Student Views and Reviews: Sun on Campus

Fellow Sun Intern Victor Castillo sent out this fantastic summary of the capabilities and features OpenSolaris offers for physical and virtual networking.  I am republishing it in its entirety here, because I think it is a great summary and could help a lot of students looking to give it a try!

"I'll start with Crossbow (http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+crossbow/WebHome): Crossbow is the basis for network virtualization and resource control in OpenSolaris. It allows you to create virtual NICs to be used either by a networking service (HTTP, FTP, and others) or by virtual machines (Zones, VirtualBox...). Each of those vNICs has it's own priority and assigned bandwidth in order to guarantee QoS (via Flows) and prevent DoS by isolating the effect of any attack to just one vNIC and not the physical device. Crossbow also allows you to create a virtual switch connecting the vNICs, so you could create a complete virtual network inside OpenSolaris (called vWire). A GUI to build and test the network-in-a-box has been released and while it is at alpha quality at the time, it works nicely for demoing and testing: http://blogs.sun.com/observatory/entry/crossbow_virtual_wire_demo_tool . Also of interest, after the inclusion of Crossbow in OSol, similar solutions have been announced for inclusion in FreeBSD (http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3835846/FreeBSD-to-Upgrade-Routing-Architecture.htm) by Blue Coat and in Linux (http://openvswitch.org/) by Citrix, proving how OpenSolaris is once again ahead of the competition.

Recently, the Integrated Load Balancer (ILB: http://wikis.sun.com/display/OpenSolarisInfo/Integrated+Load+Balancer) has also been added to OSol (http://www.c0t0d0s0.org/archives/6072-Loadbalancing-with-Opensolaris-or-PSARC-2008575.html), adding L3/L4 (transport and network layers) load balancing to the OS by default.

Project Clearview (http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+clearview/WebHome) includes components such as re-designed IP tunneling and IP Multipathing (IPMP) for better behavior and observability of the networking devices. The final component of Clearview (IP Tunneling DD) were integrated in Nevada build 125 (http://blogs.sun.com/seb/entry/clearview_ip_tunneling_in_opensolaris).

Integrated Quagga (http://www.quagga.net/), IP Filter (http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~avalon/ip-filter.html, http://blogs.sun.com/tonyn/entry/firewall_configuration_in_opensolaris_2009) and IPSec (for network routing, firewall and packet authentication and encryption (including VPN tunneling). (http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-3000/ipsectm-1?l=en&q=mobile+ip&a=view)

And of course, DTrace can be used to debug networking problems (http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+networking/dtrace_networking_cookbook)

It's important to remember that all of these capabilities can be used simultaneously, according to our needs. One example of this is the Virtual Network Router appliance project ( http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+vnm/VNRP) that combines Crossbow, Quagga and Zones (and all managed trough Webmin: http://www.webmin.com/) to create an integrated edge-router, to separate intranet traffic from internet traffic.

For further reading, you can visit these links:
http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+networking/WebHome
http://www.opensolaris.com/learn/features/networking/networkall/
check the attached presentation, and also, check the Storage Projects for information on different connectivity options that OSol offers (pNFS, NFS, FC, IB, iSCSI among others): http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+storage/WebHome."

Another week, another news wrapup podcast for you to catch up on what happened at Sun this week. Topics include new updates to Sun's Java Store Beta, Sun's new alliance with PayPal, Sun solutions in use at Columbia University and the University of Zurich, and Sun's top honor in the American Society of Training and Development's BEST Awards competition. (Brought to you by hosts Chhandomay Mandal and Maijaliisa Burkert.)

Eze Singer posted an absolutely fantastic blog over in OSUM that gives OSUM Leaders a nice consolidated resource list to prepare for a NetBeans tech demo, as well as some sage advice for all students.

What's the big deal with a tech demo?  Well, as Eze points out, "This can help you leverage your career.  Nowadays, big companies are looking not only for the best developers or sysadmin, but also people that can lead others, and share knowledge with the rest of a team, showing great pro-activity and teamwork skills."

And this is a really important point in today's tight job market.  Demonstrated experience and skill in executing tech demos can really give a new graduate a leg up on the competition when being screened by potential employers. You never know when you will be asked to step up in your first job -- look at Ramin Mohammadi -- he just graduated this summer and is already presenting at a developer conference this month!

Nervous?  Of course, who isn't!  But as Eze says, "A tech demo isn't a big deal, so don't be afraid if you are a newbie." But, even better, Eze has compiled a series of resources for OSUM leaders to get started with their very first NetBeans tech demo!

Plus, all month, there are weekly Webinars being held in OSUM to train students and give them the resources they need to lead their first demo. 

So, with all the resources, tutorials, and support you could ask for, what are you waiting for!  Get started on your first tech demo!  And if you aren't an OSUM Leader, ask your OSUM Leader to help them coordinate and set up the demo to gain valuable experience for the future as well. 

