May 2006 ~ Creation Zone

There has been a lot of activity lately. I'd like to share some of my experiences from JavaOne 2006; and briefly touch the other {fun} activity as well.

[05/17/06 and 05/18/06] JavaOne, Moscone Center, San Francisco

Although I have been to Moscone to do booth duty to demonstrate our team's performance portal project back in 2002 Sun Network event, this is my first real JavaOne experience. I am glad I was there to see the power of Java. The turnout was very good with thousands of developers flocked from all over. I've got a chance to attend few technical/birds-of-a-feather (BOF)/general sessions (Thanks George).

May 17:

General session - Lies, damn lies and Java by BEA folks

The main focus of this talk is to reiterate that Java is not going to be another COBOL in the imminent future; and to assure that still there is scope for lot of innovation around Java technologies. BEA dedicated most of the time to introduce the features of their next version of WebLogic application server.

BOF - Solving the Mysteries of the Java Technology Class Loader

This presentation introduced the Java class loader along with its evolution, and explained when a class gets loaded and how. There is a simple example to write a custom class loader as well.

May 18:

Discussion - Java Technology, AJAX, Web 2.0 and SOA

A discussion about these buzzing technologies, among a panel of experts. It wasn't very interesting for me. I guess many audience felt the same - the overflowing room was full 10 minutes before the scheduled time, and then half-full within 10 minutes once the discussion was started.

Technical session - New Compiler Optimizations in the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine

An interesting session about the compiler optimizations introduced in the forth coming JDK (6.0, code named Mustang). Most of the benchmark results with the new compiler optimizations are very impressive. It appears that some work is in progress to merge client and server HotSpot VMs into a single VM (may not make it to Java SE 6.0 though).

Technical session - Secure Coding Antipatterns: Avoiding Vulnerabilities

Another interesting session even though designers and architects are the targeted audience. There are some real world {source code} examples from various JDK versions, explaining why it is vulnerable to have code like that and offered some suggestions to make it secure against hacking attacks. Pretty interesting stuff.

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In my opinion:

* the folks who approve these sessions should focus on quality of the presentations and demos, over quantity -- there are too many

* it is better to have shorter sessions with 30 minute duration esp. those that sessions that explain something that exists already for quite some time -- I find it hard to sit straight for a 50+ min presentation {and even the presenters are running out of material, anyway)

* better not overlap too many sessions at the same time -- the knowledge transfer should commensurate with the $$s paid for the conference.

* there shouldn't be any break in the schedule -- don't know why the 5-7PM slots are left unfilled

* the whole event can be squeezed into two days, unless there is a lot of new/unknown stuff that needs to be evangelized

* finally there should be some easy way to fill out the feedback forms over the web (are we still in 90s to fill out paper forms?) -- it will be effective in saving the paper and the associated printing costs, as well as getting proper feedback from the audience (because they are not forced to fill out the form within the 30+ min session).

Some photographs from the JavaOne conference:

 
Howard Street, Downtown SF                      Howard Street, Downtown SF

 
Moscone Center, South Block - Pavilion          Moscone Center, North Block - Auditoriums

 
Rest area between South & North blocks          Way to auditoriums

 
Sun territory                                   Solaris/OpenSolaris booths

 
Project looking glass (3D desktop) demo         Oracle booth

 
BEA - think liquid                               Slot car racing challenge

[05/13/06 and 05/14/06] Downtown San Francisco

Even though I have been in Bay Area for nearly 4 years, I never got a chance to roam around the streets of downtown San Francisco. I've read many exciting reviews about Lombard street, the crooked street in Frisco located between Hyde and Leavenworth; and thought it is worth give a shot.

[Off-topic] On my way to downtown, I narrowly escaped a collision with an SUV on the ramp towards I-280 North. People who wish to share the road with others should really learn about the importance of signals; and those who fail to understand the importance of safety of others on the road, should be packaged in a nicely wrapped box without air holes and sent to the deepest forest in Amazon (just like Garfield mailing Nermal to Abu Dhabi whenever he gets irked). That's a different story anyway.

Contrary to majority of people's opinion, it wasn't a very exciting experience for me on Lombard crooked street. The exuberance was quickly vanished, as the drive on this street is very short, and lasted only for 90 seconds. Besides, it is not too challenging (many reviewers on web found it challenging). Unless being chased by someone at 50+ mph speed (like we see in movies), any person with little driving experience can easily maneuver on this popular crooked street. However the descent at Leavenworth followed by an acclivity on the same street towards Coit tower was really entertaining. The scary part is that I could hardly see oncoming vehicles atop the downhill waiting at the stop signs.

