Day 3: We're Over Halfway Through!

By Robert Eckstein

Wow, is it Thursday already? I keep forgetting that time flies when you do nothing but sleep, eat, and attend sessions.

Okay, first thing's first. Whatever you do, don't miss the Thursday After Dark session. Our guests are the MythBusters, from the hit show on the Discovery Channel. What's that? You don't watch it? Well, you will after seeing this. The MythBusters are a pair of special effects wizards that take on some of the most popular myths and urban legends spanning the Internet. Is a gunshot lethal underwater? Can you really clean out a cement truck with explosives? Can Mr. Bean paint an entire room with only a paint bucket and a stick of dynamite? Can you really escape from jail with only salsa and a radio? Sometimes the answer is obvious, sometimes the answer is surprising. But it's always an entertaining watch. However, to get in-- and I must confess that I have no idea what the MythBusters are planning for the After Dark session-- you'll need to pick up a wristband at the Registration Counter in the North Upper Lobby on Thursday after 3 PM. The MythBusters will be in Moscone Hall A from 7 to 10 PM on Thursday night.

Well, the must-have gadget for the conference is officially the $199 SavaJe phone. Now, if you're curious, I talked to some of the people at the SavaJe booth yesterday, and they said that these devices should work with the existing SIMM cards that are inside your cell phone. However, you may want to check with the people at the booths to see if your carrier is supported (mine was). Also, they tend to sell out pretty quickly, so if you want to buy one, be sure to purchase early in the day, or you may be out of luck. At print time, they were still on sale in the Esplanade. However, if they're out--and the way they were selling on Wednesday, they may very well be--be sure to visit their web site at http://www.savaje.com and place an order.

By the way, did you notice that the massage chairs are back this year? This time, they're at the far side of the pavilion. So, if your shoulders get sore from lugging around that laptop, or your back is in need of some therapy, drop by, grab a chair, and get some quick muscle relief. When I passed by on Tuesday afternoon, the lines weren't bad at all. On Thursday, the massage therapists will be there until 7 PM.

Wow, full house on that "Introduction to AJAX" talk on Tuesday afternoon. Did you know how easy it was to work with AJAX? Did you know that you could implement your own version of Google Maps in less than 250 lines of code? That was a fascinating session to watch, and I hope that you had a chance to see it. Maybe if enough people request it, we can get the conference organizers to set up a streaming video of that session, but if that fails, you can always download the PDFs of the session slides off the JavaOne website.

I also got a chance to attend the "Desktop Java Technology Today: Deep Dive" session, given by some of the Java SE people. Did you know that 63% of respondents cited desktop enhancements as the features that appealed to them to most? Even better, did you know that 87.5% of all PCs run Java technology, and over 65% of all Java technology-enabled PCs run the Java SE platform? Monthly Windows JRE downloads passed over 30 million in January 2006, and the curve is growing exponentially. With all that, it was nice to see some of the enhancements coming from the desktop group, such as tray icons, native support for splash screens, faster image loading and processing, and the inclusion of SwingWorker and the Matisse GroupLayout in the core libraries. If you work with the Java Desktop APIs, then you're sure to like the latest improvements. We put some articles on these features up on java.sun.com a few months ago, so that's always a great place to search for more information.

Have you seen the shirts that say "I have a friend"? While the cynic in us may be tempted to think that people at our conference have just now mastered basic social skills, these people are actually our heroes: these are attendees who referred one or more friends to JavaOne. So, if you don't have a friend (shirt, that is), be sure to get one next year. There will be other great prizes as well if you refer several people.

Finally, to repeat what I mentioned on Monday. if you're turned away from a session that's full, be sure to let us know, and I'll pass your request for a repeat on to the conference organizer. Email Robert.Eckstein@sun.com. And thanks to those who already let us know about some of the sessions.

Have a good Thursday, and I'll see you tomorrow for a conference wrap-up.