src/content/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-bien.html - netbeans-website-cleanup - Git at Google

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 <h1>Series: Meet the Dream Team Members</h1>
 <span style="font-style: italic;">(In January 2007, we announced the 11
 charter members of the <a
  href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/NetBeansDreamTeam">NetBeans
 Dream
 Team</a>, a community-oriented group of highly skilled NetBeans users
 devoted to promoting NetBeans and working on the NetBeans Project. In
 these interviews discover who they are, why they are passionate about
 NetBeans and what goals they have for the NetBeans project.)</span>
 <br>
 <br>
 <br>
 <h1>Adam Bien</h1>
 <img style="width: 252px; height: 226px;"
  alt="NetBeans Dream Team Member Adam Bien"
  src="../../../images_www/articles/interviews/adam-bien.jpg" align="left"
  hspace="5" vspace="5">Java EE architect, developer, speaker, trainer,
 author, blogger, consultant, Java champion—Adam Bien wears many hats,
 including one as a member of the NetBeans Dream Team. A Java developer
 since the early days of JDK 1.0, he works primarily as an independent
 consultant helping companies to implement Java architecture and
 applications. He has authored seven books and 50 articles about Java EE
 development, and has spoken at many international conferences,
 including JavaONE. He also maintains a popular <a
  href="http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/">blog</a> where he
 regularly shares his expertise about the Java EE framework. He is based
 in Munich, Germany.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>How did you get started with Java EE development?</h5>
 I started with J2EE around 1999 before it was actually released. Most
 of the J2EE APIs, like JNDI, Servlets, JDBC, RMI/IIOP, JMS, EJB 1.0,
 were already available and I used them in projects already. The main
 problem those days was the support of different versions and
 API-constalations by different vendors. The application servers weren't
 even similar. The introduction of J2EE was a huge improvement from the
 non-functional perspective. You could at least rely on the existence of
 a particular API. I started with Sun's Java Web Server (with
 Applet-based administration console). My first projects were
 e-commerce, distributed CORBA apps, content management systems, and I
 built some Swing applications as well.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>When did you discover the NetBeans IDE?</h5>
 I tried NetBeans in the early days (version 3.5), but I actually didn't
 like it. It looked terrible and had some strange concepts like mounting
 jars, instead of just putting them into the classpath. It was not only
 “my” problem; it was really hard to convince other developers to use
 it. I started to use 4.0 in a project for WYSIWIG Swing-construction,
 but this was long before Matisse. By NetBeans 5.0, I was using the IDE
 for most of my projects. NetBeans IDE 6.0 I use almost exclusively for
 my commercial and open-source work.<br>
 &nbsp;<br>
 The huge benefit of today's NetBeans IDE is the cohesive and
 well-integrated functionality. There is no need to search and download
 additional plug-ins after the IDE is installed—a timesaver. NetBeans is
 superb in the Java EE 5 area, and catching up everywhere else. The
 editor has significantly improved. I just enjoy working with the IDE in
 general. But there are some issues with incremental deployment under
 Windows which will be fixed in the next version, I'm told. NetBeans
 annotates the methods and not attributes in JPA objects, so I don't use
 the wizard. However these are only a minor problems—nothing is perfect.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>Greenfire, a project of yours, does something very cool. Tell us
 about it.</h5>
 <a href="http://greenfire.dev.java.net/">Greenfire</a> is an
 open-source Java EE 5 project aimed at managing heating systems in a
 convenient and efficient way. Greenfire runs in my house—it is mission
 critical because winters are cold in Bavaria! I was unhappy with the
 heating behavior of my home—solar energy wasn't getting as leveraged as
 I expected. I use a combination of solar energy and wood to heat the
 house. But before Greenfire, wood heating provided much of the heat
 thus precious solar hours were lost....<br>
 <br>
 Greenfire is able to control the heating remotely and provides a simple
 Java API to do it. Every five minutes Greenfire checks all sensors, the
 weather forecast and decides what to do. It basically sets the heating
 modes: “On, Off, Summer and Auto”. At the end, it writes all decisions
 and sensor data (interesting for reports) to the Java DB. Greenfire
 runs on Glassfish v2 and was built with the NetBeans IDE. I saved about
 10-30% in my home's primary energy consumption. My heating bill
 decreased as well.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>How did you use NetBeans IDE for Greenfire?</h5>
 I used NetBeans for the whole process – from coding over test until
