The countdown to the Java 11 release on September 25th has started. This will be the Long Term Support version, meaning it will get security and stability patches for three years. If you’ve been reluctant to upgrade to Java 9 or 10, consider checking out 11, it will be around for a while, even after 12 comes out. Major features of Java 11 are an official HTTP client, some bytecode changes to make future features possible, local variable syntax for lambda parameters, as well as moving Java EE and CORBA packages out of the standard distribution. Give it a try, let us know what you think!

Speaking of Java 11, are you having trouble figuring out what Long Term Support really means, and what the latest news on free vs. paid support is? You aren’t alone. Stephen Colebourne, the person who brought us Joda Time as well as the JSR-310 spec lead has a great blog post explaining your options.

It’s back! Let’s get together with developers from CJUG, Chicago Python (ChiPy), and Chicago Ruby and have some fun! This event is totally free and will be held on Tuesday, September 27, at Sully’s House (1501 N. Dayton).

RSVP for the Polyglot Mixer Now!

REST Beyond the Obvious - API Design for Ever Evolving Systems
Thursday, September 20 at Blue Cross Blue Shield

a.k.a. RESTBTO-ADFEES. Rolls off the tongue.

Oliver Gierke is coming all the way from Dresden, Germany to present this talk and it’s one we think you’ll really learn a lot from. The talk takes a step back and looks at the architectural context APIs live in and outlines the drawbacks that result from ignoring crucial parts of REST. It discusses internal vs. external APIs, whether that distinction is useful in the first place, the impact of Domain-Driven Design and how to design and specify APIs and their clients to optimize for evolvability so that changes in an API don’t break clients.

Oliver was gracious enough to offer the community a choice in what he presented and this was the winner of the vote! So if you voted, thank you!

RSVP for Oliver’s talk now!

Office Hours
Monday. September 17 at IBM

Got a project you need help with? New to Java and want some concepts explained, or help sorting out all of your options? Want to just come hang out and code? Come to CJUG Office Hours.

Our optional topic this month is going to be Unit Testing, led by Lamar Smith. Learn some of the tools, tricks, and reasons for writing effective unit tests. It might be more effort up front, but it will save you in the long run! Or bring any other questions you might have, projects you want help with, just come hang out.

RSVP for Office Hours now!

Several members of the CJUG board have a podcast focused on Java news called Java Off Heap, and you can find it in iTunes or javaoffheap.com.

Episode 36: So another company made the exclusive trillion dollar club (AAPL). We also have Jakarta EE Election Results! (We presume there was no Russian Interference…​yet ;). Hear what it means with the new leadership, and who is conspicuously absent from the table. For IDE Buffs, we dived into both Eclipse and Netbeans releases (Eclipse Photon, and Netbeans 9)…​ so geeks rejoice! Lastly we take a tour on the current Docker Image landscape and what companies are doing for Java in that space.

Be sure to follow CJUG on twitter @CJUG for up to date information on what we’re up to. We announce all of our meetups and tweet out interesting news from our industry. As always, be part of the community by tweeting us your suggestions or requests for speakers or topics.

We couldn’t do what we do for the Java community in Chicago without the help of our fantastic Gold Level Sponsors. They fund our operations, donate equipment, and generously donate their time and space for us to meet. Please consider them if you are looking to switch jobs soon.

Expedia Group

Expedia has generously donated 30 laptops for CJUG which were recently used at our first CJUG4Kids event. We appreciate Expedia’s generous donation to the Chicago Java User Group and we look forward to using the laptops for more events especially CJUG4Kids. Additionally, Expedia has been very generous with their space for a number of CJUG events. We are very excited to have them on as Gold Sponsors!

PEAK6

PEAK6 has provided CJUG with a generous donation that will help fund additional laptop chargers, speaker gifts, and community events (such as the Polyglot Party!). PEAK6 has been tremendous community partners over the years supplying space, speakers, and frosty beverages. We are very thankful for there support and look forward to partnering with them as Gold Sponsors. Contact Us

Interested in having your company host a future CJUG meetup? Want to help but don’t know where to start? Have an idea for a topic that you want to see more of, or want to present yourself? How about some feedback on CJUG to make it better?

Mail us at [email protected] and we will hook you up with the right person.

We hope to see you at one of our events in September. We’re trying very hard to create an open and inclusive group, so come say “hi!” if you see one of us, and tell your friends and co-workers about what we’re up to.

Thanks for reading,

Todd Ginsberg
CJUG Community Leader
[email protected]

August is half over but we still have more great things planned.

Ask the Spring Team Anything
Wednesday August 29th at Pivotal Labs

This event is going to be very special, as we have several Spring project leads coming in to talk with us at Pivotal Labs. Rather than pick one person to give a talk, we figured we would have a panel discussion about anything Spring related, and let you, the community, decide where the conversation goes.

