Explicitly and without apology a marketing vehicle MaryMaryQuiteContrary

you guys,

i know my whole breathless enthusiasm thing can get annoying. (your eye balls will freeze like that if you keep rolling them.)

sure, i love doing my techno celeb sightings...

like last week when I saw

Graham Hamilton in the cafeteria... (it's the year of the tiger, people. download today. )

and...

Bernard and Spiderman (both of JXTA fame) in a conference room in Sun's Santa Clara, CA campus.

My other favorite pasttime (which i can masquerade as work) is to stalk ...

Chris Melissinos -- Sun's Chief Gaming Officer (a title i covet). We both work for Ingrid now. Can you believe it? Melissinos and me at the same staff meeting. Be still my beating heart.

But I'm not the only one having a lot of fun around here....

Case in point...

 

That's James Gosling -- in a suit -- on the dunk tank.

...the stuff you find out by reading people's blogs....

mary

happy Monday, people.

i'll be picking my Friday Free Stuff* winner* later today. a hot package of prizes* on the table.



check it out for your chance to win* (no sophistication required to win this week. hear you loud and clear Manjunath. i'll hit up Click and Hack for a puzzler this week. sorry to disappoint.)

meanwhile, a comment Mike posted to an earlier entry (which made me smile ear-to-ear) mentions something that's going on in Sun Labs. read the comment to find out what.

gets me thinking... haven't checked in on Sun Labs in a while.

which leads me to my new favorite person in Sun Labs...



Stephen (I-wonder-if-he-minds-if-i-call-him-Steve) Uhler. All he needs is a blog and he'd be my new favorite blogger. I'm so over Kesselman,



who was crown my favorite blogger  not too long ago -- taking Jonathan's place on the podium, mind you. Yet he has not written anything since May. Despite receiving a personal email from me telling him he needs to get on it. Which he probably deleted without reading. Oh well, you snooze, you looze. So we're over the inside joke about Kesselman's gender-bending Role Play(which only one of you got).  On to greener pastures. As soon as I can find some. Or one. Favorite blogger, that is.

but back to my new favorite person in Sun Labs...



Guess what Steve is working on? Enterprise PDA. So I'm no genius (as you can tell by reading this blog) but let's imagine that this PDA was a Sun Ray client. Let's imagine instead tapping into a telco network to give you mobile phone dial tone, it uses your "generic" network to give you voice over IP -- on a PDA. would that be hot, or what? Now before you go off thinking I actually had an original idea, let's just set the record straight -- that one wasn't mine. It belongs to Bruce (who has the words Chief and Scientist in his title and is a new member of that exclusive and tightly knit circle of techno celebs who are my close personal friends). And I actually have no idea whether Steve is thinking about voice over IP on this Enterprise PDA. But I'll ask. I'll let you know if we get a response.

so that concludes the agenda for today.

now, a quick update on the personal front...

i've been iWork (Sun speak for work-from-home) for more than five years now. It's been awesome.  Lots of up-side.  On the downside: I used to be a really good driver. Well let's just say we've had some erosion in the skill set there. I don't commute, so I don't drive. I have hit my sister-in-law's car twice (three times if you count the one she doesn't know about) coming out of my driveway. Recently, i hit the house pulling into the garage -- gorging the passenger-side rear view mirror and leaving it hanging....

... like a distended eyeball. It's quite troubling, actually. Anyway, while I was in California last week I kept forgetting to put down the parking break in my rental car. The moral of the story: don't buy a used car from the rental car companies. People like me drive them.

and you get that little tid-bit for free.

mary

*Friday Free Stuff is not a contest. It's me giving away something that I personally own to somebody I choose. I pay for shipping with stamps that I buy at the post office.

it's Friday. and you know what that means...

Free Stuff!

Free Stuff for everybody this week, people!

totally serious.

i'm going to put a spring in your step and a song in your heart.

and if you like it, you can go ahead and put that song in your phone. your java powered phone. (that part's not free)

here's where you go... Warner Mobile Music Streaming Jukebox..

