I once saw Gosling in an airport terminal waiting for a flight. He was consuming a large hot dog. I considered approaching him but decided to respect his privacy. When he finished his hot dog, he threw the messy wrapper directly onto the carpet. It was not a missed shot at the trash can, it was just blithely dropped on the floor. That's when I realized his work on automatic garbage collection had gone too far. I can't prove this, but I suspect that Bjarne would have discarded his own trash properly.
One year almost to the day since he quit Sun/Oracle (see <a href="http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/time_to_move_on" rel="nofollow">http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/time_to_move_on</a>).<p>That probably means he had a 1-year non-compete built into his employment agreement which he had to wait out (which makes me curious about what he could be working on at Google that could trigger that)
For those (like me) who don't know he's famous because he invented Java.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gosling" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gosling</a>
This should be interesting for both James and Google. In the Chinese sense. More than a few of the original Java team ended up there. I suppose Google has probably 'reached out' (or is that 'reach around' :-) to avh as well.<p>The parts that are really interesting is the confluence of language design. Where is Guy Steele these days? At Sun there was a constant tension between Ousterhout(TCL). Java, and Self (wnj). Even in retrospect I don't know if it was a good tension or a bad tension. It made for some really interesting email threads.<p>I also wonder if they see it as a defensive move vis-a-vis recruiting since working with James would be a compelling reason to leave Google.<p>Given Google's current maturity (I mean they just figured out what managers do :-) and the change that happens in adolescent companies, I suspect it is a good time to join if you have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. There is the old joke "What would you do if you had a billion dollars and a dozen of the smartest engineers you ever met? Join Google and find out."
It is definitely good news for Google. However, as far I as know Gosling was not working on core technical projects for a long time. Maybe he will work more like a tech evangelist like Tim Bray.
The google influx does remind of "The Sublimed" from Iain M. Banks' Culture novels.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sublimed" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sublimed</a>
Meanwhile Facebook is out talent-scouting at the White House:
<a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/facebook-may-hire-robert-gibbs-former-obama-aide/?src=dlbksb" rel="nofollow">http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/facebook-may-hire-rob...</a>
Google picks its employees the same way good VCs pick founders: candidates are selected based on what they are capable of, without focusing too much on the idea they are going to work on in the immediate future.