If you have been to a Java One conference in years gone by perhaps you are already convinced that your comrades were aliens. But if not Oracle has a short series of videos that might convince you that this year you are not alone.

Follow the adventures of Kar-Rek from the planet Lu-Zor Kar-Rek and Lu-Zor - get it? Well it's that sort of humour so don't expect any penetrating analysis or satire. This is primarily designed to get you to go to the conference.

It is worth having a look at this video - even if the curiosity factor encourages Oracle to think that its video has gone "viral". The reason is that it's arguably a good example of how not to do a promo video. It is just about funny and just about entertaining enough to make you watch it, but it is too blatantly an advertising tool and it's simply not good enough to forgive.

Compare this effort with say The dark side of Java and you will see the difference between "product placement" and "advertising". This one is hard-sell thinly disguised as humour.

Have a look at the video and see if you agree.

With two more parts planned how can we wait for the follow on?

Update:

Part two now ready to watch: Vapor Mission.