Looking for some summer reading?

Sure, you could get engrossed in the latest bestseller, but how will that help you when your day at the beach, or on the patio, or just laying in an undersized plastic pool in your driveway is over? Just because you've slathered yourself with sunscreen is no reason not to beef up your technical knowledge while you're trying to keep cool.

With that in mind, here are three absolutely free excerpts from recent technical books

Creating Domains with WLST by Martin Heinzl In this sample chapter from Advanced WebLogic Server Automation: Administration and Monitoring with WLST and JMX (Rampant TechPress), author Martin Heinzl starts with the minimal domain, extends it with components, and then shows "a comprehensive but flexible example of how to create a domain with a number of important features." Watch an interview with the author.
Installing Oracle WebLogic Server 12c and Using the Management Tools by Sam R. Alapati This excerpt is the complete first chapter from the Oracle WebLogic Server 12c Administration Handbook (Oracle Press). In it author Sam R. Alapti introduces the three major administrative tools for managing Oracle WebLogic Server 12c: the Administration Console, the Node Manager utility, and the WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST), and then shows you how to use them.
eCommerce in the Cloud by Kelly Goetsch In this sampler from eCommerce in the Cloud (O'Reilly) author Kelly Goetsch discusses the unique nature of eCommerce and explains why Cloud is a natural fit for ecommerce, allowing organzations to "quickly and incrementally adopt cloud computing for any ecommerce platforms, whether packaged or custom, new or legacy." Watch an interview with the author.

There are no zombies, detectives, stand-up comedians, or Kardashians on the OTN ArchBeat YouTube Channel. Instead you'll find a mix of technical presentations and interviews with experts in Oracle technologies. The list below represents the Top 10 most popular videos on that channel for the month of June 2014.

1. Hot Features in Oracle APEX 5.0
   Joel Kallman (Director, Software Development, Oracle) shares key points from his Great Lakes Oracle Conference 2014 session on new features in Oracle APEX 5.0.
2. Developer Preview: Oracle WebLogic 12.1.3
   Oracle WebLogic 12.1.3 includes some exciting enhancements. This video focuses on some of the more interesting updates around JavaEE7.
3. Things to Keep In Memory About Oracle Database In-Memory
   What do you know about Oracle Database In-Memory? Tom Kyte shares four key points to keep in your own memory.
4. Top Ten Secrets of Successful Oracle Application Development Framework Projects
   Oracle ACE Director and ADF expert Sten Vesterli discusses the tasks and tools necessary to successfully complete an enterprise ADF project.
5. Improve Your Oracle ADF App Response Time by as Much as 70 Percent
   Frank Houweling, senior Java, Oracle ADF, and SOA specialist at AMIS Technologies, discusses how you can optimize the performance of your Oracle ADF Fusion application.
6. Oracle ADF Overview
   Shay Shmeltzer, Oracle Development Tools Product Manager, discusses the basic components that make up the Oracle ADF Architecture
7. Adaptive Case Management
   Oracle ACE Director Danilo Schmiedel talks about Adaptive Case Management, Predictive Analytics, and Process Mining.
8. Best Practices in Oracle ADF Development
   Frank Nimphius summarizes best practices for the fantastic four: ADFbc, Task Flow, ADF Binding and ADF Faces.
9. Mobile App Development with Oracle ADF Mobile
   Oracle Development Tools Director of Product Management Shay Shmeltzer talks about mobile application development and Oracle ADF.
10. Debugging and Logging for Oracle ADF Applications
    Stuff happens! In this video Oracle ADF Product Manager Chris Muir explores the sophisticated debugging tools in JDeveloper.

Among the 2,921 people following @OTNArchBeat, these were the most popular tweets for the last seven days, June 24-30, 2014.

