A few weeks ago, I was approached by an acquisition editor with Packt Publishing, asking if I might be interested in working on a book with them. Long story short, I signed the paper work and started working on the title Java 9 Blueprints . Books in Packt's Blueprints series offer a different project in each chapter, showing each is built, explaining the technologies used, etc. So far, it feels a lot like what I aim for in my blog posts, only longer. The target release is Q1 of next year. I have a lot of work ahead of me. :)

Yesterday, the NetBeans team announced plans to move NetBeans from Oracle to Apache. This move was met by a mix of skepticism and optimism. I've ranged between the two myself, to be honest, but I've landed on optimsim.

I have a grand total of one Android application in the Play Store, Cub Tracker. It serves two functions for me: it helps me manage my sons' Cub Scout den, and it gives me a means for experimentation in the mobile realm. For the most part, it has done well for me on both counts for the past few years. I am currently faced with an issue of new functionality (which is mostly irrelevant for this discussion) that has brought up a question in the realm of experimentation. This post is a discussion of my options which will allow me to think out loud, if you will, as well as getting (I hope) some feedback on my options.

At the end of another busy year, full of stress and grief, it's my hope and prayer that the true message of Christmas, not "getting along with family", but the birth of the Savior of the world, would settle your hearts, and that True Peace would be yours.

Merry Christmas!

+++ <a href=" http://www.hobbylobby.com/about-us/holiday-messages?modal=it%27s+a+boy" rel="NON"> <img src="/images/2015/2015-ChristmasStandardDTLR.jpg" style="padding: 0px 0px 10px 10px;"/> </a> +++

If you've been following my blog, you've probably noticed that I've been spending a lot of time with Kotlin of late. (For the curious, I really like it so far, but I haven't done just a whole lot with it.) I've experimented with writing simple JSF and JAX-RS apps in it, largely to see if I can make it work. With those hurdles cleared, I'm trying something a bit more ambitious: a complete (if basic) Java EE application, written completely in Kotlin. Because I'm a sucker for a bad joke, I've dubbed the project KotlinEE. I'm not quite ready to walk through that application yet, but I what I would like to discuss now is an issue I ran into trying to get CDI working with Kotlin.