Foojay.io | Friends of OpenJDK and Java Programming

Let's have an AI Bingo and talk about ChatGPT, LLM, ML, RAG, MCP, GenAI, and more!

This is part 3 of the interviews recorded at the JCON conference in May. In the previous parts, you learned more about how to be a better Java developer and how Java has evolved and continues to evolve. Of course, Artificial Intelligence and large language models were hot topics at the conference.

This episode collects all the interviews on the AI topic. You will learn more about the different technologies we can use in our Java projects. We also checked with our guests to see how they compare Java to Python for AI-related development.

00:00 Introduction
00:46 Pasha Finkelshteyn - RAG, MCP
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/asm0dey 
06:17 Simone de Gijt - LLM
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonedegijt 
12:30 Steve Poole - AI challenges and dangers
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/noregressions 
18:01 Sandra Ahlgrimm - LangChain4J and Microsoft tools
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandraahlgrimm 
21:06 Mary Grygleski - Spring AI, Langchain4J, Quarkus
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-grygleski 
30:25 Jonathan Vila - Sonar, Infrastructure As Code, AI dangers
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanvila 
35:56 Simon Martinelli - Influence of chat interfaces on UI development + MCP explanation
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonmartinelli 
42:13 Emily Jiang - LLM
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyfhjiang  
49:59 Conclusion

In the second part of our JCON interviews, recorded at the conference in May, we focuses on general evolutions within the Java world and how they influence how we write code and develop applications. We take a look back at the history of Java, discuss new features in the latest release, how Java evolves with OpenJDK projects and JEPS, how Java is used in education, and much more...

00:00 Introduction

00:19 Steve Poole – Java APIs in a modern way, History of Java
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/noregressions 

06:42 Hanno Embregts - Java 24, Java in education
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannotify/ 

12:20 Karl Heinz Marbaise - Stream gatherers, Java evolutions, JEPs, Java stability
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/khmarbaise/  

26:19 Cay Horstmann - Project Valhalla, Project Loom, JEPs, OpenJDK projects
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/cay-horstmann-659a4b/ 

34:20 Miro Wengner - Java modules, Robo4J
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwengner/ 

37:52 Dmitry Chuyko – Improve startup and performance of Java applications in containers
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/dchuyko/ 

42:26 Jens Knipper - Receiving emails with Java, Java improvements over time, writing on Foojay
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jens-knipper-87b4a717b/ 
   https://foojay.io/today/receiving-mails-in-java-with-imap-or-pop3/ 

46:55 Conclusion

On May 13th and 14th, Foojay attended the JCON conference in Köln, Germany, where we did over 30 live-stream interviews. In this episode, we present to you the first set of these interviews, in which we focus on celebrating 30 years of Java, how you can grow your career, become a public speaker and writer, make your code more green, a bit of AI (of course...), and how the connections between open-source contributors can be visualized.

00:00 Introduction
00:37 Richard Fichtner: About JCON
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardfichtner/
   https://jcon.one/
03:27 Bruno Souza: Building your career
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/brjavaman/
   https://careermasterplan.dev
17:09 Markus Westergren: Mentoring and growing to become a senior engineer
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/markuswestergren/
21:56 Brian Vermeer: Public speaking, NLJUG, the importance of writing
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianvermeer/
30:08 Aicha Laafia: Green coding
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/aicha-laafia-0266a6126/
36:33 Baruch Sadogursky: History of Java, job changes because of AI
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbaruch/
44:40 Dmitry Yanter: Connections in open-source projects
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitry-yanter/
53:43 Conclusion

We are celebrating Java's 30th anniversary this May!

This is a very special anniversary episode of the Foojay Podcast! As we approach May 23rd, marking exactly 30 years since Java's first beta release in 1995, we're honored to present our first-ever single-guest format. But we have a very special guest for you: James Gosling, the creator of Java!

Join us for this exclusive conversation as we explore Java's beginnings, its revolutionary impact on the programming world, its continuous evolution over three decades, and James's insights on where the language is heading. From that groundbreaking beta release over "Write Once, Run Anywhere" to powering billions of devices worldwide, this is the story of Java, told by the man who started it all, the father of Java.

