Unruly Rambling - javaone tag

Java Blogger Meetup at the Thirsty Bear

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 17:52:26 GMT

Last night a large group of geeks got together for a beer and some socializing at the Thirsty Bear. I think the event was set up by Simon Phipps, but many java bloggers attended. Heck, even Jonathan Schwartz, President and Chief Operating Officer of Sun Microsystem's showed up. Apparently, he has a blog as well.

As a side note, I would like to thank the guys from Atlassian for the java.blogs tshirt. The tshirt says, "More People read this tshirt than my blog" or something to that affect. Tshirts are top notch and have high geek appeal.

I got to meet Simon Brown and Sam Dalton while at the meetup. Although, I didn't get to buy Simon the beer I promised him. So Simon, if we meet up again, first beer is on me.

At the end of the night, Andrew and I spoke with Erik Hatcher for sometime about Struts and it's problems. Erik strongly suggests Tapestry so we may have to give it a test drive soon. I saw Erik's talk on Tapestry at the 2004 NoFluffJustStuff Gateway Java Symposium and I have to admin I was impressed. The question is, is it worth learning another framework that most people are comfortable. Regardless, a test drive is not out of the questions. If nothing else, it's a learning experience.

JavaOne Welcome Reception

Mon, 28 Jun 2004 06:08:36 GMT

The welcome reception was really not a reception at all. It was a large space occupied by video games, air hockey, and geeks galore. Did I mention I beat Andrew 5-1 in air hockey? Oh nevermind!

At the reception, Andrew and I met a couple guys from St. Louis. Scott Delap and Lance Finney joined us for free beer at the reception and then again afterwards at a local establishment. After having a couple Guinness, Lance suggested that we order "Guinness Floats". Yes, thats right, Guiness beer along with vanilla ice crean. Andrew and Scott resisted but I gave in. It was actually a rather nice drink/dessert. Can't say that I had ever thought of it before, but it was suprisingly good.

Guinness Floats

St. Louis Group

San Francisco Apple Store

Mon, 28 Jun 2004 00:23:36 GMT

Holy cow, the San Francisco Apple Store blows the St. Louis West County store out of the water. The San Francisco store is two levels containing a lab, small auditorium, and the genius bar on the upper level. The lower level contains all the high quality merchandise that you would expect. If you are in town for the JavaOne Conference or Apple's WWDC, you should drop by.

Outside of the store

Genius Bar

Upper level auditorium

JavaOne Here I Come!

Mon, 21 Jun 2004 02:57:59 GMT

Last week I found out that a friend of mine from work and myself would be attending JavaOne in San Francisco. Neither of us have attended in the past so we are eager to see what it is like. Earlier this year we attended the No Fluff Just Stuff Gateway Java Symposium in St louis. I thought this was a fantastic learning experience and a needed spark to keep me learning new things throughout the year.

If you have attended JavaOne in the past and have recommendations, please feel free to post them. I'm open to suggestions good and bad.