At the very beginning of last year, I decided to track my reading habits and share the best stuff here, on Baeldung. Haven't missed a review since.

Here we go…

1. Java and Spring

>> My new Hibernate Performance Tuning Online Training – Secure your early bird discount [thoughts-on-java.org]

Thorben finally announced his Hibernate Performance Tuning course this week.

I've been looking forward to announcing this one for a while (I knew he's working on it) because I think that our Java ecosystem is severely lacking in solid, affordable training. We have plenty of the 17$ low-quality Udemy courses and on the other end of the spectrum we have some great, in-person training that's over 1000$ / seat / day. We don't really have a lot of good alternatives in the middle. Here's a good one.

>> Next Generation Session Management with Spring Session [infoq.com]

Spring Session is certainly breathing new life into working with sessions in Java. Here's an overview of what the project brings to the table.

>> Beware of Functional Programming in Java! [jooq.org]

Really good points about aspects of working with lambdas in Java.

>> Spring From the Trenches: Creating a Custom HandlerMethodArgumentResolver [petrikainulainen.net]

Spring can be quite powerful if you know how to take advantage of the framework well. Here's a good way to do that with a super-useful tactic – a resolver for a custom method argument.

>> JavaOne 2015: Introduction to Modular Development [codefx.org]

>> JavaOne 2015: Advanced Modular Development [codefx.org]

>> Under The Hood Of Project Jigsaw [codefx.org]

A couple of writeups analyzing the modularity talks that came out of this years JavaOne.

Also worth reading:

Webinars and presentations:

Time to upgrade:

2. Technical

>> Three keys to design-time governance: protocol, format, and vocabulary [amundsen.com]

Another must-read from Mike Amundsen about general system architecture on the web. This isn't the “oh – that's interesting” kind of writeup. It's the kind that you want to read twice.

>> 5 Very Real Logging Struggles [loggly.com]

A quick and to the point guide through some common logging problems.

Also worth reading:

3. Musings

>> Quiet Isn’t Always Anti-Social [daedtech.com]

Interesting musings about introversion and how it informs communication in the professional ecosystem. Most of the time, things aren't black and white.

>> Genuine opinions, thoughtfully presented [bitquabit.com]

Mature communication is hard as a hard thing. And after almost a decade of working on teams, I am personally just beginning to really grasp just how hard it is. This is a well thought out piece on just that.

Also worth reading:

4. Comics

And my favorite Dilberts of the week:

>> The customer survey data is for marketing's eyes only [dilbert.com]

>> I'd like to talk about my career path. Are you sure? [dilbert.com]

>> How many twitter followers do you have? [dilbert.com]

5. Pick of the Week

>> When TDD Doesn't Matter [facebook.com]