Content

00:00 Introduction
01:06 How did it start 35 years ago?
06:21 Java evolved from device controllers to server applications
10:30 How does it feel that so many people use Java?
12:12 Looking back at the Y2K problem and how it triggered more Java adoption
14:58 Does James regret any decisions in Java?
18:44 Comparing early-day Java development versus now
20:55 About the stability of Java
24:14 JavaFX is one of James' favorites of all time
25:20 Frustrations about Android and iOS versus Java Phones
28:16 How "Write Once, Run Anywhere" was needed for Sun
29:23 Windows versus macOS versus Linux for laptops
31:32 The very first Java web service in 1994 turned into a dark story
33:17 Java in Docker and startup challenges
36:59 Garbage Collectors are amazing in many ways
39:18 Java-haters didn't use recent versions of Java ...
41:51 How Java became much more performant but lost embedded
43:08 Developers must be aware of which and how many libraries they use
47:40 James loves Kotlin, Scala, and Closure
49:42 Ethical responsibility for developers in a challenging job market
54:16 AI influence on jobs
01:00:20 Advice for junior developers
01:02:27 A few of the most remarkable moments in Java history
01:07:52 Why James is not a benevolent dictator for life
01:09:17 How Java will keep evolving
01:12:55 How much is James still involved in Java?
01:13:54 Conclusion

On April 25, 2020, Geertjan Wielenga published the first Foojay post. Yes, we are celebrating 5 years since the Friends Of OpenJDK website launch! Today, more than 1,600 posts are on the site, written by over 250 authors. And there is much more to discover within the Foojay world...

In this podcast, we look at how Foojay started with founder Geertjan Wielenga. We'll also hear from Gerrit Grunwald about how Foojay's Disco API has become part of your daily work without you realizing it. We also have several of our regular authors and podcast guests who share how Foojay has influenced them (and vice versa).

Thank you all for being part of the Foojay community, whether as a listener of this podcast, a visitor to the website, a user of the Disco API, or through any other touchpoint!

00:00 Introduction

00:58 Grace Jansen
   https://foojay.io/today/author/grace-jansen

02:44 Geertjan Wielenga about the start and evolution of Foojay
   https://foojay.io/today/author/geertjan-wielenga/ 
   Foojay on Mastodon:
      https://foojay.io/today/foojay-mastodon-service-here-it-is/
   Java Quick Start Course on Foojay:
      https://foojay.io/java-quick-start/
   JDoodle on Foojay:
      https://foojay.io/today/integrate-executable-java-code-in-your-blog-posts-part-2-how-to-use-dependencies/
   Foojay Slack:
      https://foojay.io/today/join-slack-com-t-foojay-signup/
   Contribute to Foojay:
      https://foojay.io/today/how-to-submit-your-next-article-on-foojay-io/

12:24 Richard Fichtner
   https://foojay.io/today/author/r-fichtner  
   Free JCon tickets:
      https://pretix.eu/impuls/europe2025/redeem?voucher=FOOJAY-COMMUNITY

13:19 Mary Grygleski
   https://foojay.io/today/author/mgrygles

15:01 Shai Almog
   https://foojay.io/today/author/shai-almog

16:59 Gerrit Grunwald about the Disco API
   https://foojay.io/today/author/gerrit-grunwald/
   Disco API Blog:
      https://foojay.io/today/disco-api-helping-you-to-find-any-openjdk-distribution/
   Disco API Swagger UI:
      https://api.foojay.io/swagger-ui

24:38 Simon Ritter
   https://foojay.io/today/author/simonritter

25:10 Marit van Dijk
   https://foojay.io/today/author/marit-van-dijk

25:47 Hanno Embregts
   https://foojay.io/today/author/hanno-embregts

26:42 Bazlur Rahman
   https://foojay.io/today/author/bazlur-rahman

29:10 Artur Skowroński
   JVM weekly:
      https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/jvm-weekly-7097859802881540096

30:22 Conclusion and looking forward to 30 years of Java with James Gosling

On April 3rd, the first VoxxedDays event in Amsterdam took place. VoxxedDays are tech events organized by local community groups, with support from the Devoxx team. Geertjan Wielenga brought along a camera and microphone and spoke with many of the attendees.

This is the first Foojay podcast ever to feature more than 20 guests! Geertjan asked the same two questions to many of conference visitors: “Tell us who you are and what excites you about the technology landscape?” and “What are two tips or insights you’d like to share?”

As you might expect, there's a lot of talk about AI and machine learning, but you’ll also hear about new Java features, profiling, open source, security, code reviews, and much more!

