As most of you already know (if you don’t, never mind, I will forgive you ), I’m going to give a lightning talk in the Free Java Dev room at FOSDEM about Groovy. The title will be “Groovy: the cool side of java” and basically it will be an hand-on speech. No slide, just code. I will start from a simple Java code and I will rewrite it in Groovy. During the demo/live I will give some basics explanation about how is groovy working and we will see the power and the value that Groovy add at the top of JVM compared with a static language like Java.

Here the code that I wrote:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Collections;

class TestJava{
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      new DoStuffs().doIt();
   }
}

class DoStuffs{

   public void doIt(){

   List al = new ArrayList();

   System.out.println("* Initial size of"+al.getClass()+" :  " + al.size() + " with elements "+al);

   al.add("this");
   al.add("is");
   al.add("just");
   al.add("test");

   System.out.println("* Final size of"+al.getClass()+" :  " + al.size() + " with elements "+al);
   System.out.println("* Let's add some stuffs");

   al.add(2,"a");
   al.add(3,"cool");

   System.out.println("* Done "+al);
   System.out.println("");

   System.out.println("- Before ordering"+al);
   Collections.sort(al);
   System.out.println("- After ordering "+al);
   System.out.println("");

   List al2 = al.subList(2,4);

   System.out.println("- Sublisting "+al2);
   System.out.println("");

   if(al.size() > 0){
      for (int i=0; i< al.size(); i++) {
         al.set(i, al.get(i)+" \\o/ ");
      }

      System.out.println("Let's show the element in the reverse order: ");
      for (int i=al.size()-1; i>=0; i--){
         System.out.println("<"+i+"> "+al.get(i));
      }
   }

   if(al != null){
      List sub = new ArrayList();

      for (int i=0; i< al.size(); i++) {
         String el = (String) al.get(i);
         if(el.contains("t")) {
            sub.add(al.get(i));
         }
      }
      System.out.println("- After grep "+ sub);
    }
  }
}

Cerea is a small town, near Verona, characterized by a really huge exposition area, called AreaExpo, which counts a long series of events and expositions every year.

Before talking about the conference, I would like to talk a bit about the story of this event. Since I had the first contact and we got introduced to the possibility to have an active participation there, I was convinced on the importance of it. As Italian ambassadors we had to consider it as a key event.

Everything was possible thanks to Emanuele, friend and university mate, involved in some NPO of the area: LUGMan, Protezione civile, ARCO, etc. During MemoByte 2009, he introduced us to this fair and propose a huge Fedora participation.
I attended the Summer edition on August with Davide to have a look at the area and a better idea of the place. I was really impressed about it. Basically, the exposition area is divided into two parts: the exposition and the conference room with spots for 250 people.

The initial proposal and idea was to fill the conference room with talks during all the fair; I could say my best wish was to have Chitlesh Goorah speaking about Fedora FEL.

Unfortunately (and sadly) the Italian community didn’t answer very well (when I proposed it I got as answer only complains about the distance, the place, this and that…and so on…), so we (me and Emanuele) decided to do something lighter, less heavy (even for who organized) and with less resources required: a booth in the exposition area.

The (dream) team was composed by 5 people: Me, Alexjan, Marina, Davide and Lorenzo. The plans was to get there on Friday evening (I arrived on Saturday morning), stay there until Sunday evening. Due the impossibility to came back every night I arranged to sleep in an hostel near Cerea.

The exposition was really good, basically full of electronic, used stuff, radio amateurs, and various mixed booths. Indeed it was full of people; the organizations estimate around 10000 ~25000 people attended the event. We got also a really nice position, we were placed near the entrance, where all the people passed by after entering in the area.
A lot of people stop by and try the computers, ask questions and talk with us; statistically speaking most of them were above 40 years old, but I saw also some young people (not so many anyway).
The most common question people asked us were: “why not Ubuntu?” and “what are the differences?”; someone asked also “What is Linux?”. Next time I’ll bring a “fedora starter kit” with the most Frequently Asked Questions.

