Monday May 18, 2009
We understand that not everyone can make the trip to San Francisco to attend
JavaOne. That's why we've made special arrangements to bring JavaOne to
the Open Source University Meetup (OSUM) Community. We have scheduled a series of webinars which are
previews of hands-on labs that will be conducted at JavaOne. Check the OSUM events calendar for the complete schedule and RSVP today.
Wednesday Apr 22, 2009
Here's a contest especially for youth 17 and younger. Our friends at the Institute For the Future just launched The Digital Open, an innovation expo for global youth. The Digital Open is an online technology community and competition for youth around the world, to demonstrate how they are using technology that will change the world - or just make life a little easier or more fun.
Students can share their experiences, expertise, and projects through photo, text, or video. There's great prizes for the winners including an PeeCee Mini Laptop running OpenSolaris, a Flip pocket-sized video camera or other cool stuff.
The Digital Open is all about Free and Open Technology. In this spirit, all submissions must make use of
existing free and open platforms and/or licensing your project under
one of the Digital Open-approved licenses.
There is lots of opportunity for creativity. Submissions can be in one of the following
Resources for each category have been posted to allow young students to get started quickly.
If you're not 17 or younger, please share info on the Digital Open with youth in your community and encourage them to sign up and start participating.
Tuesday Apr 21, 2009
If you missed by first blog regarding Jazoom Rookie please take note. The deadline to submit your video for a chance to deliver a technical talk at Jazoom09 is 23 April 2009. If you're one of the three finalists, your conference fees and travel expenses will be paid
via the competition.
Wednesday Apr 15, 2009
Sun just launched the OpenSolaris Apps of Steel
Challenge. This is a great opportunity to learn about developing and porting packages. Then use your talents and
participate for a chance to win a Toshiba OpenSolaris laptop! The winning packages will also be showcased at the OpenSolaris Install Lounge at CommunityOne West, in San Francisco on June 1-3rd, 2009.
Apart from the prizes and recognition, contributing OpenSolaris packages benefits the entire OpenSolaris community by building out the package eco-system. Need help getting started? Check the OpenSolaris Software Porter's Community.
Packages must be submitted by 12:00 pm midnight PDT on May 8, 2009. Packages will be judged on the following criteria:
- Complexity of the Port
- Use of unique OpenSolaris features, such as ZFS, DTrace, SMF, and FMA
- Number of dependent packages ported
- Usefulness to the end user
For all the details, please see the Official OpenSolaris Apps of Steel Challenge Rules and Restrictions.
Good luck!
Tuesday Apr 14, 2009
JavaOne 2009, the best developer event in the world, is taking place in San Francisco, June 2-5. Students who can make the trek to San Francisco will learn what’s new and different inside and around Java™ technology. But here's the best part – student can get a free pass to Java One that includes admission to 300+ technical sessions, keynotes, and the JavaOne Pavilion. This free pass also gets you admission to the first day of CommunityOne
(our open source conference) and Community One Deep Dives (half- and
full-day technology tutorials).
Faculty can also take advantage of a special conference rate for $895! But it just gets better. Professors who bring 10 students will get a conference pass for free. Check out the Student and Educator Program for all the details, then register for JavaOne 2009. It will be the experience of a lifetime.
Friday Apr 10, 2009
According to the intrepid researchers at the Paranormal Investigation Experts (PIE) Network, strange events preceded many of history’s greatest developmental leaps in science, technology, and agriculture - a phenomena know as the JUMP. Recent sightings suggest that the next JUMP is quickly approaching!
Sound a bit strange? That's because it is. It's a game and a great way to have fun with friends and learn about Java FX in the process.
The game unfolds through a narrative focused on two characters, Baron Rude and Hector Macchiato who are quickly establishing themselves as the arbiters of all things paranormal on YouTube, the OSUM Community and other viral networks. The pair of nerds offer humorous analyses of paranormal sightings. These Paranormal Investigation Experts (or PIE Guys) are looking for evidence of legitimate paranormal activity to support their theory. Throwing everything we know about causation to the wind, the pair are convinced that recent sightings imply the next JUMP is quickly approaching. In order to prepare, they have created a website at PieTheory.com to track strange phenomena and debunk hoaxes.
We need your help following The JUMP and ensuring its arrival. You'll need to follow the clues posted to the OSUM PIE Network and review the research at the PIE Theory Network. There's lots of content so form a team to review the research and unlock the clues.
Get started by registering at the Pie Theory website and downloading the "Recruit Toolkit". You'll use JavaFX 1.1 and NB 6.5 to unlock clues, solve challenges, and help Baron and Hector make The Jump happen!
Have fun.
Wednesday Apr 08, 2009
Earlier this week, I blogged about the Java FX Coding Challenge and special categories for students. Today, I'm happy to promote another great opportunity that has opened up for student developers.
