JavaPolis day 3

Open Source Java Programming
Mike Cannon-Brooks of Atlassian gave a great session on using open source to develop (in particular web) applications in Java.
Often, developers tend to use the open source library as is, sticking to the default implementation the library provides.
But more often, open source libraries provide extension points that can be used to extend its behavior in a way that is more suited to developer's needs; it is just a matter of knowing at best what you're using for your daily development, since it can save a lot of time !
Checkout Atlassian's open source stuff at http://opensource.atlassian.com: great stuff.

Groovy
James Strachan and Dion Almaer gave a friendly introduction to Groovy.
This language is growing and certainly needs attention (despite Hani's bashing ;-).
James and Dion like to be on the stage, and are brave enough to have introduced GStrings in Groovy :-D
Jokes apart, it is quite amazing the number of uses that one can make of Groovy, so if you have some free time, go check it out.