Staying On-Top of Programming Trends?

GhettoPeanut asks: "Trends are constantly changing, upgrading, or become popular due to high end user demand or just basic usefulness. I do my best to keep up with the trends, believing that for the most part they will be better then the current methods in place, or just comfort in knowing that if enough people use it, that there will be allot of help out there. Ultimately though, its keeping up with these trends and trying to figure out what's a fad versus what's actually useful that's the difficult part. What do some of you do to keep up with the trends? Websites? Magazines such as Dr. Dobbs? Forums? I know there's not one solve all, but for the sake of argument, suppose you wanted to stay on the forefront of Java based web development, what would you do?"

Well...

[packetmon]

suppose you wanted to stay on the forefront of Java based web development, what would you do? I'd make sure I worked near a Starbucks that never closed while I worked on my Geocities website. Java owns you

Recommendation:

[Black Parrot]

I've really enjoyed 1001 Buzzwords for the Entry-Level Programmer.

Re:lol, java

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL! U R TEH FUNNY!!!

1998 called, and they want their troll back.

In a nutshell...

[SoupIsGood Food]

1) The biggest news in Java is that you don't have to program in Java anymore. Popular languages like Python, Ruby and Eiffel(HA! Loser.) have all been ported to the Java VM, and have access to to the Java libraries, in addition to the Python/Ruby/OCaml(HA! Loser.) libraries.

2) You will only ever need to know Java, Ruby or Python to make it as a Web Programmer.

3) RoR is teh hawt. On the Java side, knowing Spring, Hibernate, struts, jUnit, JSF and (hold your nose) Beans will get you far. Python? HA!

4) Python was in, now it's on its way out. Python geeks can keep the perl geeks warm when it snows. Take comfort, the Ruby guys will be there to huddle up with you in five years. PHP guys don't get paid, but will be wanted by people who don't like to pay programmers.

5) C++. How quaint. You must have come from the game programming field. Perhaps you should go back there? We sure as hell don't want you. Go and keep the LISP guy company at the geezer end of the bar.

SoupTellsItLikeIt Is

Re:Slashdot

[Bjarke Roune]

> Honestly, being a regular on slashdot will keep you pretty current on
> the latest fads in the industry.
>
Yeah, especially if they have something to do with Google.

Re:Ignore them...

[JohnFluxx]

Tell me about it. At my school they tried to get me to learn how to add two numbers together! I tried to explain that a calculator can do it, and therefore my time was being wasted in learning, but unfortunately that didn't go over so well.

Now, I have no school education, but I do have a fairly decent job NOT reinventing the wheel.

Learn what not to do: thedailtywtf.com

[Anonymous Coward]

Learn what not to do by periodically visiting http://thedailywtf.com/ [thedailywtf.com]