Ok, so this week's recipe is another dessert. Do you see a pattern? ;)
It's a family recipe for Apricot Bars and they are very, very yummy. So
proceed at your own risk!

Read and play along with our adventurer as he quests for the Ruby of Destiny in our choose-your-own-adventure style minibook. As our brave hero faces different thrills and adventures, you control his actions and ultimately decide his fate.
Should he fool the witch or kill her? Can you make it to the end? Or is failure your destiny...

So what are you waiting for? Come on in...if you dare.

Just wanted to give a shout out to my internet peeps and let you know that I'm back in blogging action. I'll update with something better later today. I was on vacation and then I couldn't access my blog, hence my two week absence. But I've got a lot to say (shocker!) and I'll start blogging again this afternoon.

Missed ya!

-hd

I love the Olympics. Love 'em. Ever since I was a little girl watching Mary Lou Retton flip and vault her way to gold in L.A. I've looked forward to the summer games. And tonight they begin! (Ok, technically, the opening ceremony is over, but for us out here on the west coast, it hasn't been televised). I'll be DVR'ing all of the games, but I'll also be playing MyPicks Beijing 2008.

MyPicks Beijing 2008 is a Facebook application allows players to predict Gold, Silver, and Bronze medal winners throughout the games. When a player (ME!) predicts correctly (Which, um, I WILL), points are added to the players' home country's score and the country with the highest point total at the conclusion of the Summer Olympics is the winner. The app was built using Sun's social application development environment, known as zembly.  Zembly has been in private beta since June and enables folks to quickly develop social apps for platforms lik Facebook, Meebo, OpenSocial and iPhone.

So add MyPicks Beijing 2008 to your Facebook page and play along! Maybeimright and I have challenged each other to make the most correct predictions. I'm totally going to win. Not that it matters. But I am.

-Heidi

ps- I'm on vacation next week so no updates from me in this space. Have fun!

Another great interview by Janice Heiss. Check out  "Teaching Mobile Computing to Generation C: A Conversation with Java Champion Qusay Mahmoud." In this article Qusay discusses ways to integrate mobile devices into computer science curriculum.

Be sure to check check check it out!

Back at JavaOne 2008 Sun unveiled some super sweet demos of JavaFX (hence the "Clueless" reference above, m'kay?). And now, the JavaFX SDK Preview has been released. Download it, play with it, tell us what you think about it. The preview release isn't the only new thing in the JavaFX world. I'm happy to welcome the JavaFX Blog to our blogosphere! Check out what the JavaFX team has to say about this release on their new, sure to be cool, blog.  Last, but never least, my partner in crime and all around kick ass marketing gal, Jenn Winger, aka maybeimright, recorded the first podcast of the new series "This Ain't Your Dad's Java" with Eric Klein, VP of Java Marketing and David Bryant, Sr. Director, Java Marketing at Sun where whey talk all things Java including, ta da!, JavaFX. Check it out here.

Now get playing! ;)

-Heidi

Hot off the presses! In, "From the Trenches at Sun Identity, Part 5: Support for OpenSSO," senior product manager Nick Wooler describes the background, the support model, and the gains for developers as Sun offers full support and indemnification for its open Web access management and federation project.

Check it out!

-Heidi 

It's time for our weekly installment of Cookin' with SDNGal. Today I bring you Thai Shrimp Soup. It's a family favorite. Hope you enjoy it!

Thai Shrimp Soup

2 TBSP canola oil 

1 TBSP minced fresh ginger

3 gloves garlic, minced

1 TBSP hot chili paste 

4 C. Chicken Stock 

1 - 14oz can of creamed corn

1/2 lb. frozen shrimp, defrosted

1 TBSP water

1 TBSP cornstarch

1 tsp sugar 

1 egg, slightly beaten 

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

In a large dutch oven or saucepan heat the canola oil over medium heat. Add ginger, garlic, and chili paste and stir for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock, corn, and shrimp. Cook for 10 minutes. Whisk together the water, cornstarch and sugar and add into soup. Stir until slightly thicker, about 3 minutes. Add the beaten egg and stir for one minute more. Add the chopped cilantro and serve. A word to the wise: this is best served fresh. It isn't the tastiest as leftovers. The shrimp get a little tough in reheating. This recipe will serve four folks. ;)

Enjoy!

