it out and submit your comments sooner rather than later.

SERVE put onto the back burner

According to a NYTimes article, the US administration has decided not to use the SERVE e-voting system in the fall elections. According to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz:

"The department has decided not to use SERVE in the November 2004 elections. We made this decision in view of the inability to ensure legitimacy of votes, thereby bringing into doubt the integrity of the election results."

As I recently blogged, the SERVE system is catastrophically flawed. Alas, the powers that be, while caving to the pressure with respect to the November elections, Wolfowitz says that they will continue to develop the system.

Survey: What do you want in the JavaOne2004 conference?

Sun is surveying Java folks about developer demographics and what they want in the 2004 JavaOne conference. If you think it might actually help get Sun to make a better JavaOne show then definitely fill out the survey!

A Security Analysis of the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE)

Four security experts, including David Wagner and Avi Rubin, have published their critique of the so-called Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) system.

What their report boils down to is that SERVE is catastrophically flawed.

Alas, since the inescapable conclusion doesn't fit with the desired outcome of people like the Pentagon, there's a lot of spin being spouted trying to drown the report in FUD. The one that I've heard the most is the implication that the silence by the rest of the peer-review expert group equals (a) disapproval of this report and (b) approval of the SERVE system. The silence of those other experts just means that it's not politic of them to tell the truth publicly.

Lego kills Mindstorms

Yahoo news reports that Lego is going to kill off the geekily popular Lego Mindstorms.

Basically, Lego, as an organization, just never learned to adapt to the high-paced world of high-tech toys. Heck, they didn't get the whole trend / tie-in toy market either. So, they lost a lot of money and now their going to try to deal with the consequences by retreating back into their old, core market.

Hmm... Anybody interested in creating a venture to take over that market and do things the seriously fun, geek way?

Talibanism in Technology?

Deepa Kandaswamy articulates his "seven reasons why women in technology remain invisible..." in Talibanism in Technology.

What do you think? Aside from the sensationalistic title, is there really a problem? If so, what's the process by which to address it?

Apple Flashers

Luckily for us, Steve Jobs debuted the iPod mini in his MacWorld 2004 conference keynote. It's tiny and very slick. Even better, the control felt pretty nice. Alas, in all too typical Apple style, the $249 price tag is just plain silly -- they should have hit the $199 price point.

Apple does get the Best Revisionist Video Award for reshowing their seminal 1984 TV commercial with an iPod digitally inserted onto the body of the running woman. Alas, I must say that the giveway of a poster of the ad was a big let down.

Long-term, there are two other announcements that I think are much more important. First off, Jobs also debuted the new G5-based Xserve and Xserve RAID servers. It seems that Apple is finally starting to actually put in the serious enterprise-class features like EEC memory and "dual" everything. I'm going to have to actually consider them now.

The biggest announcement is the new iLife '04 application with the non-i name... GarageBand. GarageBand is basically a music making program. Now, I'm no music software geek but the demo with Jon Mayer was very impressive -- especially supported guitar instruments. Create a garage band without the garage or the band (or any talent :-)! Mayer said that if he had this when he was 13, he would have never left his room.

Deconstructing the Cmabirgde Uinervtisy Rschereach Sramlcbe

Check out my Artima blog entry, Deconstructing the Cmabirgde Uinervtisy Rschereach Sramlcbe, wherein the wild meme:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

is discussed.

Killing the Servlets, softly, with his song...

Greg Wilkins, creator of the open-source Jetty servlet engine, spouts off in his blog about why he thinks that Servlets must DIE! Slowly!!

It's hard to argue that the servlet specification isn't full of cruft and that the servlet expert group of the JCP should take a major refactoring approach for the 3.0 version of the Servlets specification. However, does Greg's notion of "Contentlets" make sense for the Servlet specification?

Progress or Constipation?

Jim Cushing talks about three phases in his Personal Progress blog today: Inquisitive, Complacent, and Emboldened.

I often find it more productive to look at the stages of personal progress via the classic growth cycle of childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and senescence.

