MaryMaryQuiteContrary

We just concluded the first of a series of Author Chats that are being hosted in Second Life for JavaOne. 

Darryl Grove was there to chat about his newly-published book The Developer's Edge. 

There's a star-studded line-up of chats planned for the rest of the week which include:

• June 3, 2009 at 12pm PT
  JavaFX: Developing Rich Internet Applications book
  by Jim Clarke, James Connors and Eric Bruno
• June 4th at 9am PT
  Core JavaServer Faces 3/E
  by David Mark Geary and Cay Horstmann
• June 4, 2009 at 12pm PT
  Real-Time Java Programming: with the Java RTS
  by Greg Bollella and Eric J. Bruno

More details on Sun's Virtual World group blog.

Check it out!

then Check it out!

:-)

Inside scoop. 

Tomorrow at the JavaOne general session keynote, there will be super hot give-aways.

Kindle2.

Sony Walkman phones.

You need to be present to get a shot at them. 

Just wanted to give my peeps the head's up.

Don't tell anybody you heard it here, OK? I don't want to get busted for spilling the beans.

I'm traveling today. I'm going to San Francisco to attend JavaOne. 

This isn't my first JavaOne. It's something like my 10th.

And this isn't my first trip to San Francisco. I live on the East coast and my group and by boss are on the West coast, so I do this trip a lot.

Today, I'm on Virgin America flight 77 from Washington DC to San Francisco.

We're a couple hours into the journey, just north of Wichita, Kansas.

I'm in seat 9A.

And I'm blogging.

That's right, people! I'm blogging! From 30,000 feet!

(well, 34,017 feet going 523 mph, to be precise.)

Two words: Virgin America. 

Two more words: Love it!!!!

It's been a very long time since I've been excited about being on an airplane for 5 hours.

(Well, to be perfectly honest with you.... I'm not exactly excited about the airplane part... or the 5 hours part...but....)

But, but, but Virgin America has now transformed the flying experience. They've just completely raised the bar.

I've been a big Virgin America fan since they started flying my route -- IAD to SFO.

From the very first time, I've loved it.

The planes feel like a W hotel lobby. The seat-back entertainment system is the best that I've ever experienced. The people who work here seem genuinely happy that you've come onboard.

I even have a #1 all time favorite airline employee. His name is George. He works for Virgin America in SFO. (He helped me out when I really needed some help one time. I don't think I'll ever forget him.) Just outstanding customer service.

And now all that comes with wifi. Virgin America has introduced wifi on all their flights in the US.

It's simply outstanding.

Wifi costs about $13. It works GREAT. In the past couple of hours I've done email, I've tweeted, I've done SKYPE video chat and iChat/AIM. I've done VOIP. And now, I'm blogging.

(I've also gotten caught up on my favorite YouTube channel and goofed off on Facebook, but don't tell the boss. :-)

I've done all this stuff and I'm in a plane!

It's all just so cool.

I had to share.

I had to tell somebody.

Thanks for induldging me.

Now it's back to our regularly scheduled programming...

:-)

Mary

JavaOne Minute!

The JavaOne Experience in 60 seconds or less.

Let the games begin!

Sure, the world's largest developer conference happens in San Francisco next week.

(I think I heard something about it affecting the tides in the Bay -- having all those smart people in one place at the same time...)

:-)

But you don't have to travel to the City by the Bay to rub shoulders with the hot shot techno celebs.

Oh no,

You can chat with the authors of the latest Sun Microsystems Press books in Second Life next week!

(if you'll induldge a little copy-paste action...)

Interested in the hottest Java and developer books from Sun Microsystems Press? Here is your opportunity to learn about the newest books directly from the authors and have a dynamic conversation with them in the virtual world Second Life. These sessions will take place at the Sun Microsystems Main Pavillion in Second Life.

Here is the full schedule with details below:

• June 3, 2009 at 9am PT
  The Developer's Edge
  by Darryl Gove
• June 3, 2009 at 12pm PT
  JavaFX: Developing Rich Internet Applications book
  by Jim Clarke, James Connors and Eric Bruno
• June 4th at 9am PT
  Core JavaServer Faces 3/E
  by David Mark Geary and Cay Horstmann
• June 4, 2009 at 12pm PT
  Real-Time Java Programming: with the Java RTS
  by Greg Bollella and Eric J. Bruno

See you there!

Mary

"Sun Microsystems plans to launch an App Store that could make Apple's look smaller than a 7-Eleven by comparison."

Full Story. 

Well, actually, the full story is on Jonathan's Blog.

:-)

Mary

It's actually OTFLOL stuff. 

:-)

Five FREE full conference passes to JavaOne PLUS $,$$$ to cover travel expenses are on the table

Dude, where's my pass?

Big news, folks!

I just found out about an an amazing Student offer for JavaOne this year - Students get in free! 

Same deal on CommunityOne. (Though the CommunityOne piece of it isn't so much in the big, big news category.) :-)

Both passes are full conference passes with access to everything! 

But wait, there's more.

To all those educators out there, who are shaping young minds....  you can also get in free when you bring 10 students with you to the conference.  If that's not doable, educators still get a fantastic deal of $895 for a full conference pass.

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!)

But wait, there's more.

Students get admission to the CommunityOne Deep-Dives.  What does this mean?  FREE training by Sun's Learning Services organization on some really great topics, plus hugely discounted certification. (Vouchers will be handed out at the event - certification can even be done on-site!)

But as we all know  -- it's not what you know; it's who you know. 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.

You want in on this deal?

Get in while the getting is good.

I would imagine there's some sort of "limited time" and "while supplies last" component to this,  so I'd recommend you jump all over right away.

If I were you, that is.

Just sayin'.

:-)

Mary

Zembly is a new platform for building widgets and social applications for Facebook, Meebo and other social networking platforms. 

The "I'm going to JavaOne" application that's all the rage on Facebook right now was built on Zembly. 

Just got word that the Zembly team is launching a blog contest that gives you a shot at two crisp C notes. Details:

Zembly Blogging Contest – Chance to Win $200!

To celebrate the public availability of zembly.com – Sun's next generation cloud development platform for web applications - we're holding a zembly blogging contest!

Whether you're new to zembly or already building Facebook apps, iPhone apps, mashups, and widgets, we want to hear from you. Simply tell us about your experience with zembly and you could WIN a $200 gift certificate! 

Learn More

Enter in Three Easy Steps!

1. Use zembly! - Create a Facebook app, mashup, widget or custom application.

2. Blog about it!
   Tell us about your apps, write a review about your experience, or even embed a widget inside your blog entry.

3. Submit your blog for a chance to win a $200 gift certificate!

Get Started!

Well? What are you waiting for?

Get buzy.

Then get the blog buzz buzzing.

:-)

Mary

I'm participating on a panel at 3DTLC next week in Washington DC.

Dr. Tony O'Driscoll, professor at the Fuguqa School of Busienss at Duke University is moderating and recently posted a quick three minute overview of what you can expect to hear at the conference to his blog.

I'm going to be sharing the experience we had in engaging with our industry analyst community to outline our datacenter consolidation experience, and the innovation that was born from it, which our customers are currently benefiting from.

It's sure to be an outstanding experience!

Later today, I'm doing a prep call with Tony and my co-panelists which include: 

 Our discussion will focus on:

EXTEND: Applying 3D Technologies To EXTEND Enterprise Range And Reach
A group of world-class experts will share their wisdom on how to create engaging and supportive Virtual Collaborative environments. Attendees will learn: the biggest mistakes first-timers make when they launch themselves headlong into creating virtual events or collaborative environments; the biggest barriers to designing compelling and “sticky” immersive events and/or communities; the top lessons learned in designing and implementing immersive learning experiences.

I'm excited. It's going to be a ton of fun and I'm going to learn so much. 

Check out the full conference agenda if you want to find out more. And meet me in DC next week for 3DTLC! I think there's still space if you want to register and attend.

:-)

Mary

Hi guys!

As you (regular) readers know, I'm w-a-a-a-a-y behind on my blogging. I've got so much lined up to tell you about and it's just been a bandwith issue lately. I've been s-o-o-o-o-o busy. Just not enough hours in the day and all that... 

But today is my day. Today is the day I tell you guys about what happened on Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day; this ultra hot new game I've discovered and the crazy set of circumstances that's resulting in me speaking at a panel at a conference in Washington DC later this month, among other things.

Today I've got the day off from work. 

It's spring break. The kids are out of school.

So last night we had a cousin sleep over -- my sister's three kids plus my three kids.

And today I've got all six of them.  No nanny, no grandparent, no other adult. It's just me and six kids.

So a (logical) non-parent might ask: "What on earth makes you think you're going to be able to get caught up with blogging when you're responsible for taking care of six kids today?"

Good question.

As anyone who's had more than two kids knows, the more kids you add to the mix, the more they start canceling each other out.

Six kids is SOOOO much easier to deal with than one kid or two kids.The only thing you need to worry about when you've got six kids is complete silence. When you've got complete silence, you need to hit the panic button. That means something's really wrong.

But as long as you can hear them, it's all good.

So brace yourselves, my friends. It's going to be a blog-a-paloza today. So much to get you caught up on...

Happy Friday!

:-)

Mary

:-)

While we're on the topic of twitter.... I mean on the twopic of twitter... 

Daniel Green (aka @dangjavageek) shared this with me

It made me laugh out loud.

Thought you might enjoy it too.

:-)

Mary

p.s. we've done work w/Current TV. I was lead on some work we did w/them around Take Back TV a few years ago...