I am a Java Champion and the author of the books “Mockito Made Clear” and “Help Your Boss Help You”, (Pragmatic Bookshelf), “Kotlin Cookbook”, (O’Reilly Media), “Modern Java Recipes” (O’Reilly Media), “Gradle Recipes for Android” (O’Reilly Media), and “Making Java Groovy” (Manning), as well as over a dozen video courses at Safari Books Online. I’m a regular member of the No Fluff, Just Stuff conference tour and have given talks all over the world. Through my company, Kousen IT, Inc, I’ve taught training courses to and worked with thousands of developers.
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Some things I’m happy about
I realized I’ve been doing some complaining lately, probably because I’ve been fighting a cold recently and that makes everything harder. (Aside: In almost seven years of full-time training, I’ve never missed a day due to illness. This week I came awfully close to breaking that streak, but pulled it out somehow. Now if my…
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Some things I have to remind myself periodically
Here are some instructor tips I’ve learned but have to remind myself over and over again, because I forget. 1. If a student asks a question that I’ve just finished answering, keep in mind that if the student is thinking, they’re not listening to me. That’s a good thing. 2. Just because a student is…
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I used to like Eclipse
When I first started teaching Java back in 2000, I needed an editor for the students to use. The goal was to have something small and self-contained enough that they didn’t get lost using packages, did a decent job with syntax highlighting, and ideally had an integrated debugger. Code assist was a nice goal, too,…
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Hibernate OK; On to EJB3
After a massive crush marked by multiple overnighters inside a small number of days, the Hibernate materials were finally finished. My client is happy with them. Personally, I mostly see flaws at this point, separated by large stretches of “not bad” sections. I think after I get a little distance from them, I’ll feel better…
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JSF in Jamaica
This is just a quick post because I only have a minute, but I have to say it’s the small things that get me whenever I travel. For example, the license plates here only have the numbers and letters. There’s no state, no slogan, no silly marketing stuff of any kind. They look bare, which…
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Still swimming in Hibernate seas
That’s probably the wrong metaphor. Since it’s Hibernate, something bear related would probably be more appropriate… I’m wandering through the Hibernate forest, trying to avoid what a bear does in the woods. Blech. Okay, I’ll work on it. At any rate, after spending a fair amount of time on the Generic DAO pattern as implemented…
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Hibernate issues
Last week I got a chance to use my new Hibernate materials. Fortunately, since I was there to deal with them, they weren’t the major problem they should have been. I understand this stuff a lot better now than when I wrote them, which I suppose is what a beta stage is all about. (Or…
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Lookin’ for Java in all the wrong Faces…
I have such a cool job. I was emailing one of my training company clients about doing an introductory web class (HTML, some JSP, etc) out in Colorado in November. I was all set to agree to it when I got a phone call from my contact there. “We found a local resource for that,”…
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Sports on TV
Normally I try to stay away from making comments here that aren’t related to software development, but between the World Series and Monday Night Football, I have to say something. I’ll keep it short and sweet though. If somebody put Joe Theismann and Tim McCarver in the same booth to do commentary, my picture tube…
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New Hibernate version is here
The new Hibernate version, 3.2, is now available. The formal announcement came on 10/16. I haven’t played with it a lot yet, of course, but one thing strikes me right away. If there are significant differences between 3.2 and the 3.1 version I’ve been using for months, I don’t see them. They may have made…