Microsoft Clarifies Intentions to Retire JVM-Based Products

Earlier this week, I blogged about Microsoft phasing out products which depend on Java. Well, the agile marketing arm of Microsoft has flexed its muscles again with... Microsoft Clarifies Intentions to Retire JVM-Based Products.

Basically, all they have done is pushed the drop dead date back one measely week and are more precise about which products are getting whacked. Yawn.

More on "Java Desktop System"

There's a big thread over on /. about the "Java Desktop System".

Note clearly that the thread contains the typically low signal-to-noise ratio that /. is so famous for. You have been warned! :-)

The Poetry of Programming

The Poetry of Programming is an interview with coding poet (or "poetic coder"?) Richard Gabriel. Check it out.

Microsoft phasing out products which depend on Java

Microsoft is citing the settlement over Java with Sun as the reason that Microsoft is pulling the plug on a number of versions of various products. Here's an article from Eweek that goes into more depth on this.

I particularly like this bit of spin from Microsoft:

"We will not ship products that include a piece of software we can not provide security fixes for, thus we are phasing out some older products and re-releasing some older products without the VM. This applies to all channels." --Tony Goodhew, Microsoft Developer Division

Of course, this is also a good excuse for Microsoft to push customers to pay for expensive upgrades.

Dating Design Patterns

Check out Dating Design Patterns for a refreshing take on just how powerful and useful patterns can be.

"Raving" Lunatics?

Dan Steinberg mentions:

Vincent's post about the dependence of Sun tools on NetBeans seems to imply why Sun is not prepared to fold or merge NetBeans into Eclipse.

when talking about Vincent Brabant's blog entry about "Project Rave" and my blog entry about NetBeans staying separate from Eclipse.

Indeed, Sun's own Rich Green has talked about Sun's concerns of that they not "abandon the constituents" (users) of NetBeans. Green also expressed his concerns over IBM's domination of the Eclipse project. Gee, that certainly makes it sound like the negotiations fell through because both sides fought about control over the merged project.

So, even with these nominally open source projects, to the people/organizations involved, it's still all about who's the boss.

Sun bails on NetBeans merger with Eclipse

It seems that Sun has chosen to discontinue discussions about coalescing NetBeans with Eclipse.

From the perspective of Java developers, does this really make any difference? The competition seems to be helping make both platforms improve faster than they otherwise might.

However, from the perspective of trying to grow the Java developer market, especially w.r.t. the Microsoft juggernaut, the lack of a dominant development platform is a bit of a detriment.

"Java Desktop System"?

Well, Sun is releasing their so-called Java Desktop System this week. What, exactly, is the "Java Desktop System"? Plain and simple: it is Sun's Linux distribution focused on desktop users. Of course, Sun has too much invested in things like Solaris (which is losing market share since The Bust (and I'm not even going into the loss of mind share)) and Java for them to be clear in their marketing messages.

Okay, let's hear Sun's official story of the naming of the Java Desktop System:

Q. Why was the product name Sun Java Desktop System selected?

A. Java technology plays a very important role in the Java Desktop System - the Java Virtual Machine is integrated, the Mozilla browser is Java-aware, Java is the preferred development environment, etc. To reinforce this, we have selected the name Sun Java Desktop System.

Yeah, sure, uh-huh, whatever. Did you notice how little actual Java there is in the "Java Desktop System"? Yep, in amongst all of those applications that users are going to actually care about such as the GNOME desktop and the Star Office application suite, Sun installs the JDK and JavaWebStart.

Now, since flogging the Solaris brand against Linux is about as succesful as Hollywood's Solaris movie was at making money, Sun is betting the farm in their ability to market "Java Everywhere". So, Sun is going to flog "Java" (to death?) by slapping "Java" on more or less everything that they are trying to sell. Gee, as if the term "Java" isn't already way too overloaded (is it a language or a platform or a mindset or a community or one product or 8,000 products or...). Let's face it, Sun has pretty much always sucked at marketing and I don't see this as any sign of improvement.

Can this flogging of "Java" possibly be a good thing? Can Sun carve out a niche using a "Red Hat Enterprise Linux but we sell hardware too" approach?

