JavaOne starts off with the NLJUG Party (and we recuperate from the bike ride)

JavaOne seems to be a very big thing in San Francisco. Starting from the airport passport checking staff that made JavaOne-specific questions (like “how r u associated with Sun?”), to signs about Java on bus stations!

This was our second day this side of the pond and we’ve spent most of the morning going around on rented bikes and sightseeing.

We were so overwhelmed by the scenery and the Golden Gate Bridge that we went far out of our schedule and couldn’t make it to the GlassFish Unconference that was held in Moscone. This was such a shame since I am very excited about the Comet support and I wanted to meet the team and discuss about v3. I hope I get the chance one of the following days during JavaOne.

After we returned to the hotel and had a few minutes of rest, we visited the party that the Dutch Java User Group – NLJUG had organized at the Carnelian Room. After meeting the NLJUG leader and some of their members I was very impressed about their enthusiasm… NLJUG rocks!

At this party, besides meeting Stephan Jansen from JAVOXX (formerly known as Javapolis), it was a pleasure to meet Aaron Houston in person after all those emails. He has been a source of inspiration and his outgoing nature helped to create a lively conversation regarding all kinds of Java related issues. Aaron the JHUG will be waiting for you in Greece 🙂

My friend Panos is keeping a log of our time here in SF, on one of his blogs.

BTW a little bird told me that a SunSpot might be landing soon in Greece for all the JHUG community to play with it and to program it, but will see about that… (update: Panos what is this little box in your bag?)