Hibernate: A Developer's Notebook shows you how to use Hibernate to automate persistence: you write natural Java objects and some simple configuration files, and Hibernate automates all the interaction between your objects and the database. You don't even need to know the database is there, and you can change from one database to another simply by changing a few statements in a configuration file. If you've needed to add a database back end to your application, don't put it off. It's much more fun than it used to be. Sample Chapter 3, Harnessing Hibernate, is available free online.

Nested Classes, Part 2 -- One of the strangest types of inner classes is the limited-scope inner class, and the often confusing anonymous classes associated with it. Get a better idea of how inner classes work in Java, their syntax, and their problems, in this excerpt from O'Reilly's Hardcore Java.

O'Reilly Distributes Pragmatic Bookshelf -- Books by developers, for developers: that's the pragmatic way, and it's nicely aligned with the O'Reilly approach to publishing. We're happy to help Pragmatic Programmers reach a wider audience by providing sales, distribution, and marketing support for Pragmatic Bookshelf, an imprint of Pragmatic Programmers, LLC. For a list of titles available on the Pragmatic Bookshelf, visit pragmatic.oreilly.com.

Nested Classes, Part 1 -- You're bound to encounter one or more nested classes in other people's Java code, so it's important to understand how they work. Get a complete description of one of the three basic categories of nested classes, inner classes, in this excerpt from O'Reilly's Hardcore Java.

JSP 2.0: The New Deal, Part 4 -- The wait is almost over: the latest version of the JavaServer Pages (JSP) specification, JSP 2.0, is about to be released. In this article, Hans Bergsten shows how the new changes make JSP and its expression language cleaner and more powerful. Hans is the author of JavaServer Pages, 3rd Edition.

The State of JAXB: Availability, Suitability, Analysis, and Architecture -- JAXB, now part of Sun's Web Services Developer Pack, offers a means of converting between Java objects and an XML representation. But is it the ideal solution? Satya Komatineni investigates what JAXB has to offer.

Seven Low-Cost Ways to Improve Legacy Code -- Robert Simmons, Jr. presents seven techniques developed and used in his consulting work that are designed to improve legacy code, without a major investment in time or cash. Robert is the author of the recently released Hardcore Java.

SafariU: Create, Customize, and Share Teaching Material -- Looking for a way to truly customize your course textbook and offer students exactly the material you choose to teach, while saving them a good bit of money? Become a SafariU beta tester and check out the new web-based publishing platform from O'Reilly that allows you to create custom textbooks and online syllabi. To see SafariU in action, register to join SafariU's developers for a live webcast.

JSP 2.0: The New Deal, Part 3 -- Hans Bergsten describes how improvements made in JSP 2.0 enable you to write JSP pages as XML documents. Hans is the author of JavaServer Pages, 3rd Edition.

Java and Security, Part 2 -- This book excerpt takes a close look at WebLogic's various security providers and their default implementations. It shows you how to authenticate using JAAS, and how to create custom Authentication and Identity Assertion Providers. Get a 360-degree view of the world of WebLogic from WebLogic: The Definitive Guide.

JOLT Award for O'Reilly Network -- Daniel Steinberg, editor of ONJava.com and java.net, writes about this year's JOLT Product Excellence Awards where Head First Java was a finalist in the technical books category, and O'Reilly Network won a productivity award in the category of Websites and Developer Networks. Read about the winners.

Java and Sound, Part 2 -- Learn how to read a simple musical score and convert it into a MIDI Sequence, and how to make music by directly controlling one or more MidiChannel objects of a Synthesizer object, in this excerpt from David Flanagan's Java Examples in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition.

NetBeans IDE 3.6 -- The NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 3.6 is now available. The award-winning NetBeans IDE provides a pure Java development environment for Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X. The developer community has been driving tremendous innovation on the NetBeans platform and building considerable partner and community momentum. Read more and get the General Availability release at www.netbeans.org.

Your O'Reilly Account: New, Single Sign On -- O'Reilly customers and guests now have a single address and one password to access all things O'Reilly, from oreilly.com and Safari Bookshelf to all of the O'Reilly Network sites and DevCenters. When possible, we've consolidated your prior, separate accounts into one new account. Logging into the new system is quick and easy; details on how to do it have been emailed to you, and you can read more about O'Reilly's single sign on in Tony Stubblebine's weblog.

Introduction to JavaServer Faces -- Alexander Prohorenko offers an introduction to JavaServer Faces, which attempts to bring to the web-app space the same kind of toolkit Swing developers enjoy: a well-defined set of high-level components for building GUI applications. Learn everything you need to know about JSF in O'Reilly's upcoming JavaServer Faces.

Java and Sound, Part 1 -- Where can you learn how to play simple audio clips with the java.applet.AudioClip class, as well as how to use the javax.sound.sampled and javax.sound.midi packages to do such things as load and play sound clips and monitor and change the playback position within a clip? In this excerpt from Java Examples in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition.

Take the ONJava Reader Survey -- Here's your chance to influence the direction of ONJava.com and possibly win some O'Reilly books in the process. Take this year's ONJava survey and let us know what topics you'd like to see the site tackle, as well as what Java books you'd like to see O'Reilly publish.

Explorations: Googleminer, Part 1 -- William Grosso begins exploring an Internet application built for the "Internet Operating System" on top of the Google APIs: Googleminer, in this article on java.net. William is the author of Java RMI.

Java APIs for Bioinformatics -- This introduction to Java APIs for bioinformatics includes usage information, examples, and current design challenges for API developers in the life sciences field. You'll find all of O'Reilly's books and articles on bioinformatics at bio.oreilly.com.

Cooking with Java Servlets & JSP, Part 2 -- Learn to access an EJB using the WebLogic JNDI Tree, and get set up with Amazon's Web Services API, in these sample recipes from Java Servlet & JSP Cookbook.