Saturday, July 30, 2005

Out There

Wife is taking son to see grandma & both are getting a haircut. After about 11am, I am on my own for a few hours. I'm thinking trip to Trinity Hall by train for a few Guinness might be in order.

It was a nice morning here in North Texas if you got up to enjoy it. I was out at 6:30am taking a few pictures. Unfortunately I didn't prepare my equipment due to one too many bourbons last night. So after about 10 shots I had a dead battery. And no AAs with me for the spare pack. Amateur mistake. Oh well, I'll wash my shame away with a few Guinness. Sláinte!.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Hawk

Update: Jack Hill from the Preservation Society for Spring Creek Forest says it's a immature Red-Tailed Hawk.

Went to take some pictures at Spring Creek Forest last Sunday morning. Saw a few things, but really didn't get any decent pics. But then on the way home I drove down one of the backstreets that is surrounded on both sides by old farmland/prairie. I had the top down on the Mustang and was really just cruising for a few minutes before heading home. All of a sudden I heard a loud shriek & saw this hawk on top of a telephone pole.

sitting-hawk

I watched him for a long time and even moved a couple of times to follow him. I was hoping to get some shots of a kill, but no luck. This has to be a regular spot for him, so I'm gonna check it out. Looks to be a pretty good size fellow. This is a bit out of focus, but I like it anyway.

hawk

I took tons of pics, but most were out of focus or just too far away. He moved on me a couple of times.

DSC_5852

Tomorrow is Friday... enjoy it and the weekend.

BBB

Friday, July 22, 2005

Sunrise

I admit this isn't today's sunrise. It was taken on May 24, 2005 outside my office in Plano. The EDS building is just on my left... if you know the area. I do not work at EDS. Get up in the morning and check out the sunrise. It has never looked so beautiful with the pollution level being so high.

sunrise

The Astros won again last night which has me in a good mood. Doing thai at Jasmine today as usual. Got a busy weekend and the in-laws are coming over tonight. That's not a bad thing though... they are bringing dinner with them.

Friday, July 15, 2005

St. Swithin's Day and a JavaOne Followup

'St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t'will rain no more.'

courtesy Earth Calendar.

Kind of the Groundhog Day equivalent.


I'm so glad it's Friday. We are planning a trip to Trinity Hall tomorrow around lunchtime. I haven't been since St. Patrick's Day and I'm really looking forward to it. They pour the best Guinness in town. Stop in & say hi.

Trinity Hall



I wanted to post a few more pics from JavaOne. Here is another of the rest areas, this one filled with bean bags. There were people behind the screen watching the movie in reverse.

Rest Area with Movie

This was another JavaOne attendee who was staying in the same hotel.

JavaOne Drinking Buddy

The best thing about this hotel was it's bar btw. He got really drunk & hit on a lesbian one night. She let him buy her 2 drinks before she told him. He responded with "My parents would kill me if they knew I bought a woman, who isn't even a woman a drink!". The majority of the people around this bar were gay & didn't appreciate it. I just thought it was funny... I thought she might kick his ass.

There were plenty of gaming areas. Arcades games...

JavaOne Games

... and PC games ...

JavaOne Games

... and even Console games ...

JavaOne Games

The sessions were better. I really liked Bil Lewis' talk on Omniscient Debugging. He is a college professor and very dramatic.

Here he is listening for an answer he posed to the audience.

Bil Lewis

The crowd responded with the correct answer and he's basking in the glory of it. I laughed my ass off.

Bil Lewis

There is a recurring talk every year in the "Programming Puzzler" theme by Joshua Bloch and Neal Gafter formerly of Sun... now of Google. It's hilarious and informative at the same time. Here's Josh explaining something.

Joshua Bloch

And Neal doing some slide work.

Neal Gafter

I spent a lot of time in the Alumni lounge with it's free drinks, snacks, wifi, workstations, etc.

Alumni Lounge

Here's James Gosling & Scott McNealy hugging after Gosling was given an award.

Hugs and Kisses

They also give out awards for best projects and the Brazilian Healthcare system that centralizes all medical records, etc. using Java won. They showed an excellent video. She was cheered more than anyone else.

Brazilian Developer

Bill Shannon, a very smart person & Sun Engineer. I've been in a conference call with him once, but didn't want to bother him. He was reading a book everytime I saw him.

Bill Shannon

From the bus window on the way back to the hotel.

Fire Engine

This is Duke, the java mascot, being helped down the stage stairs. Ha!

Duke

The 10 Year Birthday Celebration for Java.

Celebrating 10 Years of Java

Scott with a Dukulele. Think ukulele but shaped like Duke.

Scott with a Dukulele

The inevitable demo crash.

Compile Error!!!

This is Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's President and Chief Operating Officer.

Jonathan Schwartz

A shot of the 4K x 3K screen used for the General Sessions. Size according to Gosling.

JavaOne Stage

And a shot of Scott McNealy, James Gosling, and John Gage.

McNealy, Gosling, and Gage

It was a Geekfest to the Nth degree and I enjoyed it. Next year it's May 15 - 18 and I hope to take the family for some adventures.

Have a good weekend.

BBB

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Where is Billy Bob?

Yes, I've been neglecting this thing... I've started several posts but never get through them. I've been to San Francisco for work & then vacation last week. (we just stayed around the house)

I did get to see the awesome Dennis Miller in SF. The JavaOne crowd wasn't too impressed though... he's a Bush supporter and most of the folks there were Dems. I'm neither.

Dennis Miller

This awesome screen was in the lobby of Moscone in SF.

Front of Screen

This is the back... it's not a projection. It's a bunch of small screens stitched together. This was one section between the pillars... I think there were around 80 of them.

Back of Screen


I'll post more later.

BBB