So, you're wondering what this "Big Data" thing is, and how it differs from Plain Old Data (POD)? That's OK. You're not alone.

If that's the case, the "Big Data Essentials" Online Forum is a perfect opportunity to get yourself up to speed - via the people most qualified to help you do that: Oracle's Tom Kyte and Cloudera CEO (and former Oracle development VP) Mike Olson. You'll not only learn the fundamental concepts, but you'll also hear how to acquire, organize, and analyze big data for the best possible business value, in an interactive online format.

Register before time's up!

Virtual Developer Days are such a huge hit, we just can't help ourselves. We'll be churning them out across 2012!

This time (Jan. 24 in Americas TZ, Feb. 7 in Europe TZ, and Feb. 9 in China TZ), we're bringing you a full "day" of hands-on content about working with Oracle WebLogic Server 12c, Oracle Coherence, Eclipse, NetBeans IDE, Maven, and Hudson to build modern, lightweight, Java EE 6 applications. Per usual, the labs are based on the use of a pre-built VirtualBox VM, and live chat with Oracle experts is possible across the day.

There really isn't any better way to get 2012 started. Register now!

You can stop holding your breath now. We have determined the Top 20 (meaning: most popular) Tech Articles Published by OTN in 2011!

What conclusions can we draw from this list? Well, for one: Traditionally, we publish a "Top 10" list at the end of the calendar year. But in 2011, there were so many popular articles published that this ceiling was too limiting.

Other conclusions:

• Java developers love reading articles. Total domination of the page view numbers this year.
  
• Adam Bien is not only a Java Champion, but a Page Views Champion as well. Neither Brittany Spears nor George Clooney would have been more helpful to us in that department.
• You all seem fairly curious about Java 7, Java EE, and JavaFX.
• If you have your own observations, let's see them in comments.
  

 Without further delay, here's the list:

1. Fork and Join: Java Can Excel at Painless Parallel Programming Too! (Julien Ponge)
2. Taking Your First Steps with Oracle Solaris 11 (Brian Leonard & Glynn Foster)
3. Contexts and Dependency Injection in Java EE 6 (Adam Bien)
4. Unit Testing for Java EE (Adam Bien)
5. Neural Networks on the NetBeans Platform (Zoran Sevarac)
6. Oracle Senior VP Steve Harris on Oracle?s Vision of Java (Janice J. Heiss)
7. Oracle Database 11g Express Edition Quick Tour (Przemyslaw Piotrowski)
8. Looking Ahead to Java SE 7 and 8: A Discussion with Oracle?s Java Language Architect, Brian Goetz (Janice J. Heiss)
9. Working with Java SE 7 Exception Changes (Manfred Riem)
10. Client-Side Improvements in Java 6 and Java 7 (Josh Marinacci)
11. How I Simplified Oracle Database Installation on Oracle Linux (Ginny Henningsen)
12. The DBA?s Guide to Setting Up Oracle RAC One Node and Oracle Data Guard (Martin Bach)
13. Integration Testing for Java EE (Adam Bien)
14. Build a .NET Application on the Oracle Database with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (John Paul Cook)
15. Templating with JSF 2.0 Facelets (Deepak Vohra)
16. Using Adobe Flex and JavaFX with JavaServer Faces 2.0 (Re Lai)
17. Series: Oracle Exadata Command Reference (Arup Nanda)
18. Better Resource Management with Java SE 7: Beyond Syntactic Sugar (Julien Ponge)
19. Using Transitions for Animation in Oracle's JavaFX 2.0 (James L. Weaver)
20. Scaling a PHP MySQL Web Application, Part 1 (Eli White)

Want to see your name on this list for 2012? We're always looking for good writers. Looking forward to seeing your proposals!