We will have a discussion with:

If you use Spring at all, this will be a great opportunity to come find out where your favorite Spring projects are going, and have your questions answered. So put your thinking caps on, come up with some questions you’ve been dying to know the answer to, and RSVP before we fill up. Personally, I can’t wait to find out why Michael Minella flipped that tortoise over in the desert.

RSVP for Ask the Spring Team Anything at Meetup.com.

Office Hours
Monday. August 20th at Rocketmiles

We will be holding August’s office hours at Rocketmiles. Got a project you need help with? New to Java and want some concepts explained, or help sorting out all of your options? Want to just come hang out and code? Come to CJUG Office Hours.

Our optional topic this month is going to be Interviewing Skills. We’ll have several people on hand who regularly interview developers to help you approach problems you might encounter, give you tips on what to do in an interview, and come up with mock questions to go over. If you’re actively looking to change jobs, or plan on looking soon, come let us help build up your confidence.

RSVP for Office Hours at Meetup.com.

Pivotal is bringing the Spring One Tour through Chicago on August 28 and 29. For $150 you get two full days of talks (single track, so you don’t miss anything!), breakfasts, lunches, and a networking social. There will even be an open space in the afternoon on the first day so you can suggest and participate in whatever kind of talks you want! There are some great speakers coming to this event, and you’re guaranteed to learn a lot.

So get that sales pitch ready and convince your boss to dip into the training budget, this is a bargain at $150.

Several members of the CJUG board have a podcast focused on Java news called Java Off Heap, and you can find it in iTunes or javaoffheap.com.

Did you know there is a string concatenation bug in Java 9 and 10? Or that there are plans to remove Serializable? Oracle recently open sourced Java Mission Control, what does that mean for the community? What happens to Jakarta EE (the new group in charge of what was Java EE) if Oracle doesn’t transfer the EE specifications to them? Find out by downloading and listening to Episode 35.

Be sure to follow CJUG on twitter @CJUG for up to date information on what we’re up to. We announce all of our meetups and tweet out interesting news from our industry. As always, be part of the community by tweeting us your suggestions or requests for speakers or topics.

We couldn’t do what we do for the Java community in Chicago without the help of our fantastic Gold Level Sponsors. They fund our operations, donate equipment, and generously donate their time and space for us to meet. Please consider them if you are looking to switch jobs soon.

Expedia Group

Expedia has generously donated 30 laptops for CJUG which were recently used at our first CJUG4Kids event. We appreciate Expedia’s generous donation to the Chicago Java User Group and we look forward to using the laptops for more events especially CJUG4Kids. Additionally, Expedia has been very generous with their space for a number of CJUG events. We are very excited to have them on as Gold Sponsors!

Peak 6

Peak6 has provided CJUG with a generous donation that will help fund additional laptop chargers, speaker gifts, and community events (such as the Polyglot Party!). Peak6 has been tremendous community partners over the years supplying space, speakers, and frosty beverages. We are very thankful for there support and look forward to partnering with them as Gold Sponsors.

Interested in having your company host a future CJUG meetup? Want to help but don’t know where to start? Have an idea for a topic that you want to see more of, or want to present yourself? How about some feedback on CJUG to make it better?

Mail us at [email protected] and we will hook you up with the right person.

Whew! I told you we had a lot going on in August! See you in September with more news.

Thanks for reading,

Todd Ginsberg
CJUG Community Leader
[email protected]

June 9th - CJUG is proud to announce our first CJUG4Kids event! Want to get your kids excited about programming? We have a workshop that combines Java and Minecraft with some cool modding code. (Snowballs that contain arrows WAAAAA???) We’re planning on holding a few more workshops this summer so keep watching. If you’re interested in getting involved, send an email to [email protected].

June 2nd - Partner Event - We are also excited to share with you another kid focused event with Hak4Kidz. Hak4Kidz is an event of ethical hackers and Information Security professionals dedicated to bring the educational and communal benefits of white hat hacking conferences to children and young adults. We accomplish this mission by putting our collective expertise and passion on display for the attendees to interact with us at their will. A combination of activity stations and detailed workshops will enable the attendees to expand and enlighten their technical interests. For innovation to perpetuate, it’s imperative that today’s young users are exposed to the bigger picture of how we got here and to help realize their potential. Check out registration Here.

May 10th - We’re deeply committed to supporting and enhancing the OSS community. CJUG’s own Bob and Josh will lead a discussion on how you can participate and give back to the OSS community. From the Dark Web to the Panama Papers, you’d be surprised at how OSS contribution has impacted some of the most compelling recent scandals. (This will be a virtual event)

May 16th - The next monthly Office Hours is scheduled with a group project on Logging, led by Lamar Smith. If you’d like to request a topic for the next office hours, or want to volunteer to be an office hours aide, contact Todd or Janine.

