Sun SPOT@jax 2008
I've had a session about the Sun SPOT Java Development Kit at this year's JAX 2008 conference in Wiesbaden/Germany. You can download the slides from my presentation here (the presentation was held in german, but the slides are in english).
Since I didn't have a chance to show SunSPOT in action with a Blackbox, slot cars or a space rocket, I showed parts of some downloadable videos:
- Autonomous Light Air Vessels (ALAVs)
- SunSPOT Orientation Sensing
- Project Blackbox Earthquake
- SunSPOT and slot cars
- SunSPOT equipped rockets
We discussed a little about Adam Bien's greenfire project. Find more information on Adam's blog or here and here.
Posted at 04:43PM Apr 24, 2008 by Armin Wallrab in Java | Kommentare[0]
The Last Word On The Sun/MySQL Acquisition
I've had a small conversation with Oliver Widder last week. He's the creator of the fantastic Geek&Poke cartoons and I asked him if he wouldn't like to create a cartoon on the MySQL acquisition. So enjoy here
Posted at 09:08AM Feb 25, 2008 by Armin Wallrab in Sun Related | Kommentare[1]
SOA and Web 2.0 slides
You can download the slides from my presentation at the Partner Uni in Fulda here.
Posted at 12:17PM Feb 20, 2008 by Armin Wallrab in SOA, BI and Governance | Kommentare[0]
VirtualBox is great
This week Sun announced the aquisition of innotek, the company behind the open source desktop virtualization VirtualBox. Innotek is based in Stuttgart, Germany - the home of Daimler/Mercedes-Benz - so I'd expect superior engineering and quality but not too competitive pricing 
I gave it a quick try with Windows XP and Ubuntu and I am completely happy with what I've seen so far. Small download, small memory requirements, very easy to use, very snappy guest behaviour, easy and fast snapshots. All free and open source, with the exception of USB, RDP and iSCSI support (enterprise features, closed source (for now)).
I've been using VMware for my demos, but probably I'm going to switch soon after some more testing. I have not tried myself, but others have managed to get Solaris running on VirtualBox.
Posted at 12:26AM Feb 16, 2008 by Armin Wallrab in Sun Related | Kommentare[0]
OpenESB Demo Screencast and Project Files ready, SunTechDays 2007 Frankfurt
Finally I've got the screencast of the NetBeans/OpenESB demo ready - that was quite a bit of work. It is also quite a big beast to download (9 MByte), enjoy it here. You can also download the zipped projects and files from the demo here, the presentation slides are here.
Posted at 08:11PM Dez 12, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in SOA, BI and Governance | Kommentare[0]
OpenESB presentation, SunTechDays 2007 Frankfurt
You can find the slides of my session on "SOA using OpenESB, BPEL and NetBeans" in PDF format here: 
Posted at 12:26PM Dez 10, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in SOA, BI and Governance | Kommentare[3]
Java everywhere: SUNW becomes JAVA
Yesterday our CEO Jonathan Schwartz announced that our Stock Symbol will be changed from SUNW to JAVA. Considering the strength of the "Java" brand I think this is a good idea. Although millions of people know about Sun, SPARC and Solaris, I assume billions are working with Java based applications and gadgets every day. The edge is driving awareness and demand, not the data center! In fact I think we should move more aggressively and exploit the Java brand even further.
Firstly, the name "Sun Microsystems" (in particular the word "Microsystems" ) sounds a little as if it was coming from the seventies and if we were producing and selling robots and other stuff like that. Secondly, when I explain for what company I'm working for people often respond "Yeah, Microsystems. You invented "Windows" and the internet. How is your boss Bill Gates doing?".
My suggestion: Change the company name from "Sun Microsystems" to e.g. "Java Systems" or "Sun Java Systems" (for those of us that can't imagine to drop the Stanford University Network from our company name).