Take a listen to - Jet, Brandy, Big & Rich, Ryan Cabrera, and more!

where's the hub for this kind of stuff... Java.com. so much cool stuff here... we're going to explore...

in fact, i got a fabulous package of prizes here...


a hat, a t-shirt, a frisbee and a button....

i've even got...


tattoos...

and it all goes to the person who replies to the comments section of this blog with their favorite thing about java.com.

easy as that.

happy weekend people!

mary

p.s. this is not a contest. i arbitrarily pick the person to whom i give something that i personally own. i pay for shipping with stamps that i buy at the post office.

ok everybody. i know it's friday. i know you're waiting to find out what we've got for free stuff...

well, let's just say i'm still working that angle... and you're going to have to hang in with me.

ok. lots of buzz about these super light-weight machines, right? laptops on atkins.

meanwhile, i'm in big planning meeting today... it's the new job... awesome job... so excited... more on that in the weeks and months ahead.

lunch break. boggy over to the cafeteria for lunch.

mail room is right next door.

back to the shrinking size of the tools a mobile workforce needs to get their work done.

i'm mobile. i work. let's see how new gadget sizes up... remember in this discussion, less is more.

hey there's Rick in the mail room!

"hi Rick! how's it going buddy? long time no see...



"listen, can i come in there just for a second... will you unlock the door? i just need to use your scale for a second...  i promise... just a second... real quick..."

so i took this picture...


of the device i use to get my work done on the road... and at home... and i don't even have to lug around power cords, ethernet cords and a mouse.

don't you love it!

mary

so much to talk about, so little time.

real quick...

guess who had a private meeting with Tadpole Chief Scientist, Bruce Borden*?

that's right. me. and Heather (smart, beautiful), who runs the Inner Circle program. you need to subscribe to this one. it's worth it. i went to a breakfast with john gage because i'm an inner circle member. membership has its privileges.

back to Bruce*... Tadpole .... Chief Scientist... he gave us a demo... talked to us about what they're working on that's coming soon... and that's a little further out... completely blow-your-mind innovation happening over here, people. we're going to do a big thing on this... maybe next week we'll do a big thing around how sun equips me to get my job done... total mobile workforce... and we can talk about futures and talk about what tadpole is doing. wireless sun ray... and other stuff.. (i gotta go back and check the tape to make sure i don't talk about the stuff that's still super secret....)

just imagine.

i guess what these guys at tadpole did.

so we're going to do all that next week. maybe.

see, i'm super busy right now. just got a new job that i'm totally charged about and i'm super busy right now.

so maybe not next week. let's play it by ear.

also hot on the agenda today: techno celeb sighting in the cafeteria. VP and Sun Fellow Graham Hamilton* who invented JavaBeans many other things.  saw him in the cafeteria. having lunch. (it's the year of the tiger, people. download today.) i tell you, it's really incredible when you think about how many a-list techno celebs work for this company. every time i come out here i run into them left and right.   hey, i got an idea.. how about i go around and get my picture taken with all these guys and gals...

maybe not. that would actually require some effort on my part. and frankly i've just got too much to do right now...

anyway... i gotta go... so much to do (all fun stuff... love the new job! super excited. i'll tell you about it later)

mary

p.s. got back to the hotel room last night after dinner with Cheryl "newly-appointed-director" Keener* and Jeff "been-a-director-for-quite-a-while" Solof*.... i'm sun ray girl, right. no laptop. but no sun ray in the hotel room either. how am i gonna check email? how am i going to look at my calendar to find out what time my first meeting is tomorrow? turn on the tv; pick up the wireless keyboard; type in a url; username; password...i'm accessing my sun email account from the TV in my hotel room*. total mobile workforce, people. i keep telling you and you don't believe me. i am living this life. when you start living this life there's no way you'll ever go back.

*i have pictures to prove all this stuff... and when i get some time, i'll post them.

you'll recall i'm the lucky girl who scored a slot on the Sun Ray at home pilot and my life has changed forever.

because now i use an ultra thin client to get my work done.

here's a picture of me packing it up....


