This document discusses various types of terminology used in business, Java, and computer science. It provides examples of common buzzwords used in large corporations like "leverage" and "synergy". It also explains technical Java concepts such as lambdas, abstract syntax trees, and memory barriers. Finally, it covers computer science terms including linear regression, Markov chains, and tail call recursion. The overall message is that complex terminology can overcomplicate domains and confuse developers.

1. UGF10466: The Bluffers
Guide to Terminology
Jim Gough
@JavaJimLondon
Richard Warburton
@RichardWarburto

2. Contents
• Introduction to JUGs
• Business Terminology
• Java Terminology
• Computer Science Terminology
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3. What is a user group?
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4. What is a user group?
Welcome to the London Java
Community, San Francisco branch,
monthly developer sessions.
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5. What is a user group?
It’s my first time at the London
Java Developer Community.
What’s it all about?
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6. The Wanderer
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7. The Alcoholic
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8. The Unwilling Other Half
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9. The Meetup.com Stalkers
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10. The Jug Leader/Recruitment Agent
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11. The Passionate Vim Advocate
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12. The Enthusiastic Job Seeker
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13. What is it like working in a large corporation?
What’s it like working in a large
Corporation?
Can be a lot of fun!
Politics and red tape
Lots of buzz words!!
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14. Buzz Word Bingo
?
Reach Out Synergy
Touch Base Leverage
Circle Back Around Cross Pollination
Bleeding Edge Flying Blind
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15. Why should we care about buzz words?
• Increases complexity of the problem domain.
• Causes confusion when specifying
requirements.
• There’s always someone who won’t know the
acronyms or buzz words.
• In house - more training needed for new
starts.
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16. Financial Terms
• Exchange
– Market place, people buy things and sell things.
• Arbitrage
– If it’s cheaper at Best Buy and you sell it on Ebay for more...
• Execute (or hit)
– Buy or sell it
• Hedge
– Buy something else to minimize impact of massive price
movement
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17. Accounting Terms
• Acid Test Ratio
– Assets that can be converted to cash to cover current
liabilities
• Bad Debts
– All debts are bad?
• Intangible Assets
– Long term value but no physical identity.
– Eg. Patents, trade marks or brands
• Bootstrapping
– Make your own money to start a firm
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18. Enough!
Too much business talk
This is a Java conference!
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19. Hotspot
It can also be easy to get tied up in
management.
A compiler that runs at runtime
Uses info about programs execution
Focusses on compiling small parts of
the application, the “hotspots”
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20. Lambdas
Ah yes, what about this Java 8
stuff.
What are Lambdas?
A function without a name
(x, y) -> x + y
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21. Lambdas
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22. Abstract Syntax Tree
Sounds a bit abstract... Is it like an
abstract syntax tree?
A way of representing a program as a
tree, used inside a compiler.
A Node = a construct in the program.
An Edge = child being nested inside the
parent.
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23. Abstract Syntax Tree
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24. Latch
Do you know anything? What is a
latch?
A concurrency primitive implemented as
a class.
Holds all threads up until they’ve reached
a certain point
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25. Memory Barrier
• A type of ordering barrier on memory operations.
• CPUs reorder instructions
• Can change behaviour of multi-threaded
programs
• Fences enforce an ordering.
• Example is a variable marked volatile in java
since 1.5
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26. Computer Science Terminology
Industry does have anything on
academia in terms of elitist jargon!
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27. Linear Regression
• When the relationship between multiple
variables looks like a straight line.
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28. Markov Chain
• A state machine where transitions have probabilities
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29. Gaussion Distribution
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30. Continuous Uniform Distribution
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31. Poisson Distribution
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32. Poisson Distribution
• Shows the probability of a number of events happening in an
interval.
• Lambda is the mean and the variance
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33. Kronecker Delta
int kroneckerDelta(int x, int y) {
if (x == y) {
return 1;
} else {
return 0;
}
}
As a Matrix
001
010
100
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34. False Positives
“Are there any Java Developers in
the room?”
◦ False Positive
◦ “Yes” for an empty room.
◦ False Negative
◦ “No” for this room.
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35. Monomorphic Dispatch
• A method call has only one possible
implementation
• In Java we can call methods on:
– Interfaces
– Virtual methods on Objects
• Not all methods are monomorphic
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36. Monomorphic Dispatch
List<String> strings = new
ArrayList<>();
strings.add(“a”); // monomorphic
if (randomNumber > 0.5)
strings = new LinkedList<>();
strings.add(“b”); // polymorphic
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37. Tail Call Recursion
int factorial(int n) {
return fact(n, 1);
}
int fact(int n, int acc) {
if (n == 0)
return acc;
else
return fact(n - 1, acc * n);
}
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38. Not Tail Call Recursion
int factorial(n) {
if (n == 0)
return 1;
else
return n * factorial(n - 1);
}
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39. Conclusions on Complex Terminology
• Complicates our domain.
• Confuses our developers.
• Software Engineering
– Domain driven design
– Pitching at the right level
• See if you can spot the bluffers this week!
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