Java developers, architects, programmers, and enthusiasts can drink up more of their favorite brew thanks to Oracle’s Java bus, which hits the road this summer on a high-tech cross-country Java Road Trip slated to hit 20 cities by September. The Java Road Trip: Code to Coast tour demonstrates Oracle's commitment to the Java programming language. Among the tour participants are distinguished Java technologists at Oracle who will demonstrate rich new Java technologies, support fellow developers at Java user group (JUG) meetings, meet with enterprise developers and consumers, and share the spirit of innovation that is the essence of Java.
The Java Bus is pulling into its final stop, and it's a big one: JavaOne 2010, the mother of all Java conferences! From September 19-23, JavaOne will showcase the tools, resources, and best practices that has helped Java permeate the world today. Look for us at the corner of O'Farrell and Mason streets, and you can check out our assortment of demonstrations daily from Monday, September 20th to Thursday, September 23rd.
As the Java Bus nears the end of its successful cross-country odyssey, we wanted to take a minute to thank you for your support. You turned out in droves, from the OD-TUG sessions in Washington, D.C., to the crowd listening to Jim Clarke in Austin, Texas―it truly underscores Oracle's commitment to this vital technology and the people who use it. Whether it was listening to a lively exchange between developers and key Java contributors or watching Java enthusiasts dive into the latest tools and technology on the bus, we feel privileged to have witnessed such drive and innovation.
We hope you take a minute to register at Technology Network (OTN), Oracle's official, and interactive online/offline community for Oracle technical professionals. As the world's largest online community of DBAs, and architects using Oracle products and computer-industry-standard technologies such as Java, you'll find rich content, valuable knowledge exchanges and a thriving online environment. Come join us at JavaOne!
Grass! Trees! We set up right on the Oracle grounds of the Santa Clara office, and enjoyed the park like setting. Being Oracle, there were a ton of Java enthusiasts, with more than 125 attendees. The buffet of fresh fruit, sandwiches, cookies, soda and beer disappeared so quickly that we had to augment with 30 pizzas to feed the masses.
The Java Bus was open for people to take tours and relax, and the surf bot was a load of fun, as usual. Best of all, every Oracle employee got a limited-edition Java Road Trip t-shirt. A great way to wrap up the cross-country drive! — Amy!
For the Portland stop, the Java Bus pulled into downtown Portland in the heart of all the action. We parked our bus right in the center of the park, and set up the by-now signature buffet of delicious food—cookies, sandwiches and soda, real picnic food.
The surf bot was packed from the time we set it up to the event's closing—it was easy to tell we were near ocean again.
Guest speaker Angela Caicedo once again enthralled the crowd, and the crowd enthralled us! Portland JUG member Slim Symes customized a song for the event, and "Gotta have my Java" was a big hit. We also had our first feline visitor, as one member brought his cat—on a leash! Said kitty was immediately nominated to be the Java cat.
All that energy added up to a very happy Bus, packed from start to finish with Java enthusiasts. Onward to our final stop before OpenWorld: Santa Clara! — Amy!
Ah, the coast again! Seattle brought us a new experience as we were parked by the Museum of Flight, giving the crowd some eye-catching background in the form of some pretty cool airplanes. We had attendees both the Seattle and Kent JUGs, including quite a few families. Guest speaker Angela Caicedo wowed the crowd with her demos, as attendees got to come aboard the bus to see the latest Java technologies. The surf bot was its usual popular self and the crowd enjoyed the buffet of fresh fruit, sandwiches and frosty beverages, as well as the promise of free stuff—we had a drawing for books and other prizes. — Amy!
Denver is always a great place to visit, and the Java Bus stop in the Mile High City was no exception, as both the Denver and Boulder Java User Groups turned out to see the latest Java technologies, and check out our demonstrations. We went with the ever-popular All-American theme at the buffet, with hamburgers, quesadillas, homemade potato chips, cookies, brownies, and Rice Krispie treats. (Ben Loved the Rice Krispie Treats so much that he smuggled the leftovers aboard for road trip munchies.) The weather was quixotic, but the rain held off until we headed inside for Angela Caicedo's talk; it was also nice to catch up with Brent Christian, a Java Road Trip demonstrator who calls Denver home. — Amy!