The "Community" is Always Right?

In Sue Spielman's Practical JSTL article, she writes:

The JSTL includes a number of actions that provide a mechanism for interacting with databases. The previous sentence should, at a very minimum, send up a red flag in your architectural visions. One might ask, "Do I really want to be able to perform SQL actions such as queries, updates, and transactions from my JSP? Isn't that business logic that belongs in the model?" The answer is yes. Yes, yes, yes. To follow a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which is the predominant design pattern used in building web applications today, you definitely want to keep your model information in your business logic. This means that you don't want it in your JSPs. Why then are these actions even provided in the JSTL? Good question and one that I've discussed with various members of the JSR-53 expert group. The reason is the "C" or community in the Java Community Process (JCP). The community has asked for it, the community has gotten it.

I don't know about you but I just had the most horrifying flashback to the C++ Standardization process!

One of the tasks that I'm regularly brought in for is to help companies fix their systems which have gotten out of control. One of the fundamental problems that I find is the type of mushed together "solutions" that is so clearly exemplified by this JSTL silliness.

Java's Inferiority Complex?

The TechnoTourette blogger writes I don't want to hear about it Mr. dotnet and that got me thinking about how Sun and so many Java folks react to the dreded "Evil Empire" that is MS. Is the incessant chatter about Microsoft and it's products by various Java "celebrities" just a sign of an inferiority complex or is it a manifestation of a completely rational fear?

Java Servlet v2.4 and JavaServer Pages (JSP) v2.0 "Final" Specifications released

The JavaServer Pages v2.0 specification was released.

Be sure to also check out Greg Wilkins' critque of the Java Servlet v2.4 specification.

China options push Sun to consider open-source J2EE app server?

Hmm... Opening up the Chinese market (that won't pay the ridiculous licensing fees anyway) through the hearts and minds of the developers and hoping that will convince them to buy (expensive) Sun hardware? I'm not so sure about that. Will they buy Sun's services? Perhaps but I'm not going to hold my breath.

In terms of the perennial Sun boogeyman that is Microsoft, going with a viral license such as the GPL would be excellent. Just think... Sun suing Microsoft for violation of the GPL and therefore the GPL getting seriously tested in court!

The Java Servlet Specification v2.4: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Greg Wilkins, creator of Jetty and co-founder of the Core Developers Network wrote this in-depth critique of the Java Servlet Specification v2.4.

JavaOne 2003: Java's Debutante Ball

Check out my article looking back on the weird and wondrous happenings at this year's JavaOne show.

Opinions on the JRL (Java Research License)

Dan Steinberg put together this discussion between a number of the Java.net folks on the new Java Research License.

Sitting With The Audience

Danese Cooper wrote about the pros and cons of sitting in the front row as a Sun employee. Let me be so bold as to recommend to Sun, Key3Media, and all of the other folks who put on developer conferences to try two experiments...

First, just get up and wander around a bit and then sit down somewhere much farther back in the audience. Be Brazilian (as John Gage would say) and actively chat with (i.e., listen first and then respond to) the folks around you. If you're really daring, take along a big stack of your business cards and give them to the folks you actually chat with so that they can continue to chat with you in the future.

Next, try the same thing but without wearing your corporate logo-wear and big-wig badge.

Sure, it would be difficult for Scooter and his huge posse' of handlers, assistants, and bodyguards, but I think that a lot more of the rest of the Sun crew would have interesting and useful experiences than their trepidation would indicate.

Finally, let me note how important it is to do these by yourself! I am continually amazed at how clique-ish folks are and how insidiously that excludes most of the people that have something important to say.

Users and Vendors debate JCP vs. Open Source Java

Nice to see some of the vendors go on record about making Java open source.

Here's an artice talking with Oracle and Sun about the JCP and the newly proposed JCP v2.6.

Here's a ComputerWorld article talking with various vendors and users.

Here's an interview with Sun's Jonathan Schwartz on the issue.

Here's more on the subject in an interview with James Gosling and here's my earlier blog on the JCP vs. open source session at JavaOne.

