Virtual Machines

Virtual machines:
You may like it or you may hate it; but there are many singular things that Java programming language should be credited for. One of them being, making virtual machines such big success, that it is today. With .Net, Microsoft took this to next level; supporting multiple languages.

Now, Java platform is striving to incorporate the same by bringing in more languages like JRuby, Scala, groovy etc. All of this appears to be big confusing chaos with platforms fighting to gain upper hand,  However it clearly also indicates deeper and deeper penetration of virtual machines in day to day computing.

As VM's mature, more and more languages are beginning to port themselves on one or the other available option. The latest one- i heard of is perl.
 
I came across this very interesting article that was posted recently:

Virtual machines for all seasons

I like the way author thinks about the future day Operating System's having a component called Virtual Machine capable of running programs written in any language.
This would mean programmers writing programs in any language (of their choice) testing it on their box (platform of their choice) without caring about what platform the program would eventually be ported on.

Nice Thought!

 

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Fun Weekend

I have had a great weekend. Instead of describing my experience to each one that I know, individually - I thought it would be smart to blog it once here and quickly. of course i can blabber about it but for that you will have to call me.
So where have i been and what did i do and what has become of my weekend ? well the rest of the blog is all about that.
To begin with, I have been to not one but couple of great places and an exciting event making full use of long weekend here. long weekend b'coz 13th October was a national holiday here as the day that the Japanese enjoy as health-sports day. I wonder what would be an un-healthy sport! anyways..
October 11th 2008,
Destination: Makuhari Messe, An international convention center in Chiba, Japan.
The reason we ('we' b'coz it was 5 of us) wanted to be at MM was Tokyo Game Show, an event held here every year.
TGS is one place where the latest and the greatest in computer gaming industry gets exhibited to general public or to be more precise computer gaming freaks. It is a 4 day long event with only last 2 days for general audience.
To be honest I am not a gaming freak, but I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy it. One thing I was not surprised of; is the huge crowd at the convention center, one coz I know Tokyo is one of the most populous cities in the world and two coz people here just love gaming.
In addition to the games, the event was spiced with free goodies, original merchandise and smokin hot female models on all booths :D. okay..back to the point, All in all a great event - I myself got some pictures (not of the models though) you can see the number of big shots in computer gaming who turned up and the huge crowd that overwhelmed the whole event, making it easy for someone like me to call it a success.
Done with TGS, with still the whole evening left to our discretion- we started for our second destination Tokyo Disney Land, not that i haven't been to Disney before but this was more for a colleague who had not been to TD land. We tried all possible scary rides, Sadly, I didn't manage to take great many pictures in Disney probably because we were tired and also because i am yet to acquire the skill of using camera while on the ride (wonder what fun would that be). At last we wound up tired and taking a train back home with three of us still looking forward to plans we had for Sunday.

12th October 2008, TGS and Disney had practically taken a toll on ourselves and more than that the failure to rise up early - made us cancel the plans to go Universal Studio, Osaka.
We decided to go Fuji Q!
I had always wanted to go Fuji Q - coz i had always wanted to try the rides there, well this was it, but little was i aware, what these rides were like and they turned out to be beyond what i ever thought they would be like. Rest is all in the form of pictures and the videos that I shot there. An amazing place that it is and as you would see in the pictures Fuji Q is known all around world for some of its scariest rides and its location (at the base of mount Fuji).
We didn't manage to try all the rides, as our plan was blemished by the crowd that had turned up (as it was a long weekend for everyone).
One thing I would like to mention, the scariest ride i have been on till date "Eejanaika" meaning "What the Hell" - though it is an incredible coaster; it definitely took all of our time queuing for it :(

In any case it was great and I'll sure try the other rides the next time i go Fuji Q for sure.
oh and some other rides i tried:
The Red Tower
Moonraker
Tonde Mia!!


October, 13th 2008 as you would guess was spent relaxing, speaking of this it was exactly this date a year before, I had landed in Japan.

The Last Lecture

A hectic week with full of hiccups and warnings, free markets in capitalist America just saw its favorite subject "Investment Banks" become history; and lets not even discuss the go - no go drama over 700 $B bailout.

Amidst this fuss with an intention of breather- I decided to turn back to what i like doing, visit the sites that (once upon a time) i used to frequent.

Having made my mind, to find out whats bleeding in java world...I thought who better to get this from; than Gosling himself. Though i was looking for something fresh that would cheer me up - i had no expectations as such.

I started surfing his blog but despite of ample material, that should have caught my attention; I got stuck with a small blog dated -July 2008..The blog was in remembrance of some Late Prof. Randy Pausch - I figured from the blog that this was some professor who had contributed a lot to the field of virtual reality and had shared campus with JG in Carnegie Mellon. The same source also revealed that professor had met his end just recently on 25th July 2008. However it was the last line of blog that changed the course of what i was planning to do with the rest of my day - it discussed of some "last lecture".

Next thing i recollect is listening to it, and to be honest it turned out to be one of the most extra ordinary session i have ever been to.
Thereafter discussing with fellow colleagues, I discovered that "The Last Lecture" was in fact an instant hit and very popular in US and the rest of the world right after the day, that it was delivered.

TLL has many takeaways but the most striking bit is the fact that it indeed is a last lecture from a very talented departing professor.
Honestly -I enjoyed it a lot and I am sure everyone who ever comes across it would only love it and not for today or tomorrow or years to come but for ages n ages it would inspire people to pursue their dreams (as did its deliverer when he lived).

Hats Off!

here
The Last lecture