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2011

Hi again! You awesome blog reader, you!

 

You may have already read my super exciting pre-JavaOne blog, but if not, that's OK because we only gave over twenty (20) talks... Only one of every nine talks was given by a JBoss/RedHat speaker (1/9), and if you count our mini-theater talks, we presented a total of fourty-one (41) sessions all-together during the four days (4 days) at Java One - talk about a busy week! If you want personal updates from me, Lincoln, you can find me on Twitter (@lincolnthree.)

 

Projects like JBoss AS7 - Mobile, Drools, Seam, Arquillian (Enterprise Testing), Forge (Rapid Application Generation), Infinispan (Distributed Data Grids) were all represented, in addition to my own talk about URL-rewriting in Java EE - also, make sure to check out the official JBoss JavaOne "Lightning in the Cloud" page if you want to see full descriptions of any of our sessions.

 

If you were at JavaOne and you didn't get to catch up with any of the JBossians or Arquillians, I'm very sorry. There were over six-thousand (6,000) attendees, and it was hard even to find each other. That being said, I was probably the tallest person there, so if you ever found yourself looking up at a skinny awkward looking (super attractive) guy wearing jeans and a t-shirt, then "hi." Sorry my colleagues and I missed you

 

Day Zero (Saturday):

Our typical way to avoid stress overload, and to give ourselves time to prep. We show up a day early, get settled, have a few beers, and put the finishing touches on our talks. I think this year we really got things together nicely. Almost all of our talks showcased the best of breed, upcoming JBoss Projects like Arquillian, Forge, and of course JBoss AS7.

 

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We got to see the JavaOne tent as it was erected, and also played some real-life Tony Hawk in front of our flat while we waited for the entry codes to arrive. Once inside, after discovering the boiling hot water in the shower, relaxed to work on our talks.

 

Day 2 (Sunday):

More presentation prep - we discovered that our flat had a CD player and stereo speakers, to which we played the provided classical Jazz CD. A nice hip mood for making creative presentations and software. I spent some time working on my live demos (1, 2, 3) for my URL-rewriting talk, and got the clever idea to put them up on OpenShift so that the audience could see them on their mobile devices. Worked out pretty well, but I don't think many people had QR code scanners, so I'm not sure if putting them into my slides actually made much difference.

 

After working on our talks, all the JBoss folks got together for a warm and fuzzy dinner with Mark Little, our double boss - JBoss... cheezy, I know.

 

Day 3 (Monday):

This was the first day of the actual conference, and though I wish I could say I made it to the keynote, sleep prevailed, and we ended up wandering down to catch the first sessions around 11am. My first talk was Paul Bakker's session on Migrating from Spring to Java EE 6, which as opposed to my blog entry that focuses on the technical differences, Spring to Java EE - A Migration Experience, actually showcased some strategies for why you might want to migrate, and how you could do so following a few clearly outlined steps. I have to say, I really like the way they put together their slides. I think they used Keynote - I need to get on that.

 

I managed to get my photo taken with Duke - "what is that thing anyway?"

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Had dinner with Westley Hales (crazy,) Pete Muir (also crazy,) and a few of the JBoss Solutions Architects, Jamie and Ray - awesome guys. I don't know how they do it. I think they must have caffiene IVs.

 

Day 4 (Tuesday):

This was pretty much a blur. I don't remember where I was or what happened - I was too busy practicing my talk to remember any conversations, my physical state, or even who I was at times - all for the talk, which actually went very well, I'm pleased to say. I had 68 attendees in a 6:30 PM session. I'm very happy with the folks who came, because they were a fun crowd. Definitely a group of interested and interesting people, some of whom had used Rewrite and PrettyFaces before, but I wish I had gotten to talk with them more because there were a lot of good questions. Thanks guys!

 

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Here I am looking silly before my talk:

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And during, the audience cracks up at John Travolta reference:

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Once my talk was over, it was time to kick back and enjoy the JBoss Party with our crew. We had a few beers, then went out for a late dinner where I met Jon Vassbo (a PrettyFaces user.) We chatted for a while, finished our plates, and called it a night. Sleep is crucial! Still catching up a week later.

 

Day 5 (Wednesday):

Slow morning; we stayed up too late. Aslak Knutsen and I walked down to the coffee shop (Nook), which was some of the best coffee we'd ever had, got refreshed, then walked down to do the Java Spotlight Podcast, where the Duke's Choice award winners (including Arquillian) said a few words about their projects. Also apparently, we took part in some kind of running joke that I had never heard of, but you can hear it at the very beginning of the cast.

 

Arquillian guys receiving the Duke's Choice award - Aslak Knutsen (project lead,) Dan Allen, and Andrew Rubinger:

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Afterwards, I zoned out for a while, but not long enough to miss Pete Muir's booth talk about creating applications and deploying them to OpenShift using JBoss Forge, of which I also made a screencast. Pete's talk will be up on JBoss' website once it has been processed.

 

Following that, I went to watch Dan Allen give his "Unkeynote" in the huge grand auditorium. He described how to create useful CDI extensions to do things like integrate with other bean containers, reduce programming complexity, and bake in logging to existing applications. After the talk, I had a chance to catch up with Adam Bien, who had a few questions around Forge. I was happy to explain to him why Forge was more than just a replacement for Maven Archetypes, and how it could be used to provide tooling for all facets of Java projects.

 

Subsequently, Wednesday night was the Sting / Tom Petty concert on Treasure Island.

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Day 6 (Thursday):

Last day of the conference. I went to Andrew Rubinger's talk on AS7, "Death of the Slow," where I watched him deliver an incredibly well put together talk on how JBoss AS 7 has changed the development experience for Java EE 6. I couldn't believe the number of people who rushed the podium after he'd finished speaking. Well done! Another win for JBoss.

 

Afterwards we were introduced to David Blevins who has been working on the Apache TomEE project. We all went out to lunch, made plans to meet up for dinner and drinks later, and went back to the pad to relax.

 

As if the week couldn't get any more exciting, however, while we walked home from the conference, we heard air ripping above our heads as none other but the US Navy Blue Angels tore across the sky. I can't imagine a more action packed week!

 

Days 7 and 8 (Friday, Saturday):

This was our cooldown time, as we spent a good deal of it sitting around the flat, working on ideas that we'd come up with throughout the week. Saturday we went to see the Fleet Week airshow, and watched the Blue Angels up close and personal (video).

 

Another video:

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I'd like to thank everyone who made this week excellent, all of the JBoss guys, and all of the people we met. This was my first JavaOne, and it was surely an exciting one. It's set the bar for conferences, but with Devoxx, WJAX, and Java2Days coming up in a few weeks, the bar may be high, but the action is sure to continue.

 

Come find me on twitter @lincolnthree, and thanks for listening!

 

Sincerely,

Lincoln (@lincolnthree)

 

PS. You can also follow many of us on twitter: (http://twitter.com/#!/mojavelinux/jboss-colleagues/members) if you want to get in touch with us or keep an eye on our projects