11 June 2000

What an amazing week this has been. The fifth JavaOne was amazing -- 25,000 Java developers representing over 100 nations -- once again, the largest concentration of geeks per square meter on the planet - four full days of graduate seminars on steroids, BOFs, and schmoozing.
According to IDC, there are 2.5 million Java developers on the planet today - by 2003 there will be 4 million. I spoke with developers and saw booths and sessions that spoke loudly of the wide breadth of Java's penetration into literally every aspect of software proliferation. And it occurred to me that we have hit an important milestone: Java is no longer a differentiator; it is hygenic.
It is no longer enough to say that "my shop is Java and that makes us better," because I believe we have hit or are near hitting critical mass: if you're not developing in Java, you won't be able to play. Just as once it was a differantiator to tout 6 Sigma quality standards in product manufacturing, extremely high quality products are now a global standard.
I took a few shots at JavaOne with a new digital camera we bought along with a number of other toys for the One Perfect World shoot -- Here they are -- enjoy. We'll be starting with the actual shoot of the movie on June 16 - and in the mean time, things are going to be extremely hectic. But it's coming together nicely and we're all learning alot. It may be a while before I get a chance to make an entry here again.

The line stretching around the block for the keynote on day 1

A shot of the cool backpack that all attendees received. These bags invaded SF for the week.

Hey! You gotta stand in line for one of these, sucker!