Obviously this would lead to the question, if and why we should brand systems, storage, non-Java software and even the whole company with the Java label. If we're going to do this, we should clearly pause for the moment and consider what Java stands for, i.e. if it is a programming environment or a holistic approach to design systems. We shouldn't go rename some products and try some half-baked attempt to use the Java brand as a simple attractor. To achieve sustained success in transporting Sun's message and value to customers, it will probably take a more enduring effort of analyzing/aligning/communicating company strategy and Java philosphy.
Posted at 12:43PM Aug 24, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in Sun Related | Kommentare[1]
Deutsche Post's SOA Platform is going Open Source
According to Computer Woche Deutsche Post is giving away its SOA Plattform as freeware. At the end of the year the solution is expected to become open source. The plattform includes an ESB as well as a framework for infrastructure components like registry, security, authentication and configuration. It also supports connectors for BPM/BPEL engines, legacy systems, packaged software and applications in Java and .NET. The platform is based on open source products, commercial products (e.g. for BPM) can be injected into the framework. Main differentiator to competing frameworks is the strong endorsement of a best-of-breed approach.
Posted at 10:48AM Apr 17, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in SOA, BI and Governance | Kommentare[2]
SOA from the trenches (part 2): SOA vs. Object Orientation
When I'm presenting my SOA thoughts to a developer/architect audience,
I often get the comment: "Been there, done that. We're using
encapsulation, interfaces, component based development with OO
programming for years now. What makes SOA different and why should we
give it a try?"
This is a valid question, since the principles of modularity,
encapsulation, distinction between interface and implementation,
information hiding, etc. hold both for SOA and OO. But in my opinion
there are some differentiators:
Granularity
The granularity comes to mind first. SOA is built with coarse-grained services respectively coarse-grained service interfaces and the services hold a self-contained business function. As a result from OOA&OOD OO systems tend to be very fine-grained.Complexity
OO systems tend to be complex - not to say overly complex. Large systems are very often big lumps of software with high coopling instead of being modular. The use of inheritance and design patterns complicates things even more. Would you prefer to work with 50 reusable services or 10.000 reusable classes?Distinction between Process, Rules and Data
In OOA&OOD you create classes, that have attributes and operations - and these classes have a behavior. Classes in OO systems may hold process flow, business rules and data - sometimes they hold all at once. As a result business logic in OO systems is scattered between different classes and hard to comprehend and (more important) hard to change. In SOA you typically make a clear distinction on which systems keep process flowing, you fomulate explicit business rules and separate systems may be responsible for the data. And yes, we're stepping back to a procedural model with SOA. End users don't see their business in an object oriented way. What they are working with is a business process, or should I say with a business procedure?Reuse
Have you ever used business classes someone else has written? Probably you have used the classes of a team mate. But you probably have never used any business relevant classes from a different project - at least I never have. There seems to be a kind of natural resistance of developers against that kind of inter project reuse with OO systems. You probably have been making use of frameworks and third party libraries and that is what you do within an SOA. You reuse black box components (i.e. services not classes).There are more differences (like distribution of artifacts, transactionality), but these are some of the most important. Service-orientation doesn't replace Object-orientation, both complement each other. The best way to create services is still by using OO languages and systems.
Posted at 10:06AM Mrz 28, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in Java | Kommentare[0]
Google donates a Bike to every Emloyee in Europe
German Google employee no. 1 Holger Meyer had the idea of giving a bicycle to everyone of the 2000 employees in Europe:
(free translation)
“We not only want to introduce new technology for internet users, but also create new offers for our employees. We think, that those fantastic bicycles will help to keep the "googlers" healthy, make them get to know their city and reduce the environment pollution of their travel to work."
I wish we could do the same here at Sun (my bike was stolen at our local train station some weeks ago - I would really need one).
How about giving away a bike with every CoolThread server to emphasize the eco friendliness?
