Standing in the Field @ Valley Forge

Standing in the Field

Notes from SJS Application Server Field Engineering

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Tuesday June 29, 2004
Disappointment

Well the opening keynotes are over, both at JavaOne and Apple WWDC. I know it was probably an unrealistic expectation, but I was hoping that Apple would announcing that Apple OS X 10.4 (codename Tiger) would support Java 5.0 (codename Tiger). And even more unrealistically, I was hoping that Apple would announce an early access edition of Java 5.0 for Mac.

I'm doing the majority of my Java development on the Mac these days. All of the major IDEs are running on Mac these days. (Including Sun's NetBeans and Studio Creator. I'm glad that we have officially blessed the Mac port of Studio Creator: I've been running an EA version of months now.) There are even several sessions here at JavaOne just focused on the tips and tricks of developing Java on the Mac.

But, unfortunately, that has meant that I have been falling behind in experimenting with Java 5.0, which is currently only available on Solaris, Linux, and Windows. I do have beta2 of Java 5.0 running on my Solaris box, but that is a headless box so there's a little extra hassle in developing there.

Enough making excuses. Java 5.0 is definitely the focus of a lot of JavaOne. It is a huge release for Java and the benefits to both administrators (performance ergonomics) and developers (new language constructs) are going to be very compelling. So I promise to spend a lot more time learning the ins and outs of Java 5.0 going forward.

I'm sure that Apple will release a Java 5.0 JDK. I'll probably have to wait at least until this fall when the final version of Java 5.0 ships. But I think that Apple understands the importance of Java.

(2004-06-29 09:28:23.0) Permalink


Monday June 28, 2004
I didn't know I did tech support

Tim Bray blogged about our meeting on Friday. The Java ambassadors aren't really in tech support, but since he was trying to compliment us, I'll take it in stride. It was an interesting day of updates from engineering. There is so much exciting going on at Sun these days.

P.S.

Yes, I'm at JavaONE. In fact I'm setting front and center waiting for Jonathan to start his open speech right now. I'm helping to proctor the self-paced labs. As John points out, getting the labs set up was quite a challenge. If you are at one of the labs say hi. And be patient if there are any glitches.

P.P.S.

It's funny that Tim Bray and I both discovered the usefulness of the Apple Store for WiFi access independently. The Apple theatre is a great place to hang out and do some quick email and surfiing. Having an Apple is sometimes like belonging to a secret club. :-)

(2004-06-28 08:38:50.0) Permalink


Sunday June 27, 2004
Who Am I

I'm a field engineer for Sun. (I say field engineer rather than the traditional title of SE because we are currently playing a game of musical chairs with job titles at Sun.) Before working for Sun I worked for Netscape on the other side of the Netscape/Sun alliance. When Netscape ended the alliance I joined Sun and have been here since. Before Netscape I was a consultant doing programming, system architecture, and project management.

Since I'm a field engineer I tend to be a jack of all trades. In 2002 I published a J2EE book. And a lot of people know me as a Sun Application Server guru. But I've spent time working with almost the entire Java Enterprise System. Plus I've been investing a lot of time in N1 Service Provisioning System. (Which is just a wickedly cool product.) So I know a little bit about a lot of things. If it is a Netscape Actra Sun|Netscape Alliance iPlanet SunONE Sun Java System product, I've probably spent time installing, configuring, or troubleshooting it.

(2004-06-27 01:01:28.0) Permalink


Wednesday June 23, 2004
Power of iTunes

So I had a flashback to my teenage years recently and was reminded of listening to "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)". (Don't ask me why I liked this song as a teenager. Also don't ask me what reminded me of the song.) In a fit of nostalgia and instant gratification I looked up the song in the iTunes Music Store and bought a couple of singles from that album. This, in and of itself, is pretty cool and shows the appeal of iTunes and the iTunes Music Store.

But the story doesn't end there. When I was looking at Paul Young's album list in the music store, I found an album by a band called "Los Pacaminos". That's weird, I thought: must be a typo. But clicking through reveals that, yes, Paul Young was part of a band called Los Pacaminos in 2002.

So if you ever wondered what happened to 80's British pop/soul singer Paul Young, he ended up playing in a Tex-Mex/Southwestern country rock band. This is a VH1 "Where are they now?" episode waiting to happen.

P.S.
Yes, I bought some Pacaminos tracks too. I couldn't help myself.

(2004-06-23 23:02:50.0) Permalink

Why I'm Blogging (Really)

Because I'll be listening to Tim Bray on Friday. And I'd look so uncool if he asked if I had a weblog and I had to say no.

Plus blogs.sun.com reminds me of people.netscape.com back when I worked at Netscape. That may not be a optimistic viewpoint though, because I rarely kept my people.netscape.com site up to date. And because people.netscape.com was mostly just pictures of everyone's pets while blogs.sun.com has insightful, interactive discussions of important issues.

(2004-06-23 10:39:02.0) Permalink


Tuesday June 22, 2004
Why I'm Blogging

This whole blogs.sun.com thing has been amazing to me. We've gone from a implicit policy discouraging public communication to dozens of posts a day on a public website in just a few short weeks. But it's just representative of a larger transition going on at Sun, at least in my opinion.

Five years ago, it seems like the prevailing attitude at Sun was that information must be tightly controlled. Sun was trying to present itself as a mature, well disciplined datacenter company rather than an upstart, edgy workstation company. Maybe this image was the direct result of Ed Zander's personality. Maybe it was just the market conditions. But, as a result, information was guarded and controlled carefully. Information about roadmaps, new products, and known issues was hidden, even from own Sun's field engineers. This was a disaster in my opinion. Look at all the bad press that resulted from trying to keep a lid on the ecache failures in the old product line.

But now, we are seeing the exact opposite trend. Sun is trying to present itself as a upstart, edgy software/systems company rather than a stodgy, old school datacenter company. Maybe this is as a result of Jonathan Schwartz's personality. Maybe it is just because of market conditions. But, as a result, Sun is being much more open to its employees and customers. Examples:

This is obviously a good thing. When making datacenter decisions customers are usually more interested in what your product line will be 3-5 years from now than what products you have available today. Choosing SPARC or Solaris or Sun Java Application Server or N1 Grid Service Provisioning Server is more than just a purchasing transaction. All of these products are about long term vendor partnerships. Recognizing this need for partnership by better communicating with our customers Sun can differentiate itself from the competition.

So, I'm going to do my part. Maybe the thoughts of a field engineer aren't as interesting as those of a DTrace engineer, X11 guru, industry visionary or even a marketing person . But I'll do my part in keeping the lines of communication open.

(2004-06-22 21:50:56.0) Permalink Comments [1]