May 21st - David Blevins will be presenting Deconstructing and Evolving REST Security. Security for REST endpoints… you mean I’m not supposed to throw all of my apis on the open web and expose everything? Ugh…​

Time to get involved! As mentioned in the last newsletters, Lightning Talks are coming up soon. (Targeting early June) We’re looking for you to submit a 5-10 minute talk on the topic of your choosing. This is a great chance to flex those speaking skills in front of our very supportive crowd. If you want to present email us at [email protected]. If you’re not sure where to get started or have any questions feel free to email us at that address as well.

We’d like to make a special shoutout to our sponsor Expedia for their amazing donation of laptops that will help with our future workshops. We cannot do what we do without our awesome sponsors. The donation of these laptops will allow us to do much more with our community and kids outreach programs. Thanks so much!

~ Janine Patterson ~
Community Leader
[email protected]

We’ve officially launched our new website @ https://cjug.org. Check out previous newsletters, upcoming meetup events, and new announcements.

In case you missed it, our 2018 board has been chosen.

President - Freddy ‘Resident Cat Herder’ Guime
Chairman of the Board - Jonathan ‘No Rubbish’ Ross
Chief Financial Officer - Todd ‘Just the JVM Please’ Ginsberg
Director of Meetings - Mary ‘Requirements - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯’ Grygleski
Director of Sponsorship - Bob ‘Independently Awesome’ Paulin
Community Leader - Janine ‘It Works on My Box’ Patterson

We have some great speakers lined up for the summer. Check out Bruno Souza Presents: 3 steps for an amazing Java career on April 9th. Bruno is stopping in Chicago as part of his JUG Tour around the US. He’ll be giving some sage and fun advice on how to build your awesome career!

The next monthly Office Hours is scheduled for April 17th. If you’d like to request a topic for the next office hours, or want to volunteer to be an office hours aide, contact Todd or Janine.

Mark your calendar for April 19th. Thomas Nield will present Data Science with Kotlin. Kotlin is hitting the prime time as a JVM language for Big Data, and Thomas will show us how.

GOTO Chicago is coming up soon. Talks are on April 25th and 26th. Workshops on April 24th and 27th. Registration is still open.

Keep an eye on the calendar. CJUG has two speakers scheduled for every month this summer. Announcements will be made in a timely fashion before each speaker’s talk.

Interested in getting involved in the speaker circuit? Want to talk at a CJUG event? We’re mixing it up this year by adding lightning talks this June. Talks should aim to be around 5-10 minutes, on any technical topic you’d like. This will be a great opportunity for new and experienced speakers to flex their skills in front of a very chill and supportive crowd. Some of our members have used events like this in the past to get involved, and have subsequently presented at DevNexus and Oracle Code this year. We’re giving you an extra heads up so you can consider your topic.

If you’ve been to a CJUG meetup lately, you’ve seen that we are looking for more volunteers. We’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline that we’re getting ready to announce. More opportunities to work with our community locally, or maybe travel? Hmmmm…. Keep an eye on your email…​

Gotta run, just discovered a new cache of cat gifs on the internet. Until next time!

~ Janine Patterson ~
Community Leader
[email protected]

CJUG Office Hours - Janine Patterson & Todd Ginsberg (March 21)

Need help with a project? Would you like a second pair of eyes to dig into that tricky issue you’ve been facing? Or do you just want to hang out with your laptop and some people after work? We’ve got just the thing for you! Introducing CJUG Office Hours!

Office Hours will be hosted after work. Every session will have at least one aide in attendance for the full session. The purpose of these sessions is similar to that of a ‘coffee and code’ - connecting with people who want to work on personal projects, get a code review, or just hang out. There is no set format and you may come and go as you please.

Marcus Hirt: Java Mission Control & JFR in JDK 9: A Sneak Peek (March 28)

In JDK 9, the JFR APIs will become supported, so you can now rely on the JFR APIs for both controlling Oracle Java Flight Recorder and introducing your own custom JFR data into the recordings. Also, with JDK 9, a new major, very different version of the Oracle Java Mission Control feature of Oracle Java SE Advanced will be released.

This session takes a sneak peek into what the new APIs for controlling the Oracle Java Flight Recorder feature will look like and provides migration guidelines from the old APIs. It also goes through some of the highlights of the completely redesigned Oracle Java Mission Control 6.0.0, such as the automatic analysis of flight recordings.