These resources are here for you to succeed!  Please take advantage of them! As David Botterill said in an e-mail today: "Be involved in OSUM and other open source universities.  You can easily make a name for yourself by contributing valuable information to communities and by being involved.  This will open opportunities for you in the future." I couldn't agree more.  Work today and see the opportunities unfold tomorrow.

Student Views and Reviews recently asked Shailesh Kumar, a Master's student in computer science at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, about his experience with JavaFX. Shailesh has a passion for developing mobile applications, which he said first started with the J2ME gaming challenge in 2005. Since then, he has worked with multiple mobile application platforms including Windows mobile and Android.

Shailesh first started using JavaFX when the Code JavaFX Challenge (India) was announced earlier this year, and has primarily used online resources to get up to speed with the programming language. Among the online resource Shailesh found most helpful are javapassion.com “for most of the syntax and basic how-to examples,” as well as the JavaFX.com site where Shailesh said he learned the API and code examples.

Obviously, with Shailesh's keen interest in mobile applications, that is the aspect of JavaFX he is most focused on. When asked what he would like to see added he said, “more integration with APIs,” because Shailesh said he found some limitations with JavaFX not being able to utilize the complete capabilities of MMAPI available on mobile phones when working on his entry for the JavaFX Coding Challenge. As far as his favorite feature, Shailesh says it is hands down the bind keyword, but also said he “really appreciates the ability to mix JavaFX and Java.”

Read the full Q&A with Shailesh here.

Catch up on Sun in the news this week in the short segment below as Chhandomay Mandal and Maijaliisa Burkert review Amazon's new cloud storage offering based on MySQL open-source software, the 100 million download milestone OpenOffice.org hit this week, the announced availability of Sun investor proxy materials, and the new 3.0.10 maintenance release of VirtualBox.

Have four minutes?  Then check out Sun news this week by listening to the short podcast below.  In this edition, Chhandomay Mandal and Maijaliisa Burkert discuss Sun's top spot in tape storage automation revenue for the first half of 2009, as well as an eWeek article discussing Sun's Solaris Operating System's optimization for Intel Nehalem processors.

Ramin Mohammadi was one of the student winners from this summer's JavaFX Coding Challenge for his Caesar Photobook Mobile application.  The contest ended just a few days before his graduation from University, and he has since started full-time work at Caesar Groep. 

I was more than thrilled to come across this blog post today where Ramin has announced that he was selected to speak at the J-Fall 2009 Conference in November, organized by the Dutch Java Users Group.

Ramin's session will be about developing mobile applications with JavaFX. Ramin wrote in his blog that he plans to give a short introduction to JavaFX and then go through the process of developing a mobile application with his winning Caesar Photobook Mobile app developed for the contest.

So, a heartfelt congratulations to Ramin for already being recognized as an astute JavaFX developer and being selected to present at J-Fall 2009.  This is truly a testament to the idea that hard work can pay off, as it has for recent graduate Ramin!

Listen to the short segment below to catch up on Sun's product announcements this week including the Sun Storage F5100 Flash Array, new SPARC 64 VII processors, the GlassFish Communications Server 2.0, and the new Sun Storage 6180 Array.  

Student Views and Reviews recently conducted an e-mail interview with Abhishek Munie, a “long-time” user of the JavaFX programming language. Abhishek has been working with JavaFX since the 1.0 release in December 2008. Abhishek reported that he utilized the learning resources and samples available on JavaFX.com to learn the program. He made regular, steady progress in learning the language and was able to develop and submit a complete application for the JavaFX Coding Challenge which he said “was a great experience.”

While Abhishek said he is still exploring the new features in JavaFX 1.2, he reported that his favorite new tools are the javafx.scene.chart and javafx.scene.control. He also said “screen and javafx.util.math class has made my work easy, but I expected more features to be available in class javafx.stage.” When asked what he would like to add to JavaFX right now Abhishek said, “I would like to improve the way a JavaFX application is deployed and run, and make it faster.”

Abhishek said what he likes most about JavaFX is that “it gives the power of Java with easy-to-create good-looking and user-friendly applications.” He pointed out that features such as the timeline and effects give a developer the ability “to easily combine many things within a custom node, which makes it easy to develop a good looking and powerful application, within no time.”

Looking to the future, Abhishek says “the future of programming language is JavaFX, but it has a long way to go.” He acknowledges that the world has already “seen the power of Java-powered mobile apps” and said that he believes “there is no doubt that JavaFX will bring a revolution,” largely because of its ability to easily be deployed on a variety of devices.

Read more of Abhishek's interview here.

As many of you know, September 19^th was Software Freedom Day, and was celebrated by FOSS enthusiasts all around the world. Many of these SFD celebrations included “install fests,” generally involving the OpenSolaris OS.

For those of you who did not have a SFD event nearby, or were unable to attend, here is an excellent resource that will walk you step-by-step through getting started with OpenSolaris.

Even though OpenSolaris is distributed as a CD, you can download the image file and use a CD burner to create your own, or just order an OpenSolaris CD for free.

