Participate in JDK 7 certification process

Hello Java Developers,
Do you want to participate in the JDK7 certiication process? Read on....

We have performed job task analysis (JTA) of a JDK 7 programmer role and a JDK 7 developer role. The JTA will feed in to derive the JDK 7 certification objectives for:
Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) and
Sun Certified Java Developer (SCJD)

A programmer is an entry level Java SE programmer and a developer is at an advanced level.

We need your time to review and validate the JTAs for both the roles.

This is what you need to do:

1> Login to http://wikis.sun.com/display/JTASurvey using your Sun Online account ID and password
2> Read the guidelines on the home page
3> Review the Java SE programmer JTA and the Java SE developer JTA
4> Map the listed duties/tasks and activities to the day to day tasks tasks of a programmer /developer with Java SE skills
5> Provide specific comments. Do mention if certain topics appear obsolete, or certain new tasks have to be added
6> Please go ahead and edit the document with your inputs. Do ensure to format your inputs in a different color
7> Complete the survey

Note: If you don't have an account, you can create one on the site.

You can infuence the JDK 7 certifications by reviewing the JTAs.  The site will be up for a week or two, so act now before this deal is gone.

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( June 04, 2009 12:08 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Do you know? - JavaOne for Free!! to Students

An Amazing Student offer for JavaOne this year- Students get in free!  Plus, they can sign up for CommunityOne at the same time.  Both passes are full conference passes with access to everything!  Educators (your professors) can also get in free when they bring 10 students with them to the conference.  If they aren't able to do this, they still get a fantastic deal of $895 for a full conference pass.

What is a Full Pass?
All the benefits of a FULL conference attendee, which includes: JavaOne general and technical sessions, panel discussions, HOLs (Hands-on-labs), BOFs (Birds-of-a-feather), the Pavilion and the After Dark Bash / Networking Mixer!  Not to mention a "hang space" (which includes video games, movies & more!), plus you will be able to check email any time at one of our many hacker stations.

*PLUS*
Admission to the CommunityOne Deep-Dives.  What does this mean?  FREE training by our very own SLS on some really great topics, plus hugely discounted certification (vouchers will be handed out at the event)- certification can even be done on-site!  There will also be numerous parties and chances for you to network with the best and brightest in the industry, from community leaders to "Rockstars" and everyone in between.

Here is the registration page set up just for students: http://java.sun.com/javaone/2009/students_and_educators/index.jsp

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( April 17, 2009 01:55 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Sun's Open Source technologies Seminar @ Kolkata

I gave a seminar on Sun's Open Source technologies on 24th Feb to around 400 engineering students gathered at St. Xavier's College Auditorium, Kolkata. It was organized by SLS through our learning partner - NIIT. Earlier in the afternoon, big banners at the front of Xavier College in the busy up market street of Kolkata gave a warm welcome to me. This Xavier college is at the heart of the city of Kolkata and that made it easier for about 5 colleges around Kolkata to join the seminar. Some students travelled about 4 hours to listen to our technologies and that was quite satiating to know.

To start with, I spoke about the importance of Open Source technologies in the current economy and how Sun's technologies would fare better in the markets compared to other proprietary software. I asked the students some queries on Sun technologies and gave away goodies for the best answers. These students were not at all aware of OSUM, Campus Ambassador program, CFF or Java FX Contest and even java.net. They were glad to know the importance of these activities/projects and showed great interest in knowing and participating more.

I talked about the powerful features of Java language in terms of memory management and its benefits over other competitive technologies in the market. Also, I gave them an overview of Java SE, Java EE, Java ME & Java FX technologies, Netbeans IDE, GlassFish, Looking Glass project, and their features. Based on the audience background and their interests I talked about OpenSolaris features and its current market value. I was glad to evangelise our Java FX product portfolio as none of them were aware of its release.

At the end of the talk students asked many queries ranging from Java, NetBeans to GlassFish and Open Solaris. Also, few of them asked queries on how Sun is making profits out of these open sourced software. At the end of Q&A session, I gave away some of goodies sponsored by NIIT to the students who asked more number of questions. Once I concluded the seminar, atleast 10 students came up to me and conveyed their interest in learning more Sun technologies. I distributed some of the NetBeans+Java EE cds to these enthusiastic students and showed some demos on Java FX, VirtualBox, OpenSolaris and NetBeans. Some of the students wanted to learn more about the value of Sun certifications, training and the value it adds to their career paths. I spent sufficient time with these students at the end of the talk answering all of their queries. I was really glad to see the amount of enthusiasm and passion the students displayed towards Sun technologies.

