Lighter AWS Lambda Power Tools For Java

An airhacks.fm conversation with Philipp Page (@PagePhilipp) about: Discussion about refactoring AWS Lambda Power Tools to remove AspectJ dependency and introduce functional interfaces, comparison between AspectJ and lombok for code generation, benefits of offloading work to build time for AWS Lambda performance, using quarkus build-time optimizations with Jandex and gizmo utilities, replacing slf4j with Java System Logger to reduce dependencies, implementing log buffering feature that flushes debug logs only on errors for proactive debugging, thread safety considerations in multi-threaded AWS Lambda executions, using Embedded Metrics Format (EMF) for CloudWatch metrics without prometheus, caching Parameter Store values to avoid throttling limits, structured logging benefits for nested JSON queries in CloudWatch Insights, detecting cold starts without reflection using class initialization tricks, future support for Java 25 and modern Java features like Scoped Values, Maven and Gradle plugin development for annotation processing, custom serializers for Kafka and Avro messages, potential java.util.json support for lightweight JSON parsing, middleware chain pattern implementation for Power Tools utilities, differences between reactive and proactive debugging approaches, cost optimization through EMF metrics instead of Prometheus scraping, BCE (Boundary Control Entity) architecture pattern for business metrics, performance benefits of removing reflection from metrics utility, CDK integration considerations for generated classes, request stream handlers as reflection-free alternatives Philipp Page on twitter: @PagePhilipp

An airhacks.fm conversation with Paul Sandoz (@paulsandoz) about: Devoxx conference experiences and Java's evolution over the past decade, energy efficiency studies comparing Java to C/Rust/Ada from 2017, Java performance improvements from Java 8 to Java 25, Code Reflection as manipulation of method bodies versus traditional reflection, tornadovm optimizations for GPU inference achieving 6-10x speedup over CPU, using pointers to keep data on GPUs avoiding transfer overhead, Metal support development for Apple Silicon, relationship between Project Babylon and TornadoVM, HAT project collaboration opportunities, Python's GPU performance through optimized NVIDIA libraries, enterprise challenges with Python in production versus Java's packaging simplicity, BLISS library for NumPy-like operations in Java, DJL.ai for tensor manipulation and Deep Learning, JTaccuino for Jupyter-style notebooks with JavaFX, MCP protocol implementation challenges with poor specification quality, minimal JSON API design philosophy for OpenJDK, cognitive overhead reduction in API design, pattern matching with JSON values, assertion-style API for fail-fast programming, JSON-P versus JSON-B trade-offs in enterprise applications, versioning challenges with data binding approaches, embedded HTTP server use cases for testing and development, JSON-java library as reference implementation, zero-dependency approach becoming more popular, Java 25 instance main methods with automatic java.base imports, zb zero-dependency builder project, marshalling and serialization rethinking in OpenJDK, trusted builds and dependency management in enterprise Java, comparison of Maven/Gradle complexity for simple projects, GPL licensing for OpenJDK code, the java.util.json experiment Paul Sandoz on twitter: @paulsandoz

