Java's community, one conversation at a time.
Duke's Corner pairs host Jim Grisanzio of Oracle Java Developer Relations with people who build, teach and speak about Java, from a guest at Netflix to a teacher in New Jersey. The talk turns as readily to origin stories, JavaOne plans and career advice as to the language itself.
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Duke's Corner is a Java community interview show hosted by Jim Grisanzio of Oracle Java Developer Relations. Java is the common ground, but the show isn't limited to it. Conversations tend to start with geography and small talk. One guest from Boston reports 21 inches of snow, another describes rain on Canada's Pacific coast, and a third invites the host back East. Grisanzio brings his own history in too, from ten years living in Boston to his first JavaOne in 2000, when he was at Sun Microsystems. He also says why he does the interviews: he learns from the community, and the way technical people work through problems fascinates him. That curiosity drives the questions, which often go back to how a guest got into technology in the first place. The host describes a small series of talks with people speaking at JavaOne in the Bay Area in March, and several recent guests belong to it. Paul Bakker, from Netflix, is one. His session is called 'How Netflix Uses Java, 2026 Edition', and he remembers when JavaOne drew around 20,000 people to San Francisco as the one place to hear what was new in Java. He also recalls learning from books until he found the Java user group in the Netherlands after he started working. Jeanne Boyarsky is back two years after an earlier conversation, and this time the talk turns to users who ask for what they think they want rather than what they need. Asked how she picks from a crowded conference schedule, she says she mixes subjects she knows well with ones she barely knows. Marit van Dijk and Anton Arhipov mark 25 years of IntelliJ IDEA. They talk about a plugin marketplace that is mostly free, down to a plugin that colors braces like a rainbow, and they point to a Spring Debugger and a new Command Completion feature for running editor commands without knowing every shortcut. Teaching comes up again and again. Barry Burd, whom the host met briefly at JavaOne, talks about bringing enthusiasm into the classroom and feeling for students who choose computer science for the money but hate the work. Chris Hermansen, a data analyst from Canada recommended by one of the host's Oracle colleagues, tells a story from his business in Chile about imagery of an old farm near Santiago and a forester who suspected the apparent scrub was a low-growing tree species that could count as a forest. He closes with a reminder that developers work among other human beings and should avoid turning into a Dilbert comic. The tone stays friendly and appreciative throughout, and goodbyes are often plans to meet in person. The archive behind these recent episodes is large, so searching by a guest's name or a subject like teaching or tooling is the easiest way in. 'Barry Burd: Teaching Java as an Art Form' is a good place to start.
Made for: Suits a listener who works with or is learning Java and wants to hear practitioners talk about careers, teaching, tools and conferences as much as about code.
What sets it apart: It focuses on the people behind Java more than the code. The interviews are friendly and career-minded, run by a member of Oracle's Java Developer Relations team, with JavaOne and education coming up again and again.
Duke's Corner is a forum for conversations with Java developers. Tune in to connect with the community and learn how developers are innovating with Java around the world. Host: Jim Grisanzio, Oracle Java Developer Relations @jimgris
Jim Grisanzio follows a Java bug past int max, and your curiosity gets a workout.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A factory-floor career change opens into Java, metadata, and the habits that keep technical curiosity alive.
A career change gives this PlayNext episode its shape, following a Harvard University guest from work as a union steward in General Electric's aircraft-engine turbine division into information systems after returning to school for computer science degrees at Boston University…
A JavaOne veteran links Netflix's evolving Java use to the lasting habit of building often.
Paul Backer's JavaOne session frames Netflix's Java story as a practical look at staying current with a platform that keeps moving. In discussing "How Netflix Uses Java, 2026 Edition," he ties the session to a company culture built around change, experimentation, and keeping…
A 25th-anniversary Duke's Corner conversation turns IntelliJ IDEA's plugin culture into a lively portrait of a developer ecosystem.
Duke's Corner uses IntelliJ IDEA's 25th anniversary to look at why the development environment has stayed lively for so long. Marit van Dijk and Anton Arifipov keep the tone light, moving from office cakes and old logos to a playable game plugin and a marketplace where mostly…
A practical Duke's Corner conversation on preparing early for Java 25 certification while staying adaptable as Java and developer tools evolve.