00:00 Introduction
00:33 Ko Turk: VoxxedDays organization
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ko-turk-b271b929/
01:34 Stephan Janssen: F ounder of Devoxx and VoxxedDays
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanjanssen/
05:27 Lutske de Leeuw: Important new features in Java
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lutske/
06:25 Johannes Bechberger: Profiling and instrumentation
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannes-bechberger/
07:03 Christian Tzolov: Spring AI and MCP
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzolov/
09:01 Tom Cools: AI, machine learning, mathematical optimization, and all the opportunities in this field.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-cools-17547548/
11:30 Eric-Wubbo Lameijer: Automated code analysis
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-wubbo-lameijer-64303013/
13:02 Abraham van de Vyver: GenAI, impact on job and opensource projects
https://www.linkedin.com/in/a5r/
15:01 Soham Dasgupta: Combining cloud native applications with AI, GenAI
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dasguptasoham/
17:05 Josh Long: AI and its impact, MCP, role of junior developers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshlong/
21:33 Susanne Pieterse: RAG and AI, vector search, VoxxedDays community reviewer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susannepieterse/
23:22 Brian Vermeer: Security on using LLMs and what can possibly go wrong?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianvermeer/
24:47 Anton de Ruiter: Migrating the Dutch tax system to microservices and containers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonderuiter/
25:32 Rafael de Lio: Redis, real-time databases
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaeldelio/
27:55 Jonathan Stronkhorst: Spring AI
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-stronkhorst/
28:29 Jos Roseboom: Encapsulation with Spring Modulith
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jos-roseboom-75508b11/
29:18 Soroosh Khodami: Software supply chain security
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sorooshkhodami/
30:33 Artem Makarov: Applied AI, real use cases after the hype
https://www.linkedin.com/in/artemy/
31:46 Kaya Weers: Learning thanks to the community
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayaweers/
35:27 Eddy Vos: Devoxx4Kids Foundation, volunteers learning children to code
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddyvos/
38:00 Paco van Beckhoven: Improving the code review and pull request process with errorprone and openrewrite
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pacovanbeckhoven/
39:30 Hanno Embregts: Using AI and GenAI in a good way
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannotify/
41:14 Martijn van Iersel: Learning through gamification, internationalization of code, unicode
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijn-van-iersel-2314464/
43:54 Charl Fasching: Impact of AI on Dev and DevOps
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charl-fasching-77843288/
47:43 Joris Kuipers: Experimenting with AI to integrate in applications, learning at conferences
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkuipers/
48:48 Conclusion

We serve you a podcast about the new Java version every six months.

Our regular guest, Simon Ritter, Deputy CTO of Azul, is known on social media as "speakjava." He is part of the OpenJDK vulnerability group, JCP executive committee, and expert group for the Java SE specification request so that he can share a lot of inside information with us.

In this episode, we are joined by Hanno Embregts, a Java Developer by day and musician by night. He publishes a post on Foojay with all the details of every new Java release and prepared a long description of all the new features included in Java 24.  

Let's see what this new release brings us...

Guests
   Simon Ritter
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/siritter/
      https://bsky.app/profile/speakjava.bsky.social
   Hanno Embregts
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannotify/
      https://bsky.app/profile/hanno.codes

Content

00:00 Introduction of the topic and guests
00:58 Why 24 JEPs in release 24?
02:16 Overview of the changes in Java 24

03:37 The changes in Hotspot and GC
   JEP 404: Generational Shenandoah (Experimental)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/404
   JEP 450: Compact Object Headers (Experimental)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/450
   JEP 475: Late Barrier Expansion for G1
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/475
04:46 JEP 483: Ahead-of-Time Class Loading & Linking
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/483
07:30 JEP 491: Synchronize Virtual Threads without Pinning
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/491

10:27 Security JEPs and Quantum resistance
   JEP 478: Key Derivation Function API (Preview)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/478
   JEP 496: Quantum-Resistant Module-Lattice-Based Key Encapsulation Mechanism
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/496
   JEP 497: Quantum-Resistant Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/497

13:00 Tools
   JEP 493: Linking Run-Time Images without JMODs
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/493

16:47 Repreviews and finalizations
   JEP 489: Vector API (Ninth Incubator)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/489
18:27 JEP 484: Class-File API
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/484
19:13 JEP 485: Stream Gatherers
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/485
21:22 JEP 487: Scoped Values (Fourth Preview)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/487
22:15 JEP 488: Primitive Types in Patterns, instanceof, and switch (Second Preview)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/488
22:30 How JEPs get finalized and included
23:44 JEP 492: Flexible Constructor Bodies (Third Preview)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/492
24:09 JEP 494: Module Import Declarations (Second Preview)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/494
25:07 JEP 495: Simple Source Files and Instance Main Methods (Fourth Preview)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/495
29:24 JEP 499: Structured Concurrency (Fourth Preview)
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/499

