I just spent a great week in Crete where I attended The Java Specialists Master Course. There is something truly magical about learning advanced Java in a beautiful place like Crete (Chania, in particular). We were in this little apartments overlooking the sea, the sun was shining, the birds twittering...A very relaxing environment.
We would then reach Heinz's house at 9am, attend the course in the morning, savour Irene's fantastic lunch, go back for the afternoon session until 5pm and then have free time afterwards. In addition to the beauty of the place, the course had been really helpful for improving my knowledge of the Java platform. Because it's so intense (1000 slides in 4 days) this course represents for me a starting point; the real work starts from today, where I'll have to go through the most important slides and study the concepts deeply.
The part of the course which I enjoyed the most was related to multi-threading, JVM settings and performance improvements, although I also enjoyed concepts such as NIO and Java Reflection.
Heinz is a bible of knowledge; it's truly amazing how well he knows Java, inside and outside, his command of the language, the technology, best practices and design patterns. Every minute spent listening and talking to him has been invaluable and there hasn't been a single instance where he didn't know what to say or how to answer; there was no single question he wouldn't know how to deal with.
I also met some fantastic programmers from France and Poland. I was amazed at their skills and being at this course let me realize how much work I have ahead of me.
To finish, on the last day (Friday) Heinz invited us at his place for a true Greek-style barbecue, with Lamb on the spit, Greek potatoes and salad. We met his wonderful family and his four dogs.
M.
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