Lest We Not Grok... a review of "Jini[tm] Technology, an
Overview"
by Max K.
Goff, Technology Evangelist
It was 1998 on a warm summer day. I had the window open in my midtown Manhattan apartment. Across West 49th Street the high school had just let out and the rapture of the subway-bound student body shouting just above the din of horns and engines and screams of cabs and buses made me think I'd perhaps heard incorrectly. Did they really say super-computer? With this new thing from Sun Microsystems called Jini[tm] network technology, I could turn my laptop into a super-computer? What's this? And me a Sun Technology Evangelist, not in the know regarding such a clearly revolutionary and innovative technology? I was at once mystified and curious. How is such magic made possible? I swiveled my chair away from the net and scrambled for the TV remote. Sound. Where's the sound? And then, cut to commercial.
 |
"Jini
Technology, an Overview" by S. Ilango Kumaran |
When the CNBC announcer came back with the biz news update, nothing more substantial was said. Just the same bit of splash. "Sun Microsystems announced today a new technology called Jini that will let you turn your laptop into a super-computer. Company officials called the project 'ground breaking' and"...blah, blah, blah..."and now the stock report." I was stunned. Was Moore's Law suddenly refactored?
I returned to the net, craving secrets of this new incantation. How could such magic be? It would take days to ultimately find the source of the spell, and weeks to make a pilgrimage to Boston and the development group there. It was there that I learned the essence of the vision, the nature of its impact and the layers of its magic. Genie indeed. It was thus that I began an earnest exploration of yet another layer of the distributed computing liturgy and faith. But Jini was a grokking thing. And something just as profound that I have learned in the ensuing years is that getting a thing is a whole lot easier than explaining a thing. I know first hand how difficult it can be to explain Jini technology, even to the technically adept.
Lest we not grok, S. Ilango Kumaran has penned an eminently accessible book called "Jini Technology, an Overview." As a primer for programmers who would seek to understand the context and potential for the growing array of services which we demand from networks in the broadest sense, this book is a must.
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