GOTO NIGHTS with Frank Greco, Jim Weaver and Ed Burns (April 4)

Introduction to Machine Learning for Java Developers

Machine Learning (ML) is a powerful data analytics tool that essentially allows machines to solve problems without explicit programming. ML is used in search, marketing, adaptive websites, online advertising, stock market analysis, and even inside of IDE’s. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, has said his company is betting big on advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the coming years. Tim Cook from Apple stated "Today, machine learning drives improvement in countless features across our products”. At Microsoft’s Ignite conference, CEO Satya Nadella talked about his vision for how deep learning and AI will transform the company.

But what exactly is ML? How is it different from the previous AI technology cycle? What use cases are suitable for ML? And most importantly, how can we Java developers take advantage of ML in our applications?

We’ll take a look at the various ML services and tools available to Java developers. In particular we’ll explore the Watson Java SDK to demonstrate some powerful ML functionality on a mobile device. Also, we’ll discuss the details of an exciting, proposed JSR for visual recognition.

Heather VanCura and Charlie Hunt Present: Hacking on Java 9 Round 2 (April 11)

Bring your project and run it on Java 9 EA with fellow CJUG members! See if the performance improvements Charlie and Heather did a hack day for us in April 2016. Java 9 is targeted for release for July 2017 but that doesn’t mean you need to wait until next year to understand how the new features might benefit your projects. Charlie will be there for anything that breaks (no pressure). Also learn how to take part in Java technology evolution through the Java Community Process (JCP) program run by Heather VanCura. You can participate as an individual, corporation, or nonprofit such as a Java user group (JUG). This session gives you step-by-step instructions on how to participate in the JCP Program with the new membership levels. You will also learn about the global Adopt-a-JSR program and how you can participate in the Adopt-a-JSR program through CJUG. Find out how you have contribute to the future editions of the Java Standard and Java Enterprise Editions.

Scala Days (Chicago, April 18-21)

Scala Days, the premier Scala Conference, will be held this year at Swissôtel in Chicago. Trainings will be on April 18th - 19th, 2017, and the conference will be held from April 19th - 21st, 2017. Leaders from Scala User Groups and communities around the globe, students and language contributors, will gather to discuss academic research, use-cases and visionary projects for a two day, action-packed event. Use ‘Scaladaysfriend’ code for 20% off tix!

GoTo Conference (Chicago, May 1-4)

Your local Chicago Conference. Great presenters, great people, local venue. This should be an easy win for you to convince your boss to sign-up for! Use code "CJUGgoto" for $120 off.

Extra-special goto sessions which might be relevant to CJUG:

With that, see you at the next CJUG!

Amrita Chavan

Josh Juneau and Bob Paulin present: Adopt-a-JSR (ONLINE ONLY) (Feb 15th)

Java EE 8 is under active development, and JDK 9 is now feature complete. There are many areas in which the community can contribute to each of these efforts. Adopt-a-JSR is a grassroots initiative developed by JUG leaders to encourage JUG members to get involved in a JSR. The CJUG has adopted JSR 366: Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 8 (Java EE 8 Specification, and we plan to help make a difference in the future of Java EE! We have also adopted JSR 379 (Java SE 9 Platform Umbrella), and we’re furthering our involvement by working on OpenJDK initiatives in this session.

Paul Nauman presents: Building a Better JVM (Feb 28th)

In this session we’ll examine the case for building an open-source Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in Java. We’ll look at a brief history of some previous disruptive technologies. We’ll consider what a JVM does and how it works, and we’ll discuss some of the indications that existing implementations are problematic. Then we’ll look at some examples of JVMs written in Java and the implementation challenges of such an approach. Finally we’ll consider a fledgling project that could serve to start this transition.

DevNexus (Atlanta, Feb 22-24)

is fast approaching! The Atlanta Conference is not just a great conference, but it’s also the best "Bang for the buck" for employers. It’s one of the most inexpensive conference that brings incredible talent to talk everything from Java to Javascript (ok not everything, but everything that’s relevant right?). Come check them out, and ask your employer to buy the super-cheap conference. Get brownie points for being so conservative in your training budget, and don’t forget to attend the live podcast session with the CJUG crowd (Java OffHeap!). Hope to see you there!

GoTo Nights with Chris Richardon on Eventual Consistency (Feb 16th)

In anticipation of goto;Chicago, we’re offering GOTO Nights for local developers to stay up to date with the latest tools, technologies, processes and practices in the software industry. First up is Chris Richardson!

GoTo Conference (Chicago, May 1-4)

Your local Chicago Conference. Great presenters, great people, local venue. This should be an easy win for you to convince your boss to sign-up for! In addition, we have a 100$-off coupon for CJUG Members! Use code "cJavaUG" Extra-special goto sessions which might be relevant to CJUG:

Freddie Guime