Gosling on Open Sourcing Java

James provides a nice, insider view of some of the thinking around open sourcing Java. There's a nice bit in there about the whole Microsoft fiasco too.

Duke has left the building!

Go home, have fun, and we'll do this again next year!

Why can't I WiFi?!?

Hmm... Java Everywhere and Mobility have been pushed at us all week long. Great. So then, why isn't there ubiquitous, open access wifi throughout the conference? There's a handful of private networks that are available in various areas but nothing at all in most of the conference rooms.

Not a very coherent message that the Java community is leading the technology world. :-(

Java 12,000?

I've been hunting around all week for some clear idea of exactly how many people have attended this year's JavaOne show. In contrast to last year, there wasn't even very much gossip floating around about the attendence numbers.

Well, Sun hasn't stated any official numbers that I've been able to find. However, in snooping around, I've found out that the attendence number is around 12,000. That's basically the same as last year.

Open, Independent JCP?

I mentioned An Independent Look At the Java Community ProcessSM Program in my first java.net blog entry. The original title was "JCP Better than Open Source?" so you might imagine my expectation for fireworks at the session.

Well, first off, the turnout was pathetic. Seems to me like the piss poor voter turnout thing. Of course, those folks still like to bitch. Sigh.

Frank Sommers was allowed access to the JCP database to do a study on the characteristics of the JCP so far in a piece called Effort on the Edge.

Is the java.net community going to kill the JCP?

Doug Lea pointed out that many things don't make sense as full blown (de jure) standard. I think that, like any other premature optimization, bringing things into a standardization process before they've been fully baked in the heat of real-world abuse and competition is a recipe for adding yet another backward compatiblity anchor around our necks. Remember that in the JCP, backward compatibility is a huge constraint. Given that constraint, the JCP should be much more conservative in what they allow through since we're all going to have to live with it for a long time.

Rob Gingell made some very nice statements that the JCP is really about controlling the definitions of the java.* and javax.* namespaces. Basically, things that don't belong in those namespaces have no particular reason to go through the JCP. He was also very clear in saying that Sun is open to many ways to improve the entire world of Java -- the core platform should only represent a small part. That is, communities such as java.net are resources which people can use to help others while helping themselves without the constraints or goals of the JCP.

Is the JCP open or just a white glove around Sun's fist?

Jason Hunter ranted about the fact that Sun still has ultimate control over Java since they have veto power and control most of the JSRs (and certainly all of the core JSRs). The Spec. Leads in each JSR is basically a dictator and pretty much do what they please (within the constraints of the JCP). But, if people don't like that Spec. Lead, the JCP conventions won't allow for a competing JSR to be approved. So, there's very little incentive for the Spec. Lead to actually have to care about things like building consensus.

Mark Hapner made a good point that one of the really great things about the JCP is that it is also evolving. [In a lovely example of recursion, the JCP is evolving through the JCP.]

Jason also noted that the Spec. Lead can foist onerous business terms in addition to onerous technology.

Jason went on to rant about the fact that the JCP licensing terms often force an all or nothing approach to approving/rejecting the JSRs. There's no way to reject specific chunks and yet still remain in compliance. The easy example here is the whole fiasco around the J2EE certification.

The Bottom Line

The simple fact is that Sun controls the definition of Java through both its founder veto and through leading all of the core JSRs. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the Spec. Lead organization cannot ever be forcibly ousted. So, Sun has the power and has it forever (or until they give it up).

Gender bias in the tech recession?

As I've been walking around, sitting in sessions, and generally being a nuisance, I've been struck by the fact that there seems to be a noticeably larger percentage of female developers at the show than in previous years.

Yes, this could be explained by the fact that there are fewer total people here this year so perhaps it's just more striking to my less saturated brain but.... What about in the overall technology world? Given the relatively small percentage of female developers floating around, are they getting laid off less than male developers?

I also think there's some sort of inverse correlation with total number of "booth bunnies". I only saw two booth bunnies (at the SpiritSoft booth) and they seemed to have been dismissed after the first half of Tuesday.

