Tech Life of Recht

One week in San Francisco is over, and I’m slightly jetlagged. However, it was a nice little trip, and the Google I/O conference was actually pretty good. I’d feared that it would turn out to be a complete fanboy conference, but luckily it wasn’t that bad, and most of the talks I went to were of pretty high quality. I mostly went to the GWT talks about the upcoming features in 2.0, and how to structure large GWT applications.
As most people know by now, the conference wasn’t entirely without hype. First, there was the Google Android phone giveaway, which I must admit was pretty sweet. I’d thought about buying an Andriod-based phone, so getting a free one couldn’t be any better – especially because it came with a 1 month subscription and in unlocked condition. I’m still getting used to the phone, but I like it more than my iPhone – probably mostly because I’m not tied in to the 2nd evil empire.

The second hype-event was the Google Wave presentation. Also some pretty sweet stuff, especially considering that it was all a web application based on GWT. Time will tell if Google Wave will live up to the quite large amount of applause given at the presentation, but it seems like it has the potential to have quite an impact. I’m certainly looking forward to getting access to the sandbox environment, and even more to getting a look at the source code when it becomes available.

The conference was only two days, so there was time for some sightseeing and shopping. Just in case anybody else doesn’t know it: Playstation 3 games for region 1 (USA) can be played on a region 2 device (EU). Oh, and if you rent a convertible, you should probably consider putting on some sunlotion before driving around the entire day with the roof off.

I’ve just returned from Javagruppens annual conference in Hindsgavl, which had “Enterprise Open Source Java” as the main theme. The agenda was dominated by how to use dynamic languages such as Groovy an (J)Ruby and how to scale systems. About 50 people attended, so the conference was in no way like the larger conferences, but the speakers were all very competent and good.
The most important outcome of the conference was that I became aware of several new possibilities with for example Groovy and JRuby. Now I just need to find some time to try them out.

I don’t usually do commercials on my blog, but exceptions must exist. As some might know, I’m not the biggest fan of dynamic languages such as Ruby, but they still have their charm. Should you think the same, you really should attend the Ruby Fools conference in Copenhagen. The conference is organized by Trifork, and is the first Ruby conference in Denmark. There’s a quite impressive lineup of speakers, and the most recent addition, and most exciting, is Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, creator of the Ruby language.
Unfortunately, I’m scheduled to attend the… how shall I put it?… well, let’s just say not quite as interesting OIO IT Architecture Conference, so no Ruby for me.

Speaking of conferences, I’ll be going to Javagruppen’s annual conference at Hindsgavl tomorrow. This is a pretty small conference, but I expect it to be both interesting and with a relaxed atmosphere with plenty of opportunity for (small)talking with the other participants.

And as a final word about conferences, I’ll just remind that Trifork is once again organizing a trip to JavaONE in San Francisco. More information is available at trifork.com.