I usually write for JDJ, but I read everything and anything that has the J-word. I read most of the online Java sites like theServerSide.com, JavaLobby.com, ibm’s publications, and others. They all have great contents, but do not give you this nice feeling of reading a fresh and glossy Java magazine during you morning commute. I have access to all JDJ artcicles about a month before the printed copy arrives, but you can’t compare reading plain looking online articles with professionally laid out and illustrated ones, and I re-read these articles again. In print. In the USA, we still have two of such magazines: JDJ and Java Pro. But it looks like we may lose one soon.

Yesterday I’ve received the first (or second ? )
JavaPro magazine published this year. It was a sad experience… It was super thin, packed with some junk CD, and half of the content was some marketing BS.

The first signal that something was not right was when last year they started to force you to login to read anything on their site (they’ll just let you reading the first couple of paragraphs of the article). I understand, they need your e-mail to re-sell it for vendors. But could not they collect your emails in a more elegant way?

JDJ has tons of advertisement on their site, they are obsessed with Flash, but there are plenty of good technical articles there as well. Some women use a heavy make-up, some do not, but in the end of the day, all of them take a shower and give us men (or I should say partners) exactly the same thing: The Content 🙂

If you do not like the into-your-face ads, ignore them and go straight to the content. But JDJ is trying all bleeding edge technologies: videocasting, podcasting, live streams, Flash tricks, etc. I stay with JDJ, because I like the publisher. He works 24/7, he always has some “crazy ” ideas, sometime the Web content is a bit buggy, but he’s trying… The only problem he has, is too much tobacco smoking…

I always respected the JavaPro writers, but the problem seems to be with the magazine’s editors/management.

If you do not live, breeze and eat your magazine, it won’t make it.

I really want to see more than one Java periodical IN PRINT. I do not want Java Pro to die, really!