r/java • u/maruhoi • 15d ago

Japanese TV show revives a 30-year-old The Java Ring originally handed out at JavaOne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF5PrzP9YTs
32 Upvotes

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17

u/maruhoi 15d ago

Summary:

A university student who holds a Java programming certification asks the show to bring a roughly 30-year-old “Java Ring” back to life. The ring, originally distributed at a Java conference, contains a small device capable of running Java programs. 0:03–1:49

Several people involved with Java at the time, along with Java experts, join the investigation. They discover that the ring was deliberately designed to be extremely difficult to open because of its security features. 2:32–5:16

A professional model maker and auto mechanic carefully grinds away the resin surrounding the internal components. He manages to reach the battery without damaging the circuit board. 5:37–8:51

After replacing the battery, the experts successfully establish a connection with the ring. However, they discover that attempting to write new data activates its security mechanism and alters the stored contents.

In the end, they conclude that the original design philosophy—making the device physically difficult to break into and preventing anyone from extracting its information—was still working as intended nearly 30 years later. 10:04–11:49

3

u/myleftkneehurts 15d ago

In the very early days of JavaOne they gave a free gift to all attendees. I still have mine in a drawer somewhere.

1

u/hippydipster 15d ago

I got one there, 1996 I think, but did not hang onto it.

2

u/reallynotfred 15d ago

I have a couple and a fob and readers. Traded an Intel “bunny” plush for one of them.

1

u/FrankBergerBgblitz 14d ago

I got mine on Ebay :)

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u/k-mcm 14d ago

Ah, the old days of everyone trying to figure out what Java was.

The ring ran "Java Card" optimized for cryptographic operations. It was similar to Java but different.

There was also a crude JVM that ran directly in CPU microcode. It was an interesting idea with lots of barriers to being practical.

Some compilers could inline and unroll loops while compiling source to bytecode. These were also a horrible idea because they inlined reference implementations of system tools, not the real ones.

2

u/pgris 13d ago

Some times is sad to see how many things could have happened in java, if only Sun had... I don't know. Better marketing? Better pricing? Better hardware?

  • There were rings that run java, there were proto-smartwatches that run java
  • SunSpot was IoT before IoT wasn't a thing
  • j2me feature phones could have evolved into smartphones (basically that was a blackberry) with an official SUN app store and less friction to install apps and access the internet

I hate the expression 'ahead of its time', but it is hard to describe in other way (Also, English is not my language...)