Actually, Sun goes all out for JavaOne. When you pay up, you usually get some sort of new Java Gizmo (Java iButton Ring, Palm Pilot with Java Business Card software, etc.) plus several days that are literally *packed* with presentations, classes, BOFs, and bad acting from James Gosling. (Sorry James!

) Sun actually makes very little money off of the event. I've even heard that they often take a loss for it.
I just wish they'd hold it somewhere *other* than San Francisco. The SF public infrastructure is absolute c***. Every time the JavaOne came around, the city would be so overcrowded that the public transportation would take hours to get anywhere. And you can forget about getting a taxi in SF. They are about as mythical as Santa Clause and an Honest Lawyer.