JAVAWUG BOF 54 The Future of the Java SE Platform and Beyond

Thursday, 11th of March 2010 - QCon London 2010

The 54th BoF of the JAVAWUG (Java Web User Group London) is about to start. The stage has been taken by Peter Pilgrim (the founder and organised of the JAVAWUG) and three very important figures in the Java world who will discuss, debate and answer questions regarding the future of Java SE 7 and OpenJKD 7.

The panel next to Peter Pilgrim, consists of:

• Alex Buckley, who is Sun's Computational Theologist, responsible for maintaining the moral and technical integrity of the Java programming language. He collaborates widely with academics, compiler engineers, and expert developers to ensure that the Java Language Specification and Java Virtual Machine Specification are as complete and consistent as possible. He has a PhD in computer science from Imperial College London. Alex maintains a blog here.
• Stephen Colebourne, who leads JSR-310 Date and Time API, based on his previous work on Joda-Time and Joda-Money. He is a frequent contributor to debate on Java language change (FCM closures, Project Lambda, Project Coin) and the future on Java (exposing the current problems in the JCP to a wider audience). He currently works for OpenGamma, a startup developing software for the financial industry.
  He maintains a blog here. 
• Patrick Curran, who is Chair of the JCP. In this role he oversees the activities of the JCP Program Office including driving the process, managing its membership, guiding specification leads and experts through the process, leading the Executive Committee meetings, and managing the JCP.org web site. He has also participated actively in several consortia and communities including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (member of the W3C's Quality Assurance Working Group, co-chair of the W3C Quality Assurance Interest Group), and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) (co-chair of the OASIS Test Assertions Guidelines Technical Committee). Patrick maintains a blog here.

The BoF lasted for an hour and a half. Alex and Stephen discussed mainly the new features of the OpenJDK 7 (an open-source implementation of the next major revision of the Java SE Platform). There is no certainty which of these features will eventually end up on the final release of JAVA SE 7. There is also no definite release date.

Also a discussion was made on closures, the modularity of the JDK 7 (The most promising way to improve the key metrics of download time, startup time, and memory footprint is to attack the root problem head-on as described by Mark Reinhold in his blog), and a small note on the support for multiple native languages (reference implementation for language implementers) 

A complete list of the changes and bug fixes for the JDK 7 can be found here.

Patrick discussed the function of JCP, how the RFEs are handled how someone can contribute with new features to the Java language.

The whole discussion and especially the Q&A session during the end of the BoF were very interesting. I was also very glad that I got the chance to meet Peter in person and help him broadcast the whole BoF live using UStream.TV.

A recording of the BoF, can be found below:


Livestream 54th BoF

I am looking forward for the next BoF from the JAVAWUG on Scala Web Development, on the 24th of March 2010. More details on this event can be found here

My Motorcycle Gear - Gloves

My next purchase after the helmet, which I presented on my previous post, was a pair of gloves.


More specifically I bought the Spada Airflow Leather gloves. A picture of them can be seen below:

Details about the gloves can be found here.


Reviews about my gloves can be found in the following posts:
Spada Airflow Gloves - Review


As before, I won't be able to post a review until I have tested them, but I can say for now that they are very comfortable and a good fir for my hand.

My Motorcycle Gear - Helmet

After the MCN London Motorcycle Show, I have started buying my motorcycle gear. As I mentioned in my last post, I do not own a bike yet, but I am very serious of getting on this year.


So, I have starting by buying my first element/accessory of the gear, which is the helmet. It was on sale on the MCN show at the bargain price of £80. The helmet is a HJC FS-10 Infinity blue helmet which you can see below:

I can't post a review just yet as I haven't ridden at all with this helmet. I can only say for now that it fits great, it is very comfortable and I can't wait to use it in the future.


Having said that, I will post a review as soon as I have a few miles on the bike wearing it.

MCN London Motorcycle Show

It's been a while since I updated my blog, so I thought I should post something a bit more personal and not so much of a technical nature.


So... I went to the MCN Motorcycle Show (or "The Carole Nash MCN Motorcycle Show" as it has been advertised) at London's ExCel centre on the 7th of February 2010.


I have never been to a motorcycle show in the UK before, so it was a new experience for me. The show was fantastic and very well organized, with most of the major manufacturers present. The only exception was Suzuki and I was a bit sad about it as I wanted to check up close the new Suzuki Gladius SFV650K9.


Oh well... I didn't let that ruin my mood at all. The full list of the manufacturers present include:

• Kawasaki
• Triumph
• Ducati
• Victory
• Yamaha
• Vespa
• Piaggio
• Norton
• Aprilia
• BMW
• Derbi
• Gilera
• Harley Davidson
• Honda
• Motto Guzzi

In addition to all the new models that the aforementioned manufacturers had to present, there were a lot of exhibitors with amazing bargains for clothing and various motorcycle accessories. My mate got a brake disk for his bike at 70% discount. He also grabbed a pair of trousers, a helmet and a jacket. He saved a total of more than £250 from the retail price.

I also grabbed the opportunity of course and treated myself a HJC FS-10 Infinity blue helmet for just £80. I don't own a bike yet, but I am starting to buying my gear and when I have bought everything I need, I will get one. You can see my new helmet below:

  

There was also a FREE Live Action Arena, but it was packed and didn't get a chance to see it properly. The few stunts that I did manage to see though were great.

As you can understand most of the new models from the manufacturers were there. I have uploaded a few photos of the bikes and a few other with me on some bikes.

Me on the Kawasaki Z750

Me on the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R

Me on the Ducati Monster 696

Me on the new BMW S 1000 RR

Me on the new Honda CB600F Hornet

Me on the new Honda CBF 125

This is the bike that I will be getting soon !!! 

Now a few photos of the bikes. Below there are a few photos of the new BMW S 1000 RR:

And a few other photos that I took at the MCN show:

Overall, I really enjoyed the MCN show and I will definitely go again next year. My only complaint is about the food. Too expensive and the quality was not that great. 2 burgers for me and my mate with 2 sodas a bit more than 20 quid seems overpriced to me.

Yet again, we didn't go there for the food, so all in all, a great experience. We spent 4-5 hours there with my mate, and to be honest, we could spend another 5 easily!!! I am really looking forward for next year's show!

Can't wait to start riding!!!