Qusay H. Mahmoud's Blog

May 2007 Archives

Liberating Java

I attended the "Liberating Java" session at JavaOne by Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer at Sun Microsystems. He spoke highly of the open source concept and how it was Sun's vision right from the start. Isn't Sun the first open source startup? Well, I believe Sun has embraced open standards from the beginning. In 1984 the Network File System (NFS) was made open and free to the industry, and later it became the industry standard for network file sharing.

He described the concept of open source to be about skilled engineers who join together to leverage each other skill, and it is about engaging with the code. It is really all about creating a win-win situation for everyone. An interesting quote he made: it is not communism, it is connected capitalism.

In the world of open source, individual consumers and businesses have a choice, and the analogy Simon used was like going to a buffet restaurant -- it is all about choice. People love open source not because they necessarily want to have access to the source code, but to have control over building their own software infrastructure.

Simon talked about a couple of case studies of open source in the developing world. He discussed the case of China where more than 70% of the government software is open source, and Brazil is embracing open source as "a matter of sovereignty" in the sense that Taxpayers money spent on licensed software is going abroad, when it should be used to support local developers.

A full interview with Simon about open source Java is available on Linux Journal website at: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9624

Finally, remember that back in 1995 when Java was released to the public, the source came with it. So Java has always been an "open" platform, but now it is FREE! Q.

Java Interactive TV

This morning I attended the Java TV Track kickoff session. There were representatives from Sun, CableLabs, Time Warner, and Sony. They talked about the OpenCable initiative, one of its drivers is to encourage set-top supplier diversity – similar to the PC industry.

OCAP is the Open Cable Application Platform, which is based on Java. An SDK is available for developers interested in developing interactive TV applications, you can download it from http://www.opencable.com/ocap. One of my favorite TV channels is the Toronto-based CityNews, which has a ticker running across the screen with news from various sources. It would be really cool if they make it possible for viewers to replace that ticker with their favorite RSS feed. :-)

During the session it was announced that TiVO will be offered by several cable companies on existing cables, so be on the look out for offers from your cable providers to upgrade your cable box. :-)

Next, they discussed BD-J or Blue-ray Disc Java is the platform for supporting advanced content for Blu-ray Disc. This technology allows much more sophisticated bonus features on Blu-ray Disc titles than that provided by standard DVD. A couple of demos of Blu-ray Disc were shown: Big Fish, and Open Season. If you are a content developer, you might be interested in the BD-J application contest. For more information on BD-J, please see http://java.sun.com/products/javatv. Q.

Mobile is global

This afternoon I attended the general session on Mobility and Devices by Laurie Tolson, Vice President of Client Software Group at Sun.

She started her presentation by discussing how Java is everywhere: desktops, enterprise servers, devices, Blu-ray, 3 billion smart cards, etc. She said this is a great time to be a Java developer. :-)

Jason Ling of MySpace, which is the largest social network in USA, talked about MySpace mobile -- using Java to enable users to take their social network with them in their pockets. Java is enabling MySpace go mobile, and mobile is global.

Martin Wrigley of Orange/France Telecom, which is the first European integrated carrier, discussed how the Mobile Service Architecture (MSA) is a fantastic opportunity as it opens up the doors to developers, and consequently consumers will have access to more applications. Orange has 100 million customers in 92 customers and wants to offer more Java mobile applications to their customers. The first MSA mobile device is the SonyEricsson z50i.

Laurie talked about the Mobilizing Java Video Contest. Visit http://java.sun.com/javame/contest/ to learn about the winners and view the videos submitted. Q.

JavaFX Mobile: The network in your hand

Today Sun announced JavaFX, a consumer-focused family of Java technology based on Java SE. The first big component of JavaFX is a scripting language. Oh my! Why another scripting language? In James Gosling words, scripting languages tend to be focused on particular applications, and JavaFX Script is for developing media-rich Internet applications. JavaFX Script leverages Java's unmatched reach, stability, and security, and it designed for content professionals to reach out to the next ring of Java developers.

JavaFX runs on every Java SE platform unmodified. It is simple and easy to use, and the tools will be coming soon for content creation to allow developers to express their vision and creativity in developing media-rich Internet applications.

JavaFX Mobile is a complete and fully integrated Java software system for mobile devices. It is an open programming platform that will be available to OEM manufacturers worldwide. The idea is to break the hardware and software apart just like the desktop.

Demos were shown of several devices running JavaFX. It is capable of running all the SE, ME, and scripting code. In other words, your existing Java ME applications would run just fine on JavaFX Mobile. JavaFX Mobile is linux-based with native OS low-level services and libraries with a linux kernel. Everything else is Java-based.

JavaFX Mobile is an exciting technology that will bring a richer experience to users, and to people who will never have the chance to experience the Internet on a desktop PC. There are many places around the world where wireline infrastructure is non-existent, and hence mobile phones are widely deployed; for people at such places the mobile phone is the computer! Q.

The Java Open Source Platform

This morning I attended the keynote speech: Get in the Driver's Seat with Java Technology by Rich Green, Executive Vice President of Software, Sun Microsystems.

John Gage, Chief Scientist, (the master of ceremony if you like) opened the session by welcoming everyone to the event and talked about Java in devices, which are beginning to multiply. To move this forward, there is a need to reduce the cost by opening every component of Java technology. So the session was really about open source Java, devices, and the next wave of tools.

Rich Green talked about community as a fundamental human property, and how barriers to community are falling. He encouraged the audience (thousands of developers -- over 14,000 are attending JavaOne this year) to think of technology as a catalyst, and how to further the network as an unstoppable social force. He presented some interesting numbers:

• Mobile devices out ship PCs 20 to 1
• There are over 6 million Java developers
• Out of the 5.5 billion devices available worldwide, 2 billion run Java
• GlassFish powers more business transactions around the world than any other system
• The number of developers using NetBeans increases by 92% every year

I am not surprised by the last figure regarding NetBeans. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, NetBeans has come a long way in terms of ease of use and more importantly performance. Also, the support for Java ME is phenomenal -- the majority of Java ME developers use NetBeans!