... for the business trip i'm taking this week...

well, there's an article on the whole thing (how Sun is using Sun Rays and Java Cards to deliver secure access to tools it's mobile workforce needs to get our jobs done; though there's no mention of me in the article; clearly an editorial oversight ;-)


it's a Q&A w/ Bill Vass , Sun's CIO. (not as goofy in real life as he looks in this picture; let's just hope he's not a blog reader, though i think we're pretty safe there..)

check it out. it's on the home page of sun.com.

today i've got (in another huge score) a private meeting set up with a certain high-ranking (he's got the word "Chief" in his title) somebody who's taking this story to the next level. it's a big secret. i'll tell you all about if i can talk him into letting me talk about it, you know.

later.

mary

ok people.

so in case we've never met me in person... i like going fast. i talk fast. i walk fast. i move fast. the faster i get my work done the quicker i get to go hang out with the people i love most in the world. (you're a close second)

so i go fast. except when i drive. then i like to get in the left lane and drive the speed limit. it seriously annoys somebody i know.

anyway, we digress.

we're back to going fast...

so (crazy as it sounds) i get to know about "secret" stuff that's happening at Sun Microsystems... and i sat in on a presentation yesterday. i got one word for you people: fast.

and that's all we'll say about that for now.

so other things i need to bring you up-to-speed on:

1. We've got a winner for Friday Free Stuff. It's the newest member of that tightly-knit and exclusive community of techno celebs who are my close personal friends: James. Congratulations James! And thank you for playing (along).

2.  And speaking of techno-celebs, had lunch in the cafeteria at Sun's Santa Clara, California campus yesterday. (i'm traveling for work this week. i don't live in California. they're crazy out here... they go to juice bars..some guy who's got everything pierced purees grass, strains it and puts it in a shot glass... and these Californians... they drink it... no kidding... grass... the kind that grows on lawns...totally serious... and then they go around telling people they live in the "best place on earth," and that they're "decades ahead of the rest of the country."  whatever. let's just say it would take centuries for the working-class neighborhood that i grew up in and now call home to get a juice bar that serves puree'ed grass. we got too much sense to do stuff like that we're i'm from. we digress again... techno celeb sightings in the cafeteria...

i know it's super grainy but the fancy digital camera is out of batteries again (i keep forgetting it on when i upload pictures) so i had to use the camera on my Java Powered mobile phone... That's Whitfield (i call him Whit, but never in front of him) Diffie. Whit invented the concept of public key cryptography, an invention a hot-shot at Stanford called "the most important technological breakthrough in the last thousand years."  Pop quiz: What do Whit and I have in common? We both get our paychecks from the same company. kind of blows your mind, doesn't it? me and Whit. total buds. not really. he actually has no idea who i am...

unlike Tim Lindholm, Distinguished Engineer and J2ME Architect...


....who knows exactly who i am though he can never remember my  name. and he avoids making eye contact. because he doesn't actually want to talk to me, really. but if i do manage to catch his eye and strike up a conversation he's always very nice and polite. and he is, of course, a founding member of that exclusive and tightly knit community of techno celebs who are my close personal friends.

i'm telling you, people... i got to the cafeteria to grab lunch with my boss and i see techno celebs everywhere.

don't you just wish you were me?

:-)

mary

It's Friday, people. And you know what that means...

This week's Friday Free Stuff* is:

1. Dedicated to Pete, who paid it forward on the Free Stuff I offered him. Pete, may the good karma of the universe re-visit you ten fold.
   
2. Sponsored by SDN and the lovely and talented Bao who can be seen here showcasing  *one of* today's prizes
3. In honor and celebration of the men and women in Sun's IT organization who serve what must be the world's most demanding client base (from techno celebs to clueless marketing people like me) yet push the envelope of innovation every day.
   

Did I mention that I am on the Sun Ray at Home pilot? Did I mention that I went from an unopened box the Fed Ex guy brought me to total, authenticated network connectivity and productivity in 13 mins 31 seconds?

Oh, and did I mention that I happen to be traveling for work next week -- headed out to the home office. Typically that means I have to pack up my laptop, power cord, mouse, ethernet cord (you never know if you're going to find one there)... stuff it all in my laptop bag and hope i didn't forget anything.