Duke's Corner frames Java 25 certification as a practical study challenge, with Jean Boyarsky bringing the subject down to labs, early book work, and the value of being ready when the test arrives.
Chris connects Java, field statistics, and humane work through grounded professional stories.
Chris frames technology work as something that eventually has to meet the physical world. The episode moves from Java's Sun workstation moment into a Chilean farm case where a property developer needed to know whether low-growing vegetation near Santiago's main airport would…
Power Platform news with practical static.
Jim Garzanzia interviews Neha Sardana, a senior Java engineer, about her transition from mechanical engineering to software, her 'aha' moment with Java, and her involvement in the Java community.
Bob Treacy of Harvard University uses Duke's Corner to preview a Java 1 session on improving metadata workflow in Dataverse with AI-generated recommendations.
Duke's Corner talks with Paul Backer, a Netflix engineer in San Francisco, about his Java 1 session "How Netflix Uses Java, 2026 Edition." Backer says Java is "everywhere at Netflix," powering the consumer streaming apps on phones and TVs as well as internal and studio software, and he says some streaming services run on several thousand AWS instances.
Duke's Corner marks IntelliJ IDEA's 25th anniversary with JetBrains engineers Marit van Dijk and Anton Arhipov, who describe cakes with old logos, a celebratory photo booth, and an in-IDE game plugin built by Alex Chatzisagharios.
Jean Boyarsky previews a Java 25 certification lab for Java 1, highlighting scope values, unnamed variables and patterns, new main methods, and stream gatherers.
Chris Hermanson says a roughly 100-line library fix moved a 25-year-old Java application from Java 11 to Java 25.
Duke's Corner features educator and author Barry Burd discussing Java user groups, classroom teaching, and open source communities.
Duke's Corner features Mattias Karlsson of Stockholm discussing his Java Community Lifetime Achievement award, JFocus, and a 25-year run of the Stockholm Java user group.
Venkat Subramaniam recounts receiving the Java Community Lifetime Achievement recognition at DevOps UK in 2024 despite feeling shocked and undeserving.
Bruno Souza recounts receiving Java's first Community Lifetime Achievement recognition at Java One Las Vegas in 2022 after believing organizers wanted a Brazilian audience activity.
Duke's Corner interviews Trisha Gee about receiving a community lifetime-achievement award at JFocus in 2025 and her work as head of developer advocacy at Gradle.
Duke's Corner interviews Kai Horstmann about his Java Community Lifetime Achievement recognition from Oracle Java Developer Relations and his three decades of writing, teaching, blogging, and conference speaking.
Duke’s Corner interviews Heinz Kabutz about receiving the Java Community Lifetime Achievement recognition for publishing the Java Specialist newsletter for roughly 25 years.
Duke's Corner features Jim interviewing Nate Schutta, a ThoughtWorks technical director who describes software architecture as evaluating system-wide trade-offs in architecture, cloud, scalability, reliability, and deployment.
Jim Grisanzio of Java Developer Relations interviews Francisco Contreras, a Nicaraguan senior software engineer, entrepreneur, and CTO and co-founder of Genium.
Duke's Corner host Jaymon interviews Ivar Grimstad, a Sweden-based Jakarta EE developer advocate who has worked with Java since a 1996 or 1997 university introduction.
Jim Grisanzio interviews Richard Fichtner about the upcoming JCon Europe conference in Cologne, a community-driven Java event offering free attendance to Java user group members.
Jim Grisanzio interviews Mohamed Aboullaite, a senior backend engineer at Spotify, about his work with Java and voice integration for music streaming.
Dervis Mansuroglu discusses his journey into Java development, his role as a manager for the Norwegian government, and his passion for leading the Norwegian Java user group.
Jim Garzanzia introduces Neha Sardana, a senior Java engineer who transitioned from mechanical engineering to software after discovering Java, and discusses her journey and involvement in the Java community.