 deployment. NetBeans is especially nice in that it allows me to test
 and deploy the project locally and then deploy it remotely – just with
 one click. You can specify the server on the EAR (right mouse click,
 “run” node) and the target deployment. The well-integrated remote
 debugger and profiler simplified the development further and saved time.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>What is Greenfire's current status?</h5>
 Greenfire has been in production for two years. It is absolutely
 functional. I have to check in the remaining sources and do a bit of
 refactoring too. They are already some vendors interested in it, but
 I've decided to open-source it first. I wrote it initially just for my
 own use, but I'm amazed at how simple it is and how well it works. <br>
 <br>
 <h5>Are you an advocate of “green living”?</h5>
 It is easier to justify the many nightly hacking hours if the end
 result is going to be good for the environment. In my opinion, you
 should always try to behave “greenly”, especially if it has only a
 minor impact on your living quality and doesn't take a lot of effort.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>Do you have a “green” approach as well to your work as a developer?</h5>
 I try to conserve my developing energy—to get rid off superfluous
 concepts, patterns and even architectures. Less is more—be lazy and
 save your energy.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>How did you become a Java EE speaker and trainer?</h5>
 Sun asked me during the Systems Fair in Munich (around 1996) to give
 some classes in the architecture and design area. I took the chance and
 said “yes”. Training others is also an opportunity to learn, especially
 when you have eager students with good questions. My speaking “career”
 started similarly. At the first JAX conference in Germany (2001), I was
 asked to deliver a session about the Apache's James Server and caching
 framework. I liked it, and have enjoyed speaking at conferences ever
 since.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>You're also a prolific writer. Where do you find the time to write,
 speak and consult?</h5>
 As a consultant I travel a lot, so I write and prepare my talks during
 my “dead” time, mostly on trains and planes, and in hotels. It's good
 to know that your traveling time isn't totally wasted. However, coding
 and real-world projects are my number one priority. <br>
 <br>
 <h5>Do you have any books planned about NetBeans?</h5>
 Not about, but with. I already used NetBeans to draw the UML diagrams
 and sample code for the last two books. It was really efficient and the
 diagrams look really slick. I don't plan to write a book about the
 NetBeans IDE because there are already excellent <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/kb/articles/books.html">books</a> out
 there. Besides that, there are many free articles, <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/kb/index.html">tutorials</a>, <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/kb/60/screencasts.html">screencasts</a>
 that provide useful information too.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>Is it true that you're the top expert in Java EE?</h5>
 I've been using J2EE / Java EE 5 from the beginning, and there are
 still things I don't know. It can be dangerous to consider yourself an
 expert, then you stop learning and your knowledge becomes worthless
 within a few years. I would rather call myself a really passionate
 power user.<br>
 <br>
 <h5>How would you make the NetBeans IDE eco-friendly?</h5>
 Here's an easy first step: change the coloring schemes to black. A
 black screen saves energy.<br>
 <br>
 <div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a
  href="http://www.adam-bien.com/"><br>
 </a></span>
 <div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.adam-bien.com/">Adam
 Bien's Website</a><br>
 <a href="http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/">Adam Bien's Blog</a><br>
 <div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(March
 2008)</span><br>
 <span style="font-style: italic;"></span></div>
 <span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span
  style="font-style: italic;"></span></div>
 </div>
 <h2>More Dream Team Profiles</h2>
 <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-bold.html">Emilian
 Bold</a><br>
 <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-brabant.html">Vincent
 Brabant</a><br>
 <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-chandler.html">Wade
 Chandler</a><br>
 <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-giudici.html">Fabrizio
 Giudici</a><br>
 <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-plewe.html">Joerg
 Plewe</a><br>
 <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-senger.html">Vinicius
 Senger</a><br>
 <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-silva.html">Edgar
 Silva</a><br>
 <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-urrutia.html">Ibon
 Urrutia</a><br>
 <br>
 </body>
 </html>
	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
