Codetown
Codetown ::: a software developer's community
-
Jack Pines
- Male
- Renton, WA
- United States
- Blog Posts
- Discussions
- Events
- Groups
- Photos
- Photo Albums
- Videos
Gifts Received
Jack Pines has not received any gifts yet
Jack Pines's Page
Profile Information
- How did you hear about Codetown?
- Searched for Orlando Java Users Group
- What are your main interests in software development?
- I have been a .NET developer and have recently been working in a role where Java, Python, and C++ are the languages of choice.
- Do you have a website?
- http://www.jackpines.info
- Anything else you'd like to add? Where do you live? (optional!)
- Wow! It's been a wild ride since Google acquired the company I was working for in Orlando. Now I find myself clear across the country to take a role at Microsoft! I never saw this career trajectory for myself but am enjoying it while I can. I'm happy to talk to anyone how this was even possible and a now trying to figure out how to get more involved in the communities around the Puget Sound.
Happy 10th year, JCertif!
Notes
Welcome to Codetown!
Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.
Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.
Looking for Jobs or Staff?
Check out the Codetown Jobs group.
InfoQ Reading List
AWS Introduces New Risk-Free Account Plan with Enhanced Free Credits
AWS launches a new Free Account plan, enabling users to explore services risk-free for six months with $100 in credits. Ideal for developers and hobbyists, it encourages experimentation and innovation without costs. Users can upgrade anytime and still utilize unused credits. This shift aligns AWS with industry leaders, enhancing accessibility and fostering growth in cloud development.
By Steef-Jan WiggersArticle: Spring AI 1.0 Delivers Easy AI Systems and Services
AI is here to stay, and it represents a unique and wonderful opportunity for Java and Spring developers. For most people, “AI engineering” simply means calling an LLM-based service over HTTP. In this article, we’ll examine the new Spring AI 1.0 project and explore how it can be used to integrate AI more effectively.
By Josh LongMistral Voxtral is an Open-Weights Competitor to OpenAI Whisper and Other ASR Tools
Mistral has released Voxtral, a large language model aimed at speech recognition (ASR) applications that seek to integrate more advanced LLM-based capabilities and go beyond simple transcription. For two variants of the model, Voxtral Mini (3B) and Voxtral Small (24B), Mistral has released the weights under the Apache 2.0 license.
By Sergio De SimoneOpenAI Announces Generalist ChatGPT Agent to Take on Excel, PowerPoint, and Chrome
OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent merges advanced browsing and summarization for seamless data handling. Developers can now generate editable spreadsheets and presentations with simple prompts, integrating outputs directly into productivity tools. With impressive accuracy and connectivity, it enhances workflow efficiency while automating complex tasks, heralding a new era in AI-driven productivity.
By Andrew HoblitzellPresentation: Enhance LLMs’ Explainability and Trustworthiness With Knowledge Graphs
Leann Chen explains how knowledge graphs enhance LLM-based systems by providing structured data as a ground truth. She demonstrates how this approach combats critical LLM challenges such as hallucinations and the "lost-in-the-middle" phenomenon, especially within RAG applications. She also highlights the struggles of vector-based LLMs with tasks like sorting and filtering.
By Leann Chen
© 2025 Created by Michael Levin.
Powered by
Comment Wall (4 comments)
You need to be a member of Codetown to add comments!
Join Codetown
Congrats, Jack! I bet you have some great stories to tell about your company being acquired by Microsoft. Microsoft has changed so much. Now, they're involved in open source. And, how about the free upgrade to Windows 10! Puget Sound must be a wonderful area to live. I see you're involved in theater. Would you consider giving a video talk and posting it on YouTube with a link here?
Nice site, By the way! http://www.jackpines.info/
Chris Schaefer is the new JUG leader in Sarasota and he's a nice guy who knows his stuff, especially about Spring. Plus, he's a brewmaster. Look forward to lots of good times.
Hi Jack, Glad you could join us. OJUG meets every 4th Th except this month. I'll put meeting announcements in the Codetown Events section. BTW, tonight is a fun event to take the place of this month's local meeting - a beer and meetup night in Sarasota.
Life's better without braces,
Mike