The Java Road Trip got out of the parking lots in Houston, instead setting up short at Discovery Green, a downtown park. We took over a fenced off area in the center of the park and rolled out the usual excellent buffet: beer, wine and soda, as well as sausage rolls, veggie burgers, chips and cookies. Hundreds of passers by wanted in, but had to content themselves with envying the Houston Java Users Group as they chowed down and the bus for demos from Angela Caicedo and Jim Clarke (embedded Java is always a surefire crowd pleaser.) The weather was perfect for fun and games, as we escaped Houston's heat and set up the robo surfer to general acclaim. And let's not forget the Java swag: Key chains and t-shirts, of course, as well as a raffle that netted seven lucky winners prizes ranging from books to Java hardware and software. Sounds like a perfect summer evening for Java enthusiasts! — Amy!
Austin proved to be family affair in more ways than one! The event was held outside Austin's Oracle office, so we welcomed local Oracle employees—our corporate family, so to speak. Meanwhile, the Austin Java Users Group turned out with family members in tow, and found a terrific event for attendees large and small. In fact, one attendee I spoke to said he found the event by following the Road Trip tweets—technology saves the day once again!
The buffet was loaded with classic picnic food: Soda, tea, lemonade, deli sandwiches, chips and cookies. You'll be shocked to hear that everybody partook liberally (Hey! It's free food!) Austinites also love the other freebies: A Java Road Trip t-shirt and key chains.
There was entertainment aplenty: The robo surfer was a huge hit to the younger generation, and we even had one gentleman with some seriously high-tech surfing socks tackle our mechanical waves. The main event was Jim Clarke, author of JavaFX: Developing Rich Internet Applications, speaking on embedded Java. It's a hot topic—there was not a chair left in the room, and we nearly had to pick up and move to a bigger room to accommodate the crowd. And finally, a bit of unintended amusement: The wind got so gusty at one point that the backing walls on the tents threatened to sail into the wild blue yonder. We had to scurry to keep them from going mobile. All in a day's work for the Java Road Trip crew—it takes more than a little wind (or thunderstorms, or heat waves!) to keep us down.
— Amy!
We kicked off this portion of the tour in Dallas, where an enthusiastic crowd munched on cookies and soda and enjoyed the Java FX and Java EE demonstrations; the Java EE clips playing on the bus were also a hit.
Then it was off to Memphis, where a sizable group chowed down on classic burgers, grilled chicken, and quesadillas, along with the debut of a smoothie bar. The smoothies were a huge hit, and they couldn't have come at a better time, as a cool drink was the perfect thing to combat some incredibly hot and humid weather. (I recommend Berry Blast—a cool and delicious concoction.) Kudos to the Memphis JUG members for braving air damp enough to swim through! Fortunately, the bus provided some air-conditioned respite, as a packed house enjoyed JavaFX and JavaEE demonstrations.
As Diane Tabulog of the Memphis Java Users Group noted, "We've never had anything like this! It's really interactive, and we're blown away with the information being given out." — Amy!
The Big Easy was a pretty big Java Bus stop as well, as we had three guest speakers—a Road Trip first! From 10am-1pm, our attendees enjoyed a full roster of Java discussions. Angela Caicedo spoke on JavaFX, Jim Connors spoke on Java Real-Time, and Arun Gupta spoke on Java EE6 and GlassFish, creating a lively and interactive discussion that had questions and answers flying back and forth. My favorite part was when one listener asked Angela about the cost of JavaFX. When Angela told him that it's free, his eyes lit up. I hate to admit it, but that might have been even more exciting than the free Java Road Trip t-shirt, keychain and beer cup everybody walked away with. Or even the prospect of free food: In this case, baked beans, rice, pasta, and a frosty beverage of your choice.
Although I don't know—Free JavaFX is very cool and all, but it's a pretty nice beer cup. ☺ Next Stop: Dallas, Texas! — Amy!
The Java Bus is always a hot ticket, but the Atlanta stop was even more scorching than usual. We stopped at the Atlanta Marriott Perimeter Center on the hottest day of the year so far, but more than 60 Java enthusiasts turned out in spite of the heat. There were a lot of Atlanta JUG members turn out to see GlassFish expert Siraj Ghaffer, and from there, they lined up in droves to register for the Oracle Technology Network (and get a free T-shirt, naturally!)
And shockingly, everybody enjoyed the lavish food spread: The sliders, quesadillas, hot dogs, popcorn and the usual beverages all disappeared pretty quickly. I should really start timing how long it takes for the buffet to get decimated—we could create an award for the bus stop with the healthiest appetite!