Jazoon09 is a great Java developer event and will take place in Zurich, Switzerland from 22 to 25 June 2009. Jazoon Rookie is billed as Europe's first Young Java Developer Speaker's Competition. Students compete for the opportunity to deliver a 20 minute technical talk at Jazoon09 with their conference fees and travel expenses paid via the competition.
To enter the competition, students must record a part of their talk on video and submit it by 23 April 2009. The top 3 Jazoon Rookies will be invited to Jazoon'09, where they present their
20 minutes talk and compete for the Jazoon Rookie Cup.
Special thanks to the conference organizers for extending the Jazoon Rookie submission deadline.
Monday Apr 06, 2009
JavaFX provides developers, designers and students with unparalleled freedom and flexibility to
create the next generation of rich internet applications (RIAs) for mobile
devices, desktops and other devices. The Java FX Coding Challenge was recently launched, providing a new opportunity for developers, designers or students to submit an innovative rich internet application using JavaFX 1.1 and NetBeans 6.5, and win big bucks:
- 1st Place: $25,000
- 2nd Place: $10,000
- 3rd Place: $5,000
I have no doubt that students will be have some great submissions and will be in contention for these top prizes, but just in case, three additional prizes of $1,500 each will be awarded to the top three applications
submitted by students.
As with all contests, there are Contest Guidelines and Rules so make sure you review these before you get started. Then get to work on your own JavaFX application and submit before the deadline - May 29, 2009.
Thursday Feb 12, 2009
Nominations are being accepted for the seventh edition of the Duke's Choice awards, which honor the best and most innovative uses of Java technology. Winners will be recognized at the 2009 JavaOne Conference, June 2-5 in San Francisco. Entries must be submitted by March 27.
Submit Nomination
This is a great opportunity for students to showcase their Java
projects. Each year, it's great to see students up on stage with James Gosling
accepting their award. This year it could be you.
Monday Jan 26, 2009
One of the exclusive benefits we offer members of the Open Source University Meetup (OSUM) are free webinars on open source technologies supported by Sun. These webinars are a great way for students to learn from, and interact with, Sun engineers in real-time. We have two great sessions scheduled:
- Introduction to Multi-Threaded Programming for Chip Multi-Threading Processors - 30 Jan, 8 am, U.S. Pacific Time. This session will be conducted by Darryl Gove, a senior staff
engineer in the compiler team at Sun. He works on analysis and
optimisation of applications and benchmarks for current and future
architectures. He is the author of the book Solaris Application
Programming, a contributor to the book OpenSPARC Internals.
- GlassFish - The Application Server for All Your Web Apps - 3 Feb, 8:30 am, U.S. Pacific Time. This webinar will be conducted by Arun Gupta who is a GlassFish
Evangelist focusing on Web Tier at Sun. He was the spec lead for APIs
in the Java platform, committer in multiple Open Source projects,
participated in standard bodies and contributed to Java EE and SE
releases.
If you're a student or professor, we hope you'll join the OSUM Community and participate in these OSUM Webinars. Also stay tuned for upcoming sessions of the OSUM Webinar Series.
Sunday Jan 25, 2009
Lalith Suresh a student at the Malaviya National Institute of Technology in India, just contributed his second bug fix to Open High Availability Cluster. This is a great example of the kind of contributions that students are making to the open source world.
Both of Lailith's contributions will be included in the next OHAC release. Check out the blog by the engineer who sponsored these bug fixes for all the details..
Great job Lalith!
Thursday Jan 15, 2009
My colleague Tzel, has recently started to blog in the OSUM Community on the free web-based classes available to students via the Sun Academic Initiative (SAI). Her most recent post highlighted Fundamentals of the Java Programming Language, the free web-courses that prepares students for the Sun Certified Java Associate (SCJA).
I recently blogged about the Sun Certified Solaris Associate so I thought I would also share info on the SCJA as well. The SCJA is a great way for students to quickly demonstrate their knowledge of Object Oriented programming and the Java programming language. This is also an excellent way to prepare for the Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) which is highly regarded by employers. So just how highly are these certfications valued? Consider this - according to a Certification Magazine Salary Survey, Sun Certification increases earning power:
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Sun Certified Programmers earn on average 8.3% more than the average programmer
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Sun Certified Developers earn on average 14.3% more than the average developer
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Sun Certified System Administrators earn on average 31% more than system administrators certified on other operating systems
So if you're a student and want to learn Java to prepare for the SCJA, you can get started by taking the three (3) courses under Fundamentals of the Java Programming Language:
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WJ-1101-SE6 – Introduction to the Java Programming Language
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WJ-1102-SE6 – Implementing Basic Constructs in the Java Programming Language
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WJ-1103-SE6 – Implementing Object-Oriented Concepts in the Java Programming Language
Register for the SAI today and begin the path to Java certification.
