Wednesday May 31, 2006

Jonathan Harris and Sepandar Kamvar have created We Feel Fine, a something in-between of a tool and an art project that analyzes and parses the emotional content of blog posts. We Feel Find is a simple Java applet that runs in the browser. It scours RSS feeds and seeks out posts that contain the word "feel." The tool presents the writings in six different ways, or movements.

Please see as well The mood of the Internet...

Tuesday May 30, 2006

This year, BenQ Mobile and Sun Microsystems are holding the 4th international Java Masters competition for the development of new mobile Java applications. Participants in the Java Masters 2006 face the challenge of designing innovative applications for BenQ-Siemens mobile phones. Actually we closed registration May 21 and now we're screening though the apps - and WOW! what amazing things we found. Stay tuned - I'll write more about this in the next days!

Last year, Jiabin Feng, a 22 years old Computer Science student from the Xidian University in China won the student category. I've made together with Manfred Kube an interview with Ben which can be found at the BenQ Mobile Developer Page.

Wednesday May 17, 2006

How cool is this?!

We announced today early access to a suite of tools and platform products supporting the new standard blueprint for next-generation Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME) application development, delivering advanced graphical applications for Java technology-enabled phones.

Based on the new Mobile Service Architecture - Java Specification Request (JSR) 248 and JSR 209 (Advanced Graphical User Interfaces) specifications - these new products will enable the efficient development of mobile applications with rich multi-media functions, 3D graphics, location-based services, mobile payment capabilities, Bluetooth support and more compelling interfaces.

For more information about Java ME early access products and tools, visit http://java.sun.com/javame and http://www.netbeans.org/products/mobility. Further details on JSR 248 and JSR 209 can be found at http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/overview.

Monday May 15, 2006

Two weeks ago Netzwert and Sun jointly organized Mobile Networking Day 2006, a networking event for mobile carriers in europe. Like already written the agenda was super – all about identity, Liberty, AAA and some practival examples from IMS and m2m. The evening was under the sign of sharing – exchange of business cards, views on technology and solutions and having great drinks. After everybody enjoyed the buffett Dr. Ulf Merbold, hero of my youth, held a little speech about his experiences in space. As I was raised in a small village close to Munich and the german ESA center in Oberpfaffenhofen, the european sapce mission was managed very close to my sleeping room, giving me some great dreams. Actually if I remember well, I had some ESA posters on the wall, including Ulf Merbold and the other ESA team members.

In 1978 the European Space Agency (ESA) selected him to train as payload specialists on the first flight of the Spacelab module. In 1982 he was selected as the prime payload specialist, and in 1983 he flew on board the Columbia on the STS-9 mission. In 1984-1985 he participated in the preparation of the first German Spacelab mission, D-1, and thus served as backup payload specialist for STS-61-A as well as "Crew Interface Coordinator". 1986 he transferred to the European Space Technology Center (ESTEC) to work on the European Columbus module for the International Space Station. In 1986 he also became Head of the Astronaut Office of the German spaceflight organization DLR. In 1988 NASA nominated Ulf Merbold as payload specialist on the IML-1 mission, which launched on STS-42 in January 1992. The following year he was Science Coordinator for the second German Spacelab mission, D-2 (STS-55). In 1993 he also started training to fly the first of two joint European-Russian missions to the space station Mir, called Euromir 95. In 1994 he was the first ESA astronaut to fly into space with Russia, on board Soyuz TM-20. During his three spaceflights he spent a total of 49 days, 21 hours and 38 minutes in space.

„I was really shocked as I looked out of the windows of the space shuttle and realized how thin this atmosphere was. I realized that we have to take care about this very thin layer which allows us to breath, to live“, Merbold told us. He gave an outlook that this atmosphere is not only a shield against the cold space. We can only make some experiments in space because the atmosphere acts as a shield which filters so many kinds of waves like xrays, infrared and ultrared light which might be helpful to discover the space and universes far away from us. After 3 missions in space, Merbold said: „Being in space changed our minds – from this moment on we had a complete different look on mother earth.“

Sunday May 14, 2006

A fine start in the day - not only because we really enjoy good weather in europe. Richard Monson-Haefel, Sr. Analyst for Burton Group writes in his blog about his actual researchs about J2EE application server maket share: "Perhaps the most interesting fact (...) is that the Sun Java Enterprise Platform actually gained significant market share and now owns close to 20%. A 6 point gain over 2004. That's incredible!"

And we're still growing!

By the way - the Java System Application Server is part of the Solaris Enterprise System. Sun Java System Application Server provides a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE platform) 1.4 compatible platform for developing and delivering serverside Java applications and Web services. The Java System Application Server is available in three editions allowing you to deploy the most cost effective solution for your needs and to upgrade from one edition to the next as your requirements change. The Java System Application Server integrates with Sun's Java developer tools - Sun Java Studio Enterprise, Sun Java Studio Creator and NetBeans and is a central component of the Java Enterprise System.

Thursday May 04, 2006

Today, Mobile Networking Day 2006 was happening in Cologne, Germany. German software company Netzwert and Sun Microsystems invited experts from leading European Mobile Network Operators to the 2nd Mobile Networking Day, where we covered both the technical and the social aspects of networking.

The pressure to cut operational expenses is on everyone‘s mind. At the same time, mobile networks need to become more flexible to cope with the demands for even faster introduction of new services. Experts from research, network operations and industry addressed these requirements (e.g. in the presentations from Prof. Dr. Jens Böcker, Professor for Marketing, Partner in a Management- und Strategy Consultancy, member of advisory boards in several IT/TK-companies) and demonstrated how next generation networks can play an important role in responding to these challenges (Darrell Jordan-Smith - VP, Global Telco Industry Sales, Sun Microsystems and Ralf Holighaus - President and CEO, Netzwert AG). While Andrew Shikiar, Membership Director, Liberty Alliance pointed out how you can built a standard based, federated identity system Isabelle Bettez, President and CEO, 8D Technologies presented appealing machine-to-machine (m2m) systems. In her example she presented how parking meter can offer mobile payment and services. Luis Angel Galindo Sanchez, Senior Expert- IMS Project Manager, Telefónica Moviles talked about IMS can drive customer loyality.

But like last year Mobile Networking Day is more than just a conference. We aimed to extend the community of experts and initiate discussions to encourage the exchange of experience - and succeeded. We have again selected a very special venue with a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere in which we will have presentations and a panel discussion.

Later in the evening, at the Mobile Networking Night, we continued our discussions and learned a lot about another experience of departure into new worlds by one of Europe‘s leading scientists in space, Dr. Ulf Merbold. He was the very first West German and second German astronaut in space!