Atlanta didn't have a lot of experienced surfers—but although the JUG members may have had trouble staying on the robo surfer, they all had a fun time trying something new. Everybody walked away with a huge smile, and even more swag—a free Java Road Trip T-shirt. — Amy!
Bus Stop: Charlottesville, VA - 2.July.2010
Tommy can you hear me?
Sorry about that, but when you just had a bus stop featuring self-driving cars named Tommy and Tommy Jr., The Who's iconic rock opera just springs to mind naturally!
Charlottesville featured more than 80 people, including a bunch of campers from an engineering summer camp at PVCC. The campers were in awe: the robo surfer got its heaviest workout yet, and everybody attacked the roast pork, potatoes and coleslaw with great gusto. In fact, the campers made us feel like rock stars: "This is the best camp stop ever," said one. "The Java Road Trip made my summer," noted another attendee. And best of all: "I want to work for Oracle when I'm older!"
The real rock stars of the stop were Tommy and Tommy Jr., however. Programmed with Java, these vehicles drive themselves. Tommy Jr. drove all by himself with no one in the car at all, while Ben, the Java bus driver, took a spin in Tommy. He says it's a little startling to go from driver of a big tour bus to passenger in a self-directed car! He had a blast, along with the rest of the attendees. — Amy!
Making our way through Washington, D.C.'s dreaded Beltway traffic felt like a homecoming of sorts—I grew up in Virginia, so the stop at the Marriot Wardman Park Hotel for OD TUG's Kaleidoscope 2010 conference qualifies as home turf. And when we climbed out into the stifling heat and humidity, I knew I was home!
OD TUG puts on a terrific conference, and Kaleidoscope and the Java Bus proved a match made in heaven, attendees could take a break from conference sessions to check out the bus and the demos—and, of course, the robo surfer. With hundreds of attendees, we upped the ante this time with a couple of contests. Gordon stayed on the surfer longest, with a time of 160 seconds, while Mary had the fastest time solving a puzzle using Roger Brinkley's SunSpot-powered gloves. (Her time was 1 minute, 35 seconds, but she's determined to best Roger's record of 41 seconds.) Ben also had a chance to catch up with Fram Thamura, the Java User Group leader, ACE director and Java champion from Indonesia—check out the interview in the video.
It wouldn't be a good Bus stop if we didn't have great food and beverages, and this time the crowd got to chow down on sliders and three different kinds of French fries. Plus, free t-shirts for signing up for the OTN database. (There were a lot of takers—nobody can resist a free garment!) Next stop: Charlottesville! — Amy!
The Providence Air Show meant a really early start, as we had to get in place in time for the masses to arrive. But it was worth it!
The Java Bus was at the show, with the robo surfer proving a hit once again. We had a line snaking all over the place, as families lined up to ride the virtual waves! Roger Brinkley's mobile embedded devices were also popular—how can you not love the gloves? But the big hit, of course, was Sean D. Tucker's spectacular show with the Oracle plane. He is amazing—they don't call him a living legend of aviation for nothing. He does stunts that nobody else performs, like flying upside down about 25 feet above ground. His quote from a recent article in the Boston Herald says it all: "Remember, air show flying is about—it's the Indianapolis 500, it's "Top Gun", it's 4th of July all rolled into one."
And that's not even taking into consideration the Thunderbirds and their performance! So cool to see the Thunderbirds planes all lined up on the air strip and their performance was beyond belief. (I even got an autograph from one of the pilots—yes, I'm a fan girl.)
We got to pull the Java Bus on to the track after the air show and had Sean D. Tucker fly over it—that was a rush! We got some incredible photos, too. Check them out! — Amy!
Bus Stop: Burlington, MA - 24.June.2010
Here's one of the great things about driving a bus filled with comfy seating across the country: You always have a great spot to ride out a storm! That certainly came in handy during our stop in Burlington, MA, where more than 100 Oracle employees joined us in the afternoon for drinks, snacks and, of course, Java!
With Tony Printezis demonstrating graphical analysis of Java's garbage collection capabilities, we peered past his computer to see a sky growing ominously dark. As the wind picked up and the first drops of rain blew by, we decided to (temporarily) break down the tents and take shelter in the bus (Actually, the wind took care of a couple tents for us.) It was quite a squall, but we played demos and watched JavaFX demo videos until the skies cleared up. Really, it was like Mother Nature giving us a little intermission.
