Heinz Kabutz - Thread Safety with Phaser, StampedLock and VarHandle

On May 20th, Qualogy opens its doors for Java Champion Heinz Kabutz. Using years of experience and humor, Heinz will share his knowledge about Java and mind hacks.

Agenda:
18:00 Welcome and food
19:00 "Thread Safety with Phaser, StampedLock and VarHandle” - Heinz Kabutz
20:00 "Mind Hacking for Health" - Heinz Kabutz
20:15 Drinks

Talk 1: "Thread Safety with Phaser, StampedLock and VarHandle”

Every major Java version introduces a new and better way of managing state. Java 7 gave us Phaser as a replacement for CountDownLatch and CyclicBarrier. Hardly any programmers know how it works, even though we are now on Java 11. Java 8 gave us StampedLock, useful as a lighter read "lock" when building concurrent classes. Again, not very widely known, but lots of use cases. Java 9/10/11 introduced VarHandle as an escape latch for the Unsafe addicts. In this talk we will show all three concepts and explain when each should be used.

Talk 2: "Mind Hacking for Health (10-15m Quickie)"

Laziness is one of three great virtues of a programmer, according to Larry Wall, inventor of Perl. And it is true. You need to have a certain amount of laziness to be able to sit on your backside all day, subsisting only on gummy bears and coffee. Of course programmers understand that being active is good for them, but it does not change the relief we feel when we sit back in our chairs.

Of all the lazy programmers, Heinz Kabutz was maybe one of the worst. Throughout his teenage years, he prided himself in avoiding all forms of physical activity. This changed when his fourth child was born. Heinz realized that if he wanted to see her grow up, he needed to do something about his physical well-being. Using mind hacks, Heinz made exercise part of his daily routine.

Now, no matter where he is or what the weather is like, he will go outside and run one mile. The mind hacks he used changed exercise from being an occasional reluctant obligation to something he cannot live without. In 2018, he hosted a 40 day running challenge for programmers. He also hosted a push-up challenge, which ended with 91 programmers doing 5000 push-ups in February.

His latest hack deals with food. It is called "Dr. Heinz M. Kabutz Food Singleton Experiment" and the goal is to hack your food choices. The best news: You will be able to apply the hacks yourself and become fitter and healthier. Achieve an attitude about food that will make you feel more energetic.

About Heinz Kabutz:

Heinz Kabutz is the author of The Java Specialists’ Newsletter (https://www.javaspecialists.eu), a publication enjoyed by tens of thousands of Java experts in over 145 countries. His book “Dynamic Proxies (in German)” was a #1 Bestseller on Amazon.de in Fachbücher für Informatik for about five minutes, until Amazon fixed their algorithm. Thanks to a supportive mother, he has now sold 5 copies. Heinz’s Java Specialists’ newsletter is filled with amusing anecdotes of life on the Island of Crete. He has been a popular speaker at the best (and some of the worst) Java conferences around the world. He teaches Java courses in classrooms around the world, where his prime objective is to make sure none of his students fall asleep. He is not always successful.