Markets are a Good Thing(tm)!

What's up with all of the paranoia from open source advocates w.r.t. java.net? Hello?!? A key part of the whole point of open source is that competition is a good thing. Support the stuff that you like and don't support that you don't like. If there's no acceptable alternative to something that you don't like, make one!

Innovation Everywhere!

Dan mentioned the first use at this conference of Bill Joy's, "Innovation happens elsewhere" second-hand quote. Now, that's the fine and dandy sound bite but...

Innovation happens everywhere. That's the nature of life. Alas, it just so happens that it often gets ignored or otherwise overrun by various kinds of steamrollers.

The Blogs Are Here!

The authentication of the site is finally letting me log in on a regular basis so I can begin to catch up with all of my blogging! Yea!

If you recall, last night I bitched about the fact that the java.net weblogs weren't plugged during the Tuesday keynote. Well, John Gage and the rest of the guys strongly and repeatedly plugged both the weblogs and the Javapedia during today's keynote. Yea!

The java.sun.com oversight was corrected today as well. The java.sun.com site now has a prominent link to the java.net page. Yea!

Quotes: The Good, the Bad, and the Over-hyped

Best Evangelical: Java is Freedom by Amy Fowler -- quoted by husband John Fowler during Tuesday's keynote.

Best Drug Reference:This is your brain on Java by me during the GE Medical demo. They used Java 2D & Java 3D to do display (and nauseating zooming :-) of various brain scans.

Best Safe Sex Pitch:Do it more! Do it safely! by Jonathan Schwartz. I'll just leave the rest of the context to your imagination.

Most Overused Second-hand Quote: Innovation happens elsewhere by Bill Joy. (A) Bill's not even at the show so the uses are all second hand. (B) So far, it's been used at least 5 times by different people.

Best Quote Under the Gun: No pressure! by Tor when his demo failed during the keynote and he had to rebuild it on the fly because he hadn't saved his work. Doh!

Scariest Quote: Java's here! Java's here! Java's everywhere! by Duke during a truly frightening, drug induced frenzy in a Java Everywhere video pitch. I think I'm going to be haunted by the creepy sound of that for a long time. Blech!

Best Cultural Attitude: Everyone is a Brazilian by John Gage.

Best Zen Mantra: I seek calmness by Rob Gingell -- talking about the JCP at the alumni fireside chat.

Where's the blogs?!?

<blog rant>
Alas, in the rush to talk about other things, our weblogs.java.net community wasn't even mentioned during the java.net announcement at this morning's keynote. Sigh.
</blog rant>

Will Java.net supplant the JCP?

Interesting article about java.net's potential vs. the continued crumbling of the JCP (Java Community Process).

The main take away for me is that Sun is putting out some effort to work better with the larger community.

JavaOne 2003: Transition of Java is Key

Well, it's that time again. A foggy summer in San Francisco and the annual pilgrimage of the Java faithful to the Moscone Convention Center. I've attended every JavaOne [can you believe this is "JavaEight"?] and the show, for a hoover like me, is always an exhausting slog to cram in as much as possible and still be standing at the end.

To get some feel for my take on the show, check out my recaps of the last two conferences:

• JavaOne 2001: Boom or bust?
• JavaOne 2002: Electric Boogaloo

I'm fascinated to see how well the world of Java can transition through its current adolescence into maturity. There are lots of new goodies coming into the core Java fold over the next release or two, many of which are going to be presented during this show. I am concerned that Java is heading down the same slippery slope that C went in through with C++ but I think we all can help to keep that nightmare from becoming reality.

My humble prognostication is that the single most important session of this show will be An Independent Look At the Java Community ProcessSM Program. The session was originally called "JCP Better than Open Source?" but that title offended a lot of people so the name was changed. I suspect this will be a standing room only occasion so get there early if you want a seat.

In terms of the larger Java community, I'm going to go out on a limb and posit that the most important announcement at this year's JavaOne is the creation of this java.net community. We've got the Java Today portal, a slew of blogs, and are creating a JavaPedia. Come join in the fun!

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