sebastiandaschner news

Hi from sunny and beautiful Vienna and welcome to newsletter #42!

The current situation is having a huge impact in how all of us are spending their time; on some of us more, on some less. I sincerely hope that you’re in good health and spirits while reading this and for the start of this newsletter I wanted to share a quote that helped me a lot in often disturbing situations:

In other words, it’s not what happens to us it’s how we react to it. Always.

For my part, I’m now having much more time at home that originally planned; not just because of conference and travel engagements that are canceled but also for the lack of alternatives here in beautiful Vienna. I love exploring the city and enjoying its architecture, cafés, and restaurants — but now that’s what we’ve got so why not make the best out of it.

I’m spending these days programming a lot for all kinds of projects. For me programming is a great way to forget the world around and easily be dragged into solving a problem. Another reminder why we have the best job ever :-)

Besides that I’m binge-learning a lot. Online courses on some new topic and trying things out are a great way of getting used to a new technology or way of doing things. Or, you choose to properly understand a topic that you think you know already and then try to really get it. I recently re-watched a course on the model behind Git.

That being said, let’s see what this edition has for us:

What’s new

Effective Testing with Java Q&A live session

Next Wednesday, I’ll be holding a live Q&A session on the topic of effective testing with Java. In case you feel your tests aren’t maintainable, don’t provide fast feedback while developing, or it’s just not fun for you to test, this session is for you.

The idea is to have live-interaction only, so for this to work you have to watch some resources upfront. We are still figuring out what the best experience is for the audience to participate in remote sessions in times of working from home, and this format might work better than only consuming content for an hour nonstop.

Have a look at this announcement on which material to consume upfront and I’m really looking forward to Wednesday already!

Some online courses, mastering Git & Java

In order to master some, if not all, technologies you have to understand the underlying concepts. Git is one of these things that most of us use but only few understand how it works internally.

I claim, in order to understand Git one shouldn’t start with the commands and actions but how Git’s conceptual model and storage works. And if by coincidence, Andy, a colleague of mine recently pointed to a Pluralsight course that explains this really well. Pluralsight offers its courses for free in April so no excuse to not watch how Git works; this will save you a lot of struggle later.

Other Java-related courses that I think are really worth their price and that I finally have time to consume are the JavaSpecialists courses by Heinz Kabutz. If you want to fully understand topics like Java concurrency or design patterns you do want to have a look at them.

What are your favorite online courses and learning resources that you’re consuming these days? I would love to hear about it, just reply to this email.

Open slots for workshops & code reviews

I have some open slots for workshops, code reviews, and development process reviews available in the near future — in the next weeks obviously remote preferred. If that sounds interesting, have a look at the offerings.

Thanks a lot for reading and see you next time!