I really like the way we handle this event. My organization was a bit confused at the beginning because 1000Km distance are not handy but the team did and excellent job. In fact I cannot to say thanks to Stefano, who didn’t join us but did a fundamental job by helping me, like my right hand.
On my side, there are a lot of stuff that have to be improved, we manage successfully to get some CDs and DVDs (thanks to fedora) but due to some problems I couldn’t print the latest 4 foundation banner, we used the old Freedom, Voice and Infinity one.
Next time I want to design and try a new gadget concept. Instead of having CDs and DVDs I want to prepare and give a transparent plastic CD cover without a CD/DVD inside, but just information about:
• what is fedora
• how download and burn it
• how to join

Why this? Because, in Italy at least, most of the people who ask for CD/DVD don’t really need it, they need only the cover and the information printed on it.

Last but not least, this, for now, will be the last even I’ll organize in Italy. I’m now busy on FAmSCo stuffs and I still have to getting in and being more productive. Moreover the distance doesn’t help me, and I would like to see if the Italian community can walk without me.

I also decided to give my Ambassador polo, which is really big for me (I’ll get a new one two size less) to Alexjan. Like Max give to me for my involvement in Fedora, I’ll give to him because he is really doing good stuff for Fedora.
I have to congratulate with him and with all of the team, for the passion, the care and the effort they put on this event: I have to give my welcome to Marina, who will join our ambassador community.

In conclusion, this event was double worthy. Looking the relation with the outside world, we spot in a prolific (linux speaking) area and will give us opportunities to have at least two/three events per year. Looking internally we enhance our team, our relations, I believe having a face-to-face speaking was 10000 better than talking only via email and fortified your relation for present and future.

You can find additional photos from the event here.

The thing I like about you
Is the way you
The way that you do
The thing I like about you

God and the devil alone
Could not have made you up
The two must have worked
As one together

So good just wanna eat you up
Nothing like the real thing
Lick your sticky fingers boy
And sing for your dinner sing

Come on pretty baby
Make me lose my mind
Everybody get together
Gonna make love shine

Do you know what it is
To feel the light of love inside you?
And all the darkness falls away
If you feel the way I feel
Then believe we have the answer
I’ve been searching for tonight
Love me baby love me baby
Shake me like a monkey baby
Forever I’m yours yours yours
Yeah forever I’m

I, I, I
Can’t stop thinking about you
Yeah yeah yeah
Why would I want to

I like my coffee with toast and jelly
But I’d rather be licking
From your back to your belly
I, I, I
Think I’m going to

Do you know what it is
To feel the light of love inside you?
And all the darkness falls away
If you feel the way I feel
Then believe we have the answer
I’ve been searching for tonight
Love me baby love me baby
Shake me like a monkey baby
Forever I’m yours yours yours
Yeah forever I’m

Cigarettes and coffee
Broken hearts and being lonely
Little girls and ponies
Things that go together

Yes and no
You have to choose
Romeo and Juliet
The hang man and his noose
You and me we go good together

Kiss kiss make a wish
Hope that it comes true
I ain’t waiting for the world to change
Gonna change the world for you

Come on pretty baby
Make you lose your mind
Everybody get together
Gonna make love shine

Do you know what it is
To feel the light of love inside you?
And all the darkness falls away
If you feel the way I feel
Then believe we have the answer
I’ve been searching for tonight
Love me baby love me baby
Shake me like a monkey baby
Forever I’m yours yours yours
Yeah forever I’m

Come on everybody
Make me lose my mind
Everybody get together
Gonna make love shine

As promise to Venkat Subramaniam, here the photo of our groovy manifest outside our office (unfortunately our colleague Davide wasn’t present that day), here the same photo with some notes.

Today I had to select some files from different directories copy in another. Despite it seemed a simple task, it wasn’t. The files were a lot, so I had to pack it.

Basically the structure of the directories was something like:


/A/US/file1
/A/US/file2
/A/US/file3
/A/UK/file1
/A/UK/file2
/A/UK/file3
...
/B/US/file1
/B/US/file2
/B/US/file3
/B/UK/file1
/B/UK/file2
/B/UK/file3

and I had to select the N% of the files from each of the second level directories (AA,AB, AC…and so on).

