Meeting Sponsor: Sun Microsystems

Abstract:
J2SE 5.0 Update: The Roar of the Tiger

The latest version of Java, J2SE version 5 code named Tiger, is the biggest change to Java since its launch over nine years ago. With the focus of this release being ease of development, there are many new features that developers need to be aware of.

As part of the launch of J2SE 5.0, Sun's Technology Evangelism team is visiting Java User Groups around the world to spread the word on what is new, and how to use it. This presentation will provide deep technical content covering the use of features like generics, metadata, and the new concurrency utilities.

To simplify the development of new Java applications, the open source NetBeans developer tools now support J2SE 5.0; see demonstrations of how easy it is to use the new features.

From a deployment perspective, there are many useful new features to simplify monitoring, managing, and performance tuning of the Java virtual machine. Come and learn how to get the most out of these new features.

In addition to all the technical content, there will be free starter CDs, T-shirts, Tiger keychains, book giveaways, and even free food and drink!

Bio:
Raghavan Srinivas is a Java Technology Evangelist at Sun Microsystems. He specializes in Java technology and distributed systems. He is a proponent of Java technology, and teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in the evening. He has spoken on a variety of technical topics at conferences around the world. Raghavan brings with him 15 years of software development experience having worked for Digital Equipment Corporation before joining Sun. He has worked on several technology areas, including internals of VMS, UNIX® and Windows NT. Raghavan holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Center of Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He enjoys running, hiking and eating spicy food.

Meeting Sponsor: One of the most experienced suppliers of high–performance rule–based systems, Production Systems Technologies (PST) is a spin–off of Carnegie–Mellon University.   PST was founded in 1983 by Dr. Charles Forgy, inventor of the Rete algorithm, and the principal designer of OPS5, the language in which the first commercially successful expert system was written.

The OPSJ rule engine from PST is 100% Java. OPSJ is implemented using the proprietary Rete II algorithm, and it has been shown in independent tests to run one to two orders of magnitude faster than other Java engines on complex rule bases. The speed and small footprint of OPSJ have made it a popular choice for embedded applications. OPSJ is used as the rule engine in a number of commercial products.

Abstract:
Peer-to-peer (P2P) is not obvious for most things other than file sharing.

In this tutorial, you will first be introduced to a few JXTA (pronounced jux-ta) concepts, and shown simple but powerful examples of how to use the Java JXTA API.

Next, you will learn how to write applications with newly invented software patterns for P2P. These patterns (Well–Known ID, One–to–One, aka Chat, Many–to–Many, aka Chat Room, Monitor, Software Update, File Chunking, Confirming Identity, Peer Presence, aka who's online, Socket Addressing, RMI over JXTA, and P2P HTTP) will help traditional client–server developers add very powerful P2P features to their software.

Bio:
Daniel Brookshier is a man of many hats in the JXTA and Java communities. He runs several open source projects that use JXTA, is on the board of directors for JXTA.org, and a community leader for the Global Education & Learning Community (GELC) on java.net. In Dallas, he is the president of the JavaMUG user group. He is, of course, a very experienced Java consultant, architecting Swing, J2EE, and JXTA with almost ten years of Java, and several in JXTA P2P programming. Daniel has written several books, dozens of articles, teaches tutorials on Java and UML, and writes code for fun and profit.

Meeting Sponsor:
Stephen Davidson & Associates, Inc., brings J2EE and system integration expertise to your small through massive scale projects. We can incorporate OpenSource Frameworks, Java, J2EE, Native Systems and custom hardware to enhance existing solutions or create new products.

Abstract:
Developers building applications in J2EE environments must consider a number of factors, such as performance and scalability.   Security is one key factor that is often overlooked by development teams.

This presentation will cover some of the basics of application security such as:

• authentication,
• authorization, and
• proper input handling.

I will provide examples of how these concerns can be addressed for J2EE projects.

The presentation is here.

Bio:
Dan Cornell has over seven years of experience building and developing cutting edge web-based software systems. He possesses extensive knowledge of application development, and is regarded as an industry expert.

