Marina Sum's Blog

Marina Sum is a staff writer for Sun Developer Network. She has been writing for Sun since 1989, mostly in the technical arena.

Locating Sun's Campus Ambassadors

In a February posting, I spotlighted the Sun portal for student developers. A brand-new feature on the portal's Campus Ambassadors tab is a world map that displays the locations of those ambassadors. Clicking through the locations shows you the ambassadors' names along with pointers to their blogs, if applicable, and an option to sign up for notification of upcoming events. What a nifty enhancement to the portal!

InfoWorld's Discussion of OpenSolaris and Linux With Sun's Ian Murdock

Paul Krill's recent interview on InfoWorld with Ian Murdock, creator of Debian Linux and now Sun's VP of developer and community marketing, sheds light on many frequently discussed aspects of open source as they relate to Sun. The question of how to make money from open source remains a key one. Here's part of Ian's response: "[T]here are ample opportunities to make money because even though open source is free in the monetary sense, it still requires a lot of expertise and knowhow to make it operate efficiently."

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Simon Phipps and Patrick Finch on Open Source

I much enjoyed attending the session "Future Challenges for Open Source and Java Technology" yesterday on Day Two of JavaOne. Here's a summary of the session.

OpenSSO Showcased and Demo'd

Late afternoon this past Monday, Sun identity architect Pat Patterson, senior product line manager Daniel Raskin, and product manager Nick Wooler took the podium at CommunityOne on OpenSSO. In particular, they described the runtime scenario; explained Fedlets, a shining capability in the upcoming Sun Federated Access Manager, OpenSSO's twin; and demo'd the process of deploying applications and configuring OpenSSO for federation.

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Learning About OpenDS at CommunityOne

At CommunityOne 2008 in San Francisco yesterday, Ludovic Poitou, community lead for OpenDS; and Jim Yang, project lead for Penrose, a Java technology-based directory server, presented on the topic, "Getting Started on OpenDS.” Here's a recap.

Two Identity Management Sessions at CommunityOne

Jamie Nelson, Sun's director of engineering for access and federation management, mentioned in a recent interview that "[t]ypically, the number-one problem in developing Web applications is that identity is often an afterthought." If you plan to join CommunityOne in San Francisco next Monday, May 5, be sure to attend these identity management sessions:

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How to Efficiently Accomplish Identity Federation With Fedlets

In a recent podcast, Sun's senior product line manager for access and federation management Daniel Raskin and RedMonk's Michael Cote and Sun's Brandon Whichard explain federation ("extended enterprise, internally and externally") with examples and a new way to federate with partners: with Fedlets in the upcoming Sun Federated Access Manager. The benefits: simplicity, speed, lightweight, scalability, seamlessness, repeatability. Stay tuned for a vodcast demo.

For more background, have a look at a recent SDN article on an interview with Daniel.

A CNET Blog Lauds the Solaris OS

A short and succinct posting on CNET explains why the Solaris OS "is no slouch"—not by far, given its 12 million licenses as of end-February 2008. The author, Matt Asay, also shares his thoughts on Linux and Sun's possible involvement.

One can't talk about the Solaris OS without mentioning its unique capabilities, such as DTrace and Zettabyte File System (ZFS). This posting calls DTrace magic. As for ZFS, these two recent blogs are fun to read:

• A developer concludes, "ZFS rocks."
• A Sun fellow makes a point about ZFS with a hammer.

A New Segment on Identity-Service Magic: Obtaining User Attributes

Sun Developer Network just published Part 3 of the technical series, Securing Applications With Identity Services. Through an example application built with the NetBeans IDE, you learn how to configure OpenSSO and obtain the attributes of users whose tokens are passed in service calls.

Forthcoming will be segments on auditing, creation, updates, single sign-on, and logout of identity services. Stay tuned.

A New Hub for Young Developers

Young developers who desire to learn how to build software in various intuitive programming languages, including Java, should check out a new java.sun.com hub in the New to Java Programming Center. Spotlighted there are numerous resource pointers to tutorials and introductory material: BlueJ, NetBeans IDE Blue J Edition, Greenfoot. Some of the resources are self-paced and interactive—a ton of fun!

Daniel Raskin on Federated Access Management

Early this month, I interviewed Daniel Raskin, Sun's senior product line manager for federation and access management, for Part 3 of the From the Trenches at Identity series. In this segment, Daniel points out the challenges that enterprises face with the related solutions and elaborates on the impressive capabilities of an upcoming, open-source product, Sun Federated Access Manager, designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind.

At CommunityOne in San Francisco on Monday, May 5, Daniel and his colleagues will hold an OpenSSO workshop, which pertains to social networking and Web 2.0. Do check it out and sign up if you'll be in the area then. Attendance at CommunityOne is free.