As you can see in the following photographs, even driving in the other busy streets in the vicinity of downtown along the rails of cable car is fun.

 
SF skyline from Bay Bridge exit                 SF skyline from Bay Bridge exit

 
Familiar traffic pattern for bay areans on 101  Lombard, Crooked street

 
Lombard, Crooked street                         Descent at Leavenworth

 
Driving over cable car tracks                   Driving along the cable car tracks

 
Driving along the cable car tracks              Sharp descent

 
An acclivity in downtown SF vicinity            Descent followed by an acclivity

 
Transamerica Pyramid in the middle             Bay bridge connecting downtown SF and Oakland

 
Somewhere in downtown San Francisco             Testing the camera while moving @ 65+ mph

I realized two things from these photographs: (1) my digital camera is able to capture the images sharply, even when I was moving at 65+ mph speed (2) my car needs a thorough wash - automatic car wash is not good enough

[05/10/06] Hiking in the Angel Island

As part of the team building event, our group at work with nearly 15 people went for hiking in the Angle Island, which is somewhere in the middle of San Francisco bay. Luckily it was sunny, but not too hot; and the hike wasn't much stressful. The view of San Francisco downtown from the peak of Mt. Livermore is awesome - but I forgot my camera at home, as usual.

As I spend most of my time at our partner site, it is an opportunity for me to introduce myself to the other people in the group whom I never met before, and to spend some time with my colleagues expatiating various topics from photography to profile feedback optimization. Spent some time playing Frisbee in the afternoon while we were waiting for the ferry to arrive.

Overall it was fun. Glad I didn't miss that - now I know more people in our group.

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Technorati tag: JavaOne | Sun | San Francisco | Lombard Street

[April 29, 2006] The weather was nice; and I am not in a mood to meet any of my acquaintances - so, thought I'd drive down to Half Moon Bay for little fun. The idea is not to sit down at the bank of the bay, but to drive all the way to the Jetty/The Breakwater spot, and come back without any breaks in between.

Apparently this is not my very first trip to the bay. I vaguely remember my earlier trip from San Jose to Half Moon Bay along with my friend, who refused to hand over the wheel for two reasons i) I am on learner's permit and ii) the road was steep and winding enough to say a blunt No. Since I like little challenges on the road once in a while, thought a short drive to Half Moon Bay would be perfect for the day.

I started off on 101 North towards San Francisco, and then managed to get onto 92 West going towards Half Moon Bay. The freeway became a two lane local road in no time with vehicles moving in both directions at a maximum speed limit of 35 miles/hour. Since it is a sunny holiday, hundreds of people are on their way to the bay and the road was blocked with vehicles in both directions, as far as I can see. On the top of that, it is a little hazy on the hilltop. Due to these conditions I had to maintain a consistent 2 mph speed switching between the break and the accelerator in 20 second intervals. Because of this conjestion on the road, I was very disappointed for not having a free fall of roller-coaster style (imagine a 1 mph free fall rather than a 50+ mph one) from an elevation of ~2500 feet. And the winding road is no match to the narrow & sharp curves of California State Route 130 (CA-130) between San Jose and Mt. Hamilton en route to Lick Observatory. That's another big disappointment. Fortunately Steve Tyler and the Gang (Aerosmith) got my adrenaline pumping with their single Love in an elevator (the chorus is surprisingly pleasant) and the exciting theme from Spiderman (it is kind of funny to hear heavy rock music in the backdrop; but I liked it so much that I re-wound the whole theme at least 6 times successively). That is a different story.

Since it took me nearly 70 minutes to drive 6-7 miles, I 've changed my mind in the middle and took an U turn at the Main street of Half Moon Bay and went back. Even though I'm disappointed with the unexpected 1 mph free fall and the not so exciting curves, I have no regrets for that short drive to Half Moon Bay city as it is a real treat to watch the green foothills, grassy slopes, pastures, road side cliffs, vineyard vistas/wineries, .. all along. Unfortunately I forgot the camera at home (ironically I mention photography as one of my hobbies); so, I am planning to go again some time soon to capture some of the scenic beauty. Perhaps I may dedicate a whole afternoon for a long drive between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz.

[An update: October 07, 2006]
Finally I managed to go for a two and half hour drive from Redwood City -> Half Moon Bay -> Santa Cruz -> San Jose -> Redwood City. Here are some photographs that I took while driving: