we'll get to the karaoke... but first...

hot promo alert: if you're working at a company with less than 100 employees, you can get JES for free.

and while we're on the topic, did you know small businesses:

so, Sun is about to launch thse new Net Talk segments -- Take 5 and Take 10. These are short, focused presentations on business and IT topics and (true to their name) take approx 5 or 10 mins to play.

now, this hasn't been announced anywhere (with one exception and i'll leave it to you resourceful types to find it, then you can call me on the carpet)... this is a MaryMaryQuiteContrary blog exclusive ... you, my lucky readers will be the first to see these.. you're first in line and you didn't even have to camp out! do i take care of you, or what? :-)

(i just crack myself up)

here's where you go to see them.

there are four of them currently available. i have personally pre-screened all of them and as a public service am providing my review FOC (free of charge)

Driving Developer Productivity 
  -This was my favorite one because it was the shortest ;-). I also happen to know Joe Keller personally. (i know my habit of name-dropping can get quite annoying. sorry. i'll try to keep it to techno celebs moving forward.) so this Take 5 is all about how you can improve developer productivity with Sun Java Studio Enterprise. it covers application development challenges, gives an overview of the Java Studio Enterprise product, talks about the business model ($5/employee/year). lots of content, worth listening to.  (5:56) 

Enterprise Messaging Consolidation. So this is another good one. it starts out by setting context about what people who are deploying messaging and collaboration infrastructures are dealing with namely increased complexity, tco, security and spam threats, rising costs and vendors who force the complexity of dealing with upgrade issues on the customer. (tsk, tsk) It gives an overview of the Sun Infrastructure Solution for Enterprise Messaging Consolidation, features and benefits (including MSFT interoperability)... and then concludes with customers using it (thousands of them, household names) and gives you access to some resources including white papers, evaluating migration and getting an assessment. if you're dealing with messaging and collaboration, this is worth viewing.  (9:57)

Double Data Center Performance While Protecting Investments Definately worth listening to if you're in the business of delivering business services. So if you work in a room that has a raised floor and is always cold as a meat locker, this one's for you. And even if you're not this one is worth listening to because the speaker (Steve Campbell) has an awesome accent and uses great turns-of-phrase including "let's take a look-see at this" He covers throughput sytems, Sun's design philosophy, "mix and match," performance, the UltraSparc IV and much more. (11:07)

Sun Fire V20z Compute Grid Rack System
  -Did you know that there are some hot promotions going on right now on the SunFire V20z server? Well, what are you waiting for people?? Tune in to this one and find out how you can get one of these on the cheap! in this one, the speaker Stephen Perrenod (not a marketing guy -- science and engineering; no french accent either) gives an overview of market challengs, talks about SunFire V20z performance, cluster configurations and promotions for education and research. check it out. (7:47)

oh, and one more thing before i let you go... i stumbled onto this summer movie review in eWeek that made me chuckle...

 "Spider-Man 2": By day, he's the bespectacled, ponytailed, blue-jean-wearing president of computing giant Sun Microsystems. By night, he hunts down threats from Microsoft, IBM and Red Hat and sets up sales of cheap PCs running Java Desktop at Wal-Mart. But can he find love in this crazy world? Rated: PG. Starring: Jason Schwartzman as Jonathan Schwartz.

check out the whole column by Scot Petersen. It's really worth reading. you'll get a chuckle.

ok. that's it from me.

mary

well, my friends the most exciting thing happened today. somebody actually won Friday Free Stuff.

Our lucky winner:

Noah Campbell! (please note the EJB poster; blade 100 in the background)

Noah's entry was chosen at random from the singular correct answer that i received in response to FFS and so this very brilliant guy gets the prize! I have already put his one-of-a-kind-collector's-item-must-have-fashion-trendsetting t-shirt in an envelope together with our first FFS prize (the javaone notepad thingy... nobody claimed it; can you believe it, Noah gets both!) i haven't actually mailed it yet because (as i told Noah) the only stamps i can find here in the house say "I love you" with little valentine candy hearts on them. and i'm not going to put those kind of stamps on the envelope to Noah because i don't want him to think i'm some kind of wacko... so i'll go to the post office tomorrow morning and send it with some regular stamps.

we won't be publishing the solution to the equation as it might offend somebody who's in charge of my career trajectory. it's going to have to stay an inside joke, friends.

now, on to hot stuff...

there's a new contrarian minds out -- this one with Jim Mitchell, another techno celeb i happen to know personally. Jim is one of the nicest guys you will EVER meet. no kidding. he's also quite brilliant and well loved here at Sun. and here's your little fun fact that you won't get anywhere else: Jim flies planes. those little ones.

more hot stuff... get out your calendars, people... you won't want to miss this one: June 1; 9 a.m. pacific, it's the network computing quarterly launch event. So this is a really cool web-based launch event. (i'm telling you, i've got the inside scoop, it's going to be soooo cool) and here's the best part -- there's a live chat with Scott McNealy (et al) at 1 p.m. pacific. you guys, you gotta tune in for this. it's so fun.

now that we've concluded our official MaryMaryQuiteContary blog business, i'll give you the quick weekend recap...

packed, just packed weekend... two soccer games, a birthday party, a preschool picnic, a fun fair (with pony rides, moon bounce), next-to-last day of sunday school (and everything that involves)... i just had too much going on. (well, i'm not actually the one who had anything going on.... my kids are the ones that had everything going on and i'm the one who's in charge of making sure that when they've got something going on; that it gets on, you know.

anyway, the point of this whole story is that i did something i'm very proud of.

see, i'm a terrible cook. well, i'm not actually a terrible cook because i never cook... you'll get more on this in the days and weeks ahead as  we've got some serious issues on this topic that i'll be giving you some visiblity into... i digress... 

... the preschool thing it was a pot luck. and by the time i got home from lots of running around to get myself and the kids ready to go to this thing i had precisely 10 mins to get the kids into clean clothes and come up with what going to take to the pot luck. (here's the part i'm proud of). so, with the skill and precision of those guys who do the knife commercials, i went to work. I got out this olive toppinade (sp?) thing that's been in the fridge for a couple weeks that nobody liked; I got out these little gormet pickles (purchased with the olive spread; both from Trader Joe's, one of my favorite stores); i got out some guacomole that i really like but i had to part with it because my serving dish had three sections and i had to put something in the third... and then i got to the pantry... i pull out these gourmet crackers i bought at costco at christmas time and viola... i've got a very fancy smancy contribution to the pot luck. when we got there, i put it down next to the KFC bucket, using the contrast to maximize its gourmetness.

that gives you a lot of visiblity into what kind of person i am.

well that's it for today, folks.

congratulations, again, to Noah.

mary

hello everybody and welcome to the MaryMaryQuiteContary blog, where today we're featuring the most popular feature of this informative and entertaining daily dispatch -- Friday Free Stuff! One of you lucky readers will receive directly from me*, a brand new, sought-after, collector's item, must-have fashion accessory that is all the rage in the trend-setting circles of Java developers. But before we dive into FFS, let's talk about some other stuff that's just as delicious and everyone can share...

Check out the conversation with real-time specification for Java exprt Greg Bollella where he discusses how Java technology is being used from rockets to power plants to automobiles.

And you won't want to miss a very slick and polished video vingette on Sun's new RFID center in Dallas, Texas. If you are a manufacturer who sells stuff to WalMart, this is a must see. And even if you're not, this is actually some really cool stuff. (My favorite part of this video is where they show the conveyor belt with the tires going around in circles :-)

Finally, here at Sun we have a newest, bestest friend -- Microsoft. We're big toe buddies, we are. And there's a feature story on sun.com you can check out to get the skinny on what the historic 4/2 agreement was all about and what it means to you. There are more resources that set context around this agreement, and they're covered in a previous entry of this blog. Just scroll down.

Now, let's get right into Friday Free Stuff...

This is what we have for you today:

This brand-new, never been worn t-shirt is from the 2002 JavaOne conference. It's signed by Tony Welch, who's the artist who created the image that's on the shirt. I'm telling you, one-of-a-kind, collector's item. We'll call this NWT, since it's never been worn... but, full disclosure: it doesn't actually have any tags. This valuable gift will go to the first person who emails me the solution (read: explains in plain english what it means) to this equation:

:-)

do i make you laugh, or what. now, all you techno-wizzards, let's just keep this between ourselves, shall we? no need to offend our friends in other organizations within the company. 

oh, and people i know personally and sun employees are not eligible to play Friday Free Stuff. sorry.

happy Friday!

mary

*Friday Free Stuff is not a contest. I arbitrarilly select the person to whom I am going to give something that I personally own. I pay for shipping the item to the recipient with stamps that i personally buy at the post office.

did you know sun spends roughly $2 b-b-b-billion in R&D annually...

that's some chunk of change. the Sun Labs organization has the purse strings. this group is run by Greg Papadopoulos, who said in a recent cNET interview that "the biggest piece of crap going around right now is that this is a mature industry and innovation doesn't matter."

you tell it like it is, Greg!

really awesome story on Greg in a recent Contrarian Minds, a series written by the most talented writer I've ever known, my pal Al Riske.

all of this is top-of-mind because i was just looking at James Gosling's blog and he was talking about invention there.

that's your window into what's going on in mary's head today, folks.

happy thursday. i'll be so glad when we can close out this week... it's been a long one.

mary

I'd like to introduce you to Nir Shavit

Nir has just catapulted himself into the elite community of people i lovingly refer to as techno celebs by winning the 

Gödel Prize

(the fact that he has a striking resemblance to Rocky Balboa didn't hurt either.)

Here's the skinny:

•  May 10, 2004 - Congratulations to Nir Shavit, Sun Labs, member of the Scalable Synchronization Research Group, Sun Labs at Massachusetts, and Maurice Herlihy, Professor, Brown University and consultant to the Scalable Synchronization Research Group! Their paper, "The Topological Structure of Asynchronous Computability" (see sidebar) by Maurice Herlihy and Nir Shavit, Journal of the ACM, Volume 46, Issue 6 (1999) has been awarded the Gödel Prize for the year 2004.

you can get the whole story here.

so let's just recap.

in the space of a week the MaryMaryQuiteContary blog has covered the topological structure of asynchronous computability, the heisenberg uncertainty principle and java cetacean.

not bad for a girl who managed to graduate from college without taking a single math, computer or science class, eh?

mary

just to close the loop on why your house is a mess and you've got no clean clothes (read below for context -- keyword: mother's day)

It's the Heisenberg uncertainty principle
In simple terms you can not know with arbitrary degree
of accuracy where a particle (not just an electron -
any particle) is AND how fast it is going.

The principle applies to any noncommuting quantum
mechanical operators not just position and momentum.
Mathematically speaking it is a property of Fourier
Transforms.

thank you to my favorite blog reader, who supplied me with this.

love you, baby!

mary

well, i actually have something technically interesting to say today, if you can believe that.

my friend Dana Nourie, who's a scribe for java.sun.com, sent a note yesterday saying she's working a story for the site about Java Cetacean and asking whether i knew if anybody else was working a story on this... see, believe it or not, i'm in the know about stuff... and smart people like Dana actually ask me questions... i know, hard to believe but true. anyway, i told Dana, didn't even know what cetacean was but that i did know about cicadas, because any day now they're about to come out of the ground where i live -- millions of them.

they come out every 17 years. it's biblical. i asked her if they were related. here's her response (edited to protect her identity):

•  Dana Nourie wrote:
  
  

  It's dolphins and whales. There is an open source project on the java.net site called Leafyseadragon, which is used to share cetacean sounds through PCs and held-held devices, such as cell phones. It uses J2SE and MIDP.
  
  So the story is on why these sounds are important and to whom, and how the shounds are being shared through this open source project. Because it is open source, I can get the code and make it technically chewy for our audience.
  
  LeafyDragon is going to have a BOF at J1 too.
  
  From the project owner: comments : LeafySeadragon Software Looking for Technical Users to run a LeafySeadragon Cetacean-Human Network backbone,
  including a dolphin simulator, so that people can use the network with their PC or cellphone. The backbone and a MIDP2 MIDlet is included.
  
  LeafySeaDragon 0.4 Cetacean-Human Network and Leafy 0.7.5 API Released by
  
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/c2h/
  
  
   Dana
  

so that's pretty neat, eh? here's what cicadas sounds like. put that on your handheld.

so the big take-aways today:

1. watch for dana's story to find out more about java cetacean. or go check it out yourself if you're an industrious sort. and just credit my account for giving you the big scoop that LeafyDragon is going to hava a BOF at JavaOne. see how i just slide those in? makes you want to read every word of this blog just to make sure you didn't miss anything, doesn't it?

2. cicadas are actually edible. indeed skewered cicadas (recipe) is a famous dish in Shanghai.

did i mention i'm going to shanghai in just a couple weeks?

yum, yum.

mary

 

three things to talk to you guys about today:

1. countdown... 17 days until i get on a plane and head to china for SunNetwork Shanghai. i haven't sent in my passport to get my visa yet so i need to get on that. but here's what you need to do... watch this space for live* coverage of the conference. that's right, my friends, i'll be your eyes and ears on the ground, giving you the skinny on what's going on at the "Asian debut of the singular must-attend event for IT professionals."  ... there are 100+ sessions, 130+ demos on the Pavillion floor and a bunch of keynotes from techno and biz celebs to keep me busy. i'll work the angles to see if i can't get some exclusive preview for you. oh, and i'm covering the Gosling keynote for java.sun.com, so you can watch for that too, if you like.

2. chat it up... two hot chats you want to keep on your radar:

•  JavaServer Faces Moderated Chat
  Learn how JavaServer Faces allows you to become more productive in building web applications.
  Join the free moderated chat on May 18th 10am PDT/5pm GMT.
• Sun Expert Exchange

  The Opteron Edge: Faster Computing. Faster Business. Join your peers and Sun leaders for our inaugural Sun Expert Exchange as we examine the business angle of emerging technologies that can give your organization advanced computing power – at sale prices. See who's on the expert panel...

  Tuesday, May 11, 2004 10-11 a.m. PST 1-2 p.m. EST 6-7 p.m. GMT

3. Mother's day... so i'm a mother of three kids under the age of 5. Mother's day was awesome. so you know how in high school physics you learned that you can't know both the position and the energy of an electron at the same time (i actually don't remember what the two things are... i think position is right but don't think energy is... aren't all electrons negative?.. anyway), well, if you're a mother you will never have a clean house, a hot meal prepared for your family, clean kids, no mountain of unfolded laundry and be caught up at work all at the same time. i think it's actually possible to have two of those things at the same time, though i've never achieved that state of matter. but you can't have more than two. and the sooner you resign yourself to that fate the happier you'll be. see, being a mother has given me all kinds of perspective. and lucky you, you get to hear about it for free. motherhood has also altered my physiology... i now have a bionic nose... no kidding, i really do. it's changed me in other ways too, but i'll save those for another day.

that's the story from me.

mary

p.s. here's a picture of my mother's day present. it was made in art class by my oldest kid. any clues into what it might be and what i'm supposed to do with it would be appreciated.

*Shanghai is GMT +8. log on during daylight hours in shanghai to get the live experience of the MaryMaryQuiteContary blog.

i know it's just a shot in the dark, but i'd wager the vast majority of folks reading this are developers... soooo.... there's this column that the Sun Developer Network has going called "Ask Jonathan" (as in Schwartz, our new COO)... check it out. pretty cool.

so i'm totally digging the dialogue i'm having with you guys. thanks for reading my blog. thanks for emailing me.

no more JDS CDs... sorry... early bird gets the worm...

but in talking to you about those, i came to realize that you guys like free stuff as much as i do.

and so we're starting a new feature here on the MaryMaryQuiteContrary blog... Friday Free Stuff!

this is where i go into my vast stores of free stuff that i've accumulated over the years (all sun, java, or javaone branded; some of it NWT) and give it to one of you lucky readers. let's just be clear, this is not a contest. this is me giving away something that i personally own to one of you. i get to choose who. this is not fair. this is arbitrary. i don't want to hear any grinia. (that's greek for whining)

and because i love you so, i'll pay for shipping it to you -- with stamps that i buy at the post office.

it's my gift to you.

anyway, here's what we've got this week:

This is a genuine JavaOne notepad cover. It's from the 1999 conference. it's never been used but it's been in my closet underneath some stuff so it's a little scuffed up. I don't have the notebook that it came with but i think your standard issue steno book would do. inside, it's got a pen holder (no pen) and slots for b usiness cards or credit cards or whatever... it zips up all around.

anyway, this lovely gift goes to the first person who emails me. use the following formula: first.last@sun.com. my first name is mary. my last name is smaragdis. 

that's right people... first person (not a sun employee or somebody that i know personally) who shoots me an email and tells me to send this thing to them... i'll do it.

so that's the story.

you guys have a good weekend.

catcha later.

mary

so i'm on a tiger team here at sun (ok, all you engineers can stop rolling your eyes now). it's actually a communications tiger team (wait, let me get out the defibillator, i don't want to lose any of you guys)

so in case you've been living in a cave since 4/2, sun and microsoft made a massive announcement about (pause, dramatic effect) cooperative agreement to work together on product interoperability, settle littigation and more. it's jaw-dropping stuff, i know...

so since i'm on the tiger team and "in the know" about all this stuff, i wanted to make sure you knew where to go if you're looking for more info about this... here are some resource for you...

check out the press conference with McNealy and Ballmer. it's just a must-see. there's a transcript  (pdf) that's also available, but i strongly recommend viewing the press conference so you don't miss the drama.

There's also a Q&A with software CTO John Fowler where he sizes up the implications of the agreement.

And James Gosling (aka the father of Java) shared his perspective in his blog... scroll down to see the stuff specific to msft.

did i ever mention that i know James Gosling personally... when i was hired at sun i did a stint speechwriting for the division then called javasoft... gosling was one of "my guys" ... it's just that he didn't really want any help on his speeches, you know... but that never stopped me... i'd come up with all kinds of ideas for him... i think he may have actually considered one or two of them before disgarding... just the same, i count him among my friends... it's just that it's not excatly a bi-directinal type of friendship...

anyway...

let's see... what's hot on the personal front... i'm seriously thinking about coloring my hair -- i'm desperate to be blond... i'm not sure i've got the nerve or the cash flow to keep up with the maintenance of it... so as an interium step, i bought a wig. it was a little embarassing to go into the wig store, but i kinda got into it once i got over the initial uncomfortableness...kinda fun trying on the different looks. anyway, here's a picture... do i take the plunge and go blond (and deal with the fall-out that i'll get from my mother)?

happy thursday!

mary

ok guys,

i got two things for you... if you're interested in identity  management or opteron, read immediately below... if not you can skip down to find out about my problems with critters.

sun hosts this program called Expert Exchange. It's a chat involving technical heavy hitters engaged in online dialogue. any question is fair game... there two coming up:

Identity Management: Solutions for Enterprise Identity Crisis, May 6, 10 a.m. pacific

The Opteron Edge: Faster Computing. Faster Business, May 11, 10 a.m. pacific

register by going to sun.com/expertexchange

so here's my problem with critters...

(and i'm only telling you this because i count you among my closest friends)

it all started when i found a dead rat outside in the back yard. the next day i found another one in the front yard. (are my neighbors trying to tell me something?) then, walking my kid to school we saw a dead rat on the sidewalk. i called my municipal authority. a rat inspector came out. he said i might have rats living undeneath the shed outside... maybe not... put poison down just in case. i'm all over that. hate rats.

then i found snakes. i was putting down mulch and underneath the gutter downspout thing (green, plastic) i found a snake. i don't think it's right to kill snakes, but i didn't really want to look at it either, so i just buried it with mulch.i'm ok if the snake dies, i just don't want to be the one who kills it. i mention this to my neighbor who goes ballistic... don't kill the snakes... she gave me all the reasons why but i won't bore you with them here...

(why can't the snakes eat the rats)

now i've got ants... ants, ants everywhere... it doesn't help that i have kids who lick a lollipop once and then leave it lying around the house... next day covered with swarming ants.

and then, just to make my life oh-so-complete, i got the sasser worm.

oh happy day.

that's what i get for not running JDS

the lessons i've learned...

1. don't feel sorry for rats. kill as many of them as you can.
2. snakes are good, even if they're yucky.
3. i can live in harmony with ants.. they actually help me clean up the trail of cherrios and goldfish crumbs my kids leave
4. i'm an idiot for not installing the jds cd i've had on my desks for months.

don't let it happen to you, people... get jds... install it today.

for a limited time, i will personally send to you a bootable CD of JDS to the first 5 people who send me email.

who loves you, baby?

mary

p.s. my region is about to be invaded with cidadas. don't you wish you were me?

get out your calendars, people. i got something for you you won't want to miss -- today (wed, 5/5 at 1 p.m. pacific)

it's a technical roundtable on solaris 10 featuring a who's who of top technologists and engineers at sun including software CTO John Fowler and a panel of Solaris engineers including Bryan Cantrill, Stephen Hahn, Mike Shapiro and Andrew Tucker.

this is your chance people... you drive the agenda of this dialogue... they'll start out by talking about key new technologies in 10 including N1 Grid containers, dynamic tracing, predictive self-healing, falut management and the solaris service management facility. then it's into questions from you... you drive...

here's your chance to get it straight from the horse's mouth (as it were..)

go to sun.com/nettalk to register.

i got your back.

mary

p.s. if you're reading this after the discussion happened, you can view on replay.. same site -- sun.com/nettalk to access the discussion on demand after it has happened.

hi guys.

my name is Mary Smaragdis. i work at Sun Microsystems.

and this is my blog. the opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect the corporate position of sun microsystems. (though it's not beneath me to plug a project if i think it will score some points with the boss ;-)

so right here, next to the very same keyboard that i'm using to write to you, is my passport and a chinese visa application form. why (you're surely wondering) does this woman have her passport and application for a visa to china sitting on her desk... (jeopardy music) That's right! i'm going to china!!!

can you believe it? i'm a little in denial myself. but it's true.

yours truly will be going to Shanghai later this month. i'm going to cover sunnetwork shanghai for you -- that's right just for you. i will be on the ground, working every angle to get you as much visiblity into what's going on over there. see, i figure most of you guys won't get to go. i'll just be your eyes and ears. you keep it tuned right here, my friends, and you won't miss a beat. i got you covered.

ok, so i gotta go.. ton of unread email to deal with. i just wanted to introduce myself. 

mary

p.s. in case you're wondering what i look like...