Red Hat, which has made its fortune displacing Solaris, is now going to collaborate with Sun to advance open source Java, which Red Hat is particularly partial to given its JBoss investment. This is the third time this year that Sun has laid down with one of its enemies. It also cut deals with Microsoft and IBM. Red Hat will get a fully compatible open source Java Development Kit (JDK) for its Linux operating system out of the deal. All it has to do now is build it - and that includes a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) - and optimize the runtime for JBoss-on-Linux. Red Hat's IcedTea project - which brings together Fedora, the early access version of Red Hat Linux, and JBoss.org technologies on Linux - gets pushed. It's supposed to supply free alternatives to some of the pieces of the OpenJDK project that are still proprietary.

SOA and Virtualization has existed, in various forms, and have been adopted with varying degrees of success within the modern enterprise. SOA especially has reached the point where it generally is considered to be a good idea! As a result of the wide adoption applications, services and infrastructure have been linked to form a new kind of 'organism', which is a critical part to the ongoing operation of these systems. As a result of this success a new kind of 'infrastructure fatigue' has been exposed. The stability, scalability, performance and reliability of this 'organism' is absolutely essential as the degree of interdependencies increases. Ironically, much of the resources dedicated to this infrastructure are under utilized and there is much untapped potential within the typical enterprise. This is where the combination of SOA and Virtualization appears to be a natural fit. In this presentation we'll explore the role of virtualized containers and the notion of 'adaptive infrastructure'. We'll take a look at the emergence of new ideas and capabilities of how SOA infrastructure has to change to meet the growing demands being placed upon it.

Since its emergence, Web Service technology has gone a long way towards perfecting itself and finding its right application in the real world. With the maturity of the specifications, Web Service technology, with its power of interoperability, is now the major enabling technology of SOA, which is being adopted by more and more enterprises to build their application integration infrastructure.

Let's consider the pages of a traditional corporate Website. They include an 'about me' page, a contact page, a careers section, and probably a page with news and press releases. The words look good on paper, and, more than likely, a committee gave the final sign-off on the site's content. Visitors frequent these pages because they want to learn about the company's products and services, contact the company by phone to request more information, or find a job.

What I am going to do in this regular column is feed my habit by highlighting some of the books I am reading, and (mostly) enjoying. (I will only rarely write negative reviews; it's a rare book that I 'do not put down gently but throw across the room with great force' after all.) Geeks like to read - and not only programming books. Most of us read incessantly. Whether it's popular science, sci-fi or fantasy, a good thriller or an occasional popular history book or biography, it's a rare geek who isn't in love with books. And I am no exception, although I have to confess I am rather an extreme case since my love of books and eclectic tastes borders on the 'gentle madness' aka bibliomania.

I will be attending the Ajax World Conference next week in Santa Clara. I will also be at the opening reception on Monday and the conference party on Tuesday. Over the weekend Jesse Liberty blogged about this as well 'If you are going to be at AJAXWorld, look for me on Twitter, and let's see if we can set up a meeting or a lunch.' Other faculty members, according to the Ajax World website, who will be at these parties include...

SourceLabs announced the availability of SASH 2 complete with a major new milestone - integrated support for Apache Tomcat. Comprised of the most widely deployed open source Java technologies used by the Global 2000, new SASH 2 is a robust platform that simplifies the development of enterprise Java Applications. SASH 2 includes Spring, Axis, Struts, Hibernate and Tomcat along with all software dependencies and patches. Combined with SourceLabs' innovative Continuous Support System (CSS), SASH 2 proactively identifies key issues that enterprise application developers face when building, testing and deploying middleware software.

SYS-CON Events announced today that 'AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 West' main sponsorship opportunities are now sold-out! Limited number of expo and event sponsorship opportunities that are still available are expected to be completely sold before the end of the month. The new sponsors who joined the conference this week, and are not yet listed on the conference Website, will also be announced later in the week.

I will be teaching a one day Bootcamp course on Ajax at the AJAXWorld Conference in Santa Clara, California on September 23, 2007. Details are at http://aja xbootcamp.sys-con.com I will be expanding the Ajax construction tools section from the Ajax Bootcamp I taught in New York at the SOA World conference. I am very impressed with TIBCO GI and Sun jMaki

The inaugural iTVCon - Internet Video Conference & Expo (November 12-13, 2007) is building out its program and the Conference Advisory Board is busy sorting through the hundreds of proposals for technical and strategic sessions that have been coming in. Final deadline for proposals is September 10, 2007.

