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About this Blog

Hi, I'm Benjamin Marwell — IBM Champion 2026 and open-source contributor specialising in Maven build optimisation, Jakarta EE, and the Eclipse OpenJ9 JVM. I work on projects across the Apache Software Foundation — including Apache Shiro — and contribute to the broader Java ecosystem with a focus on performance, reproducible builds, and developer productivity.

On this blog I share practical deep-dives into Maven internals, Jakarta EE patterns, JVM tuning, and anything else I encounter building real software. Expect working code examples, honest benchmarks, and occasionally music — I play several brass instruments in wind bands and orchestras.

About the name: Build is for software builds, mostly Apache Maven and friends. B(r)ass is for brass music, because besides trombone I also play euphonium, tenor horn and tuba. So you will find Java and Maven next to articles about wind bands, like a DIY QR-code and NFC sticker for our orchestra (in German) or my orchestras. This blog was formerly known as Bens IT Kommentare, and all the old articles are still here. 😉

Build & Brass Links 004: Mundstücke, Nationalhymnen und Maven ResolverBuild & Brass Links: kuratierte Fundstücke zu Blasmusik und Apache MavenKI
QR-Codes und NFC-Tags fürs Blasorchester: Sticker für den KonzerttischSmartphone öffnet nach dem Antippen eines NFC-Stickers des Blasorchesters Langenhagen die Orchesterseite im Browser

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Beim Konzert zum 1. Mai (Tag der Arbeit) des Musikkorps der Stadt Hessisch Oldendorf habe ich einen kleinen Tischsticker mit zwei QR-Codes des Orchesters entdeckt. Einer führte zu Instagram, der andere zu Facebook. Das war keine große technische Revolution, aber eine ausgesprochen praktische Idee: Wer am Tisch sitzt, zuhört und wissen möchte, was das Orchester online macht, hat direkt zwei wichtige Links mit der Kamera in Reichweite.

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Small tools sometimes travel much further than you expect. jfmt and BetterBranch both did that for me. What matters here is not which repository they came from. It is that Java still makes good CLI tools, especially when they are compiled to native binaries and easy to pass around. People did not just repost a link. They packaged the tools, compared them with related projects, and added context of their own.

BetterBranch: A tiny Git helperBetterBranch screenshot in terminalAI
JavaLand 2026 Rückblick: Drei praktische Maven-Ideen, die du sofort ausprobieren kannstMaarten Mulders and Benjamin Marwell präsentieren auf der JavaLand 2026 im Europark Rust ihren Talk »Accelerating Maven Builds«

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JavaLand 2026 schloß am Mittwoch, den 11. März ihre Pforten für die Vorträge und Aussteller, und Maarten Mulders und ich hatten viel Spaß mit unserem Talk »Accelerating Maven Builds«. Wir haben praktische Tipps und Tricks zum Thema »wie messe ich meinen Build« und wie beschleunige ich meinen Maven-Build geteilt. Von den Fragen aus dem Publium haben wir geschlossen, dass es viel Interesse an diesem Thema gibt.

JavaLand 2026 recap: three practical Maven build ideas to try nowMaarten Mulders and Benjamin Marwell presenting at JavaLand 2026

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JavaLand 2026 closed yesterday, and Maarten Mulders and I had a blast presenting our talk »Accelerating Maven Builds«. We shared practical tips and tricks how to measure and speed up your Maven builds. From the questions from the audience we concluded that there’s a lot of interest in this topic.

Crawled, Not Indexed: The Schema Bugs That Outlasted Every Performance FixRich Results Test showing a BlogPosting schema block with zero errors after fixing the broken JSON-LD markupAI

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Last year I found out I got completely deindexed by Google. My blog is still not indexed, despite all the work I put in. So I decided to write a follow-up to How I Got Deindexed by Google where I analysed what was wrong with my blog. Less surprisingly, there was more to fix. Those silent bugs in the blog’s structure and markup were present since 2022, when I migrated my blog to jbake.

How I Got Deindexed by Google (And How I Fixed It)Featured image of How I Got Deindexed by Google (And How I Fixed It)
Regex vs. Email Addresses: A Battle You’ll Always LoseFeatured image of Regex vs. Email Addresses: A Battle You’ll Always Lose

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You can register and log in into many websites using your email address as login ID. But what happens if you cannot enter your valid email address into the form? The root cause of this often is that some developers did not read RFC 2822. Many web services do not allow email addresses which are valid, according to the specification.