I just came out of a session comparing scripting (but probably better described as dynamic) languages. Groovy, Ruby, Python and Scala went head to head in three rounds; desktop app, web app and freestyle. Whatever language you follow, the possibilities for use are awesome with excellent features in each language ecosystem. While each compile down to Java bytecode Groovy really does provide developers with the most natural integration, Ruby has awesome libraries, and Scala’s concurrent programming model is compelling (and will probably be one I will be following up). The diversity in this space is awesome and Java developers really should keep abreast of developments in this area. The ease with which web apps in particular are developed in all three leave traditional frameworks in the dust.
Keynote was great. These things are really about getting excitement about the technology going, and it certainly succeeded. The big news really is JavaFX at the moment. The runtime will start to be distributed via the Java 6 Update 10 (J6u10 from here) formerly spoken of as the consumer JRE. Having given Flex a good kick of the tires, I’m really excited about JFX. It’s the possibilities of writing Rich UIs that run universally in a browser that you can detach and run as a desktop application, for which you can take the same code and run it on a mobile platform - JME, Android (looking forward to finding out what that’s about) etc. or on a PS3. Very, very cool stuff. The JFX media framework is awesome - 3D rendering, high definition video, high def sound. Makes for an amazingly impressive demo. I was talking the day before to a couple of guys about the capabilities of the various RichUI techs - Flex, Silverlight and JavaFX. The latter seemed an also ran, but with stable implementations coming out in the coming months, I’m not sure that our conclusions of still stand.
App server modularity is the trend of the moment. The new Glassfish container is 98kb! Makes for an interesting idea - what is the app server, and where is it? When a server can run on a mobile, what are the new possibilities? How does this change things? I don’t know, but it bears thinking about as it is definitely the trend forward. Glassfish, Geronimo, JBoss, now Spring App Server. The monolithic server’s days are numbered.
T-shirts galore, plenty of cool ideas floating, some half-assed ones. Body count: 1 broken camera, 1 dead laptop battery and 1 lost power adapter. Day 2 ahead!
Well. it’s true what they say about Americans. They like to do things big. I hadn’t had my head around exactly what 15000 people at a conference would look like, but I’m slowly beginning to. Moscone is bloody huge! All this space, and I’m having trouble finding a coffee though 
Thankfully can see folks getting the juice of the bean set up 
The swag is great.
Today’s schedule is all about community stuff, everything from operating systems, tools, tools and languages. Scripting is the flavour of the moment: Groovy, Ruby, Python. I only have a few things of real interest scheduled in today (nice light start compared to tomorrow) - Lightning Talks and JUGs. The unconference looks like it will be the big ticket item for me.
If anyone’s interested, you can follow my exploits on via Twitter on jakekorab.
Pilot: “Passengers on the left hand side of the plane, if you take a look out the window you will see a great view of the Golden Gate bridge and the Bay Area. Passengers on the right hand side of the plane, thank you for flying with United Airlines.”
Despite the fact that is the world’s biggest conference out there, it seems that San Francisco is more than capable of dealing with it. I booked my flights a few weeks back, and have planned to stay with friends, but buying stuff at the last minute is definitely an option since neither cost nor availability seem that big an issue. If you have the nerve to hold out, flights from London can be bought today for £313 (one-stop, I paid around £140 more than that for a direct one), and there are heaps of hotels in the immediate vicinity of the Moscone Center doing really good discounts through sites like hotelclub.com. Good one to keep in mind for future reference.
Everything is finally booked and I am looking forward to hitting the shores of San Francisco next weekend. The lineup looks really good and I’m still having difficulty choosing between the sessions. I will also be at CommunityOne, which looks outstanding for a free event. 14 tracks!? Amazing! Hats must go off to the organizers. The only session that I have firmly fixed is on Java User Groups, but I have no doubt that the rest of the schedule will work itself out with ease.
I hope to be blogging live (ie. unedited notes and opinion) while there, but that all depends on how the laptop batteries manage to hold out. Fingers crossed!
