This week’s video version of the Tales from the jar side newsletter is now available!
Here’s the bullet-point summary, once again provided by the Glasp youtube-summary plugin (emphases and images added):
- The newsletter “Tales from the Jar Side” discussed a variety of topics, from tech to entertainment. The host, Ken Kousen, recently taught Java courses and updated the newsletter’s YouTube channel, which has 840 subscribers and aims for 1,000 by the end of the year.
- Ken explored his challenges with Gradle 8.4 while trying to upgrade legacy projects to Java 21. The new version displayed deprecation warnings pointing to compatibility issues with the forthcoming Gradle 9. He delved into new features like JVM test suites, which led to further complexities like test report aggregation.
- There was a section on the experimental tool DALL-E 3, an AI for image generation. The tool takes prompts and interprets them to generate images, leading to interesting outputs like a ‘Dark Knight’ penguin.

- A segment highlighted a new Groovy blog post that uses dad jokes as programming one-liners, illustrating Groovy’s capabilities and syntax in a humorous manner.
- Ken shared some casual conversations, including one with his adult son about generational perceptions. He noted that his son doesn’t view him as a typical “Boomer” because he isn’t “angry enough,” a point which Ken found amusing and thought-provoking.
This newsletter seems like a blend of technical insights, personal anecdotes, and lighter content, offering something for a range of interests.
That’s not a bad summary this week. I highlighted the important points, added links, and added the cool DALL-E 3 generated image of Bat-Guin, Defender of the Antarctic.
TBH, getting to use that image again probably justifies this entire post. Here’s a link to the full newsletter, free online. Enjoy! 🙂
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