2006 JavaOne conference - Incoming T-Shirt! Duck!

Many conferences ago, Gosling began tossing rolled-up Java technology T-shirts from the stage into the crowd. This proved to be a hit and became an irresistible opportunity for creativity. Gosling went from merely throwing to launching the shirts. He started with a huge slingshot, and over the years evolved to "Master Blaster" air bazookas, then a trebuchet catapult platform. Then he opened it up as the T-shirt Hurling Contest for attendees.

Each year, months before the Conference, potential contestants submit their ideas for a hurler design, based on Gosling's guidelines. A committee selects three design proposals, and the developers go to work preparing to show off their hurler.

To be selected this year, contestants had to face three hurdles: Your design had to look like it would work, it wouldn't kill anybody in the audience, and it was creative. Gosling writes what he's looking for: "What are the chances that several thousand geeks will go 'Wow!'"

The contest has become a big deal. The hurling team that wins the grand prize receives $6000 in cash. Second prize is $3000, and third prize is $1000. Each team also receives $1300 in Java Series Books, and each team member receives a Java Jacket.

Three Heroes on One Stage

For this year's contest, and as part of the JavaOne conference After Dark Bash, Gosling brought in two gizmo heavyweights to help preside over his traditional T-shirt Hurling competition: MythBusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage.

Most of us know these two from their engaging Discovery Channel show, MythBusters. If you check out Jamie and Adam's bios, you'll see just what well-rounded heavyweights these two guys really are. They're the real deal.

They laughed it up with James Gosling onstage, talking about the fun of building things and blowing them up. This was truly twisted fun for techno-geeks.

And then it was time to launch some flying Duke T-shirts into the audience.

Let the Shirts Fly

Team number one, Chariot Solutions, included Rob Butler, Dmitry Sklyut, and Andy Oswald. Chariot Solutions, the company, sent a dozen employees to the Conference. This is their fourth year of providing speakers for the JavaOne conference.

The team's chainsaw-powered T-shirt hurler was a tribute to mobility. The hurler was built on an electric chainsaw, with one guy holding the saw as another loaded the T-shirt "bullet." Each T-shirt bullet was loaded into a PVC tube mounted over the cutting blade's track. The team had removed and replaced the blade with a steel bar that pulled the T-shirt up and through two spinning wheels that gave it acceleration.

Team captain Rob Butler said, "Last year, James Gosling said he'd like to see a chainsaw launcher, so we were inspired to build it." They had originally built a gas-powered chainsaw launcher, which worked and had great sound effects. But at the last minute, the team members discovered that they couldn't run a gas-powered engine in Moscone Center, so they had to do a complex emergency adaptation to a considerably tamer electric model.

The chainsaw launched the T-shirts into the crowd of several thousand cheering fans -- but mostly near the front of the room. The hurler's big advantage was mobility and a quick aim, not distance. Still, the Chariot Solutions team ranked second.

Brazil Goes Bold

Team two, the World Cup Champions, included Bruno Souza, Leonardo Galvao, Vinicius Senger, and eight other team contributors from Brazil. Their idea was to mimic the ability of a soccer player to kick a ball, in this case, a T-shirt tucked into a ball.

This team also had setbacks along the way. The Champions had originally planned to use a mannequin-type leg attached to a spring to do the kicking. But as they explained, the human leg is a much more sophisticated ball-kicking mechanism than is a fixed leg. They tried a lot of designs and eventually came up with a slingshot-style platform. The rubber band was stretched back around a lever, which was released with a soccer-style kick.

In his blog, Gosling calls the Brazilian team "performance art," and they didn't disappoint. Their trigger-kicking soccer mascot, JNaldo, dressed in a big-footed bird costume, was good for hilarious showmanship.

Sure enough, their launched shirt-balls flew out into the audience to plenty of cheers. Even though they eventually came in at third place, the entire team was full of wild outgoing enthusiasm and contagious laughter. It was obvious why John Gage's standard recommendation to JavaOne conference attendees -- "Be Brazilian" -- was good advice.

And the Winner Is...

But team number three, Didactic Whoosh, was the best of show.

Members Bob Diaz, Chris Wilson, Iian Klinghofer, Mike Hollatz, and Mitch McCuiston built a multibarrel, air-powered T-shirt cannon. You can see photos and watch a video at the team web site, didacticwhoosh.com.

About the size of a small washing machine on wheels, the Didactic Whoosh definitely had the sound effects and the distance. The basic idea came from "Spud Gun" potato-launcher designs on the Internet. The mean-looking two-foot-by-three-foot grid of six barrels was modeled after the Patriot missile launcher. It made an impressive whoosh. As the compressed air blew T-shirts through each barrel, you wanted to stand aside or duck.

The rear side panel was covered with tubes connecting the air chamber to the barrels. With a pressure gauge and a remote control panel, it looked like something the MythBusters themselves would have built on their show.

Team captain Bob Diaz said, "When we built it, the first time we fired it, it shot so far and fast, we just fell over laughing."

The audience was similarly impressed. When someone pushed the button and the cannon went "whoosh," several thousand geeks went, "Wow, ooooh, ahhhh, yeahhhhh!"

Gosling's criterion number three was fully achieved.

And Afterward

The three teams joined Gosling and the MythBusters onstage to receive their framed certificates to the crowd's wild cheers. And that was just the kick-off to a full night of After Dark Bash fun.

To all three T-shirt Hurling teams, a big thanks for the great entertainment.