Matt RaibleMatt Raible is a Web Developer and Java Champion. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

The Angular Mini-Book 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.

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The JHipster Mini-Book 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.

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10+ YEARS


Over 10 years ago, I wrote my first blog post. Since then, I've authored books, had kids, traveled the world, found Trish and blogged about it all.

Life without TV

As a Denver sports enthusiast, April started as a great month. The Nuggets and the Avs both made the playoffs and both appeared like they would do fairly well. Of course, neither of them did and by April 30th, both teams' seasons where over. I watched the final Nuggets game of the season in Seattle and was so disgusted I decided to turn off my TV for a month.

When I first told my kids (who spend 50% of their time at my house), Jack's lower lip started to tremble (mostly because it meant no Wii). Abbie quickly asked "What about the iPad?" I said that was OK and both kids quickly cheered up. I don't generally watch a lot of TV (~10 hours/week), and I grew up without electricity, so this wasn't a huge change for me. However, I do have some shows that I've been following this year. Namely, 24, FlashForward, The Office and American Idol.

For the last 6 months, I've been developing an online video site, so it wasn't long before my brash "no TV" decision turned into a nice opportunity to research other sites offering online video. Here are some observations from my month without TV.

  • Almost no online video sites work on the iPad because of Flash. I get the feeling that most online video sites aren't doing HTML5 <video> because of DRM and progressive download vs. streaming.
  • Netflix is a cool app for the iPad, but most of the streaming content is crap. My kids found plenty to watch, but I never found anything.
  • Hulu is the bomb if they have shows you like to watch.
  • The ABC app for iPad is great if they have shows you like to watch.
  • I watched a lot less movies because I didn't have onDemand and didn't feel like renting/ordering DVDs.
  • I found my laptop offered a better viewing experience than the iPad.
  • My kids found the iPad offered a better viewing experience than my laptop (easier to hold/share).
  • The iPad isn't loud or comfortable enough to replace the modern TV.
  • My TV (and surround sound) offers a much better viewing experience than a computer.
  • Ads on Hulu are short and sweet (15 seconds) and seem to inspire higher engagement because you're willing to wait for the show to resume.
  • My team has developed both a webapp and a native app that work on the iPad, but I was never inspired to use either due to lack of shows I wanted to watch.
  • American Idol was difficult to find online. When I did find it, it was very poor quality.
  • I did not use BitTorrent because I forgot what a good resource it is.
  • I found myself going to bed a lot earlier.

Overall, it was a great experience and I recommend others try it. However, with the Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals and World Cup this month, I'm glad I turned my TV back on. ;-)

Posted in General at Jun 03 2010, 08:06:49 AM MDT 2 Comments
Comments:

We're at least 3 years now without TV, and probably longer, if by TV you mean broadcast/cable TV. We use the television to play the Wii. And we watch movies on our computers, both DVDs and streaming online stuff. But Cable/Network television? Nothing.

Occasionally I feel like I'm missing out on a conversation or two, but not enough to do anything about it.

Back when the mandated switch was made from analog to digital, we didn't get whatever it was that you were supposed to get to make things work. And we haven't had cable TV for 4 or 5 years, so that moved us from "don't" to "can't".

Posted by Rich Bowen on June 03, 2010 at 03:38 PM MDT #

My wife and I are 3 months into no dish/cable/antenna. We watch all the network shows we watched via dish online except for a few that are not published. *mumbles something about Time Warner and Big Bang Theory* I have ESPN360.com so I get my sports fix there. We watch movies via DVD player connected to the home theater system by blockbuster.com. The laptop computer is also connected to the home theater system. We get a lot more done and haven't missed the dish or the dish bill at all. You have to correct your friends who may try to talk about shows you are waiting to view the next night when published on the web or that you are watching when you want to watch them which we had to do using our DVR as well but other than that no issues. I'm a big football fan (college and pro) so we'll see how the fall works out.

Posted by b jordan on June 04, 2010 at 12:27 AM MDT #

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