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( February 27, 2009 02:22 PM ) Permalink | Comments[2]

Java FX Contest 2009

JavaFX Team at IEC, Bangalore, India is running a Code JavaFX Contest for students and developers in India.

Participate and Spread the news!!

1)Contest URL: http://in.sun.com/specials/codejavafx/
2)Contest open only for students and developers in India.
3)Registration Date: March 1st. Contest Submission Date: March 31st.

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( February 26, 2009 11:05 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Summary Day-2 Sun Techdays 2009 Hyderabad, India

Day-2(19th Feb) was as exciting as the day one of Sun Techdays 2009 @ Hyderabad, India, today. The big day kicked off with a keynote address by Matt Thomson. The much awaited and most popular Sun Jacket giveaway session was conducted by Reggie. He picked up some of the enthusiastic bunch of volunteers from the audience and encouraged them to perform and showcase their talents on the big stage. Best performer and most popular entertainer of the day went away with the Sun Jacket of 2009 amidst a thundering applause from the audience. Audience enjoyed every bit of this session and it was a great way to kick start the day with hectic schedules of technology tracks lined up for the day. 

At our SLS booth, we continued with our demonstrations of Java FX, Netbeans, WebStack, SLS courses, OpenSolaris, certifications and training information. Highlights of the day at our booth were the troubleshooting of a Java app with Netbeans (in fact a student brought his project in a pen drive with his issues), troubleshooting the installation of Ubuntu using Virtual Box, demonstrating the Java FX application and fixing the issues for a student who tried and tested out Java FX apps the previous night. Also, we demonstrated OpenOffice, Open Solaris features, explained Agile/Scrum methodologies in product development, and gave career guidance to students on Java/Sun technologies. We also talked about the Java Tutorial, docs.sun.com/documentation and other documentation resources apart from giving away the printed reference links for training, documentation, Netbeans, OpenOffice, etc. Geetha, Paromita, Jacob & Frank attended to all of the above mentioned issues from the audience.

In the morning, we announced the winners of the first day's Quiz. Top five winners received thumb drives and the following ten winners received Sun SLS T-shirts from our booth, amidst a big round of applause from the bunch of enthusiastic audience gathered around our booth. Based on the excellent response we received from audience for our SLS organized Sun technologies Quiz, we conducted a second round of this Quiz in the afternoon.

One more hectic and enlightening day for techno savvy developers ended with a very high note with some foot tapping performances by a famous Rock band from Goa.

Some of the brightest moments captured through our SLS lens throughout the day, are below:

Top winners of our Quiz-1 contest conducted at SLS booth on Sun technologies.

More pictures of the day are below:

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( February 20, 2009 12:25 AM ) Permalink | Comments[6]

Day -2 Sun techdays Hyderabad 2009

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( February 19, 2009 01:34 PM ) Permalink | Comments[2]

Techdays-1 Hyderabad More pictures

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( February 19, 2009 10:21 AM ) Permalink | Comments[2]

Live! Sun Tech Days 2009 Hyderabad

18 Feb 2009 | What a day for Sun technologies developers in India!! I am blogging live from Sun Tech Days Hyderabad. The most awaited day for techno geeks in India started off today with a bang!! I mean it ! A wonder kid of about 10 years age started off the show with his excellent drumming skills followed by Reggie's greetings and an introduction to lightening demos by various sun technology experts. Incredible features of Java FX, Desktop, and Java TV were demonstrated to the roaring applause of wonderful bunch of student and professional software developers.

Anil Valluri delivered the welcome note. After welcome address, Anil invited James Gosling, amidst a huge roar of applause from audience, and noted how he touched several students and developers' lives around the globe by creating the robust Java technology. After the keynote address by Gosling, the audience were directed to different technology tracks.

Geetha Nazare, myself (Jacob Royal), Paromita Dutta and Frank Jennings represented the SLS booth. While I demonstrated the Designer-developer workflow of Java FX using Java FX Production Suite and NetBeans, Frank demonstrated some of the cool Web Stack apps on Open Solaris & NetBeans and Paromita and Geetha concentrated on explaining and demonstrating some of the available SLS courses, training modules and Certifications around Java FX, and MySQL. We interchanged our roles throughout the day. Apart from this, we also demonstrated Java FX features, code samples, screencasts, and explained some of the latest features of Java SE, MySQL certifications, and training. We organized Quiz on Sun technologies in the morning, registered developers for SDN and gave away some goodies (Sun caps). That was a memorable experience for all three of us as the crowd thronged at our booth with quiz responses, SDN registrations and of course for Sun goodies:-). I was talking to some of the developers from a software company and they explained how they long to posses Sun branded goodies as memoirs.

