At the very beginning of 2014, I decided to track my reading habits and share the best stuff here, on Baeldung. Haven't missed a week since.

Here we go…

1. Spring and Java

>> If Java Were Designed Today: The Synchronizable Interface [jooq.org]

Yet another cool exploration of what “might be” in Java – this time with a focus on the ol' “synchronized”.

>> European conferences with strong Spring content [spring.io]

A quick and cool list of conferences in Europe, well represented in the Spring ecosystem. Good stuff, especially now since I'm working on a couple new talks.

>> Beware Of findFirst() And findAny() [codefx.org]

Very cool exploration of the nuances of findFirst and findAny withing the Java Streams API.

>> JPA test case templates [in.relation.to]

The Hibernate testing effort is moving forward with this addition of a JPA focused test case that reproduces the issue without being Hibernate specific. That's certainly the right approach whenever possible.

Also worth reading:

Webinars and presentations:

Time to upgrade:

2. Technical

Also worth reading:

3. Musings

>> Do you have to love what you do? [signalvnoise.com]

The old adage “you need to love what you to” is certainly seeing some strong counter-examples on the web.

A good way I heard this re-framed is – you need to love helping people, serving your audience, or really, love the game in general. I like that shift of focus – it opens up a lot more options.

>> PayPal and zero dollar invoice spam [troyhunt.com]

A surprising, new type of spam via PayPal – have a quick read even only to be aware of the problem (if you have a PayPal account).

>> Developer Tips for Sublime Productivity [daedtech.com]

Focus is so very important, as more and more – “time is the asset” (Gary V).

These are some basic but solid tips to get you into that state of flow and help you keep it.

>> Testing: Appetite Comes With Eating [techblog.bozho.net]

Some interesting, personal notes on testing and why you can't afford not to invest into it.

>> New – Scheduled Reserved Instances [aws.amazon.com]

This looks like it could fit into a few interesting usecases – very cool to see so much innovation coming out of AWS.

Also worth reading:

4. Comics

And my favorite Dilberts of the week:

>> My boss keeps micromanaging me [dilbert.com]

>> Genius comes in many forms [dilbert.com]

>> This may look like an ordinary powerpoint slide [dilbert.com]

5. Pick of the Week

>> Introducing BDD [dannorth.net]