Change (Y) Our World.
Sunday Jan 11, 2009
NetBeans 6.5 has been out for a couple of months now and much of the focus has been on the support for dynamic languages such as PhP. However, in this article, Geertjan Wielenga does a great job of outlining all the improvements in NetBeans 6.5 for the Java developer.
Geertjan starts by posing the following questions, "Which, of the many cool new things, would be particularly appealing to
a Java programmer? And why should a Java programmer now consider
NetBeans IDE 6.5 above its competitors?" His answer to these questions are straightforward and a must read for java developers who are considering NetBeans or used previous versions.
Read Geertjan's article by clicking here.
Friday Jan 09, 2009
I bet you missed the news, so I thought I'd post this blog to let you know that Sun has introduced the new Sun Certified Solaris Associate (SCSAS). This certification is great for students who are new to Solaris or UNIX, but would like to obtain a certification while continuing to work toward the Sun Certified System Administrator (SCSA). I previously blogged about the career-enhancing advantages of industry recognized certifications, so it's great to have this additional opportunity available for students.
Even better yet, students, professors & university staff can take advantage of the free web-based courses available via the Sun Academic Initiative (SAI) to prepare for the SCSAS.Through the SAI, students can get free access to Unix Essentials, which consists of:
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WS-1000-S10: Viewing and Using Components of the Desktop System;
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WS-1001-S10: Manipulating and Managing Files and Directories;
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WS-1002-S10: Searching and Process Manipulation;
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WS-1003-S10: Working with the Shell; and
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WS-1004-S10: Archiving Files and Remote Transfer.
I also encourage students to join the Open Source University Meetup (OSUM - yes it is pronounced "awesome") to connect with over 40,000 students and nearly 1,000 student developer clubs from over 100 countries. OSUM is the perfect place to get access to free resources for student developers on an ongoing basis.
Change (Y) Our World.
Thursday Jan 08, 2009
Early Registration is now Open for the 2009 MySQL Conference & Expo
which is scheduled for April 20-23, 2009 at the Santa Clara Convention
Center in Santa Clara, CA, USA. There are attractive discounts
available for academic developers including:
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Academic Staff 25% Discount
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Academic Instructor 50% Discount
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Full Time Student 65% Discount
This year's conference will offer hands-on learning and quality time
with the MySQL Development Team which assure that you will get all your
questions answered. In addition, conference participants will:
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Learn all about the MySQL 5.1
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Get detailed insight into new MySQL features
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Develop skills for scale-out using Java, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby and .NET
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Learn administration and security best practices
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Hear real world experiences implementing MySQL projects
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Discover best practices for using MySQL in a range of architectures
including Web, Cluster, Enterprise Data Warehouse, Embedded
applications, and more
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Learn how MySQL fits into Web 2.0 architecture and emerging web technologies
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Learn how to migrate from proprietary databases to MySQL, including
expert sessions on MySQL for the Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server DBA
The Featured Speakers and Sessions include:
Brian Aker (MySQL) and Alan Kasindorf (Six Apart) - Architecture and Technology, Performance Tuning and Benchmarks
The original memcached tutorial has done its rounds around the globe,
and it's time for round two. Quickly get up to speed with integration
and tuning examples, then dive into new topics and community tricks.
See how the new binary protocol and storage engine interfaces can solve
hard problems.
Adam Donnison (Sun Microsystems) - Beginner's Guide to Website Performance with MySQL and Memcached
Memcached is a distributed memory object caching system that is getting
a lot of press at the moment for its ability to provide a
high-performance front-end for database applications. Sure, memcached
can do wonders, but where is it most effective and what are the pain
points?
Thorsten von Eicken (RightScale, Inc) - Tricks and Tradeoffs of Deploying MySQL Clusters in the Cloud
This session will explore lessons learned at RightScale in deploying
thousands of production MySQL databases on the cloud for real customers
and will help attendees understand why the flexibility of running
databases in the cloud is worth more than the loss of control over the
hardware.
Kai Voigt (Sun Microsystems) - MySQL DBA Certification Tutorial, Part 1 & 2
The MySQL DBA Certification Exam will make you a certified MySQL DBA.
The Certificate will testify skills to install, maintain, administer
and optimize MySQL servers.
David Van Couvering (Sun Microsystems, Inc.) - Building a Twitter analysis tool using MySQL, PHP and NetBeans
In this session we'll be building a PHP+MySQL application that uses the Twitter API and has some AJAX fun with it.
Keith Murphy (The Pythian Group) - MySQL Server Backup, Restoration and Disaster Recovery Planning
Performing backups, recovery and disaster planning are some of the most important functions of a database administrator.
And there's more! Check out the
conference website for all the details.
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