Since there was no coverage for virtual box and OpenOffice, we talked about it too. We catered to the crowd's requirements/questions and guided them towards understanding Sun's offerings.

Some of the pictures from day one (18th Feb) are posted below. Keep watching this blog as we rope in more pictures tomorrow whenever we get a breather from the booth activities.

Keynote address by James Gosling

Developer audience at the entrance, gearing up for registration.

Audience busy filling up Sun technologies Quiz questionnaire at SLS booth.

Jacob, Frank and Paromita at the booth. 

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( February 19, 2009 12:17 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Sun Techdays Hyderabad 2009

Sun Techdays Hyderabad is back again in 2009 from Feb 18 to 20 @ HICC. I just arrived here today (17th) and the atmosphere here looks awesome with all the stage set for a big showcase of powerful Sun Microsystems' technologies under one roof.

Watch out this space for live updates from 18th Feb onwards.....

- Jacob Royal

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( February 17, 2009 10:36 PM ) Permalink | Comments[3]

Java presentation to San Jose University students

As part of the students exchange program, we had about 25 engineering students visit the Sun India campus @ Bangalore, from San Jose State University this week. 

Apart from my presentation on Java technology, there were presentations on Sun Strategies, Open Source, projects that Sun had already been involved with the students of San Jose State university, and a visit to our World Class Data Center. Presentations given by Jacob Royal, Srinivasan Rengarajan, Abhishek Kumar, Vinay Puranik, Ganesh Hiregouder and Suvendu  Ray. All the students had good learning experience from this visit.

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( January 09, 2009 04:49 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Live video streaming of FSFS 2008

FSFS international conference @ Trivandrum Kerala is live today. You can watch it live using streaming tv at the following url. http://giss.tv/interface/?mp=fsfs.ogg

Watch out this space for updates and Sun's participation at this conference. More details on schedule @ http://www.fsfs.in

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( December 10, 2008 01:49 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Free Software Free Society International Conference 2008

FSFS Conference is going to happen in Trivandrum, Kerala state, India from 9-11 Dec' 08. Myself, Frank, Mayuresh, Vihang & Binod will be representing Sun as speakers of various talks on technology track. The topics for our talks include Java+Netbeans, Open Solaris for developers, Open Solaris for Admins, MySQL, Sailfin, GlassFish and Portal Server. 

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( December 08, 2008 09:16 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Connected to more students

This Monday I had an opportunity to connect with around 70 students from Amrita Institute of Technology, Kollam, Kerala state @ IEC. I briefed them about the latest Innovations and Opportunities around Java technology. I also talked about the importance of SDN registrations, benefits of Sun Certifications and introduction to Java Tutorial and DocWeb projects at Java.net.

These students are from II year Computer Science Engineering course and they had little or no knowledge of Java language. Almost all of them were well versed in C++ language and they displayed fair knowledge of C++. With that background of the students, I had to start with basics on Java language and explain the features and benefits of its adoption. I took time to explain the advantages of Java language in terms of security, scalability and platform-independence.

I could relate to them quickly with Java language, as they had enough knowledge of OOP concepts. Building that relation with Java as a base, I went on explaining the powerful features of Java language in terms of memory management and its benefits over other competitive technologies in the market. Also, I gave them an overview of Java SE, Java EE, Java ME & Java FX technologies, Netbeans IDE, and their features.

At the end of the day, I am sure these young and energetic minds have got fair knowledge on how pervasive Java technology is, and how powerful its features are as compared to other technologies in the market. Thereby, it would be easier enough for these budding engineers to adopt Sun technologies and spread the news in future.

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( November 25, 2008 11:23 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Track Bangalore Traffic Live!

You know how difficult it is to pave your way to your office and back home through Bangalore traffic. You can at least plan which road to take before you leave home or office at the Bangalore Live traffic link

Posted by Jacob Royal [Personal] ( October 29, 2008 05:24 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Free Sun Certificate on Netbeans

Take the Netbeans exam for free during Oct 15 till Nov 5, as it is in Beta now.

This exam will certify that you are proficient at using NetBeans in a team setting. It focuses mostly on standard Java desktop and web applications, but the focus is much more on how you use NetBeans to work with these technologies than your knowledge of the Java specs themselves. It's a great companion to the Java Certification exams.

More info @ http://www.sun.com/training/certification/netbeans.html

Posted by Jacob Royal [Java] ( October 15, 2008 09:48 AM ) Permalink | Comments[1]