"Can you do me a favor?" "Can you come here a second?" "HELP!"

It's an attempt to use emotional leverage to acquire assistance.

In the author's case they're appealing to prowess; "if you can help me with this then clearly you are an accomplished java person."

In my first two examples it's usually someone leveraging the nature of your relationship; "if you care about me you'll do this/look at this for me."

In my third example they're probably drowning or something and are trying to get someone's attention before that happens.

It's all very needful.