Beyond Java -- In this intriguing book, Bruce Tate chronicles the rise of the most successful language of all time, and then lays out, in painstaking detail, the compromises the founders had to make to establish success. Bruce argues that Java is abandoning its base, and conditions are ripe for an alternative to emerge.

Head First's Cover Model Contest -- JavaRanch is hosting a contest to choose a cover model for the next Head First book (Head First Objects), due out this Spring. Examine seven wannabees, decide which would work best, then craft an essay or poem describing why. Try your luck at winning one of five fabulous prizes, including the chance to have your name appear in the new book. Deadline for entries is January 29th.

Linux/Unix System Administration Certificate Series Special -- Beginners and professionals alike can plunge into the art of system administration through our four-course series, spanning basic directories to sed, awk, and perl. You'll get your own root server to work on, and free O'Reilly books for reference. Upon completion of the series, you'll receive a Certificate of Professional Development from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education. Pre-enroll in all four courses and receive a $300 instant rebate. Offer expires January 31st.

O'Reilly Books on Amazon's Best of 2005 -- Head First Java, Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, and Make magazine were voted Best of 2005 in the Computers & Internet category of both the Editors' Picks and the Top 10 Customers' Favorites lists. In addition, iLife: The Missing Manual, Mapping Hacks, and Revolution in the Valley were all chosen as Editors' Picks in the Digital Life category. Thanks!

Managing and Monitoring JBoss -- In part one of this two-part excerpt, authors Norman Richards and Sam Griffith covered how to use the Web Console and its MBeans to manage your web apps. In this second part, learn how to create a monitor for your app, how to configure alerts to be sent via email, and how to manage JBoss from the command line. If these excerpts whet your appetite, check out the whole book, JBoss: A Developer's Notebook.

Hacking Swing: Translucent Windows -- All Java windows are absolutely rectangular, so you can forget about creating a nice Winamp-like window for your Swing app, right? Wrong. In this excerpt from Swing Hacks, authors Joshua Marinacci and Chris Adamson show how you can use some imaging trickery to create arbitrarily shaped windows with Swing.

Technologies to Watch: A Look at Four That May Challenge Java's Development Dominance -- Bruce Tate has a knack for identifying successful technologies. He was one of the early developers who identified the emergence of the Spring framework, and he predicted the demise of EJB 2 technologies well in advance. In his new book, Beyond Java, Bruce looks at four languages and technologies that may challenge Java's dominance in some development niches.

Moving Past Java: An Interview with Bruce Tate -- WebServicesSummit.com recently interviewed Bruce Tate about the future of Java and web development. Bruce discusses scalable enterprise applications, database-enabled applications, AJAX, and lightweight solutions for web development, while questioning whether Java is still a technology for the masses. Bruce is the author of the newly released Beyond Java.

Building J2EE Projects with Maven -- Vincent Massol offers some real-life experience building J2EE applications with Maven. Using the example of a Petstore app, Massol shows you how to generate J2EE artifacts (EJB JARs, WARs, EARs) with Maven. Vincent is coauthor of Maven: A Developer's Notebook.

Hacking Swing with Undocumented Classes and Properties -- Joshua Marinacci shows you six undocumented features, classes, and properties that let you hack into Swing. From how to hide a frame from the Windows task bar to how to make Mac OS X windows truly transparent, these undocumented hacks can add a level of polish that will make your apps stand out from the rest. Joshua is the coauthor of Swing Hacks.

What Is Business Process Modeling? -- Business Process Modeling (BPM) is a set of technologies and standards for the design, execution, administration, and monitoring of business processes. In this article, Mike Havey briefly describes the state of BPM today and the BPM standards, then builds an ideal BPM architecture using the example of a retailer process. Mike is the author of Essential Business Process Modeling.

Getting Started with Maven -- In this excerpted chapter titled "Maven Jump-Start," Vincent Massol and Timothy M. O'Brien show you how to install Maven, kick off your first build, and start investigating its features for integrating with IDEs and source control systems. Vincent and Timothy are the authors of Maven: A Developer's Notebook.

How to Talk About Jini, J2EE, and Web Services at a Cocktail Party -- Heard about distributed technologies for Java, but not quite sure what they are or why they're important? Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates show you how to hold your own in conversation with Java geeks with this cocktail-party overview. Kathy and Bert are the authors of Head First Java, 2nd Edition.

Java City: The Java Enterprise Ecosystem -- Should we worry about promoting a healthy Java community? Or is everything just fine in Java City? Jim Farley asks you to weigh in on these questions, and others, in the Talkbacks. He plans a followup article summarizing what you have to say. Your comments may help to shape content in Jim's upcoming book, Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition, due out in the fall.

Developing for the Web with Ant, Part 2 -- In part one of this two-part excerpt, Steve Holzner covered packaging web applications. In this second installment, Steve covers the tasks for deploying web apps with get, serverdeploy, and scp. Steve is the author of Ant: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition.