Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, is a pretty hip-looking guy for a chief executive officer: he has a long ponytail, and often wears jeans and turtlenecks. Standing next to Neil Young at the recent JavaOne software conference, however, Schwartz looked more like a typical stuffed-shirt than he ever has, since the legendary rocker was wearing his favourite wardrobe: jeans, running shoes, and a denim shirt over a T-shirt. And a baseball cap.

If you're wondering why these two men were on stage together at a conference devoted to Sun's Java software, you're probably not the only one. Neil Young isn't known as a computer geek (although he has a well-known interest in model trains). And he has made it clear in the past that he wasn't enamoured of digital technology.

That said, however, Neil has apparently jumped on board the Blu-Ray bandwagon, and is issuing his entire back catalogue using the format, starting with a disc holding all of his music from 1963 to 1972, as well as news clippings, videos and other material. And the Java connection? Sun's interactive software is part of the Blu-Ray standard, and allows the discs that Young is selling to be dynamically updated in the future, with additional tracks or features downloaded automatically to users when they play the Blu-Ray disc.

The singer said that while he has had concerns about sound quality in the past, he has no such problems with the quality available through Blu-Ray. And he also made some comments about the effect of downloading and file-sharing on music. “It's up to the masses to distribute it however they want,” Young said. “People sharing music in their bedrooms is the new radio.”