From Felix Computer Over Transylvania JUG to CodeBuild

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

An airhacks.fm conversation with Antonio Goncalves (@agoncal) about: journey from Java Champion to Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft focusing on AI, the evolution from Java EE standards to modern AI development, writing technical books with LLM assistance, langchain4j as a Java SDK for LLMs providing abstraction over different AI providers, the importance of Java standards and patterns for LLM code generation, Boundary Control Entity (BCE / ECB) pattern recognition by LLMs, quarkus integration with LangChain4J enabling dependency injection and multi-tenancy, MCP (Model Context Protocol) as a new standard potentially replacing some RAG use cases, enterprise AI adoption using Azure AI Foundry and AWS Bedrock, model routers for optimal LLM selection based on prompt complexity, the future of small specialized models versus large general models, tornadovm enabling Java execution on GPUs with 6x performance improvements, GraalVM native compilation for LLM applications, the resurgence of Java EE patterns in the age of AI, using prompts as documentation in READMEs and JavaDocs, the advantage of type-safe languages like Java for LLM understanding, Microsoft's contribution to open source AI projects including LangChain4J, teaching new developers with AI assistance and the importance of curiosity, CERN's particle accelerator and its use of Java, the comparison between old "hallucinating architects" and modern LLM hallucinations, writing books about AI using AI tools for assistance, the structure of the Understanding LangChain4j book covering models RAG tools and MCP, enterprise requirements for data privacy and model training restrictions Antonio Goncalves on twitter: @agoncal

An airhacks.fm conversation with Michalis Papadimitriou (@mikepapadim) about: GPU acceleration for LLMs in Java using tornadovm, evolution from CPU-bound SIMD optimizations to GPU memory management, Alfonso's original Java port of llama.cpp using SIMD and Panama Vector API achieving 10 tokens per second, TornadoVM's initial hybrid approach combining CPU vector operations with GPU matrix multiplications, memory-bound nature of LLM inference versus compute-bound traditional workloads, introduction of persist and consume API to keep data on GPU between operations, reduction of host-GPU data transfers for improved performance, comparison with native CUDA implementations and optimization strategies, JIT compilation of kernels versus static optimization in frameworks like tensorrt, using LLMs like Claude to optimize GPU kernels, building MCP servers for automated kernel optimization, European Space Agency using TornadoVM in production for simulations, upcoming Metal backend support for Apple Silicon within 6-7 months, planned support for additional models including Mistral and gemma, potential for distributed inference across multiple GPUs, comparison with python and C++ implementations achieving near-native performance, modular architecture supporting OpenCL PTX and future hardware accelerators, challenges of new GPU hardware vendors like tenstorrent focusing on software ecosystem, planned quarkus and langchain4j integration demonstrations Michalis Papadimitriou on twitter: @mikepapadim

An airhacks.fm conversation with Adam Dudczak (@maneo) about: early programming experiences with Commodore 64 and Pascal, demo scene participation through postal mail swapping of floppy disks, writing assembly code for 64K intros with music and graphics, developing digital library systems using Java Servlets and Hibernate, involvement in reactivating Poznan Java User Group in 2007, NetBeans Dream Team and NetBeans World Tour, appearing on Polish breakfast TV to discuss Java programming, working at Supercomputing Center on cultural heritage digitization projects, transitioning to EJB 3.0 and Glassfish based on conference inspirations, joining allegro in 2014 to rewrite search functionality from PHP to Java microservices, handling 14K requests per second with Solr-based search infrastructure, migrating big data stack from on-premise Hadoop to Google Cloud Platform, developing private banking application for children using Spring and Hibernate then migrating to Google Sheets with 70 lines of JavaScript, discussing public cloud cost optimization strategies, comparing AWS Lambda versus EC2 versus container services based on traffic patterns, emphasizing removal of code when moving to public cloud to leverage managed services, standardization benefits of Java EE for long-term maintenance and migration, quarkus as modern framework supporting old Jakarta EE code with fast startup times, importance of choosing appropriate persistence layer (S3 vs relational databases) based on cloud costs, serverless architectures for enterprise applications with predictable low traffic, differences between AWS Azure and GCP service offerings and pricing models, Turbo assembler project klatwa Adam Dudczak on twitter: @maneo