Report on Archives Announcement at JavaOne Conference

Here's an exclusive eyewitness report from Thrasher's Wheat blogger/Rustie Chris ‘CW Cannoneer’ Horn on today's announcement of the Archives on Blu-Ray DVD.

I arrive early and was able to get a front row seat, to the side. The Moscone Center was packed with all the conference attendees and press. I lucked out in attaining a press pass.

The keynote speaker was Rich Green Executive Vice President, Software and there were a number of presentations covering new applications. While discussing JavaFX a slide display showed various input/developer modules. The ‘Content’ bubble on the slide had a photo of Neil playing guitar. That was the first hint of what was to come.

After all the presentations were completed they saved Neil for last.

He came out dressed in blue jeans, t-shirt covered by an unbuttoned blue striped shirt and grey cap. He also wore sunglasses.

I moved up to the edge of the stage, right in front of him, to take pictures. I was the closest audience member and nobody else was around me. He looked at me numerous times and I was sporting my 1988 Bridge 2 button.

While there were some glitches during previous demonstrations Neil joked how they taped theirs so it would run smoothly.

Sharing the stage with Neil was Jonathan Schwartz Sun Microsystems CEO/President and Rich Green Executive Vice President, Software. They all interacted together, joking at times, while the taped presentation ran on the big screen behind them. With Neil songs playing in the background, the visual showed how versatile the Archives will be presented, viewing content while listening to music. It looked like it will be full of interesting visual material, both static and video, going back to the very beginning of his career. There was even talk of downloading Archive “updates” even after you have bought the product.

At one point they wanted to give a visual display of how many songs will be contained in Archives. They unraveled an ‘analog scroll’ that stretched about 30 feet. I think it was Jonathan Schwartz who asked where his favorite song (RITFW) was on the scroll, LA Johnson pointed to it about halfway down.

When a gong sound played, leading into a song, Neil and LA Johnson mentioned it was an old song broken out on the recent tour. I spoke firmly (not shouting) "Sultan".

Neil and LA both repeated it as if to remind themselves of the song title.

Not only did Neil see me, I fed him a line.

All too soon it was over. As he was turning to leave I shouted “Release Time Fades Away!” I may be reading into it too much but I thought he had the slightest of hesitations in his motion as if he heard me.

A wonderful experience and it made me salivate even more for the Archives to finally be released.

Thanks Chris! Great report!



More on the Archives at Sun JavaOne Conference.