Not this time.  I'm a Sun Ray girl, now. And that means my life has changed forever.

Here's a picture of me ...



... packing up my laptop for my trip next week.

Hmmmm..... I guess that means I no longer need my laptop bag....



Great minds think alike! We're giving away ....



the laptop bag and ...


the gumball machine to the person who tells me what their favorite thing about the Sun Developer Network is in the comments section of this blog entry. All you gotta do for your chance* to win* is hit the Comments link immediately below and tell me what you like about SDN. I'll choose my favorite entry on Monday and the winner gets ths fabulous package of prizes shipped FOC to their doorstep. .

Of course, it would be really nice if you joined the Sun Developer Network (which is free). And maybe even subscribed to some of the awesome newsletters available to SDN members (which are also free). But we've got a privacy policy around here, people. So I can't make your joining a condition of winning* because I'd have no way to check. So we're going with the honor system here.

See, there's something for everybody at the MaryMaryQuiteContary blog. I get myself on the Sun Ray at Home pilot. And you are the beneficiary (no way i'd be giving away my laptop bag if my life hadn't changed forever with the delivery of a Sun Ray to my doorstep).

It's all because I love you so.

And because I'm in a terribly good mood, loving life on my Sun Ray.

Happy Friday to you too!!

mary

*Friday Free Stuff is not a contest. It's me giving away something that I personally own to somebody I choose. I pay for shipping with stamps that I buy at the post office. Sun employees can play but are not eligible to win* the prize*.

Oh, my beautiful, sweet, lovelies!

I'm so happy I am going to pop!

Brace yourselves. I'm going to take you for one wild ride. And it's going to last precisely 13 minutes and 31 seconds.

Just to bring you up-to-speed, (using tactics that I'm not proud of so don't ask me how I did it) I managed to get myself on the Sun Ray at Home pilot. Yesterday, the Fed Ex man delivered my Sun Ray.

This morning, my buddy Dan called. Asked me how it was going with the Sun Ray. I hadn't opened the box yet. Other stuff going on. He told me it took him 5 mins to set up his and that he was on a con call at the time.

So Dan's a lot smarter than me. But I figured, what the heck. Let me just blow off all this stuff that's sitting my desk and in my inbox...



 and start unpacking the Sun Ray.

And I'm all about metrics. If I can't measure it, I don't do it. That's my motto. Let's time how long it takes me.

So I quick get the stopwatch. (Got it for free with the purchase of a bottle of household cleaner.)

(Parenting tip of the week: Use the stopwatch to get the kids to brush their teeth for two mins... not that it works... it's a constant battle... i give up half the time... if they slosh a little toothpaste for a few seconds, I consider it done.  But don't tell Dr. Sophia any of this stuff, ok? We act like pious-teeth-brushers-and-flossers when we go see Dr. Sophia. She's actually none the wiser. She thinks we do a good job (or at least that's what she tells me). I'm a working mom, people. I gotta choose my battles. I figure they're baby teeth, anyway... they're going to fall out... what's the big deal .. we digress....)

the Sun Ray! the timer! Ready, Set, Go!

I start unpacking.... I get it all out of boxes and and dumped onto my desk...





Pause: let's do a quick time check:


it's been 7 mins; 54 seconds since i started. OK. Finish getting the stuff out of the packaging; start plugging things together; get rid of the bags, twist-ties and boxes. Plug in the power cord for the Sun Ray. (I was stunned to learn today that Sun Rays don't have on/off buttons... if it's plugged in, it's on.) So my quick-start guide says it will take two minutes for the Sun Ray to start up and display a log-in screen. It does that. I try to take a picture of it to prove it to you. Camera's dead again. Need more batteries. So I go ahead and log in and then quick run downstairs and get some more batteries out of the garage. (i consider myself an embedded photo journalist when it comes to the blog.)  I get back to my desk (winded; gotta start exercising again...)....



it's authenticating me... quick time check: 10 minutes; 44 seconds... before I know it, I'm in! I can't believe it!!! I'm in. It was totally easy. Completely Painless. Plug and Play!! LOVE IT!!! I am so excited!!!!