As a Partner in the Denim Group, Dan leads the company's technology team by overseeing development, and project execution for all clients. He also heads the Denim Group security research team, investigating the application of secure coding and development techniques to the improvement of web-based software development methodologies.

Dan's articles have been published by the Association of Computing Machinery, the Society of Computing Simulation International and others. He has written Whitepapers, and helped to develop an IBM Redbook on building server-side Java applications for the Linux Platform.

Dan is the founding coordinator and chairman for the Java Users Group of San Antonio.

Abstract:
The J2EE platform is widely employed by organizations of all sizes to build and deploy mission-critical enterprise applications. Compliance with the J2EE specification is critical to business success because it ensures that applications deployed by developers are portable and interoperable across J2EE providers.

Aiming to increase software choice and flexibility for enterprise IT departments, Apache Geronimo, the J2EE server project of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), dedicated itself to the development of an open-source, certified J2EE 1.4 server that:

• is licensed under the business-friendly Apache License
• passes Sun's TCK for J2EE 1.4
• reuses the best ASF/BSD licensed code available today, with new contributions to the ASF to complete the J2EE stack.

Jeremy Boynes, CTO of Gluecode Software IBM Buys Open Source Developer Gluecode
IBM on 05/10/05 said it had acquired Gluecode Software, a start-up developer of open source infrastructure software. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. and co-founder of the Apache Geronimo project, will discuss the design goals behind the Geronimo application server and provide an overview of the Geronimo kernel, GBean architecture, and use of other open source projects such as Open EJB, ActiveMQ, JOTM, and TranQL. Boynes will also talk about the history of the project, share the challenges that the community faced and the approaches they took to overcome those challenges, and talk about real-life use cases.

Bio:
Jeremy Boynes joined Gluecode Software IBM Buys Open Source Developer Gluecode
IBM on 05/10/05 said it had acquired Gluecode Software, a start-up developer of open source infrastructure software. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. as Chief Technology Officer with over 20 years experience in enterprise computing. He is a founding partner of Core Developers Network, a consultancy group of leaders in the open-source Java™ community who focus on the corporate Enterprise and targeted expertise in the creation, execution and development of mission-critical open source projects and infrastructure. Prior to Gluecode, he successfully led multi-million dollar projects for Cisco Systems, BT and the UK Employment Service as Technical Architect for Sequent Computer Systems. As Chief Architect for Bravanta and for Netmosphere, he played roles in ensuring their success by leveraging open source technologies. Boynes is actively involved in the Apache Geronimo J2EE project, as well as projects at OpenEJB and ObjectWeb. His technical specialties include database systems and application security. He earned his Masters Degree in Electrical Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Meeting Sponsor: A premier provider of information technology (IT) solutions since 1969, Ajilon Consulting has over 13,000 IT Professionals worldwide with practice areas in Software Development and Integration, Infrastructure Management, and Software Quality Assurance.

Abstract:
The concept of generics has been around at least since the early 1980's, when Ada provided generic units that are rather like C++ templates. Researchers have been experimenting with various approaches to incorporating generics into Java-like languages. Pizza was one example. Another was GJ: Generic Java. Generics have finally arrived in the mainstream Java world with JDK 5.0.

This presentation will discuss the experience of implementing Java generics in an STL-like generic-programming library. We will examine Sun's approach to generics and the implications of the approach taken, where generics are strictly a compile time issue. We will also discuss the process of getting started with JDK 5.0 and generics, where to find information, our initial approach to parameterizing, and how that approach evolved, as we gained experience. There is a good argument to be made for incorporating generics in your new Java development.

The presentation is here.

Bio:
Jim Bender has over 25 years experience in developing and leading the development of software systems. His first 13 years in the field were all in Defense work, first in Maryland, and then in Dallas. His career reflects the constantly changing technology. He has worked with IEEE-488 (including as a member of the IEEE P981 Task Force), Ada, AI and Expert Systems, Smalltalk, Java, and web development. His publications include the ACM's First Washington Ada Symposium, several Rochester Forth Conferences, and the North Texas Association for AI. Also, in the latter 1980's, he started and led for two years the AI SIG at the NTPCUG. He has filled a variety of roles, from senior staff, lead engineer, technical lead, and senior consultant in his career. That is in addition to doing a great deal of development, usually on teams of senior consultants. Recently, he is the author of several white papers at Recursion Software, Inc. Jim has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Old Dominion University.