	<html>
	<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../netbeans.css"
	media="screen">
	<meta name="author" content="Tinuola Awopetu">
	<meta name="keywords"
	content="NetBeans IDE, NetBeans Platform, NetBeans Dream Team, Adam Bien, Java EE">
	<title>NetBeans Dream Team Interview: Adam Bien</title>
	</head>
	<body>
	<h1>Series: Meet the Dream Team Members</h1>
	<span style="font-style: italic;">(In January 2007, we announced the 11
	charter members of the <a
	href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/NetBeansDreamTeam">NetBeans
	Dream
	Team</a>, a community-oriented group of highly skilled NetBeans users
	devoted to promoting NetBeans and working on the NetBeans Project. In
	these interviews discover who they are, why they are passionate about
	NetBeans and what goals they have for the NetBeans project.)</span>
	<br>
	<br>
	<br>
	<h1>Adam Bien</h1>
	<img style="width: 252px; height: 226px;"
	alt="NetBeans Dream Team Member Adam Bien"
	src="../../../images_www/articles/interviews/adam-bien.jpg" align="left"
	hspace="5" vspace="5">Java EE architect, developer, speaker, trainer,
	author, blogger, consultant, Java champion—Adam Bien wears many hats,
	including one as a member of the NetBeans Dream Team. A Java developer
	since the early days of JDK 1.0, he works primarily as an independent
	consultant helping companies to implement Java architecture and
	applications. He has authored seven books and 50 articles about Java EE
	development, and has spoken at many international conferences,
	including JavaONE. He also maintains a popular <a
	href="http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/">blog</a> where he
	regularly shares his expertise about the Java EE framework. He is based
	in Munich, Germany.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>How did you get started with Java EE development?</h5>
	I started with J2EE around 1999 before it was actually released. Most
	of the J2EE APIs, like JNDI, Servlets, JDBC, RMI/IIOP, JMS, EJB 1.0,
	were already available and I used them in projects already. The main
	problem those days was the support of different versions and
	API-constalations by different vendors. The application servers weren't
	even similar. The introduction of J2EE was a huge improvement from the
	non-functional perspective. You could at least rely on the existence of
	a particular API. I started with Sun's Java Web Server (with
	Applet-based administration console). My first projects were
	e-commerce, distributed CORBA apps, content management systems, and I
	built some Swing applications as well.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>When did you discover the NetBeans IDE?</h5>
	I tried NetBeans in the early days (version 3.5), but I actually didn't
	like it. It looked terrible and had some strange concepts like mounting
	jars, instead of just putting them into the classpath. It was not only
	“my” problem; it was really hard to convince other developers to use
	it. I started to use 4.0 in a project for WYSIWIG Swing-construction,
	but this was long before Matisse. By NetBeans 5.0, I was using the IDE
	for most of my projects. NetBeans IDE 6.0 I use almost exclusively for
	my commercial and open-source work.<br>
	<br>
	The huge benefit of today's NetBeans IDE is the cohesive and
	well-integrated functionality. There is no need to search and download
	additional plug-ins after the IDE is installed—a timesaver. NetBeans is
	superb in the Java EE 5 area, and catching up everywhere else. The
	editor has significantly improved. I just enjoy working with the IDE in
	general. But there are some issues with incremental deployment under
	Windows which will be fixed in the next version, I'm told. NetBeans
	annotates the methods and not attributes in JPA objects, so I don't use
	the wizard. However these are only a minor problems—nothing is perfect.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>Greenfire, a project of yours, does something very cool. Tell us
	about it.</h5>
	<a href="http://greenfire.dev.java.net/">Greenfire</a> is an
	open-source Java EE 5 project aimed at managing heating systems in a
	convenient and efficient way. Greenfire runs in my house—it is mission
	critical because winters are cold in Bavaria! I was unhappy with the
	heating behavior of my home—solar energy wasn't getting as leveraged as
	I expected. I use a combination of solar energy and wood to heat the
	house. But before Greenfire, wood heating provided much of the heat
	thus precious solar hours were lost....<br>
	<br>
	Greenfire is able to control the heating remotely and provides a simple
	Java API to do it. Every five minutes Greenfire checks all sensors, the
	weather forecast and decides what to do. It basically sets the heating
	modes: “On, Off, Summer and Auto”. At the end, it writes all decisions
	and sensor data (interesting for reports) to the Java DB. Greenfire
	runs on Glassfish v2 and was built with the NetBeans IDE. I saved about
	10-30% in my home's primary energy consumption. My heating bill
	decreased as well.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>How did you use NetBeans IDE for Greenfire?</h5>