Former CA CEO Sanjay Kumar, 45, started his 12-year prison sentence Tuesday at a minimum-security federal pen in Fairton, New Jersey. Sentenced in November he's been out this long selling off personal possessions to pay a $52 million installment on the $798 million in stockholder restitution the court ordered him to pay. Of course nobody supposes it will ever get paid off. His lawyers are going to try appealing his prison sentence.

Web 2.0 is one of the hottest things on the consumer Web, but where does it fit in the enterprise? What's the business value and how can developers use new Web 2.0 mashups to bring value to the line-of-business users? You'll hear all of this and more from Rod Smith, IBM Fellow and Vice President of the IBM Emerging Internet Technologies group. Rod will discuss what IBM is doing in the Web 2.0 space, give a demonstration of a mashup maker being developed by his team, and share lessons he's learned from joint Web 2.0 development projects with companies such as American Express, Dunn & Bradstreet, and Dow Jones.

CodeGear's Chief Evangelist, David Intersimone, ably assisted by Mike Rozlog, showed delegates to SYS-CON Events' inaugural Real-World Java Seminar why developers using Eclipse continue to turn to Borland for tools to make their lives easier.

Making the announcement at this morning's 'Real-World Java Seminar' presented by SYS-CON Events in New York City, CodeGear from Borland Corporation unveiled a set of specialized plug-ins for the Eclipse open-source development platform: JGear.

AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 East sponsors included: Laszlo Systems (Diamond Sponsor), JackBe (Platinum Sponsor), Adobe (Platinum Sponsor), Cynergy (Platinum Sponsor), Backbase (Gold Sponsor) Google (Gold Sponsor), Nexaweb (Gold Sponsor), ICEsoft (Gold Sponsor), Oracle (Gold Sponsor), Helmi Technologies (Gold Sponsor), JetBrains (Gold Sponsor), TIBCO (Gold Sponsor), Kapow Technologies (Gold Sponsor), Sun Microsystems (Silver Sponsor), Parasoft (Silver Sponsor), Servoy (Silver Sponsor), Etelos (Silver Sponsor), Microsoft (Expo Plus Sponsor), Lightstreamer (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), IT Mill (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), FrogLogic (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), ThinWire (Expo Sponsor), Quasar Tecnologies (Expo Sponsor), Zapatec (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), MB Technologies Bindows (Exhibitor), OpenSpot (Exhibitor), ILOG (Exhibitor), Passport Corporation (Exhibitor), Addison-Wesley (Exhibitor), The Thomson Corporation (Exhibitor), Isomorphic Software-SmartClient (Exhibitor), Universal Mind (Exhibitor), Farata Systems (Exhibitor Plus), Manning Publications (AJAX Book Sponsor), Apress (AJAX Book Sponsor), Conference Guru (Media Sponsor), Flash Goddess (Media Sponsor), AJAXWorld Magazine (Media Sponsor), Web 2.0 Journal (Media Sponsor), SYS-CON.TV (Media Sponsor), IT Mill (Media Sponsor), Methods & Tools (Media Sponsor), Web 2.0 Journal (Media Sponsor), and OASIS (Association Sponsor).

I'll be speaking at SYS-CON's Real-World Java One-Day Seminar in New York City next Monday, August 13. Despite the fact that it's August, it looks like they have lined up an interesting panel of speakers for the day, including sessions by Yakov Fain on using Flex with Java (that'll be interesting to me) as well as sessions by Sun on Java 6.0 and a panel session on Java 7.0. The title of my session is 'Code Quality: Pay Now or Pay Later', and I will be talking about why code quality is an issue that many sweep under the rug, why we should care deeply about it, as well as some practical steps to start down that path. Our CTO Mark Dixon will be there with me, so if you're in the NYC area, come say hello!

AJAXWorld 2007 West will take place on September 23-26, 2007, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, in Santa Clara, California, and will offer a new dedicated 'iPhone Track.' Another dedicated track will offer a comparative education opportunity for conference delegates on emerging RIA tools, including a Diamond track on OpenLaszlo and sessions on Microsoft's Silverlight, Adobe's AIR and Sun's JavaFX.

A seasoned Java professional has to know more than just the syntax of the Java language. Java EE offers a set of standardized technologies for enterprise development. A number of open-source frameworks such as Spring or Hibernate are widely used in a variety of Java applications. Familiarity with new 'beyond-Java' languages and technologies will widen your horizons and make you a more valuable Java professional. Real-World Java Seminar is sponsored by CodeGear, Red Hat, Nexaweb, Farata Systems, and PushToTest.