Photo: Preetam Rai

Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne Latin America was last week and there were lots of videos and podcasts recorded there. Here are some of the highlights (add your favorites in the comments, please):

The JavaOne Community Keynote
The JavaOne Community Keynote was informative and funny. (Thanks to Loiane Groner for taping it!) The discussion ranged from the top 5 developments in Java in 2012, to women in technology, to how to brew coffee with Java (done on stage), to the announcement of jDuchessBR for Brazilian women using Java, to what developers do when they aren't coding. (in Brazilian Portuguese). Don't miss  the video used to conclude the keynote, an improvement of the "Code Hard" video entitled "The Real Java Developers."

OTN Interviews
I interviewed Java Experts, including Fabiane Nardon (Java EE), Loiane Groner (Java and Javascript), Jim Weaver (JavaFX) and Geertjan Weilenga (NetBeans). Yara Senger also interviewed her 80 year-old grandmother about her use of Java as a physicist. Those videos are now on Youtube/Java (look under Recent Activity). Another nice video from the OTN Lounge is this short discussion on why and how Juliano Viana works on Java EE 6 with LogicStyle's customers and how he uses GlassFish.

Java Spotlight Podcasts
The Java Spotlight Podcast Episode 60: Live from JavaOne Latin America includes an interview with Yara and Vinicius Senger on Global Code's 10th Anniversary, and with Mike Lehmann, Oracle senior director of product management, providing insight on the Weblogic 12c release. If you like your podcasts deeply technical, listen to this Java Spotlight Podcast with Alan Bateman on NIO2 APIs in JDK 7. There's nothing like the engineer working on a project to get into the technical details.

Thanks to all the developers in Latin America that made JavaOne Latin America such a success!

So as you may have learned in the recent developer deep-dive Webcast for Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (see replay - reg required), WebLogic Server is now available in the form of a 164MB zip file distribution - no installer, just unzip and go (download it here)!

For people who prefer a bundle experience however, regular-old installers are also available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS and contain Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse and Oracle Coherence, in addition to the server.

Who knew Oracle WebLogic Server 12c would be such a lightweight? Watch for yourself below.

Happy Holidays from Oracle Technology Network.  This month we are please to add another Book publisher to the list of OTN Member Discount providers - Murach Computer Books.  The titles below can be purchased for 30% off by OTN members.  Murach also offers free shipping within the continental United States. Visit the OTN Member Discount Page to receive the discount and view sample chapters for each title. 

• Murach?s Java Programming
• Murach?s Java Servlets and JSP (2nd Edition)
• Murach?s Oracle SQL and PL/SQL

Some of our proudest moments involve putting Oracle ACEs and Java Champions in the same room! Especially when it is for your benefit, such as with the OTN Round Tables at Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne Latin America next week.

What a bonanza! Java community leaders Fabiane Nardon, Bruno Souza, Steven Chin, and James Weaver, along with Latin American Oracle technology experts like Ricardo Portillo, Francisco Riccio, and Rodrigo Almeida, all hanging fire at the OTN Lounge, waiting for your questions and feedback!

We sincerely wish we had been more diligent in our Spanish studies in school. And Portuguese - not on the course list, I'm afraid!

 (Dec. 6, 2011 update: the on-demand replay of the Webcast described below is here.)

It is not often that we are compelled to direct you toward a product launch event. But this one is special.

On Dec. 1, Oracle will launch (via live Webcast) Oracle WebLogic Server 12c, a major update to that product. And this release, which includes Java EE 6 support, Active GridLink for Oracle RAC, and Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder, among other things, is specifically designed to improve the process of deploying apps to the cloud.

Even better: the Dec. 1 Webcast includes an hour-long, developer-focused deep-dive session in which product experts will answer your questions via live chat. (Register for this session separately.)

You don't want to miss this one, folks! 

Why Oracle VM VirtualBox is such a great tool for sysadmins. On the OTN Garage.

- Rick Ramsey

Are you a coding genius? Do you have a Java-related code challenge that you'd like to share with the the readers of Java Magazine? Then submit your own "Fix This" challenge! Read more at the Java Source blog. First deadline to submit is December 12th so start thinking of your best brainteaser and submit soon!  Good Luck!