You may or may not have noticed a change here at Lozzi Solutions.  With my most recent post I briefly described a few things that have been happening.  If you have time, I'd like to hear what you are up to and that request was not meant as a holier-than-thou request but sincerely, I'd like to know what other developers are up to.  If you have a blog where you discuss your work you're welcome to link to it from here, briefly describing the new projects you're currently on or about to take on.

This summer has been particularly tough in regards to branching off and adding code to projects that were started in the past. In an effort to publish what I've been working on since the spring semester ended, here's a brief discussion on what's been happening. Care to share what you have been doing?

San Francisco is a great city. Sure, like any city it has its negatives but there's a great number of positives about the city too. Of course there's the weather, much nicer than New England. Transportation is much more accessible than a place like Boston(the streets are also wider to account for this system) and there's plenty of great things to do and see.

Nope. Almost two years ago the infamous unknown error -203 bug surfaced when you would try to install your favorite add-ons. Personally, I never experienced it back then, but after upgrading my systems to Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron", this problem appears to be ever more present. Aggravated over the failed attempts at installing the most essential add-ons like Web-Developer and Googlebar, I went looking for the source of the problem.

This year the cards are apparently in my favor- I'm heading to the JavaOne Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for May 4th-9th. It's my first time at a software development and/or computing conference so I'm quite excited. Some pretty notable speakers are going to be there talking about all the latest in the industry and where they believe the industry is going. Sure, I could probably read this stuff online- but I'm sure I don't have to tell you in-person experiences can make or break the topic. Besides, because I'm a student of an accredited university- I'm attending this year for free, so I really couldn't afford to pass this up.

The first day consists of a mini-conference called CommunityOne and starting on Tuesday is the official JavaOne conference. I've handpicked my schedule for the week and it's pretty full(try here if the former doesn't work). I hope to see a few attractions before the conference gets too busy, the Golden Gate bridge for example. If you don't understand the abbreviations and topics listed there on that schedule don't worry, I'm hoping to take copious notes and document my travel experience on here.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, I consider myself an upper-level intermediate Java programmer, which means mostly nothing other than the fact I have had my share of books to peruse in my day. Not just Java books either, but a multitude of books in almost a dozen different languages. Out of all of them, Thinking in Java, 4th Edition, has got to be the worst I've ever read - in terms of presentation.  

A topic arose recently in a course I am taking. The IDE Dr. Java, chosen by the instructor of the course, has a serious problem regarding Java SE 6 update 4. Since I have chosen not to curse my system with such a degrading piece of software, most of the problems I hear are just that- hearsay. Apparently Dr. Java cannot compile source code if the JDK is update 4. However, if update 3 is used then source files can be compiled. The question becomes, do you stick with the IDE or do you value the update of the JDK more?

Last week I sent in a service request to have my T43's keyboard replaced. I submitted it through their online form and like magic a new keyboard was sent out to me using DHL's next day service. I called in to make sure I was being sent a new keyboard as this was the first time I had asked for one in the three years I've owned my Thinkpad, but this was unnecessary as when I called in the keyboard had already shipped! Needless to say I was once again amazed.

The spring semester began last week at UMass Lowell and so far it's been good to finally be back at the university. Last semester I studied elsewhere and the semester before that I vacationed. Having acquired that all important calculus course from the last semester, plans have changed slightly. When I last wrote about education it was unknown whether the school I was at would offer computing courses this spring or if I had to split my course times between two schools. Now it's not even a question - I'm once again a full time student at UMass.

This review might be a little a one-sided as I have had previous experience working with Java. What this review is not - is a review from a Java beginner. But ultimately, I found Head First Java, 2nd Edition, by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates, to be an incredible learning tool. Since being hired by Sun in July of 2007, I have slowly but surely been trying to acquire more relevant knowledge as it relates to my position and the overall company, and recently I began to think intensely about sharpening my Java skills.