SoCal Code Camp Announced

I got an email from my friend Woody Pewitt from Microsoft today. Yes, it is that time again :) We will have our next code camp at UCSD (27 and 28 June 2009).

Come and join us. It is fun, very informative and extremely useful for all of us...

Here is the link: http://www.socalcodecamp.com

Sun's Future (21 April 2009/Tue)

OK, Sun & IBM deal didn't go through, as we all know. Now this week, we have a new offer for Sun, this time from Oracle! Many expressed their concerns about the future of the Sun's technologies. What will happen to Java? How about MySQL? Same questions apply to the others as well, such as Netbeans, OpenOffice, Virtual Box?

Personally, I would like to see Sun standing still on its own feet and continue its wonderful contributions to the technology world. However, company's financial trouble is suggesting the otherwise. We will see what would happen to this deal in a few short days. Is it going to go through or will it fall off like the IBM deal? Again, another interesting development in the tech arena to observe...

I was also thinking today, what if IBM increases its bid for Sun? Think about the other extereme case: Wouldn't it be also funny to see Microsoft jumping in and offering yet another bid for our beloved Sun :)

Well, today is our San Diego Java User Group meeting at Sun, and I bet many of us will be talking about these issues at the meeting all evening long :)

Cloud Computing

In the near future, our data and programs will be floating somewhere in the connected servers known as the Cloud. All of the computation will be done within there, and the processed results will be stored in there as well. The main idea is to incorporate software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). This is the big promise of the so-called "Cloud Computing". As a matter of fact the concept is a reality today in the form of proprietary implementations, thanks to the pioneers in this field. The concept has been considered as the first major IT market disruption that has taken place since the open software movement.

There are quite a few big players out there: Amazon, Google, Sun, IBM, and Microsoft. New players are joining to the game day by day. Now there is even a manifesto (Open Cloud Manifesto) circulating around the techno corners: Promoting openness! Isn't it too early for a manifesto in this area? I don't know. Manifesto, standards, many companies who are willing to jump on the bandwagon, these are all good, however it may hinder the innovation in this early stage! Maybe for this type of reasons and also to protect their initial investments, some of the big companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft didn't say yes to the open cloud yet! On the other side, the impressive list of supporters (such as IBM, Aptana, SAP, EMC, VMWare, GoGrid, Red Hat, Novell, OMG etc.) of the movement is groving fast.

Is the cloud computing a big hype as some will argue, or a revolutionary new computing platform for all of us? We will see the results soon :)