I mentioned earlier that starting in August I started reading lots of Java related books.. not to learn everything but to get an understanding of what the different frameworks and pieces are, how they fit together, and what I can and can't do. I've read a book on JSF, Hibernate, J2EE Patterns and Spring. Hibernate and Spring are two well known frameworks that replace some functionality of EJB and make it a lot faster and easier to program. They also let you work with POJO's so your code is loosely coupled. Nice, but I've now realized that for some things I can't get away from needing EJB's. For example, if I want to make a web service that is connected to an other system communicating with a proprietary protocol and need to keep the connection alive forever, and need to alert other components when the connection is lost then we're not talking web/presentation tier programming. We're talking about a real program running in the background that exposes an application service.

Basically I've got another book to read. But I'm glad I've read what I've read because I feel I have a good understanding of what I know so far and will be able to model a large J2EE system the proper way when I'm finished. I've also got a book on JUnit to read.

Last week I found out about a seminar in Toronto about J2EE development. It was to get you to sign up to take their course. I went hoping to blend in with the crowd, see what they're teaching and to use this information to guide my own studies. Unfortunately nobody but me showed up so I got one-on-one with their salesman and instructor who wanted to know everything about me and my money. A prerequisit is Java experience, something I've got next to none of. It was very akward, especially because I knew I wasn't going to take their course anyway. I spoke with the instructor for an hour. He's the J2EE senior programmer/analyst for Rogers Communications, the big cable tv/internet/cell phone company in Canada. The classes are 11 weeks, Mondays and Wednesdays from 6PM - 10PM, 3-10 people per class, they provide you with a laptop to borrow that has everything installed including IBM WebSphere and DB2. He seemed quite knowledgeable and teaches exactly what I want to learn and get practical experience with. I left wondering if I should take the course. I've been thinking about it all week and really think it would be good for me. One on one with that kind of experience would be great, and I'm forced into a minimum of 8 hours per week at a keyboard programming the course project.

I had a few issues to overcome: 1) My dog Bandit is in his crate all day while I'm at work (except when I come home for lunch). I'd have to leave work early twice a week to go to this course and wouldn't be back until midnight. Then I'd go to work all day the next day. That's almost 2 days of solitude, twice per week. 2) I'd be driving 1.5 hours each way in the dark, during winter. 3) With my java experience, am I setting myself up to fail?

The answers I've come up with so far are: 1) My friend's girlfriend works from home and can watch bandit for me on those days, and keep him overnight. 2) My friend took a course in Toronto as well and did the commute in winter. He says the roads are kept clean, and at the times I'll be driving traffic will be good. 3) I've got between now and January to brush up on basic java skills.

I still don't know if I'm going to take the course or not.. but I really think I should. One on one with Rogers' senior J2EE programmer/analyst, and the amount of material they cover in 11 weeks is great. The large number of topics covered is everything I've wanted to learn about but don't have enough time to read 15 books on.