A living, life-size Duke is a popular feature at every JavaOne developer conference.  One of the highlights for attendees is to meet Duke "in person" and get their picture taken. It's fun to show to your friends...and try to explain why you are standing next to a tooth.* While Duke refused any interviews, I found a slip of paper stuck to Duke's foot.

If you wonder why I give 100%,
The community deserves no less.
Neither JavaOne.
They both deserve the best!

So much of the world we enjoy today,
and the places we're sure to advance
is due to engineering brilliance
and gives our species that chance.

So when I dance and give it my all
as Duke, to rally some cheer,
the honor and the privilege
makes me smile, ear to ear.

*Duke was designed to represent a "software agent" that performed tasks for the user. In 2006, Duke was officially open sourced under a BSD license. Developers and designers can play around with Duke and have access to Duke’s graphical specifications through a java.net project at http://duke.kenai.com.

JavaOne attendees can find Duke in the Zone all week.