I wrote this short script that select only N% (parameter inside the script) of the files from the directory, pack it (without any structure information), and copy on the destination directory:

import java.util.zip.*

def createZip(destination, fileList) {
    try{
        byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];

        ZipOutputStream out = new ZipOutputStream(new
            FileOutputStream(destination));
        out.setLevel(Deflater.DEFAULT_COMPRESSION);
        fileList.each { selected ->
            FileInputStream in_ = new FileInputStream(selected);
            //the new File(selected).getName() return just the name of the file,
            //in order to remove the directory structure inside.
            out.putNextEntry(new ZipEntry(new File(selected).getName()));

            int len;
            while ((len = in_.read(buffer)) > 0) {
                out.write(buffer, 0, len);
            }
            out.closeEntry();
            in_.close();
        }
        out.close();
    }
    catch (IllegalArgumentException iae)
    {
        iae.printStackTrace();
    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException fnfe)
    {
        fnfe.printStackTrace();
    }
    catch (IOException ioe)
    {
        ioe.printStackTrace();
    }

    null
}

/**
  * Script
 **/
def rootDirectory = /C:\inputDirectory/
def outputDirectory = /C:\outputDirectory/

if ((!new File(rootDirectory).list()) || (! new File(outputDirectory).list())){
    println "Error. Input or Output directory are not valid."
    throw new RuntimeException() //TODO: understand how to exit without raising an exception
}

def directories = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']
def percentageRules = 5    //5 = 5% of the rules for each country

directories.each{ subDirectory ->
    println "listing ${rootDirectory}\\${subDirectory}"
    def directoryList = new File("${rootDirectory}\\${subDirectory}").list()
    if( directoryList ){
        directoryList.each{ elem ->
            def fileList = new File("${rootDirectory}\\${subDirectory}\\${elem}").list().grep{ !it.contains('out') }
            def numberFiles = (fileList.size() * 5 / 100) as Integer
            if ((numberFiles == 0) && (fileList.size() > 0)) {
                numberFiles = fileList.size()
            }
            println "Zipping ${numberFiles} (${percentageRules}%) of files from ${rootDirectory}\\${subDirectory}\\${elem} into ${outputDirectory}\\${subDirectory}-${elem}.zip"

            if(numberFiles){
                fileList = fileList.collect{ e ->
                    "${rootDirectory}\\${subDirectory}\\${elem}\\${e}"
                }
                createZip("${outputDirectory}\\${subDirectory}-${elem}.zip", fileList[0..<numberFiles])

                /* The old version copied the files instead of zipping it, using AntBuilder,
                   you can use it if you don't need to zip the files. */
                /*
                fileList[0..<numberFiles].each{
                    ( new AntBuilder ( ) ).copy ( file : "${rootDirectory}\\${subDirectory}\\${elem}\\${inputF}" , tofile : "${outputDirectory}\\${inputF}" )
                }
                */
            }
        }
    }
}

I wrote it rushing, and I copied somewhere the first method (which was java), so might be errors or better ways. Anyway any suggestion are welcome.

Yesterday I got the good news about fedora FAmSCo (Fedora Ambassador Sterling Committee) elections, I was running for: I got elected in the board!

I finally want to do something different for Fedora, writing less code and start getting some responsibility, in order to grow in some aspects I’ve seen before.

Many many compliments to who have been elected and also for who haven’t, I’m sure next time will go better

The Groovy & Grails eXchange, organized by skillsmatter, was the first international conferences about software development I’ve attended in my career. Before I was more concentrated mostly on Linux and the Fedoraproject (FOSDEM, Linux TAG for instance).

The conference was headed in London from December 9th to 10th. The first day was focuses on Groovy and the second on Grails. I went there with Raffaele and Davide, friends and colleague of mine (we work together in Holland). As the conferences last Wednesday and Thursday, we decided to get Friday off and stay in London during the week end to visit the city (I already been there almost one year ago but London is always lovely).

At the conference there were about 150 people, mostly developers (heavy twitter users), in particular freelancers and really small companies from all over the world.

I really found all the speech really interesting. Guillaume Laforge spoke about the features of Groovy 1.7 and above (we even had a brief introduction about what are they considering to include in the 1.8 release) and Graeme Rocher introduced Grails 1.2.0 and the new plug-in development approach.

Based on my work in Holland, I really appreciated the ‘Groovy code kata’  talk from Dierk Koening and the DSL speech from Verkat Subramaniam. I had a really interesting chat with him about DSLs, in particular about what we should consider more important to balance the DSL we designed and are using in our project (I swear, I’ll post about it). I found Verkat really good to make examples in order to help you to understand better complexed concepts (DSL by examples might be a suggestion for next book ).

You can find some photos about the conference itself here and here.

I’m really satisfied by this conference, I met a lot of people and exchange contact with them to keep in touch and, at the end I won Grails in Action book. I also met also three guys from the NLGUG (Netherland Groovy User Group): Erik, Alex and Sebastien. They were really interested to my work with groovy and they invited me to give a speech, next year, to the Groovy User Group. I already accepted because it’s cool to meet new people on topics I like and I’ll get the opportunity to get more integrated into the local groups.

I met also Alberto Brandolini (ZioBrando for most of the people), who is a trainer for skillsmatter and a expert software architect in Italy. Before, he saw only a name and a photo but fortunately I had the opportunity to spoke with him to exchange some ideas and suggestion.

After the conferences we enjoy London for three days. I can say that I love London, and it’s strange because London is chaotic and I’m not use to it, but it has a fashion and a people integration level that is difficult(may be impossible) to find in any other cities (maybe in New York, but I’ve never been there, yet).

Maybe after my project in Holland will be finished, I’ll move there for a while, who knows. But we’ll see.

From London I can say that English people are really crazy, or they drink like sponges. I really would like to know how many drink they drink: I saw people with t-shirt in the middle of the night with around 0° or below, is it possible to survive? I would like to know how can they drink English beers: for me are too warm and they have a strange bitter after-taste.

Anyway London is fantastic and beautiful.  Period.

I took some photos, you can find here.

This draw can explain more than 1000 worlds why this flu is a fake..

When I was in Italy, I was used to travel by bus to go to work. About a year ago they renew the website and give to customers the possibility to subscribe to a newsletter that announced changes in the path of the bus, due to works on the street and so on.

I still a subscriber of this newsletter (that I guess is useful), more for laziness, but tonight I receive a message about a variation of path in Melegnano.

First of all two words about it. Melegnano can be considered the pain in the ass of every person is travelling to Milan from the South, vice-versa (but also in any direction that include this bloody city). There aren’t big streets to avoid you to pass inside the city and the roads available are small, that means queues every day and almost every hours! Every people would like to blow up Melegnano and build an highway instead (by the way I know some nice people from that city, none of them I would see hurt).

Anyway, today I saw an email from the bus company said the path will change for one day because in Melegnano there will be men at works for the pruning of plants in one street (Viale repubblica),  from 7:00 to 16:00. Guess, that street is one of the main street people use to pass throu the city. What does that means? Jungle!

After reading that I starts guessing all my emotions during the travels to and back to work (and I can say that I’m one of the luckiest guys in my company), with car or bus. Will be able to come back to my previous life? Probably not. That because the quality of life is mostly based on the environment around your job, and I guess, the travel can change a lot how you feel (like or dislike) your job.

Of course there isn’t a place without defect…but we’ll see (after the Dutch winter)

Yeah. I finally decided, after long guessing, pondering and evaluating, to add myself to the Fedora Ambassador Sterling Committee election nomination list. I really appreciated that Francesco Ugolini asked me to nominate myself for FAmSCo elections, that means the job I’m hardly doing for the Italian Community is good.

My long-terms goals are really simple (and you can find it in the link above) and world wide:

• Keep FAmSCo up to date on Local groups activities/problems/improvements;
• Improve communication within and outside the FAmSCo and the fedora ambassadors project
• Help Ambassadors with events organization, supporting Ambassadors ideas and initiatives.

Vote vote vote (for me of course)