i've been mondo busy as of late. that and i took a little famly vacation just recently. as such, i'm just now coming back up for air ... so i thought i'd start with a "soft" entry followed up by something a bit more hard-core on gonzo@java.net shortly.

first off, listening to the new nin cd with teeth. love the "beside you in time" track. a-maze-ing. i had trouble ripping this cd and another (underworld) via itunes so i ended up using grip on linux and importing into the rest of my 36Gb itunes store. end result, i have complete joy on my ipod now.

speaking of the mac, my 6 month old imac got a bit crispy last week, just after i showed my mom the ways of mac. 3 days later, weekend included, i have it back post a new power supply and mother board. i do not recall a time where another piece of equipment or furniture was so missed by all of us in the household. i'm not sure it is quite right to love a piece of plastic so universally. oh well, we're hooked to the osx way, happily so. i must say, apple care gets an a+ in my book.

my family was in town last week for my brother dave's "executive mba" graduation from santa clara university. way to go davey! i'm really impressed. the lad pulled of this 1.5 year program whilst working fulltime for 2/3 of it in a global job that called for him to effectively work 6 days a week. wow. the lad rocks.

unfortunately my dad wasn't able to make the trek. it would've been his first time visiting us siblings who opted for the california way. next time.

my mom and tom did visit though. for the whole week. so, post dave's gradutation festivities we had great dinners, nice chats, fun w/ the only grandson/nephew for miles around and spent a very relaxing day at carmel by the sea and point lobos, a place my mom and i visit pretty much every time she's out here. point lobos is one of my favorite places along the california coastline. the oregon and washington coastlines are amazing as well although the convenience of having point lobos "in my backyard" is indeed a unique treasure. anyways, great times had by all.

i'm not sure i kicked into "vacation mode" as readily as i should have ... or would have liked to. up till then, and including a bit of time during the vacation, i had been pretty busy on a couple of projects, both of which will see the ligth of day next week, at java one. man, should be fun. i'll blog more of details in a bit.

jxta.org is making some nice and very real splashes these days. better and bigger every day in every way. i'm looking forward to chatting w/ jxta compatriots at java one. it's very refreshing to see the wide variety of applications folks are going after using jxta as the network enabler.

k. first blog since diving back into "reality." not to bad me thinks. more detailed info in a bit.

rock on peeps!

Java == platform independence
XML == application independence
JXTA == network independence

Secure End-to-End Computing

in my ears: Nine Inch Nails/With Teeth/Beside You In Time