34:04 Deprecations & Restrictions
34:46 JEP 472: Prepare to Restrict the Use of JNI
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/472
37:15 JEP 486: Permanently Disable the Security Manager
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/486
38:53 JEP 490: ZGC: Remove the Non-Generational Mode
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/490
   Trash Talk - Exploring the JVM memory management by Gerrit Grunwald
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh79ojcror0
42:09 JEP 498: Warn upon Use of Memory-Access Methods in sun.misc.Unsafe
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/498
45:43 Removal of 32-bit support
   JEP 479: Remove the Windows 32-bit x86 Port
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/479
   JEP 501: Deprecate the 32-bit x86 Port for Removal
      https://openjdk.org/jeps/501

47:37 Should we use Java 24 in production?
51:09 Looking forward to the next LTS in September
54:14 Conclusion

Let me share a personal story. I started experimenting with Java on a Raspberry Pi about five years ago and blogged a few articles about it. But the more I experimented, the more I wrote down, and eventually, I had written a book… I worked on it for six months in a row, every evening and a lot of weekends. But the moment I received the box with my author copies was an incredible feeling. Holding a paper book with your name is a special moment.

Fast forward to now. The 1000 paper copies are sold out. I have the last 10 copies in case you still want one ;-) But as I self-published the ebook, it's still for sale on Leanpub, and I keep updating it. That's one of the first significant differences between publishing a paper book and an ebook…. As an author, I got about 2 euros per paper book from the publisher, and LeanPub pays 80% royalties. Don't forget that I have to pay taxes on what I earn. So, if you do the math, you'll understand that the book didn't make me rich. But yes, it helped me in my career and was one of the reasons I became a Java Champion. So, we can argue about the "becoming famous".

But that's only my story. I invited several guests to share their knowledge about book writing:

Marián Varga is finishing a book and tells about publishing a book with a publisher.

Wim Deblauwe wrote a few books and has much experience with self-publishing.

Len Epp is the co-founder of Leanpub, so he can tell us a lot about ebooks.

And we start with Trisha Gee, who wrote a lot of books!

Guests
   Trisha Gee
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishagee/
      https://jvm.social/@trisha_gee 
      https://bsky.app/profile/trishagee.bsky.social
      https://x.com/trisha_gee 
   Len Epp
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenepp/
      https://bsky.app/profile/lenepp.bsky.social
      https://x.com/lenepp
   Wim Deblauwe
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/wimdeblauwe/ 
      https://bsky.app/profile/wimdeblauwe.com  
      https://www.youtube.com/@WimDeblauwe  
      https://www.wimdeblauwe.com/ 
      https://www.widit.be/  
   Marián Varga
      https://www.dastalvi.com/book/ 
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/mari%C3%A1n-varga-4869a042/ 
      https://mastodon.social/@mrvarga 

Links

   Book by Frank
      https://webtechie.be/books/ 
      https://leanpub.com/gettingstartedwithjavaontheraspberrypi/ 
   Books and links by Trisha Gee
      https://trishagee.com/books/
      https://trishagee.com/2022/12/12/tools-and-processes-for-collaborating-on-a-book-remotely/
      https://trishagee.com/2022/12/01/writing-a-book-is-hard/
      https://medium.com/97-things
      https://youtu.be/RzaNJzz5jW8
      https://learning.oreilly.com/search/?q=trisha%20gee&rows=100&language=en&language=es
   Books by Wim Deblauwe
      https://www.infoq.com/minibooks/spring-boot-api-backend-version2/  
      https://www.wimdeblauwe.com/books/modern-frontends-with-htmx  
      https://www.wimdeblauwe.com/books/taming-thymeleaf/  
   Book by Marián Varga
      https://www.dastalvi.com/book/  
      https://bsky.app/profile/love2integrate.com 
   Leanpub
      https://www.youtube.com/leanpub 
      https://twitter.com/leanpub
      https://mastodon.social/@leanpub
      https://www.instagram.com/leanpub
      https://bsky.app/profile/leanpub.bsky.social 
   Lulu
      https://www.lulu.com/  

Content

00:00 Introduction of the topic and guests

01:53 Books by Trisha Gee
02:24 Trisha's motivation for writing books
04:13 Difference between publisher and self-publishing
09:53 Publishers are looking for authors and course creators
12:55 How long do you work on a book?
17:35 Can we expect a new book by Trisha?
21:00 Automating the writing process

24:50 Len Epp about Leanpub and how it started
27:18 On Leanpub, you can publish a book-in-progress
27:51 Different publishing processes with Leanpub
30:20 You can use LeanPub to generate your book, but you don't need to sell it on Leanpub
32:57 80% of the selling price goes to the author
40:09 How to market your book
45:35 Let an expert handle the payments...