Sun Java System Web Server Shines in Scalability and Versatility

A recent posting on Sun's Web-tier blog showcases the recent launch of Sun's multicore, multisocket systems that are based on the UltraSPARC T2 architecture. The posting also mentions the impressive capabilities of chip multithreading (CMT)-optimized Sun Java System Web Server: vertical and horizontal scalability, support of PHP and JSP implementations, and so forth. For more details on CMT at Sun, see this wiki.

The Sun Java System Web Server team has a lot to be proud of. Congratulations.

RedMonk Podcast on Identity

RedMonk's Michael Cote and Sun's Brandon Whichard recently recorded an approximately 30-minute podcast, in which they reflect on a number of interesting subjects. Those include the recent "passportgate" in the States, the difference between ESSO [enterprise single sign-on] and SSO [single sign-on], IBM's acquisition of Encentuate, OpenID, and others.

A lively, informative episode.

Highlights of Java University at 2008 JavaOne

Java University, which will begin on Monday, May 5, 2008 as part of 2008 JavaOne, is available for attendance by Conference Plus Pass and Java University Pass holders. At the podium will be experts who will expound on the latest of many popular technologies and tools as they relate to SOA and Web 2.0: the JavaFX and Java Card technologies; the Java EE, Java SE, and Java ME platforms; JRuby on Rails; Groovy and Grails; the Spring Framework; the NetBeans IDE; and the open-source GlassFish and OpenSolaris projects.

Here are the session highlights, courtesy of Joe Boulenouar, senior technical specialist at Sun.

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More Wisdom on Open Source

A recent blog on CNET, Open-Source Software As Guerrilla Marketing Strategy, contains insightful quotes about the advantages of open source. Notable is the expanded horizon of contributors, some of whom end up being hired by the companies that make their software open source. In my recent conversations with champions and overseers of open-source projects at Sun, I heard about that trend, too, as a gratifying outcome.

And this quote on criticism from Marten Mickos, now at the helm of Sun's database group, is enlightening: "You must realize that criticism can be very valuable. Never be defensive. If you can forget about your ego, that's the power of open source." That attitude takes a deliberate effort to build up, I imagine, but certainly sounds like a wise one.

Start Planning for JavaOne

The 2008 JavaOne conference (Moscone Center, San Francisco, Tuesday-Friday, May 6-9) is just several weeks away. This year's agenda extends well beyond Java technology to also cover developer tools, open source, scripting, eCommerce, and Web 2.0.

Here are a few handy pointers:

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Interview With "MySQL-Chief-Cum-Sun-Database-Head"

I enjoyed reading a recent blog by Stefanie Olsen on CNET News on an interview with Marten Mickos, now head of Sun's database group subsequent to the acquisition of MySQL by Sun. The debate on the pros and cons of proprietary and open-source software continues to draw attention, in particular the business model of "giv[ing] away software and charg[ing] at the point of value."

According to Mickos, "open source is powerful because if a company has the right application, it can draw on the criticism and help of a passionate community." He also wholeheartedly supports the concept of a global workforce and points out that "not having offices and tapping into the best resources wherever they are" is the best way of organizing staff.

Thriving OpenSSO

Sun Developer Network just published Part 2 of an interview series on identity with OpenSSO, Sun's open-source project for single sign-on, as the topic. Sun federation architect-cum-OpenSSO-community manager Pat Patterson, ever eloquent and savvy, is the interviewee.

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Tools for DTrace

DTrace, part of the Solaris 10 OS and OpenSolaris, has long won recognition as an effective tool for identifying the underlying causes for performance problems. In a recent blog, Sun's Jim Laurent suggests that you check out the tools that make DTrace simpler to use: DExplorer, Chime Visualization Tool, the NetBeans plug-in, and others.

A great tip! Folks who are interested in DTrace, do take a look.

Sun Among the World's Most Innovative Companies

Earlier this month, Fast Company published its list of "The 2008 Fast 50" for the world's most innovative companies. It's an eye-opening and interesting read, in particular that the companies named hail from all industries: automobile, high technology, airlines, retail, attire. Number 45 is Sun Microsystems, highlighted this way:

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Jamie Nelson Speaks From the Trenches at Sun Identity

Earlier today, Sun Developer Network published Part 1 of an identity interview series that focuses on access management for Web applications. Jamie Nelson, Sun's director of engineering for access and federation management, who's captivating to listen to by virtue of his broad experience and savvy in security, talks about the number-one problem in developing Web apps—identity—and offers suggestions to head off that issue. "[D]on't ever hard-code security into your application," he cautions.

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Sun NetTalk on Web Solutions

A recent Sun NetTalk presentation, Scale and Move Forward with Total Confidence, by two directors and a VP at Sun elaborate on today's business challenges for Web infrastructures: services, platform, security, traffic, mobility. They then summarize the Sun offerings that enable you to build, optimize, and protect your infrastructure:

• Open-source Java platform
• Comprehensive, proven infrastructure software, including the NetBeans IDE
• Efficient, energy-saving hardware, optimized for performance
• Open-source Solaris OS, complete with such outstanding capabilities as self-healing features and the Zettabyte File System (ZFS)
• Flexible, simple, and secure data storage solutions
• Systemic security products and services for access and identity management
• Professional services and support

Have a look.