An airhacks.fm conversation with Philipp Page (@PagePhilipp) about: early computing experiences with Windows XP and Intel Pentium systems, playing rally car games like Dirt with split-screen multiplayer, transitioning from gaming to server administration through Minecraft, running Minecraft servers at age 13 with memory limitations and out-of-memory exceptions, implementing caching mechanisms with cron jobs and MySQL databases, learning about SQL injection attacks and prepared statements, discovering connection pooling advantages over PHP approaches, appreciating type safety and Object-oriented programming principles in Java, the tendency to over-abstract and create unnecessary abstractions as junior developers, obsession with avoiding dependencies and implementing frameworks from scratch, building custom Model-View-Controller patterns and dependency injection systems, developing e-learning platform for aerospace industry using PHP Symfony framework, implementing time series forecasting in pure Java without external dependencies, internship and employment at AWS Dublin in Frontier Networking team, working on AWS Outposts and Ground Station hybrid cloud offerings, using python and rust for networking control plane development, learning to appreciate Python despite initial resistance to dynamically typed languages, joining AWS Lambda Powertools team as Java tech lead, maintaining open-source serverless development toolkit, providing utilities for observability including structured JSON logging with Lambda-specific information, implementing metrics and tracing for distributed event-driven architectures, mapping utilities to AWS Well-Architected Framework serverless lens recommendations, caching parameters and secrets to improve scalability and reduce costs, debate about AspectJ dependency and alternatives like Micronaut and quarkus approaches, providing both annotation-based and programmatic interfaces for utilities, newer utilities like Kafka consumer avoiding AspectJ dependency, comparing Micronaut's compiler-based approach and Quarkus extensions for bytecode generation, AspectJ losing popularity in enterprise Java projects, preferring Java standards over external dependencies for long-term maintainability, agents in electricity trading simulations for renewable energy scenarios, comparing on-premise Java capabilities versus cloud-native AWS features, default architecture pattern of Lambda with S3 for persistent storage, using AWS Calculator for cost analysis before architecture decisions, event-driven architectures being native to AWS versus artificially created in traditional Java projects, everything in AWS emitting events naturally through services like EventBridge, filtering events rather than creating them artificially, avoiding unnecessary microservices complexity when simple method calls suffice, directly wiring API Gateway to DynamoDB without Lambda for no-code solutions, using Java for CDK infrastructure as code while minimizing runtime dependencies, maximizing cloud-native features when in cloud versus on-premise optimization strategies, starting with simplest possible architecture and justifying complexity, blue-green deployments and load balancing handled automatically by Lambda, internal AWS teams using Lambda for orchestration and event interception, Lambda as foundational zero-level service across AWS infrastructure, preferring highest abstraction level services like Lambda and ECS Fargate, only dropping to EC2 when specific requirements demand lower-level control, contributing to Powertools for AWS Lambda Python repository before joining team, compile-time weaving avoiding Lambda cold start performance impacts, GraalVM compilation considerations for Quarkus and Micronaut approaches, customer references available on Powertools website, contrast between low-level networking and serverless development, LinkedIn as primary social media platform for professional connections, Powertools for AWS Lambda (Java) Philipp Page on twitter: @PagePhilipp

An airhacks.fm conversation with Gabriel Pop (@vwggolf3) about: Romanian communist-era Felix HC91 computer with Z80 processor and 64KB RAM, learning programming through Basic and cassette tape storage, attending specialized informatics high school class in northern Romania, teachers from former communist computing center, learning Pascal and building word-guessing game for graduation project, pressure and competitiveness in academic environment, entering Cluj-Napoca Technical University computer science program as second-ranked student, studying in English-taught program, learning Java through Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java book, working as Java developer during university using German method names for Frankfurt-based company, using Struts framework with Hibernate and JSPs for web development, joining Betfair.com as early employee in Romanian office, founding Transylvania Java User Group in 2008 with iconic Dracula-themed Duke logo, organizing 60+ meetups with 120-150 regular attendees, receiving support from international JUG leaders like Antonio Gonçalves and Michael Hüttermann, transitioning to engineering leadership roles, working at various companies including Uber Amsterdam managing cash payment systems, health tech startup using PHP, Catawiki marketplace using Ruby on Rails, currently working at AWS on CodeBuild and CodePipeline, discussing need for corretto 25 support in AWS services, importance of Java LTS versions for developers Gabriel Pop on twitter: @vwggolf3