Renewed - or maybe the word is just louder since it's been pretty constant - speculation that BEA is up for grabs has Credit Suisse, for one, believing that the company is in play and that it could go for $15-$18 a share. It says, 'While management may still be hesitant about selling the business, it's our opinion that they are rapidly losing the ability to influence the decision' - a situation that would be clinched by another weak quarter after the 'April Q1 disappointment [that] was the spark that set a series of events in motion that should lead to a positive outcome for shareholders.'

Companies who do not take steps to assure the quality of the code they are developing can face nasty surprises late in the process. Code quality involves more than testing, but requires an overall methodology from start to finish. This session addresses how software development teams can track metrics for unit testing results, test coverage, and coding standards on a per project, per team, and per developer basis to boost quality throughout the application lifecycle. Tracking key metrics provides visibility to help achieve a quality-driven application development process. Only with the right quality processes in place can a development team deliver high-quality projects to specification by the required target date.

The single-day, multi-track Real-World Java Seminar will be held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York on August 13. Produced by SYS-CON Events, this is the largest Java developer event on the East Coast, and features a business track as well as two technical tracks. All attendees will have full access to all sessions at the event, so can either stay with one track or pick and choose specific sessions.

Can afford to take just one day off, get out of your cubicle and see what other people up to these days? Is J2EE still in favor? What's this ESB is about? Have you even heard of using Flex as a Web front end of your Java applications? Do not miss an event in NYC this Monday, that is created for people who think that they are way too busy to take several days off and spend them in the class. Just take one day off and attend the Real-World Java event. The discounted rate for this event is $395. To get this discount, enter the coupon code ?JUGgold' while registering

SYS-CON Events has created a hands-on, immersive learning experience for all Web developers who want to know the how, what, and why of the tools and concepts behind AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), the popular user-interface approach to creating Rich Internet Applications. AJAXWorld University AJAX Bootcamp is a compelling, intensive, one-day, hands-on training program that will teach Web developers, Web designers, and other Web professionals how to build high-quality AJAX applications from beginning to end.

'With the Server Core installation option, IT professionals can install Windows Server 2008 with minimal server functionality for select roles including DHCP, DNS, file server, virtualization, domain controller and now IIS7 without any non-essential services and applications. By only including what is required for the designated roles, a Server Core installation will generally require less maintenance and fewer updates since there are fewer features to manage.'

SYS-CON Events announced today that the 'Call for Papers' for the Real-World Java Seminar is now open. The largest Java developer event on the East Coast, the Real-World Java Seminar is a one-day event with three concurrent tracks and more than 30 sessions, and is packed with technical presentations delivered by the Java industry experts. Attending this event will allow delegates to take a fresh look at the architecture of the projects they are working on now, and can serve as a roadmap for their further development as Java professionals.

'The Java backlash,' writes Bruce Eckel, 'has been building up steam, and we're starting to see some fundamental shifts because of it.' Java has been around for 10 years yet applets are not the primary way that we interact with the web. Applets are not ubiquitous, and everyone got excited about AJAX instead.

The 'Real-World Java Seminar' is an intense one-day educational event that's packed with technical presentations delivered by the Java industry experts. Attendees of this event will allow participants to take a fresh look at the architecture of your the projects they are working on now, and can serve as a roadmap for further development as a Java professional.

The Real-World Java Seminar is a one-day event that's packed with technical presentations delivered by the Java industry experts. Attending this event will allow you to take a fresh look at the architecture of the projects you're working on now and can serve as a roadmap for your further development as a Java professional. The largest Java developer event on the East Coast, Real-World Java Seminar will offer sponsorship and exhibit opportunities to the leading Java technology companies. Additional information on sponsorship and exhibit opportunities can be obtained by e-mail at events(at) sys-con.com or by phone at 201 802-3021.

SYS-CON Events announced today that IBM became a 'Platinum Sponsor' of AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 West. The world's leading Rich Internet Applications & Web 2.0 event is expected to attract more than 2,000 i-technology developers. AJAXWorld grew from a single track, one-day seminar, less than a year ago, into a four-day international conference & expo with more than 150 sessions delivered in nine simultaneous tracks, by more than 120 faculty members. The conference now includes the world famous AJAXWorld University's AJAX Developer Bootcamp, OpenLaszlo Track and Adobe Flex 3 Developer Bootcamp. This year's AJAXWorld Expo Floor is expected to display bleeding edge RIA technologies from more than 75 leading AJAX vendors.