There are some great interviews with Java Champions out right now. Here's a quick snapshot:
Java Performance Tuning: A Conversation With Java Champion Kirk Pepperdine

Java Champion and Java performance expert Kirk Pepperdine shares ways to identify and solve Java performance bottlenecks.

Enterprise Java Expert Adam Bien Makes Java EE Programming Easier
Janice J. Heiss interviews Java Champion Adam Bien, who discusses some
common fallacies about Java EE and takes the mystery out of distributed
computing.

Time for our weekly Cooking with SDNGal feature. Today's recipe comes from my Grandma Evie who was the cutest thing ever to come out of Oklahoma. Tiny, southern, adorable. I was looking through her old recipe box, trying to find her recipe for baked custard when I came across today's feature: Chili Relleno Casserole. I couldn't help myself...I decided to try it out! Mostly because I LOVE chili rellenos but also because it seems so 1950s to me. And away we go:

We've just launched our Sun Total Access Network set on Flickr and we'd like you to join us. Become a contact and upload your Sun Developer Network-related photos...old or new! Whether a JavaOne snap from 2000, a group shot from a Java User Group event, or a photo of you at Tech Days 2008, we want 'em on our set! And to make things interesting, we'll be giving away a Prize Pack to one of our new contacts. Upload your photos between July 14, 2008 and July 28, 2008 and tag them with SunTAN/Sun Developer Network/Event title/Event date/Persons shown and you will be entered into a drawing for our Prize Pack which includes a Sun SPOT Development kit, Sun t-shirt, SMI press book, and Java ipod carrier. It's pretty cool...but we expect your photos to be even cooler. Become a contact and start uploading today!

-Heidi

Check it out. My friend Tab, aka, NetBeans Marketing Gal, sent me the following:: 


On Tuesday at EuroPython 2008, Ted Leung (Dynamic Languages & Tools
Architect, Sun Microsystems) and Frank Wierzbicki (Jython Project Lead,
Sun Microsystems) announced that the NetBeans IDE will be supporting
Python and Jython in future releases. At the core of bringing
Python/Jython support to the NetBeans IDE, is the formation of the
NBPython Project, led by community member Allan Davis.


For more information, visit the NBPython Project page and request membership to the project. For developers wishing to
contribute, sign up for the development mailing list .


In addition, the Sun Developer Network (SDN) is also launching the
Python Developer Center and is planning to feature Python/Jython
technologies in future Sun Tech Days events, a 15-city world tour
designed to educate developers in local markets on various
technologies. Python runtime support is already available in
OpenSolaris 2008.05, via the pkg.opensolaris.org repository, as well as
with Cool Stack on Solaris 10-based systems.

Pretty cool stuff.

-Heidi

Yesterday we had a chat in Second Life on OpenSolaris. We were lucky
to have a terrific panel including Tim Cramer, Glynn Foster, David
Comay and Stephen Hahn. We had some technical difficulties (such is
life in Second Life!) so we were unable to use voice chat. The good
news is that allowed us to copy a transcript to share here! Also, the
slidedeck is now available on slideshare.net. Check it out here.

And away we go:

So this is pretty cool. Sprint has just announced the Instinct Java Developer Contest, focusing on the new Samsung Instinct. The contest will be open to consumer and business applications optimized for the Instinct and has a $20K grand prize. More information in the coming days, including a webinar you can register for here.

Check it out. Create a cool app. Win the prize. Remember you heard it here. ;)

-Heidi

Today marks the launch of Shift Radio, "Your Digital Life in Overdrive." Hosted by Chris Melissinos, this weekly show will cover the latest gadgets, technology, do-dads, and of course, video games. :) This week's taping includes an interview with Hal Halpin, President of the Entertainment Consumers Association. Go check it out. I am!

-Heidi