An airhacks.fm conversation with Alvaro Hernandez (@ahachete) about: Framework laptop experience and build process with DIY edition, modular connectors and upgradability, running Ubuntu 25.10 beta with nix package manager, automating installation with YAML and Ansible, comparison with IBM AS/400 feature activation model, docker adoption history for server maintenance and documentation, PostgreSQL extensions, upgradability and security concerns, challenges with packing 1000+ extensions into container images, security concerns with large monolithic images containing unused extensions, dynamic extension injection using sidecar pod local controller in kubernetes, problems with mutating running containers and security tool compliance, traditional Docker build approach requiring users to become image maintainers, challenging assumptions about container image immutability and Merkle tree, container images as JSON manifests pointing to tar file layers, Dynamic OCI Registry concept for composing images on-the-fly, generating manifests dynamically in milliseconds without Docker build, interface-based approach for mapping user preferences to layer digests, PostgreSQL-specific implementation with extension URL patterns, metadata storage in PostgreSQL database for layer digest resolution, potential applications for quarkus and Java microservices, serverless deployment possibilities with AWS Lambda, comparison with Cloudflare's serverless OCI registry, enterprise use cases for automated patching and security updates, integration possibilities with AWS EventBridge for CI/CD pipelines, transparency to Docker clients with only registry change required, stackgres platform using 4 million lines of Java code, ongres company services including PostgreSQL training and Oracle migrations, Alvaro's website: aht.es Alvaro Hernandez on twitter: @ahachete

An airhacks.fm conversation with Ronald Dehuysser (@rdehuyss) about: JobRunner evolution from open source to processing 1 billion jobs daily, carbon-aware job processing using European energy grid data ( ENTSO-E ) for scheduling jobs during renewable energy peaks, correlation between CO2 emissions and energy prices for cost optimization, JobRunner Pro vs Open Source features including workflows and multi-tenancy support, bytecode analysis using ASM for lambda serialization, JSON serialization for job state persistence, support for relational databases and MongoDB with potential S3 and DynamoDB integration, distributed processing with master node coordination using heartbeat mechanism, scale-to-zero architecture possibilities using AWS EventBridge Scheduler, Java performance advantages showing 35x faster than python in benchmarks, cloud migration patterns from on-premise to serverless architectures, criticism of kubernetes complexity and lift-and-shift cloud migrations, cost-driven architecture approach using AWS Lambda and S3, quarkus as fastest Java runtime for cloud deployments, infrastructure as code using AWS CDK with Java, potential WebAssembly compilation for Edge Computing, automatic retry mechanisms with exponential backoff, dashboard and monitoring capabilities, medical industry use case with critical cancer result processing, professional liability insurance for software errors, comparison with executor service for non-critical tasks, scheduled and recurring job support, carbon footprint reduction through intelligent scheduling, spot instance integration for cost optimization, simplified developer experience with single JAR deployment, automatic table creation and data source detection in Quarkus, backwards compatibility requirements for distributed nodes, future serverless edition possibilities Ronald Dehuysser on twitter: @rdehuyss

An airhacks.fm conversation with Maurice Naftalin (@mauricenaftalin) about: retirement philosophy and work-life balance for developers, transitioning from paid work to passion projects, the challenge of relaxation and meditation versus constant activity, the importance of experiencing boredom in a fast-paced world, Java collections framework design and evolution over 30 years, the Collection interface as base for sets lists and queues but not Maps, mathematical foundations of sets using Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms, differences between mathematical sets and Java set implementations, NavigableSet and SortedSet using comparators versus hash-based equality, non-commutative equality between HashSet and NavigableSet implementations, CopyOnWriteArraySet for concurrent read-heavy operations with snapshot isolation, ConcurrentSkipListSet as thread-safe tree structure using skip lists algorithm, skip lists simulating tree behavior through parallel linked lists with sparse copies, Queue interface uncomfortable fit with Collection interface focusing on head/tail operations, BlockingQueue implementations for producer-consumer workflow scenarios, Deque (double-ended queue) enabling work-stealing patterns in Fork-Join framework, Map interface separate from Collection hierarchy representing key-value pairs, Map.of() factory methods using array-based optimization limited to 10 elements, WeakHashMap using weak references on keys for memory-sensitive caching, IdentityHashMap using reference equality (==) useful for serialization graphs, EnumMap and EnumSet using bitmap optimization for performance, String.intern() optimization hack for fast string comparison using reference equality, enum design limitations with final name() method preventing override customization, Epsilon garbage collector for short-lived servers avoiding GC overhead, the remarkable durability of Josh Bloch's original Collections Framework design under time pressure, balancing API simplicity with supporting unusual use cases, converting between different data structure representations and naming conventions, the Java Generics and Collections book Maurice Naftalin on twitter: @mauricenaftalin