Meeting Sponsor: Recursion Software, Inc., formerly Objectspace, is the industry-leading provider of powerful enterprise application development solutions, including class libraries, development platforms, and application integration solutions for C++, .NET, and Java™ developers. Cinergi™ is the must-have integration development solution for creating SOA/Web services composite applications in Java, .NET, and C++. Voyager, available since 1996, makes it easy to develop distributed Java applications with mobility and thin clients. A full set of class libraries rounds out the Recursion Software, Inc. portfolio. Recursion Software is headquartered in Frisco, Texas.

Abstract:
When it comes to OOAD, everyone has horror stories about tossing together a few stick figures, reverse engineering code into class and sequence diagrams, or writing code from discussions over a conference call!! There may be some chance of success when the whole project team is in the same room, but in the current environment of distributed and offshore teams - or political boundries, turning project goals into deployed success is solidified by an interconnected model linking requirements to design to test to deployment.

Bryan will walk you through simply - how to use each requirement, analysis and design artifact in UML to build on each other as an interconnected, graphical view of your project, and how to use it as a tool for collaboration and not an afterthought.

The presentation is here.

Bio:
Bryan Plaster is a Sr. Consultant at Valtech, an international consulting company focused on creating value through technology. Bryan co-authored the Professional Java E-Commerce book with Wrox Press, and has contributed to many other online and offline publications through Wrox, Prentice Hall, and others. He has a very diverse background in technology, and is currently focusing on delivering projects to valued clients.

Meeting Sponsor: Advantage Tech, Inc., is an IT staff augmentation and solutions consulting firm that provides organizations with technical personnel of all types on a contract, contract-for-hire, and full-time and solutions basis. We take our clients' IT solutions and staffing concerns seriously because we know their success depends on our performance. We offer staff augmentation and solution services in the areas of Development and Applications, Networking and Telecom, IT Security, and Program Management.

We provide IT personnel fast, that fit our clients, and at a reasonable price. Advantage Tech's Five-Step Sales and Candidate Screening Process ensures the technical personnel are second to none. Our website, advantagetech.net, provides a history of our company, and a brief description of the credentials of key management personnel.

Abstract:
You have probably worked on a few projects that have succeeded, and then a few that have failed. What were the factors that influenced the success or failure of those projects? You want to develop a system that is robust, maintainable, within budget, of high quality, and with fewer defects. How can you realize those goals? What steps, process, tools can you use or follow to achieve this? In this session, the speaker will present a number of approaches that lead to successful development. He will also present his personal experience with those in implementing software projects. Attendees are encouraged and expected to present their views on what has or has not worked for them.

Bio:
Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, founder of Agile Developer, Inc., has taught and mentored more than 2,500 software developers around the world. He has significant experience in architecture, design, and development of distributed object systems. Venkat is an adjunct professor at the University of Houston, and teaches the Professional Software Developer Series at Rice University's Technology Education Center.

Meeting Sponsor: No Fluff Just Stuff
Our symposiums are the best $ value going. We cover the latest in trends, best practices, and newest developments in Java. We offer intense exposure to Java, XML, J2EE, and Open Source. We bring you the technical without the marketing hype. NFJS offers real world case studies and hands-on code.

Abstract:
Lucene is a gem in the open–source world — a highly scalable and fast search engine. Erik's book, Lucene in Action, is the authoritative guide to Lucene. It describes how to index the data types you use everyday, such as MSWord, PDF, HTML, and XML. Erik will introduce JavaMUG to searching, sorting, filtering, and highlighting search results.

Bio:
Erik Hatcher is co–author of Manning's Lucene in Action, and Java Development with Ant. He is also a committer on Ant, Lucene, and Tapestry, all open–source projects. Erik is a popular speaker at many Java and open–source conferences, and is also a prolific blogger and e–zine author.

