If you are an active and serious software developer, you have to make sure that your technical skills are not getting rusty. You need to get trained. In our trade the rule of the game is that you constantly have to be in a good technical shape. Your other choice is to keep complaining about outsourcing. Excuses like we are in a crunch situation with our project at the moment, and this is not a good time for studying are good for amateurs.

Can afford to take just one day off, get out of your cubicle and see what other people up to these days? Is J2EE still in favor? What “s this ESB is about? Have you even heard of using Flex as a Web front end of your Java applications?

Do not miss an event in NYC this Monday, that is created for people who think that they are way too busy to take several days off and spend them in the class. Just take one day off and attend the RealWorld Java event. The discounted rate for this event is $395. To get this discount, enter the coupon code “JUGgold ” while registering

Here “s another lame excuse for not attending, “Our corporation has a list of approved training vendors and courses to choose from, and I just can “t go to an arbitrary conference rdquo;. Wrong. Did you even try to ask if you can go? Just remind your boss about all those long hours you ‘ve spent on the project. You need and deserve quality Java training! Most likely your employer has some training budget ndash; use it or lose it. This seminar features many first-class speakers who are practitioners, and many of them are book authors as well.

Yours truly will run a co-located full day bootcamp on development of rich Internet applications with Adobe Flex and Java . If you are interested, send me an email and I “ll ask the meeting organizer to shave of $200 of the registration fees.

Many Java programmers still do not know what ESB, AOP, and Flex are for. How about you? Ask your colleagues the same question and see for yourself. There are plenty of great programmers who just write Java code for their employer day in and day out. Raise your head and look around. Get trained, or else hellip;