All that and I get to sample Delta Airlines’ world famous hospitality too 
The interview cycle is in full swing. I came across a post on Contractor UK about tricky questions posed by interviewers, which I think are just jaw-dropping. Someone needs to have a reality check and stop taking themselves so seriously. I have nothing against difficult, even impossible, questions in an interview situations. Most of the time they are great indicators of the way someone approaches a problem, and they provide a good starting point into a conversation about technologies, techniques, associated issues etc. But the examples here are pretty silly.
“You’re in a dark tunnel and someone slaps you in the face. What do you do?”
Should you have a bit of Krav Maga under the belt which emphasizes protection through offense, your reaction might be to cover your head, flail the elbows in the “drunken monkey” maneuver and lunge in the attacker’s direction, turning their attack into a fumble before removing them as a threat. However, apparently not what an interviewer wants to hear! A perfectly sensible self-defense strategy dismissed off the cuff. Why?
“This insinuates that the person is prone to react in a stressful scenario aggressively and without hesitation. These hypothetically aggressive questions can also increase a person’s tension there and then, which could mean that they are susceptible to stress and prone to make dramatic responses and reactions.”
Umm… yeah. It could also suggest that you have previously thought about such a scenario and are prepared for it in the event of it happening. That’s kind of what self defence is supposed to teach you. You’re probably not going to deck your manager in a meeting, though. Unless the meeting’s in a dark tunnel. And he slaps you.
Hiding is also not a good idea. “This generally indicates that the person cannot adequately deal with sudden events, resulting in an alarmed state of mind, freezing in a stressed scenario.” Seems to me like it might also be a sensible reaction. Someone hits you, you avoid getting hit again then worry about how to get out of the situation.
The preferred solution?
“I would first try to figure out from which direction I was hit and then find the fastest way possible out of the tunnel. Analysing the immediate situation first, and then consider the options that would solve the event. This answer indicates that the person will take a calm and calculated approach to a possible problem situation. That all the possible scenarios should be considered before any direct action is taken.”
It doesn’t take too much analysis to work out to run away from where it hurts. While you’re standing around analyzing, you get a follow through to the groin. Hmm… great solution.
Other gems include expecting candidates to be calm and collected after making them wait for 45 minutes (while their kids are waiting to be picked up from school), and hoping that people calmly ask police officers whether it’s them they’re yelling at to get their hands up. Right.
If you’re asking behavioral stuff with right or wrong answer, you should probably drop it. Questions of the “what-if” nature are useful only if they lead to an insight into patterns of working, problem solving or similar and lead to a wider discussion. A candidates reaction to getting slapped has as much place in the process as an interviewer in a dark tunnel.
A great example of how to do it right is described in Joel Spolsky’s The Guerilla Guide to Interviewing.
I finally got around to booking in onto some of the tech sessions for JavaOne in San Francisco next month. Gasp! The amount of stuff going on is incredible. From new languages on the JVM (Fortress, Scala, JRuby) to SOA, mobility and techniques in app development it’s pretty easy to book up 12 hours a day. My approach, lock in a full programme of stuff that looks good, and turn up if the brain is still functioning. It has taken the better part of an hour to read through the sessions for the Tuesday, so it’s no easy task. I can’t wait. All I have to do is get around to sorting out the minor detail of a flight from London
Dr. Dobb’s journal has listed a great article on what it takes to identify great developers. Being in the market myself, and sitting on the other side of the fence it is interesting as to just how far this is removed from the norm. A few interesting tips?
“Tell programmers in advance (at least a day or two, if not more) what you will be asking questions about. In the real world we have time to prepare for meetings, and to propose solutions to problems. This is a job interview, not a high-school exam.”
and…
“Don’t test people’s knowledge of language specifications. In our jobs we have access to books, people, and the Internet. Good programmers know how to look up references, and use their tools effectively to write code.”
Having been to a few more interesting interviews, even big name tech companies could benefit at taking a look at this article. Great stuff.
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