So what should I do first... open up a browser... http://blogs.sun.com/mary!




and here we are... total time from messy desk to Sun Ray up and running: 13 minutes, 31 seconds.

totally unbelievable!!!!

can i just tell you people that Sun Microsystems rocks in two critical ways:

1. We've got a stellar product portfolio. As employees, we are the primary beneficiaries of it.
2. We've got an extraordinary organization that delivers it to us.

and that's the word of the day.

oh happy, happy day that it is.

:-)

mary

You guys,

Guess what the Fed Ex guy brought me today??

 

That's right! My Sun Ray! I'm on the Sun Ray at Home pilot and I can hardly stand it.

(he's a Sun shareholder, by the way -- the Fed Ex guy. and a huge fan of the blog. not really. not really on the blog part... the shareholder part is true. i told him the eleven words. Jonathan, you would have been proud of me. )

so excited! can't wait to get started. thing is, can't unpack the box today. Long story, but can't do it today. too much other stuff going on.

that means tomorrow.

which means oh happy day! (squared)

the fun just never ends around here!

mary

 

This you're not even going to believe!

Guess who scored a slot in the



 Sun Ray at Home pilot???

You know it!

(please don't ask me how I did it. I am not proud of my tactics.)

Right this very minute, as we speak, my Sun Ray



is being shipped to me.

Oh how I love this, oh how i love this. Let me count the ways.

1. Everybody at Sun Microsystems has a Java smart card badge with a chip on it that catches the California sun like Mike Tyson's front teeth.
2. You go to any Sun campus. Stick your Java badge into any Sun Ray -- and immediately your session is right there, just the way you left it. That email you were in the middle of composing... still sitting right there on your desktop...
3. You walk around from building to building. Stick your badge into any Sun Ray and in 2 seconds you're working.

Total mobility.

But wait, there's more... They're going to be rolling out Sun Rays to people at home. They're piloting. And guess who's on the pilot!!! can you believe it!!! My Sun Ray ...


is being shipped to me right now.

Bill Vass talked about this Sun Ray at home pilot in his keynote at SunNetwork Shanghai. He actually went into the future just a little further... check it out.. it was an awesome keynote.

anyway. i'm all excited. can you tell?

mary

p.s. find out more abou the Sun Ray at Home pilot by readng Dan Lacher's blog.

I don't know whether you've noticed or not. But lately, I just haven't been myself.

I've had all kinds of little snippets of code -- complete with parenthesis, semi colons and  >>>> (whatever they're called) in my blog. I understand none of it. I stress out about whether i did the copy; paste right because the indentation and the font of the code and all that have to be just right so that it makes sense. And every time one of you guys responds to me, i have to hit the forward button and bother one of my techno celeb friends to get them to explain to me what you're saying.

It was all part of a stupid attempt to impress you. And frankly, it's exhausted me.

You're getting the explanation from the Ultimate Puzzler Challenge. And then we're laying off the code for a while.

Because the whole shtick about MaryMary understanding the techno speak is a complete farce.

We're going back to the world according to MaryMaryQuiteContary. The world where you get helpful household hints about how to clean out your car with a leaf blower. The world  where you find out who was singing in the shower with me in Shanghai. The world where I use this blog to explicitly and without apology market to you (and in doing so whisper stupid nothings into your ear).

So to quote my new role model, Gianna Angelopoulos–Daskalaki


Welcome Home!

But before we come full circle, we've got to finish what we started. Here's the explanation to the Ultimate Puzzler Challenge (and this is straight from a personal email from Click and Hack which was signed "Kisses"):

The loop was:

 while (k != 0)
 k >>>= 1;

 short k = -1;

See, entertaining you is more my style. I'll still ask Click and Hack to give us puzzlers here and there. They can educate you. We'll still do Friday Free Stuff. It's just that you won't always have to be smart to win. That way, people like me could win. (Except that I'm a Sun employee and Sun employees are ineligible for the prize; plus the point of Friday Free Stuff is to give away stuff that I don't want; so me winning would kind of defeat the purpose.)

So that's the story, people.

I feel much better now.

:-)

mary

It's a MaryMaryQuiteContrary first! (well, not really but play along, will you?)