So, for those looking for an open-source OS, check out this guide to getting started with OpenSolaris. Maybe by next year's SFD you will be such a pro you will be leading an install fest yourself!

Catch up on Sun news this week including Sun's role in the upcoming Oracle OpenWorld, the release of Solaris 10 10/09, and the newly released versions of Sun Role Manager 5.0 software and Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition 7.0.

In my day-to-day work at Sun, I track product reviews for OpenOffice, JavaFX, VirtualBox, NetBeans, and OpenSolaris. I am used to hunting down product reviews and how-to tutorials on the Internet on a regular basis. So, I was more than pleased to come across a great OpenSolaris how-to article today in OSUM, written by Andrew Browne, a student from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

In Andrew's blog post, he described how he set up a zone on his OpenSolaris box to host a webstack made up of Apache 2, MySQL, and PHP. It's obvious Andrew did his homework, because he cited a few locations for additional info. – a most appreciated tactic in these types of tutorials!

He even warned that the tricky part was in starting the servers, but gave a fair bit of guidance for getting through the main issues he faced.  Overall, Andrew concluded by saying: "Zones are cool.  They have the security and separation of VM's without all the overhead of another OS."

Many thanks to Andrew for taking the time to share his experiences and help others learn! Please check out Andrew's great blog post here in OSUM. And I am on the hunt for more how-to tutorials or reviews like this from students for an upcoming revamp of the Sun Student Reviews site, so please keep them coming!

Busy with homework? Getting ready for midterms? Multitask and catch up on all the Sun news this week in the short segment below as Chhandomay Mandal and Maijaliisa Burkert give a wrap-up of the new release of Sun Ops Center 2.5, discuss the updates to Sun Java Communications Suite 7, and talk about the new Sun hybrid supercomputer in South Africa.

Student Views and Reviews recently spoke with Joan Barrull, a law student currently working as a software engineer at Baratz, a software development company headquartered in Spain. Joan has won several programming-related awards including the Mobius prize for a multimedia game in addition to a prize in the JavaFX Blogging Contest.

Joan has been working with JavaFX for several months, and has already contributed to writing an application at Baratz to report employee expenses. He reported that JavaFX proved to be an ideal tool saying “we managed to write the application very fast,” and noted that because the application was so quick and easy to deploy management has since decided to move forward in developing several projects with JavaFX. “With JavaFX it is very easy to write prototypes and proof-of-concepts, so we use JavaFX often.”

Joan also noted that he has several applications he developed that are ready to be submitted to the JavaStore when it opens to users in Europe. Of course, as a law student Joan pointed out, “I know that opening a JavaStore in Europe takes a lot of work in order to comply with the local law (data protection law, copyright law, and corporate law), but I am eager to visit JavaStore Europe.” When asked what he would like to add to JavaFX, Joan responded by saying “I prefer that the designers of JavaFX keep focused on architectural questions rather than spending time on widgets,” noting that he is “against adding features of the sake of it.”

Joan stated that his favorite feature of JavaFX 1.2 is simply “ease of use.” He said he appreciates the fact that with JavaFX you can write a prototype “in just minutes,” which allows him to “focus on the users instead of dealing with obscure technical tricks.” Among the other features Joan noted as “awesome” characteristics were JavaFX's closures and binding. He stated: “Overall, JavaFX is a great authoring platform for designing graphical apps very quickly” pointing out that with JavaFX apps can be designed that “focus on providing a great user experience.”

To read more of Joan's interview click here.

Hey students, are you looking for an interactive introduction to NetBeans?

Then check out the upcoming OSUM webinar called NetBeans 6.7 – the only IDE you need! This webinar will cover all the NetBeans basics and will also give you the chance to see the IDE in action with some NetBeans demonstrations.

This webinar is scheduled for Thursday, October 8 at 10 a.m. Mountain time. You can use the World Clock Meeting Planner to figure out when this will be in your own time zone.

David Botterill, the Global Technology Manager for Sun's Campus Ambassador Program will be hosting the webinar. David has worked at Sun for more than 9 years as a software engineer with the Sun Tools team, and as a NetBeans Evangelist.

The webinar – which will be conducted in English – will use the Elluminate Live! Platform which will allow participants to listen to the live audio and ask questions via chat and text! So, to get the most out of the webinar, do your best to attend the live event. But don't worry if you can't make it, all OSUM webinars are recorded and filed for replay.

Here are some links to additional resources to get you started with NetBeans!

• Learn Java, NetBeans, OpenSolaris & More!

• NetBeans 6.7 Video

• Activity – Technical Talk – Intro to NetBeans 6.7

If you plan on attending or are interested in more information on the webinar go to this OSUM page to RSVP or just indicate your interest. Hope to see you online!

Update: I also just came across this great bunch of screencasts for people who are complete newbies to NetBeans -- it is a series of instructional videos that will get you introduced to the main NetBeans APIs.  Or, alternatively, here is a 21-minute crash course in NetBeans.  Check it out!