The first Java Specification Request, JSR-1, is about Real-Time Java. Rich invited the CIO of NASDAQ (Anna Ewing) to share her thoughts on real-time Java. Their trading technology runs on Java on course. NASDAQ pioneered electronic trading 36 years ago. She also presented some numbers about trading, which there are scary to even think about. :-) Nevertheless, the number of transactions they perform per second on any given day is about 150,378. Anna talked about the importance of speed in the trading market. They are able to handle the surge of volume successfully (e.g. the Feb 27 domino effect of the sell-off on the Chinese market). On Feb 27 they handled 5 billion shares!

Finally, today marks the official completion of open source Java that Sun announced back in November 2006. A complete open source development kit is available: OpenJDK. There is more to open source than the source itself of course, and for that reason Sun is establishing an Interim Governing Board for creating constitution, and making available the certification kit (TCK) to ensure compatibility across the open source community. The license they chose was GLPv2, which is the same license used by the GNU/Linux community. Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and President of Sun, said that they have been surprised at the impact of open source Java and the license they have chosen, and developers and governments worldwide like the road Sun is taking with this as it will open more opportunities without friction with licensing. Q.

NetBeans Mobility

I arrived just in time for the NetBeans Mobility: What's New? session, part of the NetBeans Software Day. The session included some live demos from Ikivo, Mobile Complete, as well as a demo of Sun SPOTs.

NetBeans is an IDE has that come a long way! You have to try it to believe it. Even James Gosling is using it instead of his Emacs. NetBeans Mobility is an add-on for Java ME developers; it supports Java ME CLDC/MIDP and CDC. Since the CDC application model is not well-defined, NetBeans Mobility supports several products including SonyEricsson/UIQ, Nokia S80, RICOH, and others. Improvements in NetBeans 6.0 will include deployment on more devices (e.g. BlackBerry) and Java ME CLDC & CDC in one package.

Ikivo demonstrated their Animator, which enables quick creation of SVG content. A splash screen with a simple application was created in a matter of minutes.

Mobile Complete is the owner and operator of DeviceAnywhere.com. It is a subscription-based service that allows developers to get access to all kind of devices to test their applications instead of bringing the devices in-house for testing. It is a really cool concept. NetBeans Mobility enables you to easily deploy your applications on devices located thousands of miles away using DeviceAnywhere.com.

NetBeans can be used to develop applications for the ultra-cool Sun SPOTs (Small Programmable Object Technology) which are useful for wireless sensor networks among many other things. This is the vision of the “Internet of Things”. The demo shows how to turn a Sun SPOT into a base station (Mesh Networking) so that applications can be deployed over the air on other Sun SPOTs. What does this have to do with Java ME? Well, Sun SPOTs support the Information Module Profile (IMP 1.0) which is really MIDP without the LCDUI APIs.

In the closing session, James Gosling introduced members of the NetBeans team and others who talked about their work. Of interest is the NetBeans Magazine (available online). NetBeans.TV was introduced with a 2-minute video clip featuring NetBeans on the Road 2007 – delivering NetBeans to you – traveling to Israel to deliver NetBeans CDs to developers because houses do not have numbers so postal services don't work. :-) You can see the clip at http://www.netbeans.tv. I think the following comment from the clip is a bit political: traveled to Israel to deliver NetBeans CDs to some Palestinian developers. Q.

Off to JavaOne 2007

I'll be flying from Toronto to San Francisco tomorrow morning to attend JavaOne 2007. I will be there between Monday afternoon and Thursday evening; the weather forecast calls for lots of sun and blue sky, which will make walking from hotels to the Moscone Center a pleasant exercise for everyone. :-)

There are a couple of new and exciting things happening this year:

• The inaugural CommunityOne event kicks off on Monday, May 7, one day before JavaOne gets rolling. CommunityOne is a free and open event to explore participation-based technologies, solutions and business models that are transforming lives and industries. NetBeans Day is part of this event. The full agenda is available here: http://developers.sun.com/events/communityone/pdfs/CommunityOne2007_agenda.pdf
• Two new one-day tracks: Java Technology Business Day (Tuesday, May 8), and Java Technology in TV: Blu-ray Disc and Cable Day (Thursday, May 10).

I am particularly interested in the Java ME space, so I look forward to gaining new knowledge from the presenters of the many exciting technical and BOF Java ME sessions. And I look forward to seeing exciting stuff at the Mobility and Device Village (Pavilion) where exhibitors such as Nokia, Motorola, and Sprint will showcase the latest applications, devices, and services that run on Java ME. Speaking of devices, this year two devices were chosen for the JavaOne conference: the Motorola MOTOMING A1200 and the WowWee Robotics RS Media (Robosapien). Both devices will be available at a discounted rate for JavaOne attendees.

If you're interested in Java ME and want a little guidance in organizing your schedule to make the most out of the Java ME cool stuff, I recommend Terrence Barr's Java ME Guide to JavaOne 2007. In particular, you may want to print a copy of his Java ME Pocket Guide.

I will be giving a mini-talk on Tuesday at 12:00pm at the community Corner in the Pavilion (pod# 408) in which I will share my experience into integrating Java ME and BlackBerry wireless devices in computer programming courses. If you cannot attend but would like to learn more, please see http://www.uoguelph.ca/~qmahmoud/javame.

During the conference, my blog entries about Java ME will be posted at http://mobileandembedded.org -- the open source community for mobile and embedded devices powered by Java ME. Q.

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