New FAQs for Sun Java System Access Manager

Newly published on Sun Developer Network are two new FAQ segments for Sun Java System Access Manager: Identity Management and Service Management SDK. The topics range from configurations to the Identity Repository to realms—valuable reference for developers and system administrators!

More segments are in the works. I'll spotlight them as they become available.

How Identity Federation Works

Recently, I came across two papers on cross-organization federated identity (authentication, authorization, and audit):

• Identity Federation: The Inside Story (Literally) by Daniel Raskin, Sun product line manager — Explains the roles played by Sun Java System Access Manager and Sun Java System Federation Manager, soon to be merged as Sun Java System Federated Access Manager.
• SAML: The Master Key? by Joab Jackson, Government Computer News — Describes the identity protocol Security Assertion Markup Language and the federated model, with observations from identity experts and adopters.

Informative and insightful, both papers are worth checking out.

Observations From Sun's Group Manager of OpenSolaris and LAMP Development

Kuldip Oberoi, group manager in Developer and Community Marketing at Sun, is responsible for maximizing the outreach of OpenSolaris into the application developer community worldwide. His responsibilities include product management and marketing of Sun Studio (C, C++, and Fortran compilers and tools) and Sun HPC ClusterTools, as well as adoption of the LAMP stack (Ruby, PHP, Python, and others) on OpenSolaris.

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Evolution of SPARC Technology

Recently, Sun signed a three-year agreement with the People's Republic of China to promote OpenSPARC technology at top Chinese universities. That exciting news prompted me to seek out Sun principal engineer Dave Weaver, a colleague-cum-friend who deserves to be called Mr. SPARC, given his intimate knowledge and long involvement with that technology. We chatted about its past, present, and future plans as they relate to his 23-year-long career at Sun.

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Sun CEO: "A Clear Economic Model Behind Open Source"

A recent JDJ article, Jonathan Schwartz: "Web Developers Never Had It So Good", quotes the Sun CEO extensively about open source and about the background for Sun's recent acquisition of MySQL. Quite a few illuminating tidbits!

"Crippling products or sneaky licensing exceptions don't work—freedom does," says Jonathan. On that belief, Sun has been embracing the open-source model for many of its products and technologies.

New Web 2.0 Classes From Sun in Burlington, MA

Sun is offering the following Web 2.0 classes in Burlington, MA in the week of March 24:

• Ajax Primer: JavaScript and DOM, Ajax Building Blocks
• Ajax Core: Web Application Development With Ajax
• Groovy and Grails Primer: Rapid Web Development
• JSF Core: JavaServer Faces in Action

The titles and synopses describe the content superbly. A lot to learn! Do sign up soon if you're interested and will be in the Burlington area then.

A Deployer's View of Federated Identity

New on Sun Developer Network is an article, Federated Identity Through the Eyes of the Deployer, by identity luminary Eve Maler. The article answers these questions:

• What identity-related challenges do application deployers face?
• What considerations are involved in setting up a single sign-on solution so that users can authenticate elsewhere before accessing your application?
• What are the popular federated identity protocols?
• What questions must you ponder before adopting a standardized solution?

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Praises for OpenOffice.org 2.3

In a posting yesterday, I wrote that OpenOffice had been named the best download of 2007 by CNET. Here is a glowing review of OpenOffice.org 2.3, published by eWeek last November. The author cited OpenOffice's support of multiple platforms, free downloads, and numerous capabilities in its word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and database applications as being the most impressive features.

OpenOffice Named Best Download of 2007 by CNET

Watch this CNET TV video on the best downloads of 2007. Hearteningly, OpenOffice tops them all: Open-source, free, and compatible with Microsoft Office formats, OpenOffice offers word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and database capabilities.

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Sun's Software Products at a Glance

Do visit the new Sun Products hub on Sun Developer Network. Just one click away are the related sites: Solaris OS, Java technologies, databases, developer tools, infrastructure software, Web services, scripting, and networking technologies. You're also pointed to recent updates, forums, spotlights, and featured products.

A ton of resources there for the developer community! Many of the products are free for download; some are open source. All are well worth checking out.

How to Build and Run OpenDS in the NetBeans IDE

OpenDS is the open-source project for Sun's next-generation directory service. A recent article describes how to build, debug, and run OpenDS in the NetBeans IDE. Only a few steps are involved. Good tip!

Sun's Innovation Awards Program for Open-Source Communities

Late in January, Sun announced a $1 million awards program for six open-source communities:

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May 2008

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Locating Sun's Campus Ambassadors

InfoWorld's Discussion of OpenSolaris and Linux With Sun's Ian Murdock

Simon Phipps and Patrick Finch on Open Source

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