Laid Off Developer?? Get Free Training

Steve McConnell is doing a very honorable thing by offering laid off software developers free seats in his seminars and training sessions through his company, Construx Software.

Personally, I think this is great thing he is doing. There are a lot of our software brothers and sisters who have found themselves suddenly out of work due to the current financial climate. This is probably one of the biggest times we need to pull together as a community and help others.

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Unfuddle, Free Subversion and Git Hosting

I have been working on a few small projects and I wanted to get my source into some sort SCM repository so I could easily keep track of changes. Well I found a nice site, Unfuddle, that will allow you a free repository for personal projects. It is perfect for what I am doing and allows me to update my source from any computer.

Free Online Java Training Courses

I recently found the Java Passion site by Sang Shin. If you have not been to the site I recommend you do.

Sang Shin has created numerous online training courses that are all free!! He covers all sorts of Java topics from the basic beginner's of Java lessons to advanced Java EE topics. In these times where companies are cutting back on training expenses more than ever, this is a very easy way to keep your skills up to par and learn new technologies.

I have actually started the course on Spring as I have missed the Spring train in my current job and have not had the chance to sit down and learn it. So far it is going very well. Each lesson has a nice presentation, followed by very detailed step-by-step examples and a hands-on lab. So I have no doubt that I will be "Springing" in no time.

Springing into Action

So I have decided that I need to become more familiar with Spring. Many consider this to be the main technology that should be learned for those making the move to be involved in Java EE development. So I am doing everything I can to learn about Spring and more importantly dependency injection.

So far I am working my way through a nice tutorial. I found a great package of examples, notes, and assignments on Java Passion. This is an excellent site for people wanting to learn more advanced Java technologies. The site creator, Sang Shin, has created a number of lessons and even has free online classes. So I will be using is to hopefully become a Spring natural. It will come in handy with a nice idea I have been working on for a local furniture business...

Hello Netbeans

After using Eclipse for many years, I am slowly making my way to using Netbeans full time. It is pretty easy to import current Eclipse projects into Netbeans (tutorial) and there are so many tutorials on the Netbeans project site that it just makes it very easy to learn new technologies. I am already using it to aid in my learning of JSF (yes, I know I am behind).

If you are still using Eclipse and have not tried the latest versions of Netbeans, I recommend you download it and give it a try. It has come a long way and is slowly becoming a tool for ALM.