The Angular Mini-Book is a
guide to getting started with Angular. You'll learn how to develop a bare-bones application, test it, and
deploy it. Then you'll move on to adding Bootstrap, Angular Material, continuous integration, and authentication.
Spring Boot is a popular framework for building REST APIs. You'll learn how to integrate Angular with Spring Boot and use security best practices like HTTPS and a content security policy.
For book updates, follow @angular_book on Twitter.
The JHipster Mini-Book is a
guide to getting started with hip technologies today: Angular, Bootstrap, and Spring
Boot. All of these frameworks are wrapped up in an easy-to-use project called JHipster.
This book shows you how to build an app with JHipster, and guides you through the plethora of tools, techniques and options you can use. Furthermore, it explains the UI and API building blocks so you understand the underpinnings of your great application.
For book updates, follow @jhipster-book on Twitter.
Today I woke up in beautiful Lake Chelan, Washington. It's a 50-mile long lake that's nicknamed "Microsoft's Playground" because all the Microsoftees vacation here. Here's the view from our condo this morning:
My Mom, Dad and I are all in town to celebrate my sister's birthday (on St. Patty's Day).
Today's agenda: Wine Tasting. 
This past weekend, some friends and I headed up to Whistler Blackcomb for a weekend of great skiing. We have a college buddy who's getting his PhD in Vancouver, so that's what motivated the trip. I've never skied in a place where the mountains were so huge. I've skied Jackson Hole and Mammoth, but apparently Whistler has a lot more elevation gain. This was proven when we skied the "Peak to Creek" run on the last day. We didn't do the 6.5 mile run because one guy was on a snowboard.
It snowed 8" on our first day and a few more on our last day. There was plenty of powder and lots of really steep runs. I highly recommend it - especially if you want to spend some money. It's not a cheap place to visit and it'll likely get more expensive since it's hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. The good news is I got a 50% discount on lift tickets with my Winter Park pass. Whistler Blackcomb is owned by Intrawest - the same folks that own Winter Park and Steamboat.
For more pictures, see Whistler 2008 on Flickr. This weekend's destination? Vail for day #19.
This weekend in Tahoe was absolutely incredible. I've never skied in a place so beautiful. Not only were the views spectacular, but the weather was terrific. On Sunday, we skied in t-shirts while the thermometer read 58°F. While I love the powder and Colorado snow, there's nothing like Spring Skiing. If you ever get a chance to visit Lake Tahoe, I highly recommend you jump at the opportunity.
For more pictures, see Lake Tahoe 2008 on Flickr.
As mentioned previously, this weekend some college buddies and I will be heading to Lake Tahoe for a weekend of skiing, gambling and boozing (in no particular order). One guy has a free suite at Harrah's Lake Tahoe. I heard there's a gondola directly from the casino to the slopes of Heavenly. Is that true?
Let's assume it is true and I'll be skiing Heavenly all weekend. For those that've skied there - what are the best runs? I'm looking for bump runs, chutes, steep stuff and cruisers with a view. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Last fall, I got pretty burned out from traveling so much. Not only did I fly out to Mountain View monthly for LinkedIn, I also attended JavaZone, Colorado Software Summit and ApacheCon US (fun was had by all). In addition, I spent a week in New York teaching a class for GE.
At the end of the year, I resolved to travel less and so far I've been quite successful. However, something happened in the last week and now I'm traveling like mad for the next 2 months. This time, I don't think I'll get burned out though. Why? Because this time the travel is more for pleasure than for work - with two trips booked to help satisfy my New Years Resolution (ski more). In addition to a couple trips to Mountain View, I'll be spending President's Day weekend in Lake Tahoe. Two weeks later, I'll be meeting up with some friends at Whistler. Two weeks later, I'll be working remotely at my parent's house in Salem, Oregon. I'll end the whirlwind of traveling in Vegas for TSSJS at the end of March.
I'm really looking forward both ski trips. I've never been to Tahoe or Whistler before.
A good friend sent me an e-mail this afternoon asking for some advice.
I am headed to London & Dublin next week for a quick trip with my friend who's a pilot for US Airways. I am pretty sure you've visited these 2 places, let me know if you have any good advice or must see places or things to do, or even a good place to stay. We haven't booked any hotels yet but booked our flights.
I haven't been to Dublin since 1998 and I've never been to London - so I figured it might be a good question for readers of this blog. What are the must see places and things to do in Dublin and London? Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.
Today marks the beginning of a long-awaited trip to the East Coast. Way back in March, I negotiated a deal with a company in Danbury, CT to teach my Open Source Java Jewels training course. I was supposed to deliver it in May, but that got changed because of their 45-day Vendor Approval Process. It was rescheduled for August. August came and it got moved again because so many people were on vacation. It was rescheduled for October and I'll be delivering it next week.
I'm teaching 2 courses: one for 16 managers Monday - Tuesday and one for 21 developers Wednesday - Friday. Yeah, I know that's way too many students, but I think I can handle it. I warned the company it wasn't a good idea to have that many students, but they wanted to pack them all in anyway. Oh well.
