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Tuesday May 09, 2006

Bike to JavaOne;-)

A lot of the Java enthusiasts will know that the 2006 edition of JavaOne will be held next week in San Francisco. I'll be there as well as for the NetBeans Day on the Monday.

If you have seen the Java Studio Creator web site, you also probably realize that I'm riding my bicycle quite a bit. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the Sun Announcement:

"Think Green - Bike to JavaOne and Demonstrate Sun's commitment to Eco-Responsibility"

I don't know where this went on the outside web site (yet), but here are some passages, which might be interesting for all interested readers to repeat (I even asked the marketing person before repeating them here

:

"As part of the Participation Age, Sun is making a concerted effort to promote eco-responsibility to its employees, customers and partners. This year, the JavaOne Conference runs from May 16th - 19th and overlaps "Bike to Work Week." To support this effort and in keeping with Sun's efforts to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Sun employees planning to attend JavaOne are urged to bike to the event.
...
To make biking to JavaOne as convenient as possible, Sun has partnered with the San Francisco Bike Coalition to offer a free "Bike Valet" service Tuesday through Thursday from 8:00 am - 7:00 pm PT and Friday from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm PT in front of the Moscone Center South Hall. The San Francisco Bike Coalition is a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation. SFBC staffers will watch over bikes and give riders free advice on how to keep their cycles in top shape.
...
To inspire non-Sun attendees to bike to the show and add a little fun to the challenge, JavaOne participants who support Sun's efforts by biking or taking public transportation will be entered into a drawing for a Lance Armstrong signed Discovery Team bike jersey, other Discovery Bike Team gear, Timbuktu messenger bags and other great prizes. Although Sun employees are not eligible to win the raffle prizes, you can receive a free Nalgene bottle available to the first 100 people who participate."

I don't like the last paragraph so much because that means, I can't get any of the good stuff. But I guess that's ok

So I'll try to ride into SF at least once

I won't do the whole 70 miles (one way), but maybe getting of BART at Oakland and using a free ferry on Thursday, the 18th sounds like fun. The other days it's BART for me.

Have fun at NetBeans Day and JavaOne next week

-- Marco
( May 09 2006, 03:59:22 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [4]

Comments:

Be careful Marco! During last years JavaONE I saw some guy stealing bikes right in front of Moscone during broad daylight. He would walk up, take a huge cutter out of his backpack, cut the lock/chain and just stroll off with the bikes! I mentioned it to security and they had that "Uhh..its a bike?" look on their face and they did nothing about it. -M

Posted by Moazam Raja on May 09, 2006 at 04:41 PM PDT #

Most attendees will be at the conference well past 7pm. Is there a solution for us? Will there be someplace we can lock up our bikes ourselves? Can I take the caltrain with my bike late at night, after the last BOF? Inquiring minds want to know.

Posted by Rich Unger on May 11, 2006 at 11:31 AM PDT #

Marco: Adrian had some problems with the comments page, so I post his comment here:

(Getting a "404" from roller on the comments post for your blog)

The valet parking, loaner bikes, nalgene bottles and timbuktu bags are awesome! I came out from the east coast and bought a bike to get around and was about to ask where to get a deal on a used messenger bag when Sun GAVE me one! Sweet!

John Gage talked about the cycling stuff at this morningins opening address.

SF is great for cycling! And the motorists demonstrate a level of friendliness towards cyclists and peds that I never thought I'd see in the U.S..

I've seen the same cruiser bike parked in front of Walgreen's on market day & night--how bad can theft be?

I'm loving every minute of it--thanks SFBC, thanks Kash and thanks Sun!!!

Posted by Adrian Hands on May 22, 2006 at 10:48 AM PDT #

Unfortunately I did not make it:-( Between getting home after some late BOF's around 1am and leaving for the keynotes at 6am, I did not feel like riding my bike:-(

I also found out that BART does not like bikesduring the rush-hour times. And that would have been the times when I would have needed to come in.

So for me it was only BART;-)

Thanks to all who used public transportation or bikes to get around to JavaOne;-)

Posted by Marco Walther on May 22, 2006 at 10:53 AM PDT #