On The Margins

Tuesday September 22, 2009

[ Announcements ] More on Derby

Kristian Waagan and Rick Hillegas, both Derby committers and members of Sun's Java DB team, have given a couple of recent presentations to an international conference and a San Francisco Java users group. These are now available on YouTube, as Francois Orsini, another member of Sun's Java DB team, notes in his blog. 

2009-09-22 15:30:36.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Thursday June 04, 2009

[ Java ] Brief on MSA 2

Elsewhere, I wrote a brief on MSA 2 ("Mobile Service Architecture 2").

2009-06-04 17:00:14.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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[ Java ] Raison d'être of JavaOne Conference

Elsewhere, I wrote about the Raison d'être of the JavaOne Conference.

2009-06-04 16:29:34.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Wednesday June 03, 2009

[ Announcements ] Java DB 10.5.1 is Released!

By now, it is already a 5-day-old news that Java DB 10.5.1 has been released!

Great team work and effort went into this release!

Thank you Kim Haase, Liz Drachnik, Hery Ramilison, Edward Ort and the Java DB engineering team!

Read more about it all on Knut Anders Hatlen and Francois Orsini's blogs.

2009-06-03 12:28:02.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Thursday May 28, 2009

[ Java ] User Has It Right! ....

Kristian Waagan (of Sun's Java DB development team) has really given Java DB (Sun's distribution of Apache / Derby) a new life of its own when it comes to handling CLOBs, starting with Java DB 10.5.

Check out this thread. 

Note the following testimony from David Goulden:

The performance improvements with CLOBs are dramatic. I created a record with a CLOB containing about 10 million characters using derby 10.4. The following query took over 6(!) minutes:

       SELECT CONTENT FROM MESSAGES WHERE ID = 1

(CONTENT is the CLOB column.)

I then installed derby 10.5 and did a soft upgrade. The same query now takes less than three seconds!

2009-05-28 11:10:55.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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[ Announcements ] At JavaOne and CommunityOne

For most of next week, I'll be either at CommunityOne or JavaOne.

2009-05-28 09:08:29.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Friday May 01, 2009

[ Java ] JavaDB 10.5.1.1

Now, a new release of Apache/Derby is out.

Francois Orsini has a more detailed note on this. It is great to see that many of the features listed are developed by our small but amazing team of Java DB engineers.

(See my previous post about this cauldron where Java DB is forged!)

2009-05-01 23:45:35.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Thursday April 30, 2009

[ Technology ] Derby, the Cauldron and Java DB

Apache Derby project is the cauldron where Sun starts the forging of Java DB, Sun's distribution of Derby and the premier Java database in the world! Most recently, Knut Anders Hatlen, Java DB engineering and committer to the Apache Derby project, has been writing about the new features being shipped in Java DB 10.5.

It is important to know that Java DB is a project 3 years in the making, and we're now witnessing people interested in installing this database in hundreds of instances, in the middle tier of their applications. Java DB is particularly unique because it can easily be embedded with a Java application in a JVM. (Anyone who has studied Java somewhat closely should already be completely familiar with this fact.) 

You can review the derby-users list on Apache to discover the level of sophistication in the user community, or go to the derby-dev list on Apache to discover and contribute to recent ideas and development with Derby replication.

In one of his many Derby 10.5 preview blog entries, Knut describes the use of generated columns, and follows up on their usability in a particular example involving case-insensitive search.

2009-04-30 23:20:33.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Friday April 17, 2009

[ Networks ] A Real Student Bargain for JavaONe

This year, JavaOne let's students get in free!

Plus, they can sign up for CommunityOne at the same time.

Both passes are full conference passes with access to everything!

Educators can also get in free when they bring 10 students with them to the conference. If they aren't able to do this, they still get a fantastic deal of $895 for a full conference pass.

This is an unprecedented bargain and discount!

What is a Full Pass?

All the benefits of a FULL conference attendee, which includes: JavaOne general and technical sessions, panel discussions, HOLs (Hands-on-labs), BOFs (Birds-of-a-feather), the Pavilion and the After Dark Bash / Networking Mixer! Not to mention a "hang space" (which includes video games, movies & more!), plus you will be able to check email any time at one of our many hacker stations.

PLUS

Admission to the CommunityOne Deep-Dives. What does this mean? FREE training by our very own SLS on some really great topics, plus hugely discounted certification (vouchers will be handed out at the event)- certification can even be done on-site! There will also be numerous parties and chances for you to network with the best and brightest in the industry, from community leaders to "Rockstars" and everyone in between.

2009-04-17 01:25:29.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Friday March 13, 2009

[ Personal ] Interview -- Second Part

Sun's web team has just posted the second part of the interview that Janice Heiss conducted with me recently.

Janice has also written a very good summary of the interview. In conducting the interview, Janice gave me an opportunity to go over some of my own thinking in the subject matters we considered together. I'm truly grateful to her for turning this into a productive conversation that goes well beyond the expected questions. Thank you Janice.

This interview was originally conducted for java.net and Sun Developer Network. 

2009-03-13 17:13:59.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Friday December 12, 2008

[ Work ] Janice Heiss' interview with me

Starting from a series of exchanges conducted mostly by e-mail and often across multiple time zones as I was traveling in Germany and Russia in the last couple of months, Janice Heiss cajoled me (and I should thank her for it) into this interview.

