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. Spring and Java

>> Java 9 Additions To Optional [codefx.org]

Some interesting stuff is definitely coming to Optional in the JDK.

>> 5 Common Hibernate Exceptions and How to Fix Them [takipi.com]

I like to go through these exception focused articles – they usually have new insights I can glean for when I do get the exception.

>> Managing Secrets with Vault [spring.io]

Storing secret configuration data is almost always an important thing to get right in the overall architecture of a system.

It's also one of the most common question I get from readers when it comes to project configuration. So this writeup is an interesting solution to that question. Not the only solution, but certainly an interesting one.

>> Turn Around. Don’t Use JPA’s loadgraph and fetchgraph Hints. Use SQL Instead. [jooq.org]

A different perspective on picking the persistence solution of your next greenfield project, talking about preferring plain SQL over something higher level such as JPA.

>> 14 High-Performance Java Persistence Tips [vladmihalcea.com]

Some low-hanging fruit (and not so low-hanging) to improve the performance of a Hibernate implementation.

>> “Micro Profile in Enterprise Java” Announced ! [antoniogoncalves.org] and >> The Enterprise Java Future Is Bright: Java EE 8 MicroProfile Launched [adam-bien.com]

Big announcements in the Java EE world (seems like every week now).

>> Close Encounters of The Java Memory Model Kind [shipilev.net]

A fantastic deep-dive into the JMM (still reading through it now). Definitely one to bookmark.

Also worth reading:

Webinars and presentations:

**Time to upgrade:
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2. Technical and Musings

>> Code Review and How Enterprises Can Miss The Point [daedtech.com]

An insightful analysis of the motivations of different players in a large organization when it comes to code reviews and to getting something useful out of the practice. Well worth reading.

>> How I prepared for the NDC keynote (and other speaker tips) [troyhunt.com]

Some solid, to the point advice on speaking well.

I feel that speaking is a life-long journey and there's always a lot to learn. And delivering a good presentation is such an important skill that it really makes sense to spend time and learn how to do it well, as much as possible.

>> Learning a Healthy Fear of Legacy Code [daedtech.com]

Here be dragons.

>> Expanding the Cloud: Introducing the AWS Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region [allthingsdistributed.com]

Yeah, one more region to play with, after Frankfurt.

>> Special Skills [dandreamsofcoding.com]

There's a time to study the foundations and there's a time to specialize. And while foundations are important, specialization and niching down are more and more critical today.

>> Jepsen: Crate 0.54.9 version divergence [aphyr.com]

Who knew that the Elasticsearch data consistency problems (which are quite real) would go beyond the core product and spread to other solutions as well. It's not that surprising though.

>> Amazon Elastic File System – Production-Ready in Three Regions [aws.amazon.com] and

Elastic Network Adapter – High Performance Network Interface for Amazon EC2 [aws.amazon.com]

Two important announcements of new AWS goodness in a single week.

Also worth reading:

3. Comics

And my favorite Dilberts of the week:

>> Nothing about you is normal [dilbert.com]

>> Two good ways to avoid listening to others [dilbert.com]

>> Did someone tell you Twitter was a video game? [dilbert.com]

4. Pick of the Week

>> This I Believe – 25 Thoughts for Life [conversionxl.com]