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Not at JavaOne again. Well, I say not, but in fact from previous times I haven't gone, it's been clear that I attended more events and found more info by not attending, than most of the totally exhausted running around like mad partied out and "whoah look at me networking" attendees manage. So I suppose I should say that as usual I'll be attending JavaOne virtually.

Though it is fairly clear what this year will contain (I am writing this before the conference). Lots and lots of excellent talks. Too many to get to even half of the ones that interest you. A few entertaining keynotes. Lots of partying. BOFs which are fun and elucidating, with useful insider tips that will work their way out into the community over the next few months. Sun used to like to make a surprise announcement, but that's not really Oracle's style, so I reckon there won't be anything startling. Oracle will flesh out a roadmap. Something will get dropped, but it will be justified as meaning a greater emphasis on something else which will be to the benefit of the Java community. There will be something important about JavaFX. Business analysts will say Oracle will make more money from Java than Sun could even dream of. Someone well known will complain about Oracle keeping too tight a rein on Java.

I would like to go, I admit. It would be fun seeing JavaOne live rather than through the prism of cyberspace. Though probably not any more useful. But fun. I went to devoxx (or javapolis as it was then) one time, and sat chatting to one of the guys who had come out from the US to give a talk. "Why had he come to give the talk?" I asked. "Just for fun" was his reply, "I'm not really getting paid, they don't even cover my full expenses, and as this wasn't sponsored by my work I actually have to use my holiday for it." Now that's dedication for you! Personally, I reckon that if I started using my holiday and paying to go half way round the world to give a one hour talk to a bunch of geeks, then it'll be time to change careers.

The good thing is that I did achieve my primary JavaOne target, which was to ensure that if Weevil gets to get then I do to. Neither of us got to go, as the company considered the costs "unnecessary and unqualified for the discretionary training budget in the current cost-cutting environment". Of course, I did try. I sent an email to my boss's boss's boss asking whether he could perhaps reassign the budget from one person doing one of their offsite all day meetings on global architecture at that 5-star hotel with the 3-course luncheon, to a JavaOne training budget. Must have touched a nerve, the reply was not only a two-page justification of how important the offsite was for improving company performance, but I also got verbal messages from both my boss and his boss suggesting that I "might want to discuss issues with them before raising matters further up the hierarchy stack". And they then both privately agreed that the offsite was completely useless and wouldn't be saving any money for the company in this lifetime.

That's life. I'm sanguine about it all, especially as I'll be spending most of the next two weeks in the office reading all the JavaOne blogs and articles and talks that get posted. Effectively the company is paying for me to go to JavaOne. Even if they don't think they are.

BCNU - Javva The Hutt. (LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/javathehutt feel free to connect me, my email as javva@ this java performance domain).

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