Meeting Sponsor: Agitar Software redefines quality and economics for Java application development. It makes enterprise developer testing effective and economically compelling by automating test creation, enforcing coding standards compliance, and providing management visibility and control. Agitator, and the Agitar Management Dashboard, let software teams build quality in, instead of "testing bugs out," and enjoy the profound benefits of improved quality, faster development cycles, and lower software lifecycle costs. For more information, please visit www.agitar.com.

Abstract:
EJB 3 Persistence is one of the hottest and most controversial topics in Java today. Come hear and decide if you are pro or con to using EJB 3 Persistence for your storage strategy.

Bio:
Patrick Linskey has been involved in object/relational mapping for 5+ years. As the founder and CTO of SolarMetric, Patrick drives the technical direction of the company. He has been one of the leaders on the EJB 3 specification team, a luminary on JDOcentral, the primary evangelist for O/R mapping, and member of the JAOO 2005 Conference Program Committee. Patrick co–authored the popular Bitter EJB book (Manning). Patrick holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Meeting Sponsor: SolarMetric is a global company founded by MIT alumni that creates enterprise development products leveraging Sun's Java development language. SolarMetric gives back to the Java community by actively participating on the JDO 2 and EJB 3 specification teams. SolarMetric's products enable application developers to focus on their application logic rather than on deployment–specific details. Kodo JDO is SolarMetric's implementation of Sun's Java Data Objects standard. Kodo JDO is actively tested and supported on leading relational databases, application servers, and integrated development environments. Over 325 customers in all industries use Kodo JDO to handle their object persistence. SolarMetric is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Abstract:
Enterprise transformation appears to exist in a continuous loop. Every three to five years, we have to deal with new jargon and new technology. The jargon de jour differs from that of 10 years ago, when we spoke of Total Quality Management, ERP, Business Process Re-engineering, and IDEF. If you do not recognize these terms, don't worry; we now have a set of new issues on the table, and organizations have started responding accordingly.

So, what will be the end game for vendor lock-in? Come find out!

Bio:
Tom Adelstein is Editor-in-Chief of LXer.com (pronounced Elexer), a Linux news site, and a principal in the firm of Hiser+Adelstein, a consulting firm specializing in free and open source software solutions and support. Tom is the coauthor of Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop, author of an upcoming book on Linux system administration, and has written prolifically since 1985.

Tom's business career began in public accounting, where he first learned to program and develop software. He later progressed to Wall Street, where he became the designated principal of a NYSE firm. He returned to technology and has consulted and worked with start-ups as well as leaders of the Fortune 500. Today, Tom specializes in Linux in government applications.

Meeting Sponsor: Azul Systems has pioneered the industry's first network attached processing solution designed for virtual machine-based applications, such as those written in Java and J2EE. Azul Compute Appliances fix the inherent mismatch between virtual machine-based languages. It provides pauseless garbage collection, up to 96GB heap sizes, and optimistic threading capabilities. It enables Java developers to create and deliver truly innovative, scalable applications. For more information on how to unbound your applications, see www.azulsystems.com.

Abstract:
Project Peabody is an initiative to provide a more collaborative development environment for future generations of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE).

Project Glassfish aims to drive innovation in the J2EE/application server space, to improve developer access to J2EE sources, and increase transparency in J2EE development. It is the response to Java developers who want access to the source code and want to contribute to the development of Sun™'s next generation application server.

The presentation is here.

Bio:
Tom Barrett is a Software Systems Engineer at Sun Microsystems in Dallas, and a technology evangelist in Sun's Software Environments and Java Ambassador program. This year is Tom's 26th in the computing industry, and along the way, he has particularly enjoyed positions at Sun, Netscape, EDS, and Texas Instruments.

Tom has a passion for Java application development, and has specialized in J2EE and application servers for the past 4 years. Now, he is is focused on SOA and business integration, using Sun's Java Integration System (SeeBeyond) technology. He is a Sun-Certified Java Programmer, Web Component Developer, and Enterprise Architect. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Arizona State University, and an MBA from the University of Minnesota with specializations in management information systems.

Meeting Sponsor:


Sun Microsystems