Bloomingstars.com - Emmanuele Sordini 's astronomy and computing homepage - parallel-computing tag

Jazoon '07: wrap-up

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Just back home from Jazoon, and also back to work and to everyday's hassles . Also, the time has come to make a comprehensive judgement about the conference.

A shot from the closing session

All in all, I must say I came back with a good impression of the conference, which was quite well arranged and brought along a whole bunch of interesting topics and issues.

Wanna know why? Click on the link below for the full story!

Jazoon '07: the first two days

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:26:00 GMT

On Monday June 25th, a thick layer of clouds rolled in which soon brought along some downpours and a really gloomy atmoshpere. But well, the time had come to dive into the newly started Jazoon conference, so let’s have a closer look at the conference. Jazoon’s venue, the brand-new Sihlcity shopping mall, just off the city center to the southwest, is a top-quality place with boatloads of entertainment facilities, including a big move theather where the conference itself was hosted.

There we go! Come Monday, we got to the conference center in the late morning, just in time to have a peek at Ted Neward’s keynote on the future of programming languages (picture courtesy Moritz Petersen):

Click on the link below for the full story!

Jazoon '07: here we come!

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:47:00 GMT

As usual, time is passing by at a very fast pace. Only a few days are left until next Sunday, June 24th 2007, the opening day of Jazoon '07, the newborn European Industry Conference on Java and related topics, which will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, until Thursday 28th. Jazoon brings together experts and professional users of Java and open source technologies from all over Europe.

I will be featured as a speaker together with my long-time friend Fabrizio Giudici in a number of presentations and demos. Here is the detailed program:

Technical Presentation: Parallel Computing Scenarios and the new challenges for the Software Architect. Scheduled on Thursday, 2007-06-28, 11:50 - 12:30, Arena 8
Software demo: blueMarine - a desktop app for the open source photographic workflow. Scheduled twice: Tuesday, 2007-06-26, 12:00 - 12:50, Arena 2; Thursday, 2007-06-28, 14:00 - 14:50, Arena 1.
BOF (Together with Moritz Petersen): Towards a "unified community" for Java imaging developers. Expected to take place anytime from 19:00 until 22:00 on Tuesday 26th (detailed schedule yet to be defined by Jazoon staff).

My participation in Jazoon stems from a presentation Fabrizio Giudici and I gave at JavaPolis 2006, on the relationship between Java and Parallel computing and its wealth of potential applications in a wide range of different fields; back then, we discussed a case study application to astronomical imagery. The picture has since changed (and expanded) quite a lot. Here's why:

Fabrizio's blueMarine, an open-source application for digital photo workflow, has since grown more mature and more stable. blueMarine is entirely based on the NetBeans platform, and a beta release is expected soon.
My project Pleiades a Java open-source tool for advanced image processing meant to run in a distributed computing environment, has been stabilized. Also, an ad-hoc plugin (probably the first one ever developed by somebody other than its own author) has been written to integrate Pleiades into blueMarine.
Sun has made available its Grid Computing facility to 24 countries worldwide
Last but not least, the Java platform has undergone major performance improvements in many respects, including rich-client GUI applications and image processing. Furthermore, there is a wide selection of Java-based image processing-dedicated toolkits out there. So, we feel like it's about time to do something about the community of graphic Java developers: how about trying to join all our efforts into one integrated community? Our "experimental" BOF @Jazoon tries to answer these questions. Everyone interested in the topic is welcome to drop by and join the discussion.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that I will also be "carrying the flag" on behalf of my local JUG (JUG Genova).

See you all @Jazoon '07 in Zurich, then!

Jazoon '07: stiamo arrivando!

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:23:00 GMT

Come al solito, il tempo vola rapidamente. Mancano ormai pochi giorni a domenica prossima, 24 giugno 2007, giorno di apertura di Jazoon 07, la "neonata" conferenza su Java e dintorni, che si svolgerà a Zurigo, in Svizzera, fino a giovedì 28. Jazoon richiama insieme esperti e professionisti di Java (anche dal mondo dell'industria) e tecnologie open source provenienti da tutta Europa.

Sono relatore con un amico di vecchia data, Fabrizio Giudici, in alcune presentazioni e demo. Ecco il programma dettagliato:

Technical Presentation: Parallel Computing Scenarios and the new challenges for the Software Architect . Previsto per giovedì 28, ore 11:50 - 12:30, Arena 8
Software demo: blueMarine - a desktop app for the open source photographic workflow. Previste due "puntate: martedì 26, ore 12:00 - 12:50, Arena 2, e giovedì 28, ore 14:00 - 14:50, Arena 1
BOF (insieme a Moritz Petersen): Towards a "unified community" for Java imaging developers. Previsto tra le 19 e le 22 di martedì 26, con orario dettagliato ancora da stilare a cura degli organizzatori di Jazoon.

La mia partecipazione a Jazoon trae le proprie origini da un intervento che Fabrizio Giudici e io tenemmo a JavaPolis 2006, avente come oggetto la relazione tra Java e calcolo distribuito, e l'enorme spettro di potenziali applicazioni in un buon numero di campi diversi. Allora, avevamo discusso un caso di studio di applicazione all'elaborazione di immagini astronomiche, ma nel frattempo la situazione è cambiata di molto, e in meglio. Ecco perché:

blueMarine, un programma open source interamente sviluppato da Fabrizio per ottimizzare la gestione dell'intero flusso dell'elaborazione delle immagini digitali, è diventato più stabile e maturo. blueMarine è basato sulla piattaforma NetBeans, e se ne attende a breve il rilascio di una versione beta.
E' stata migliorata la stabilità del mio progetto Pleiades, uno strumento open source per l'elaborazione
avanzata delle immagini (anche astronomiche) concepito per funzionare in un contesto distribuito. Inoltre, un plugin apposito (forse il primo non sviluppato dall'autote) è stato sviluppato per integrare Pleiades in blueMarine.
La Sun ha reso disponibile la sua infrastruttura per il Grid Computing a 24 paesi nel mondo.
Ultimo ma non meno importante, la piattaforma Java ha beneficiato di notevoli miglioramenti prestazionali in molti ambiti, incluse le complesse applicazioni GUI. Inoltre, c'è ormai una ampia scelta di librerie scritte in Java per l'elaborazione delle immagini. Così, si ha la sensazione che siano ormai maturi i tempi per fare qualcosa per la comunità di sviluppatori Java in questo settore, che appare assai frammentata: possiamo provare a gettare le basi per una comunità unica e integrata? Il nostro BOF "sperimentale" a Jazoon cerca di rispondere a questa domanda. Chiunque si trovasse da quelle parti e fosse interessato all'argomento è invitato a partecipare.

Infine, io personalmente sarò il "portabandiera" del neonato JUG della mia città, il JUG Genova.

Arrivederci a tutti a Jazoon, allora!

Here comes The Sun (Grid)

Wed, 30 May 2007 21:58:00 GMT

Got a very demanding computing task? No need to worry: you can always take advantage of Sun Grid. Or better, up until recently you couldn't, as this facility was available only to US citizens or people living on US ground. However, the situation has recently changed as Sun has opened up its gates to 24 countries throughout the world.