Take a look overhere for more info: http://www.eclipse.org/community/ Here is a direct link to the PDF file containing the article.

Nice!!

Here’s the list of podcasts.

And here is a direct link to the podcast itself.

It is a bit strange to hear myself speaking in english, but I think I did an ok job. Also note that I am not active in this project anymore. After two years on the project it was time for a new challenge. There are still a couple of very kind people hard at work finishing the mentioned application.

The program for today is typical for any last conference’s day. While
still very technical and interesting there are a few more reflecting and
contemplating sessions. Good stuff indeed.

The only problem right now is breakfast. Stefan and I forgot to discuss
what to do with breakfast. Will it be the conference sweetrolled sugar
rush inducing snack at the conference floor or the huge fat saturated
hotel hot meal. Kind of a hard choice, because I just want my bowl of
vanilla yoghurt with breakfast cereal. *sob*

But as to be expected I will endure these challenges and come through with
flying colors.

Only problem left is to decide if I should start banging on Stefan’s door
to wake him up or not…

I knew the work at the Dutch Railways was very cool, but now I am totally
convinced. It is a project which will actually have an impact on the
person traveling by train. Now that is something cool to realize.

Anyways, I had a nice chat with Wayne Beaton about Eclipse and
opportunities it might provide. Wayne also was very helpful in suggesting
ways to step up Eclipse for my employer. Wayne, thanks a million, you can
be sure I’ll get back to you in the near future.

Also I was at the Ingress boot and I forgot the name of the person I was
talking to. It was a british guy with a cool british accent currently
living in Germany. You could feel he was convinced of the quality of his
companies product. Very cool to see, and very engaging. I’ll be sure to
try out Ingress myself. (It’s an open-source database, with all the
enterprise features MySQL doesn’t have.) Ingress has an interesting
history dating back something like 30 years.

I also got involved in an IBM sumo wrestling match. It never got throw to
the floor, but couldn’t keep myself inside the ring. Stefan just told me
he got a nasty picture of me as a sumo guy. Be sure to get back here,
because I am going to post pictures.

Now I am sitting in a TPTP session on thursday already. Still recovering
from the bar meeting Stefan (A coworker who is also here.) and I had. That
bit of scotch turned out to be too much already. Not a headache, but still
I can feel I could have slept a bit better.

Scot Adams had the keynote on tuesday. While it was a very funny talk it
was a bit hard to find how Scot Adams relates to the EclipseCon. He also
had some message on the fact that he believes that luck is something
people are more likely to find I they have a more open mind an broad
vision. The anecdotes he had to tell were very funny, especially how
certain comics are based on real life events in his own personal live. But
in the ned I could feel it was a chat he’d done a million times. But a
good and funny talk it most certainly was.

Turns out I his name looked familiar because of a book I’ve considered buying. But since it was not a technology I was actively working with I decided to skip his book. But only after a thorough sit-down at a book store (for like 2 hours and the store clerk suggested that I either would buy the book or be gone).

Anyway this is the book: Zero Configuration Networking: The Definitive Guide

After having figured out why his name ringed a bell I opened up a little chat with Daniel by asking if he’d written the book I just mentioned. And you have guessed it by now, he did. We got into the usual conversation. You know the kind where you ask what the other person does, at which company, etc. Then Daniel asked if I had any experience with Eclipse related development. And in fact, yes I did. Before I knew it Daniel asked if he could interview me about that particular project. It was a surprising question but I agreed. I am very curious about what, if any, he will use of our interview for his pod-cast. I am guessing it is this one, but I am not entirely sure.

Anyway, Daniel, it was very pleasant talking with you and you did tickle my brain because of the other prag-prog related subject matter we discussed.

On to broccoli. It turns out I just hate American food so-far. Everything I have eaten here has this rich sugary texture and taste to it. Its horrible. Fortunately at dinner I was able to order steamed broccoli. That was just delicious to eat after a few days of aircraft, fast food and conference junk. It was better than the steak I ordered to go with the broccoli. And that is saying a lot, because the steak didn’t taste bad either.

Also the show before the community awards show at the EclipseCon was very entertaining. Even when the guy presenting was using all the typical raunchy, low punch jokes he could think of.

They started a session which was a bit different from what I expected. But
in the end it was a very interesting session about the aspects of proper
API design. The whole session revolved around the effects of introducing
Java 5 features into an API.

After a general introduction on API design with key statements like:

• Language used in API is important. (API means public interfaces along
  with it’s documentation and specification)
• Start with a minimal API, opening up “doors” is easy. Closing them is
  a royal pain.
• Watch out for binary compatibility between releases built with
  different compilers.

After this general intro it started of with some Java 5 bashing.

• Auto boxing is bad, lots of temporary objects.
• Variable arity methods are bad. They obscure the method call signs
  actually being called. Especially when combined with overloading.
• Binary compatibility breakage is the bane of your API life.

The thing is, Java 5 contains loads of cool features, but usage of these
features can cause binary incompatibility. Which requires your API users
to do full rebuilds. Something which you want to avoid when bringing a
version update to your users. Some things ca be done without causing
binary incompatibility.

While I didn’t expect the content provided, it was a very interesting
subject. Personally I’ve never been in a situation where a full rebuild
was a problem. But then again all I know is enterprise development. Alle
major new language features of Java 5 were discussed. I’ve learned a lot
in this session, I wonder when and if I will ever need this knowledge. But
I had provided me with insights into the problems API providers face.

Check here for the session description
and speaker bios. Here are the slides.

Just a couple of blogs about people stating they actually already are at
EclipseCon 2007. (Not that many.)
Look for more at Google, Techorati or your
other favourite blog search tool.

I wonder how many I am going to find tomorrow.

I also read about some bloggers evening you could get invited for. Guess I
didn’t hang out at the registration area long enough. But I was wasted
anyway.

Anyway, why bother solving the puzzle yourself? Now since I am the
ultimate lazy basterd, I ran it through a Sudoku solver. No need to crunch
those numbers myself. Saves me a lot of time. And to save you the trouble
too, here is an ugle table with my result:

I am guessing that there is only one puzzle. Let me know if there are
more.

Oh and, got a nasty jetlag here. It’s 4:10 in the middle of the night. :p
Went to bed at 8, so yeah, I’ve slept about 7:30 hours. I’ll try to nap an
hour or so in a bit. But on the other hand, I’m halfway through my jetlag
already. Sudoku solving in the middle of the night, am I losing it? :p

Now go get your goodie on tuesday!!

The flight itself was rather boring. Flew with a Mc Douglas M11. So no
personal screen to play with, so watching some movies on the overhead
screens caused me a head twist induced headache. That was a big
disappointment for me. I drooled all over KLMs Boeing 777 last week and
was kind of hoping to try and find the debug option of the personal
entertainment system. Good thing the entertainment system is a separate
system from the rest of the plane though. The downside was the fact
that I had a big headache during most of the flight. But hey, I’m here, my
hotel room is fine.

I got my EclipseCon badge as well today. So I’m hoping to be able to raid
the breakfast table tomorrow while everyone else is standing in line
looking pretty getting their badges.

Now it’s munch-munch time followed by nap-nap time. Expect to see more
here as events unfold.