A significant benefit of BEA's approach is that, unlike competitors with standalone CEP engines, WebLogic Event Server is a lightweight but full- featured application server platform with event features built in, enabling customers to build their applications on the platform without having to integrate a CEP engine with a separate general-purpose platform. Starting with the product's complete infrastructure, customers avoid much overhead and can bring new event-driven applications to market quickly. This approach also makes it easier to add event-oriented functionality to existing applications.

'In the first quarter, we saw a tough selling environment in the Americas, and we made several changes to the Americas field organization. We aligned the organization correctly for the SOA opportunity; however, the changes impacted us in the short-run beyond our expectations. Geographies outside the US performed well, and our Business Interaction Division had a very strong quarter, especially in the Americas, with both their AquaLogic User Interaction and Business Process Management products,' said Alfred Chuang, BEA's founder, chairman and chief executive officer. 'SOA is an architecture-led sale, and requires a different sales process than development-led projects. There is a platform shift taking place, and BEA is well-poised to lead that shift. We are aligning our field organization with the requirements of the SOA market.'

TheServerSide and BEA have come together to offer TSS readers BEA Workshop Studio 3.3, normally $899 USD, for $99 USD until May 31, 2007. This is part of what will become integrated with Workshop for WebLogic 10 (announced yesterday on TSS), and contains many of the same features. The upgrade to 10.1 Studio is included for this price, so if you purchase 3.3 now, you'll be able to upgrade.

Guy Churchward, BEA vice president of WebLogic products, participaed as a keynote speaker at the JavaOne 2007 in San Francisco. He and Intel's corporate vice president, Renee James, co-presented a keynote session that highlighted both companies' contributions to Java and how each company 'is pushing the technology to new heights,' according to BEA.

JavaOne never ceases to amaze me. Year after year, I expect the show to be a flop. This year is no exception. I am wrong again this year. In my cab ride from my hotel in the Theatre District, I can see hundreds of attendees (obviously developers) trekking their way through the Tenderloin, across Market and Mission to Moscone. With their wheeled-backpacks in tow, the mirthless programmers, mostly male, trudge toward the 12th JavaOne.

Connect these dots. Jim Cramer calls for the head of IBM CEO Sam Palmisano because of the company's stuck-in-a-rut stock price. The Wall Street Journal runs a profile, complete with sketch, of IBM software boss Steve Mills, the man now making the lion's share (40%) of IBM's pre-tax profits. IBM reports its first-quarter results Tuesday in which everything including services is unexciting except software, which helped along by acquisitions, was up 9% to $4.3 billion in revenue. There are concerns about weaker US enterprise spending as well as execution. Even software saw some margin deterioration and slowing growth in key branded middleware like WebSphere and Tivoli. IBM's stock drops three bucks.

Last year, I took a stab at predictions as to what Sun would announce at the 11th annual JavaOne. This year, for JavaOne 2007, I'll take a stab at what Sun and some of the other major vendors will announce. It will be fairly easy to predict the major themes from the vendors. Most of them will be spouting 'Web 2.0' and talking about development and production assistance for mashups, etc. In addition to new tools, some chatter about PHP, and a talk by Gary Horen, we're flexible enough such that I am sure we'll have some last minute excitement.

A couple of weeks ago I stopped by at our publisher's offices (SYS-CON Media) and they showed me our Flex book with the correct cover, but all pages were blank. Yesterday, I've got an email from them with the words, 'Yakov your book is ready, stop by and pick it up'. The guys from production department are really nice, so they've attached this video just to show me that the book is really really finally super-duper ready. Check this out (the video file is large though).

Helmi Technologies Inc., the provider of an open source platform for building AJAX-based Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), is an exhibitor and speaker at AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 East, the leading Web 2.0 and RIA event taking place on March 19-21, 2007 in New York City.

The Eclipse Foundation today announced that Actuate, BEA Systems, Business Objects, IBM and Klocwork have signed on as Gold Sponsors for EclipseCon 2007, the annual conference that brings together the Eclipse community. Gold Sponsorship is the highest level of sponsorship for the conference. The third annual EclipseCon will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, Calif., March 5-8, 2007. 'EclipseCon is one of my favorite events for the Eclipse community. It is a great opportunity to learn new things, meet new people and reacquaint oneself with the Eclipse ecosystem,' explained Mike Milinkovich, executive director, Eclipse Foundation. 'We are thrilled to have our Gold Sponsors invest the time and resource in EclipseCon. Their support is important to the overall success of the conference.'

Furthering its commitment to Eclipse, BEA Systems, Inc. , a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, today announced plans to continue to ramp up its efforts and provide even greater support for the Eclipse platform over the next several months.