50:55 Books by Wim Deblauwe
51:45 Wim's motivation for writing books
53:15 Earning back the time spent on the writing
54:37 How to sell paper books on Lulu
57:19 Tools used to write a book
58:34 Wim's author-plans for the future
59:42 How the books influenced Wim's career

01:00:02 Marián Varga about the topic of his book
01:03:07 Current status of the book
01:04:03 The book is a teamwork with a publisher
01:07:06 Organizing the work between multiple authors
01:09:17 Time worked on the book
01:10:40 Feedback from the community for the content
01:12:13 What Marián wants to achieve with the book

01:14:38 Conclusion

In this Foojay podcast, we dive into a few articles that were published recently and focus on code. Igor Kulakov of JetBrains gives us his insights into the tool he created to find duplicate content in documentation. Rijo Sam explains how you can generate real random values and how he created a train departure display. Maxillian Arruda explains in a very detailed post the different ways to construct a complex Java object. And we start with Wim De Troye about the code changes he had to do in a project that got upgraded from Spring Boot 2 to 3.

Guests
   Wim De Troyer
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/wim-de-troyer-40647b130/  
   Maximillian Arruda
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxarruda/  
   Rijo Sam
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/rijosam19/  
   Igor Kulakov
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/inspector-patronum/ 
      https://x.com/flounder4130  

Links

   https://foojay.io/today/the-proper-way-to-define-configuration-properties-in-spring/  
   https://foojay.io/today/make-the-life-of-your-developer-clients-easier-with-smart-builders/ 
   https://foojay.io/today/pseudorandom-number-generator/  
   https://foojay.io/today/crafting-your-own-railway-display-with-java/  
   https://foojay.io/today/duplicate-finder-for-text-requirements/ 

Content

00:00 Introduction of the topics and guests

00:55 Wim De Troyer
03:27 Pro or contra Lombok?
06:09 BeanValidation as part of the solution
07:40 Generating a config JSON file

08:50 Maxillian Arruda
09:19 What is a complex object?
12:09 Using records to simplify object creation
14:48 Telescoping constructors
16:08 Static factory method
19:09 Builder pattern
21:00 The risks of rewriting a project
23:00 Thread safety in object creation

27:53 Rijo Sam
29:07 java.util.Random is not fully random...
30:20 About SecureRandom, seeds, and blocking algorithms
34:16 Vaadin railway display
37:43 Getting railway data from an open API
38:44 It's a PET project together with Rijo's partner Ancy
40:22 Runs on a Raspberry Pi
41:18 The next project...

41:34 Igor Kulakov
43:02 DRY principle in documentation
43:37 How the tool works an integration in JetBrains products
44:54 Test-first approach in the project  
47:10 Not using AI (yet) to avoid extra cost, local systems could be integrated
48:22 Input data the tool can handle
49:14 Highlights of the blog (and following) post(s)

54:35 Outro

With the first Foojay podcast of 2025, we want to help you to boost your career! By now, you've likely had your year-end performance review with your manager and set some goals to advance in the coming year. Are you ready to take your career growth into your own hands? I've invited three fantastic guests who are eager to share their experiences and help you elevate your professional journey.

Guests
   Rafael Del Nero
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafadelnero/
      https://www.youtube.com/c/javachallengers
      https://javachallengers.com
   Bruno Souza
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/brjavaman/
      https://java.mn
      Career project/blog: https://code4.life/blog
      Book: https://careermasterplan.dev
      Join the newsletter, with daily career tips: https://code4.life
   Elder Moraes
      https://www.linkedin.com/in/eldermoraes/
      https://www.youtube.com/ElderMoraes
      https://instagram.com/eldermoraes

SouJava (JUG Brazil)

      https://www.meetup.com/SouJava/
      http://soujava.org.br/

Content

00:00 Introduction of topic and guests
01:44 Why are the guests mentors for others?
06:25 There are many important skills you need to develop
07:38 How are they handling the mentoring process?
15:58 A mentor needs a mentor himself
16:43 Different growing paths, technical versus managing
21:59 How participating in JUGs can evolve your career
30:50 The impact of being a Java Champion
33:33 What is the value of mentoring?
41:18 How to get a salary increase?
50:18 Just ask for any change you want!
59:44 Book Bruno
01:01:16 Outro