The best part about this trip is I'm doing something I've wanted to do for a long time. I'm taking the kids with me! The rest of my family is coming too - my parents will be on our 2nd flight today and my sister flies in Monday. My dad grew up in Beacon, NY - only 45 minutes from Danbury. Since his brother and sister still live there (as well as many cousins) it should be a fun week of family and crazy kids in a hotel room. With any luck, we'll get to see some fall colors and create some great memories.
Wednesday we had a nice relaxing day in Oslo. After breakfast, we went on a 2-hour boat tour of the local fjord. The boat lulled me to sleep for most of the trip, but my mom kept elbowing me to keep me awake so I did see manage to see some things. Many islands were so small they could only fit a single house. They all looked like very enjoyable locations to spend the summer months.
After the boat trip, we browsed through an outdoor exhibit by Steve Bloom. The exhibit had some amazing photographs of wildlife - I may have to buy some to fill up my empty walls. After that, we had a bottle of wine on the docks and then headed back to check in to our hotel.
At the hotel, I had my most expensive cocktail ever - paying $26 for a Whiskey and Coke. We had a very nice dinner on Wednesday night and retired fairly early. It's nice traveling with my parents because you get a good night's sleep every night.
On Thursday, I had my talk at 11:45. I was speaking in "Gate 1", which has a stage in the middle of the room - which audiences on both sides. It was a bit difficult to talk to one audience without turning your back on the other one, but I think I did OK. I told folks I would post a link to my slides after my talk. Rather than continually linking to the individual PDF, I've created a Presentations page that will list my presentations from various conferences and such. The direct link to my JavaZone talk is here. One of the highlights of the show (for me) was meeting Aslak Hellesøy. I've always admired Aslak for all his contributions to open source.
WARNING: Please remember these slides that are merely a backdrop for my presentation. During the talk, I do say that some things are innacurate or have been fixed with recent (or future) releases. The slides don't really mean anything without the accompanying talk.
After JavaZone, my parents and I went to see the Fram Museum and then to Vigeland Park. The sculptures at Vigeland were pretty incredible, especially since we were there while the Sun was setting.
This morning, we hopped out of bed, had some breakfast and headed for the airport. After making it all the way to the gate, our flight was cancelled at the last minute. The reason is mechanical and apparently parts need to be flown in from London. Currently, it's 2:30pm and they have no idea if it will be a 4-hour or 48-hour delay. They bussed us over to the nearby Clarion Hotel, fed us lunch and gave us rooms. There's no seats available on other flights, so everyone on our flight is pretty much stuck. Hopefully we'll get out of here sometime tomorrow.
Update: Looks like we'll be on a flight tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM. They've given me no indication that I'm confirmed through Denver, so tomorrow night could be spent in Newark.
Today was another day of great weather in Helsinki. Around noon, we took a boat out to see
Suomenlinna.
Suomenlinna is a major monument of military architecture. The construction of the sea fortress on the islands just off Helsinki in the middle of the 18th century was the most extensive building project during Swedish rule. When it was complete, its military shipyard was one of the biggest dry docks in the world and centres of know-how at that time. At the end of Swedish rule the fortress was being compared with the maritime fortifications at Gibraltar.
From there, we enjoyed some margaritas in the sunshine and then hopped on the Finnair bus for the airport. An hour later, we were on the plane and headed for Norway.
For some reason, our luck changed when we got to Oslo. Seems I always have bad luck in this town. This time, it wasn't as bad as my laptop dying, it was just inconvenient. We rode the bullet train from the airport to Oslo's Central Station, which happens to be right next door to our hotel. Once we got there to check in, we found out it wasn't "our hotel" until tomorrow night. Doh! Looking at e-mails I exchanged with the JavaZone guys, it's entirely my fault. We stumbled around to few different hotels and ended up finding a room at the Clarion near Central Station.
When folks say Oslo is expensive, they aren't kidding. Our room was available online for $745 US a night, but we somehow managed to get it for around $500/night. Oh well, at least we're not sleeping on the streets of Oslo tonight.
Tomorrow the JavaZone conference begins. I might go to a few sessions, but it's more likely I'll go exploring Oslo with my parents. The last time I was here, I didn't get to see any sights, and I don't want to let that happen again.
Yesterday, we spent a good portion of the day walking around Helsinki. My mom had a "walking tour" guide that we followed past the Embassies, along the water and through some city streets. After walking for 4 hours, we came back to the hotel, took some naps and then headed out to meet some locals for drinks (Hi Jussi and James!).
We got some great advice from Jussi and James and headed to the "Allied Forces HQ" building (Sokos hotel). At the top of the hotel is a bar that has great views of Helsinki. After a couple cocktails, we headed to Zetor for dinner. The Reindeer was excellent, as was the wine. We made it back to the hotel just in time to get a sauna in and collapsed into bed around 11.
Today we're heading to Suomenlinna for a couple hours and then off to the airport to catch a flight to Oslo. The weather is perfect here - not too hot and not too cold. I love it.
