Impulso Java Impulsando el desarrollo de software

Así es, el famoso sitio de cursos dictados por Sang Shin, JavaPassion, dentro de dos o tres semanas pasará a ser pago.
El costo parece que será una cuota anual de U$S 89 por acceso ilimitado a todos los cursos.
Los cursos son excelentes, y abarcan con gran profundidad la mayoría de los temas relacionados con Java.
Incluso tiene laboratorios para casi todos los tópicos que se tratan, y además para certificar que uno hizo el curso, debe entregar todas las tareas (mini proyectos) que van haciendo que uno obtenga si o si un poco de práctica, y no tanta teoría.
Una verdadera pena, justo ahora quería hacer un par :S, no me parece mal que cobre, porque son cursos muy buenos, me da bronca no haber aprovechado antes este recurso tan valioso.

En la página sale el siguiente comentario, donde no aclara si será pago o no:

Announcement from Sang Shin (Feb. 1st, 2010):  In the near future (maybe within 2 or 3 weeks), the courses in javapassion.com will be available as a subscription-based service. (Yes, it is a painful decision on my part.) If you want to receive course announcement in the future, please send an blank email to javapassion-announcement+subscribe@googlegroups.com. All course announcements will be also posted on this website.

Me suscribí para que me lleguen los anuncios sobre comienzo de nuevos cursos, y unos de los primeros mails que recibí en el grupo era de una persona que preguntaba cuando comenzaba el próximo curso, y Sang Shin dejó bastante en claro que iba a ser pago:

Please let me know when does the next batch for Java programming
starts. [...]
As soon as the "paid-subscription" scheme gets implemented. (It will be a few weeks.)
I am planning to get my Java certification. Also would
like to know the price of the course and can this course be taken
It will be $89 per year for unlimited access to all courses of javapassion.com.
during weekends only. Week days is kind of tough since I travel at
work.
The courses are basically self-paced (there is NO real-time webcasting) so you can work on the course material on your own pace.
-Sang Shin

Y navegando por otro sitio encontré otra respuesta similar pero donde explica con más detalle el porqué de su decisión:

On 2/3/2010 4:33 PM, Alex Ruiz wrote:
Pedro and Dante,
From the javapassion website, I can see that the course will be
subscription based, but I never says it requires you to pay money (I
cannot speak for Mr. Shing,) so I think you are jumping into conclusions
too quickly (unless I’m missing something.)
Actually it will be indeed “paid service”. I am not sure how
successful it will be. But I decided to try mainly because
the other choice is “killing javapassion.com” all together.
The price point I am thinking about is $89 per year for unlimited
access to all the courses of “javapassion.com”. (My market research
shows that this is much less expensive compared to other similar
sites which offer “less quality” contents in my opinio. And frankly
my suspicion is that it will be barely enough to sustain “javapassion.com” and me.)
Even if Mr. Shing decides to charge. So what? Mr. Shing already made
public that he left Oracle, and now he is independent. He is completely
free to charge for his knowledge and time, isn’t he? After all, we all
have to make a living.
Thanks for your clarification and support.
-Sang Shin