old blog,

Sun Tech Days : University World Tour

Izhar Firdaus Izhar Firdaus Follow Support Mar 09, 2007 · 3 mins read
Sun Tech Days : University World Tour
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
My Object Oriented Programming class had a field trip to Sun Tech Day's University World Tour yesterday. It was quite fun for me (considering its free + got a lot of freebies + a free transport home for the mid-sem break).

There was 5 topics on the event
  • What you need to know as a student today: The Next 10 years - by Matt Thompson
    Quite okay talks about what students should grasp in the OpenSource world. How open source fast development can benefit students etc what the web offers for future developers. Nothing much new to me because I'm already in the Free/OpenSource world. Another point of interest was the info about parallel programming will be more important in the future because processors wont go faster but instead it will be denser. And thats something extremely important for future developers.

  • Java and NetBeans Demo's You Shouldn't miss - by Angela Caicedo
    This one was fun to watch. Some demos of Java on non-PC platforms (a.k.a toys). I has been taking Java as a bulky language that eat lots of processor power but after looking at the demo, I think I'll take that back .. haha .. but still .. one of the program she shown (a server program that control a remote buggy bot) hog her processor.. The demo of Looking Glass is also a little bit lagging - Compiz/Beryl is better :P.

  • OpenSolaris for beginners - Peter Karlson
    Considering I'm a linux user, this session is quite fun for me as I got to know another *nix. The demo of Branded Zone was impressive and interesting to me. And I got a Solaris Express DVD from Peter (I was curious about BrandZ and asked some questions about it from Peter).

  • Java Puzzles: If only all learning could be as much fun! - Michael Li
    Some quizzes on finding errors in a Java code, its fun, informative, and fun :P. The quizzes were not that hard if you've been programming Java/C++/Python for a while because they are mostly OOP concepts. I got a free T-shirt in this session (wee~~)

  • Enhancing Employability: The Power Of Sun - Gerald Ng
    Erm .. how to put it .. this session was boring .. haha .. I dont listen to it much ..


Overall the event was fun and informative, however , as Aizat Faiz pointed out, they should give more attention to Free Software and the community around it. Local FOSS groups/developers should also be given chance to talk in the event.

The freebies I got:
  • A Sun Microsystem ballpoint pen - with green lights!!

  • T-Shirts
    • A white T-Shirt - got after messing around during the Duke mascot joke session

    • A black Sun T-Shirt - From the Java Puzzles

    • An orange University World Tour T-Shirt - Everyone got it


  • DVDs
    • Open Solaris Starter Kit
      • I-learn DVD - contains Nexenta OS , Belenix , SchilliX liveCDs

      • I-Install DVD - contains Solaris Express Community Release b54, Nexenta OS Alpha 6 Install, OpenSolaris Source, Sun Studio 11.

    • Solaris Express Developer Edition - Thanks Peter!


On a sidenote, I got to meet my childhood friend from Shah Alam UiTM there. Haven't see her for quite a while considering I've been studying away from home since 4 years ago and when I'm at home I seldom goes out. I also met with Aizat Faiz not long after our session ended but not for long considering he still had more talks to join.
Written by Izhar Firdaus Follow Support
I'm a system architect, data engineer and developer advocate with passion in Free / Open Source software, entrepreneurship, community building, education and martial art. I take enjoyment in bridging and bringing together different FOSS technologies to help businesses and organizations utilize IT infrastructure to aid and optimize their business and organizational process.

Just created a Fedora Account

I just created an account in FedoraProject today ... Still thinking on what group to join for contributions ... Anybody want to give ...

In old blog, Mar 06, 2007

« Previous Post

Mugshot : A Social Network For FOSS User

Fedora users might have heard about it, but not other FOSS users. I think I'm going to help them with some promotion :DHeres the link...

In old blog, Mar 10, 2007

Next Post »