We had plenty of time to set back up, get the beer and soda on ice and order out for pizza for about 100 members of the New England Java User Group (JUG), who gleefully climbed aboard the robo surfer, visited the bus and grilled Roger Brinkley on the mobile embedded devices he demo'ed. The gloves powered by SunSPOTs were a big hit, as attendees got a kick out using them to control a laptop.
There was lots of chatter from the crowd, and I even ran into one developer who has submitted work as a Duke's Choice Award entrant. As Vineet Sinha explained it, Architexa is a suite of tools designed to help developers make better sense of code, and from there easily understand, document, and discuss design with coworkers. Take a look and let us know what you think! — Amy!
Our visit in Philadelphia wrapped up the first week of the Java Road Trip, and we celebrated in style by going surfing! We debuted the robo surfer, a mechanical surfboard inflatable ride. It was a huge hit, as the glorious sun and the gorgeous breeze conspired to really transport us to the beach! I was completely impressed with the mad skills of the Philly JUG members — I deeply suspect that somebody in this crowd has a robo surfer in their house, because there were a lot of experts! Guest speaker Greg Bollella from Oracle spoke about Real-Time Java to a packed room , with over 100 attendees eager to learn and enjoy. Roger Brinkley's mobile embedded devices were popular as always, putting a smile on everyone's face. There was all the delicious boardwalk food you could dream of after a day of surfing: Hot dogs, popcorn, pretzels and soda. Cowabunga! — Amy!
Another beautiful day in New York City and the Java Road Trip crew is setting up for our encore event for the NYC JUG group. After the big Java Bus ride through town, it could be tough to top the first one, but we have a plan: We have pizza, beer, limited edition t-shirts, bottle openers, Java-programmed toys, two incredible guest speakers and a secret weapon: YOU!
So let's get this party started!
The NY Oracle office was filled with enthusiastic Java lovers eager to learn more and celebrate their talents with fellow users. Eric Bruno and Jim Connors, authors of JavaFX: Developing Rich Internet Applications, gave an outstanding talk that intrigued and engaged everyone at the event. The signed copies of the book they gave away after the talk were a big hit for new and old Java users.
The Java programmed toys were a big hit among this crowd. Roger Brinkley leader of the mobile embedded community from Oracle, demonstrated how to use the wireless motion sensor SunSpot glove to navigate on a computer screen by the simple movement of your hand. This is only one of the cool products programmed with Java, and you can experience more by coming to a Java Road Trips stop.
Look for a full list of events at www.java.com/roadtrip or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. — Amy!
Does an all you-can-eat pizza and beer buffet sound appealing?
Of course! No wonder we had an enthusiastic gathering at our first JUG event in New York City on Monday June 14th, 2010. More than fifty people came with empty stomachs and thirsty minds, and The Java Road Trip Crew more than ready to entertain. Guest speaker Brian Goetz from Oracle did an awesome job delivering his speech and rewarding attendees with prizes for their challenging questions. Everyone left the NYC Oracle office with a limited edition Java Road Trip t-shirt, bottle opener and a smile on their face.
What more could you ask for from an event? Oh yeah, I almost forgot: How about a private ride in the Java Bus to the NYC JUG after party? Talk about showing up in style! We got a lot of envious glances from the crowd as the Java Bus roared through Times Square—and if you can impress New Yorkers, it's got to be something pretty cool!
The Road Trip has started and don't miss your chance to be part of the code to coast tour. You can find a full list of all our stops at www.Java.com/roadtrip make sure to follow us on Twitter @Java and on Facebook at I Love Java. — Amy!
Impact of Java
Java’s importance—and reach—cannot be overestimated. More than 9 million developers use the Java platform, now in its 15th year. Java is deployed in every major industry and powers more than 7 billion internet-connected devices, including 800 million desktop computers. Java is found on laptops, datacenters, game consoles, scientific supercomputers, cell phones, car navigation systems, lottery terminals, medical devices, parking payment stations—and the internet. If you’re living in the modern world, you’re using Java.
Oracle plans to support and grow that reach. “As stewards of Java, we at Oracle want to continue to make Java the most ubiquitous platform for developers in any environment,” says Hasan Rizvi, senior vice president of Oracle Fusion Middleware and Java products. “We want to make sure that Java continues to attract more and more developers and continues to be used on more kinds of devices and platforms.”
Rizvi says that Oracle’s success is linked to Java’s success. “Java is critical to our success—we have a huge investment in middleware and our application product portfolio, which is developed entirely in Java,” he says. “We want to see the excitement and the rate of innovation in Java increase in the developer community in the coming months and years.”