Cruiser
Folding Bike
Mountain Bike
Posted at 08:38PM Mrz 26, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in Sun Related | Kommentare[0]
Sun is offering support for Glassfish V2 (i.e. the Enterprise-ready version)
After taking Glassfish v1 (aka Sun Java System Application Server 9.0) into the Sun Java Enterprise System, I was pointed by Sherry Barkodar to the following on internetnews.com today:
"Sun is ramping up for the final release later this year of its next generation Glassfish Java EE application server. Glassfish V2, currently in beta, won't just be for developers but will also be suitable for full production deployments and will be commercially supported by Sun."
Can't wait to get more (like commercial support for OpenESB)!
Read the full story here.
Technorati Tags: glassfish sun javaee commercial support
Posted at 08:21PM Mrz 19, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in Sun Related | Kommentare[0]
Update: Thumper light - clustering USB sticks with Solaris 10 and ZFS on a laptop
The english version is here. Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: sun microsystems thumper light zfs solaris
Posted at 02:42PM Mrz 12, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in Sun Related | Kommentare[0]
And the Oscar for the best SOA platform goes to...
Sun Microsystems!
The reader's choice of the german JavaMagazin in the catgory "Best SOA Platform":
1. Sun Java Enterprise System 25,4%
2. IBM WebSphere 25,2%
3. BEA AquaLogic 19,5%
The link to the results is not online yet, but the latest print of JavaMagazin has the winners listed on page 100.
Posted at 10:10AM Mrz 06, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in Sun Related | Kommentare[0]
What does it take to become a Sun Presales Engineer?
In response to a comment on my blog, I'd like to outline on what it takes to become a Presales Engineer at Sun Microsystems. I havn't done any recruitment yet, but the following things should be of importance if you're applying for a position in the software area:
Technical Backgound
Ideally you have a rock-solid project background, i.e. you should have done (a lot of) (successful) (enterprise scale) software projects in different positions (as a Developer, Architect and/or Project Manager). A Presales Engineer is definitely considered to be a Senior Architect. Although Sun is the inventor of Java and Solaris, you should be open to a wide range of technology platforms. Having hands-on experience with Sun Software Products will prove to be helpful. Add references, i.e. ask former customers, managers etc. to help you.
Communication Skills
You're going to be on the road talking to customers, partners and maybe as a speaker at public conferences. Customers range from Developers, Architects, Line-Of-Business People (or Business Analysts) to Top-Level Customer Executives. Strong communication skills are required, since you're not only the technical expert, but also the trainer, mentor and dvisor. Vertical Businesses knowledge is helpful, but not necessary in first place for most positions. Experience in facilitation, moderation and presentation is definitely a plus. Again, add references e.g. you might have been a conference speaker or consultant before.
Social Skills
You're going to have the pleasure to work with a lot of excellent people ;-) Part of your job will be to build and leverage a network of individuals, to collaborate with various teams and to support all kind of parties. It is expected, that you build strong relationships and become part of the knowledge creation machine in Sun. On the one hand you therefore have to be a native team worker. On the other hand you're also expected to be self-motivated and to be able to work independently - there is not too much control on what you do, as long as you're doing your job (this at least applies to my job).
You might want to have a look at the Sun/Netscape Recruitment video (that's from the days, when I joined Sun).
powered by performancing firefox
Posted at 06:27PM Feb 27, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in Sun Related | Kommentare[1]
Update: Redhat joins Interop Vendor Alliance
As an update to my blog entry about the IVA, I'd like to add two links to the case history of Microsoft/RedHat.
- Microsoft and JBoss (now part of RedHat) already had an interoperability agreement in place (read more).
- RedHat has been pretty cool to the Microsoft/Novell interoperability agreement (read more).
- Visual J++: "Cross plattform will never work" (read more)
- On Microsoft's attempt to edit Wikipedia on OpenXML and ODF: EU introduces a ban to unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices (read more)
Posted at 04:05PM Feb 14, 2007 by Armin Wallrab in Sun Related | Kommentare[0]