I hope you'll learn a few things reading it. I certainly learned quite a bit as I was exchanging these ideas with Janice and as I was trying to reply to some of her questions. For example, although I had always been curious about it, I hadn't earlier thought much about how I may respond to Bill Joy's famous essay until Janice actually asked me about it during the course of the interview. (Thank you very much Janice!)

I should probably add that Janice is a Sun staff writer as well as a blogger on Java.Net. She is also the person behind a wonderful series of other interviews with Sun's developers and software engineers—lots of amazing work and ideas are summarized in these interviews: "Meet the Engineer". Finally, I also recommend a reading of her tips for students coming from some of these top developers. There, you are bound to fin (as I did) many nuggests of wisdom.

2008-12-12 16:09:32.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Monday September 29, 2008

[ Technology ] Personal Data Storage Application

Patrick Keegan describes how to use Java DB and NetBeans to develop a personal data storage application.

The CRUD application is developed in some very simple steps. (Java DB is Sun's distribution of Apache Derby. Java DB is distributed with every copy of the JDK, starting with JDK 6.)

2008-09-29 14:21:00.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Thursday September 11, 2008

[ Technology ] Memcached and Java DB (Apache Derby)

Knut Anders Hatlen writes about memcached user-defined functions (UDF) for Java DB on OpenSolaris.

Knut has also mentioned the recent release of Apache Derby 10.4.2. A corresponding Java DB release should be available for download soon. (Usually this happens immediately but we're all at a developers' conference for the next couple of weeks.)

2008-09-11 12:58:29.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Monday June 02, 2008

[ Technology ] Community Statistics for Netbeans Database Usage

"The database support in NetBeans allows users to connect to a database and view and modify the database structure and data. These graphs show which database servers users connect to most often." Of particular note, besides the large usage of MySQL and Oracle, is the large usage of Java DB (Derby), and the significant PostgreSQL usage.

2008-06-02 13:20:38.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Monday May 05, 2008

[ Java ] JavaOne 2008

I will be at JavaOne 2008 for most of this week.

2008-05-05 08:05:21.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Monday April 28, 2008

[ Technology ] Java DB 10.4.1

The 10.4.1 version of Java DB, the world's most advanced Java database, has some really cool features -- asynchronous replication, table functions and JMX capabilities.

Sun engineers worked within the Apache/Derby community to develop these features: A great team. A great product. A great community! 

If you're a serious user of Java DB (and/or of Apache Derby) and plan to use this product in your business, you should consider the multi-platform, software support services for Java DB -- Sun's distribution of Apache Derby -- available at some amazing bargain prices at various service plan levels.

Sun provides support service plans for Java DB, which is, for all practical purposes, identical to Apache Derby.

2008-04-28 18:05:26.0 -- Comments [3] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
databases java services software support technology

Tuesday January 29, 2008

[ Java ] Next Generation Java Testing

At Java.Net, I have written a short review of a Java testing (TestNG) book.

2008-01-29 18:18:48.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Friday November 30, 2007

[ Sun Microsystems Inc. ] Where was I?

While I was away for meetings at Sun Microsystems's India Engineering Center, Eileen Alan of SDN channel posted a recent conversation I had with Kuldip Oberoi about Java DB and Apache Derby. I think Kuldip and I touched on a number of important topics about the technology, the business and Sun's general strategy behind Sun's Java DB work, and it is certainly very exciting to see the uptake by the user and developer community. It would be even more exciting as we see Java DB used for more and more database courses. I know Sun's Java DB (Apache / Derby) engineers are coming up with some very cool features and applications, too ... For a glimpse of what might be coming up, take a look at Rick Hillegas' "Saucer Separation" presentation given at ApacheCon (Atlanta, Nov. 2007) ... You might also want to check out the upcoming JavaME conference (Santa Clara, Jan. 2008) and check out JavaPolis (Anwerp, Dec. 2007), where there may be up to 4 Java DB related talks, Francois Orsini tells me. So, stay tuned, and, in the meantime, don't forget to check out Orsini's blog!

2007-11-30 01:09:58.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
apache databases derby java javadb programming technology

Tuesday October 09, 2007

[ Design ] The Radical vs. The Conservative

The system-originating inventions can be labeled radical, the system-improving ones conservative.

Thomas P. Hughes (2004), American Genesis: A Century of Inventions and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970 

James Gosling's Java was a radical invention. It was based on a radical design born out of several grueling decades of industry experiments in software languages and software development. Relational databases are implementations of a radical design formulated decades ago.

By Hughes' definition, a radical invention originates new systems.  You cannot have a radical invention without a system. An invention that neither originates a system nor improves it, may simply be called an experiment, or an exploratory idea.

Radical inventions come rarely and they are based on a radical design which answers to a multitude of converging needs. 

A major grouping of today's radical inventions are based on environmental and ecological designs that create intelligent contact with the environment. I like to call them intelligent scaffoldings, whether of networks, buildings, devices or whatever else it is that we live in or live with---customization to contain and to be contained.

What will attract the attention of system-builders of this and next decade? Given the ravages of war and militarism, only human concerns can be the center of such radical system building.  The best inventions are those that bring peace and prosperity, save us time and economize energy---they are inventions that allow us to focus our attentions on what matters most in life.

2007-10-09 20:37:47.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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Sunday October 07, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] From Sony P1i

Blogging from a Sony-Ericsson P1i @ the Sony Style Shop.

2007-10-07 11:52:54.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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