An airhacks.fm conversation with Ingo Kegel (@IngoKegel) about: jclasslib bytecode viewer development history starting in 2001, transition from CVS to Subversion to Git, SourceForge to GitHub migration, Swing UI development with FlatLaf look and feel, comparison between Swing and SWT APIs, Eclipse plugin development experiences, Visual Studio Code integration with jprofiler, Homebrew package management for Mac applications, Java desktop module and modularization, jlink for creating trimmed JDK distributions, security benefits of shipping only required modules, Java compatibility improvements since Java 17, Base64 encoder becoming public API, internal API access restrictions with module system, comparison of Java installation simplicity versus Node.js and python, potential JSON support in future JDK versions, NetBeans integration attempt and recognition issues, bytecode instrumentation for profiling, asm and ByteBuddy as standard bytecode manipulation libraries, class file format evolution and complexity, module system introducing new structures, stack map tables and verification challenges, using JClassLib for method signature extraction, dokka documentation system for Kotlin, package.md and package-info documentation patterns, potential revival of Swing for modern desktop applications, simplified application architectures compared to enterprise apps with 30-40 tabs, LLM and AI making applications simpler with chat interfaces, JClassLib use cases including learning JVM internals and editing class files, approximately 3000 GitHub stars indicating 30000+ users, IntelliJ IDEA plugin availability, physicist background influencing interest in Java internals, Java Language Specification and Class File Format books, experimental physics approach to understanding JVM Ingo Kegel on twitter: @IngoKegel

An airhacks.fm conversation with Ingo Kegel (@IngoKegel) about: jprofiler Visual Studio Code integration using Kotlin Multiplatform, migrating Java code to Kotlin common code for cross-platform compatibility, transpiling to JavaScript for Node.js runtime, JClassLib bytecode viewer and manipulation library, Visual Studio Code's Language Server Protocol (LSP), profiling unit tests and performance regression testing, Java Flight Recorder (JFR) for production monitoring with custom business events, cost-driven development in cloud environments, serverless architecture with AWS Lambda and S3, performance optimization with parallelism in single-CPU environments, integrating profiling data with LLMs for automated optimization, MCP servers for AI agent integration, Gradle and Maven build system integration, cooperative window switching between JProfiler and VS Code, memory profiling and thread analysis, comparing streams vs for-loops performance, brokk AI's Swing-based LLM development tool, context-aware performance analysis, automated code optimization with AI agents, business event correlation with low-level JVM metrics, cost estimation based on cloud API calls, quarkus for fast startup times in serverless, performance assertions in System Tests, multi-monitor development workflow support Ingo Kegel on twitter: @IngoKegel

An airhacks.fm conversation with Stephan Janssen (@Stephan007) about: Devoxx Belgium conference selling out in seconds with 7000+ page views, ticket coordination strategies by companies, VAT validation issues with European services, conference featuring largest Java AI content globally, AI and LLM focus with dedicated GenAI track, MCP and AI agents presentations, Java on GPU with tornadovm and Babylon project, quarkus AI agents for langchain4j, vibes coding experiences with React and Angular, importance of specifications for AI code generation, using multiple LLMs for review (Claude, GPT, DeepSeek), file system RAG replacing vector databases, MCP as evolution of RAG, Java as optimal language for LLM code generation due to type safety and standards, bce pattern and MicroProfile for consistent code structure, package-info files improving LLM context understanding, junior developers benefiting from AI as universal tutor, CSS generation without manual coding, dark/light theme support using CSS variables, enterprise challenges with dependency management, DevoxxGenie plugin popularity in enterprises with restricted AI access, open source contribution challenges, local LLMs becoming powerful for enterprise inference, TornadoVM Metal support enabling local inference, comparison with GraalVM inference performance, AI disrupting video production and creative industries, importance of prompt engineering skills, renaissance of development through AI empowerment Stephan Janssen on twitter: @Stephan007