time for Friday Free Stuff!
(and you thought i had forgotten about you...)
it's that fun and exciting game where you can win -- and we say that figuratively -- fabulous prizes. Friday Free Stuff isn't technically a contest. It's me giving away something I personally own -- all Sun, Java and/or JavaOne branded -- to somebody I choose. I pay for postage. Sun employees not eligible for the "prize" but you can play.
And this week we've got the most exciting development in this blog since the shower scene: a sponsor! It's "Click and Hack, the type-it brothers" aka Dr. Joshua Bloch and Dr. Neal Gafter. (Did you know they have two JavaOne sessions: One, Two.) 
Full disclosure: Not quite sure Dr. Josh and Dr. Neal would actually call themselves "sponsors" but, well, i'm in charge of the words here...
And we'll get into Friday Free Stuff...
right after JavaOne Scoop...
(where you savvy readers have quite correctly observed I like to "mix-things-up:" bona fide world-premiere scoop with shameless marketing plugs. i'm most proud when you can't actually tell which is which. not much chance of that today though... ;-)
1. At JavaOne you will be able to make video clips of yourself (let's try to keep them tasteful, people) and send them back home to your family and friends via the Java.com website. apparently there's going to be a way for you to send James Gosling personal video clips too. (don't exactly have all the details, but as i get more you'll be the first to know). So that's going to be neat!
2. Also at JavaOne I would highly recommend attending Patterns in Practice: Designing Real-World Enterprise Solutions on Monday 11:30 p.m. And if you buy their book now -- Core J2EE Patterns, 2nd ed. 2003 Alur, Crupi, Malks -- you can get them to sign it at the BOF.
OK... enough JavaOne Scoop for today...
Let's get right into what you've been waiting for... Friday Free Stuff!!!
Here's our prize today:
Not Dr. Josh and Dr. Neal -- the Duke Dolls! We're going to give away the Duke Dolls!!!!
(i know, you just can't stand it)
But i'm going to make you work for it this week. Noah, Bruce... they got off easy... you're going to demonstrate your inspiration with some perspiration.
Here's the question. (and i got it from Click and Hack and that's how come I'm calling them my sponsors.)
What does the following function compute?
// Assumes val is odd
static int mysteryFunction(int val) {
int t = val;
t *= 2 - val*t;
t *= 2 - val*t;
t *= 2 - val*t;
t *= 2 - val*t;
return t;
}
oh, i'm just all excited. real Java in my blog! and i never thought this day would come!!
send me your answers, people. use the following formula: first.last@sun.com. My first name is Mary. My last name is Smaragdis.
big Happy Friday kiss!
mary
p.s. thank you to Ka-Hing for re-sending his answer to last week's contest... here it is...
1) Because the "Fresh Paint" sign might have been there for a long time, in
that case it's no longer fresh.
2) Because people are stupid, they believe things are true if they cannot
understand it.
3) It takes too long to understand the proofs, it's easier to just say "I
believe you" and walk away.
-khc
Posted by Geoff Arnold on June 19, 2004 at 08:07 AM PDT #
Posted by mary on June 19, 2004 at 02:19 PM PDT #