We've got a Friday Free Stuff tie! Christoph and Sue are finalists. They correctly answered last Friday's question. They get to take the Ultimate Puzzler Challenge, and battle it out for the specacular grand prize



(my entire library of books about the Java platform). Second runner up gets a leather Kenneth Cole PDA Holder. (sorry no picture handy; trust me, it's nice.)

But here at the MaryMaryQuiteContary everybody is a winner. Yes, you too can take the Ultimate Puzzler Challenge and get a piece of the Friday Free Stuff action. keep reading for details...

But first, last week's question:

 while (j != j + 0)
 ; 

 double j = Double.NaN;

 String j = "Buy seventeen copies of Effective Java!";

The plus sign is overloaded, and operator overloading can be very misleading: It looks like addition, but it's really string concatenation. It's all the more misleading because the variable is named j, which is generally used for ints. Good variable, method and class names are very important.

Now you're up-to-speed. You know what Christoph and Sue already knew. You're ready to take the Ultimate Puzzler Challenge. Please take out your Number 2 pencils...

The Ultimate Puzzler Challenge is this: without resorting to floating point, provide declarations for i and j that turn this loop below into an infinate loop (look carefully; it's not the same as Friday's):

 while (k != 0)
 k >>>= 1;
 

Christoph, Sue: first one to post, wins.

Everybody else: post the right answer and I will send you FOC (Free of Charge) a full-color poster of the Java Technology Map. And while supplies last, I'll throw in a really nice ink pen too. See, there's something for everybody here at the MaryMaryQuiteContary blog. (or at least for the smart people ;-)

See you next time.

mary

p.s. i know you're not even going to believe this, but it's true. got email from Click and Hack. they signed it "kisses." putter, putter, my heart goes a-flutter.

p.p.s. this isn't a contest. i am giving away stuff that i pesonally own to people i choose. i pay for shipping with stamps that i buy with my own money from the post office.

we've got oh-so-much to be excited about today, people!

Friday Free Stuff* has a brand-spanking-new puzzler straight from the personal email account of Dr. Josh. (i just love it when he sends me personal email. have you bought his book yet?)

We've got a spectacular prize* this week...


...my entire library of books about the Java platform. (all pristine condition, never even opened them.)

And most importantly, the XXVIII Olympiad officially begins tonight, bringing the games gloriously back to the country where they were born. ZHTO HELLAS!


(we've got a greek flag outside my house in celebration.)

So let's get straight to it. Because I've got to figure out where we're going to watch the opening ceremony as we have no TV. And my dad and mom (who live across the street) disconnected their cable when they took off for the summer. So I gotta work some angles....

Here's the puzzler:

   while (i != i)
        ;

   float i = 0.0/0.0;

1.    while (j != j + 0)
          ;  

2.    while (k != 0)
          k >>>= k;
   

Please post your answers in the comments section of this blog entry. The person who most correctly, or in some other arbitrary way, answers the puzzler, wins* the prize*.

i love you too!

mary

* Friday Free Stuff is not a contest. It is me giving away something that I personally own to somebody that I choose. I pay for postage with stamps that I buy at the post office. But please, for my sake, if you live outside the US or Canada, please don't play this week. It would cost me a fortune to ship these books half-way round the world.

p.s. sorry about the quality of the pictures today. the digital camera eats up batteries like M&Ms. and i had no fresh ones to put in there. so i had to use the camera in my Java Powered mobile phone.

you heard it here first. (or maybe not.)

if you live in Bounder, Colorado.... or if you can quick use a plane, train and/or automobile get to Boulder, Colorado by 6 p.m. tonight, you can see Click and Hack (aka Dr. Josh Bloch and Dr. Neal Gafter, celebrated authors, all-around-good-guys and platinum members of that exclusive fraternity of techno celebs who are my close personal friends).

They're giving a talk at the Boulder Java Users Group tonight. Last night they were at the Denver Java Users Group.

Gotta love those Colorado Java Users Groups! Score on landing the hottest speakers on the circuit!

mary

p.s. give Click and Hack a great big sloppy kiss from me, will ya?