	I used NetBeans for the whole process – from coding over test until
	deployment. NetBeans is especially nice in that it allows me to test
	and deploy the project locally and then deploy it remotely – just with
	one click. You can specify the server on the EAR (right mouse click,
	“run” node) and the target deployment. The well-integrated remote
	debugger and profiler simplified the development further and saved time.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>What is Greenfire's current status?</h5>
	Greenfire has been in production for two years. It is absolutely
	functional. I have to check in the remaining sources and do a bit of
	refactoring too. They are already some vendors interested in it, but
	I've decided to open-source it first. I wrote it initially just for my
	own use, but I'm amazed at how simple it is and how well it works. <br>
	<br>
	<h5>Are you an advocate of “green living”?</h5>
	It is easier to justify the many nightly hacking hours if the end
	result is going to be good for the environment. In my opinion, you
	should always try to behave “greenly”, especially if it has only a
	minor impact on your living quality and doesn't take a lot of effort.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>Do you have a “green” approach as well to your work as a developer?</h5>
	I try to conserve my developing energy—to get rid off superfluous
	concepts, patterns and even architectures. Less is more—be lazy and
	save your energy.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>How did you become a Java EE speaker and trainer?</h5>
	Sun asked me during the Systems Fair in Munich (around 1996) to give
	some classes in the architecture and design area. I took the chance and
	said “yes”. Training others is also an opportunity to learn, especially
	when you have eager students with good questions. My speaking “career”
	started similarly. At the first JAX conference in Germany (2001), I was
	asked to deliver a session about the Apache's James Server and caching
	framework. I liked it, and have enjoyed speaking at conferences ever
	since.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>You're also a prolific writer. Where do you find the time to write,
	speak and consult?</h5>
	As a consultant I travel a lot, so I write and prepare my talks during
	my “dead” time, mostly on trains and planes, and in hotels. It's good
	to know that your traveling time isn't totally wasted. However, coding
	and real-world projects are my number one priority. <br>
	<br>
	<h5>Do you have any books planned about NetBeans?</h5>
	Not about, but with. I already used NetBeans to draw the UML diagrams
	and sample code for the last two books. It was really efficient and the
	diagrams look really slick. I don't plan to write a book about the
	NetBeans IDE because there are already excellent <a
	href="https://netbeans.org/kb/articles/books.html">books</a> out
	there. Besides that, there are many free articles, <a
	href="https://netbeans.org/kb/index.html">tutorials</a>, <a
	href="https://netbeans.org/kb/60/screencasts.html">screencasts</a>
	that provide useful information too.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>Is it true that you're the top expert in Java EE?</h5>
	I've been using J2EE / Java EE 5 from the beginning, and there are
	still things I don't know. It can be dangerous to consider yourself an
	expert, then you stop learning and your knowledge becomes worthless
	within a few years. I would rather call myself a really passionate
	power user.<br>
	<br>
	<h5>How would you make the NetBeans IDE eco-friendly?</h5>
	Here's an easy first step: change the coloring schemes to black. A
	black screen saves energy.<br>
	<br>
	<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a
	href="http://www.adam-bien.com/"><br>
	</a></span>
	<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.adam-bien.com/">Adam
	Bien's Website</a><br>
	<a href="http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/">Adam Bien's Blog</a><br>
	<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(March
	2008)</span><br>
	<span style="font-style: italic;"></span></div>
	<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span
	style="font-style: italic;"></span></div>
	</div>
	<h2>More Dream Team Profiles</h2>
	<a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-bold.html">Emilian
	Bold</a><br>
	<a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-brabant.html">Vincent
	Brabant</a><br>
	<a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-chandler.html">Wade
	Chandler</a><br>
	<a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-giudici.html">Fabrizio
	Giudici</a><br>
	<a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-plewe.html">Joerg
	Plewe</a><br>
	<a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-senger.html">Vinicius
	Senger</a><br>
	<a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-silva.html">Edgar
	Silva</a><br>
	<a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-urrutia.html">Ibon
	Urrutia</a><br>
	<br>
	</body>
	</html>