1. RT @superpixels: Big Data
   Jun 25, 2014 at 12:13 PM
2. RT @Gartner_inc: Through 2017, 75% of mobile security breaches will be the result of mobile application misconfigurations #GartnerSEC
   Jun 25, 2014 at 12:14 PM
3. RT @oracleotn: Career Opportunity: Work for the #OracleACE Program
   Jun 24, 2014 at 11:54 AM
4. RT @ddelmoli: #Kscope14 Oracle Magazine Peer-to-peer interview where I talk about @ODTUG
   Jun 25, 2014 at 12:16 PM
5. Virus-Proofing Oracle #WebCenter Content 11g with Oracle API Gateway 11g | @feitnomore
   Jun 25, 2014 at 09:56 AM
6. The OTNArchBeat Daily is out! Stories via @oraclebase @UweHesse @wlscommunity
   Jun 29, 2014 at 01:48 PM
7. Say hello to the new Oracle Mobile Application Framework | @jdevshay #oracleMAF
   Jun 30, 2014 at 02:53 PM
8. RT @odtug: Elvis has entered the building! #Kscope14 special event tonight!
   Jun 25, 2014 at 12:16 PM
9. RT @lucasjellema: Cool new feature in #SOASuite12c : Native Format Translation in Service Bus Pipeline
   Jun 27, 2014 at 10:43 AM
10. Oracle SOA Suite 12c is now available for free download under the OTN Developer License.
    Jun 27, 2014 at 08:51 AM

Among the 5,200 people fans of the OTN ArchBeat Facebook Page these are the Top Ten posts for the last seven days, June 20-26, 2014.

1. Mark Your Calendar! OTN Virtual Technology Summit - July 9
   Register now for the OTN Virtual Technology Summit, featuring four tracks and more than a dozen sessions. The middleware track focuses on "The Architecture of Analytics: Big Time Big Data and Business Intelligence," with four sessions by BI experts, covering OBIEE, ODI, Endeca Information Discovery, and so much more.
2. Leveraging Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Within a Big Data Architecture | Kevin McGinley
   This session by Oracle ACE Director Kevin McGinley is just one of four in the middleware track in the free OTN Virtual Technology Summit, July 9. The middleware track focuses on Big Data, Business Intelligence, and the Architecture of Analytics.
3. Virus-Proofing Oracle WebCenter Content 11g with Oracle API Gateway 11g | Marcelo Parisi
   Marcelo Parisi's article is a proof-of-concept for a basic infrastructure re-architecture and software configuration needed to implement a basic virus-checking routine on files before they get to Oracle WebCenter Content.
4. Video: Advanced WebLogic Server Automation | Martin Heinzl
   Want to learn how to use WLST and JMX to automate the administration and monitoring of Oracle WebLogic Server? Then you've hit the jackpot! This post on the OTN ArchBeat blog includes a video interview with expert Martin Heinzl and a sample chapter from his book, Advanced WebLogic Server Automation.
5. Monitoring OIM R2 PS2 Orchestration | Daniel Gralewski
   A-Team solution architect Daniel Gralewski illustrates how to use the new feature in Oracle Identity Manager R2 PS2 (11.1.2.2.0) that allows monitoring of OIM orchestration processes through Enterprise Manager console.
6. Diagnosing Intermittent Authentication Failures and User Lock Outs in Oracle WebLogic | Shailesh K. Mishrah
   Shailesh K. Mishrah shows you how login failures in Oracle WebLogic can be diagnosed with the help of available debug flags and log files.
7. Video: Manos libres y vista al frente: Con el futuro puesto
   Orejas peludas? Lentes chistosos? Que no te engañen -- La tecnología ponible es un negocio serio. En este video los Desarrolladores en UX de Oracle, Sarahi Mireles y Noel Portugal hablan un poco sobre algunos dispositivos que ya se encuentran en el mercado y como la tecnología está cambiando la manera en que las personas -- y las compañías -- interactúan con la información.
   
   [Watch the English-language version of this video: Heads Up and Hands Free: Wearing the Future]
8. OIM Catalog Metadata Based Tagging | Alex Lopez
   Oracle Identity Manager can be customized to enable filtered catalog searches based on Catalog Item’s Metadata (CIM). A-team architect Alex Lopez's article discusses the details of the API's that can be used to retrieve the metadata from a Catalog Item and set the user defined tags value.
9. ArchBeat Facebook Friday: Top 10 Shared Links - June 13-19, 2014
   Over the past week I've shared links to a variety of blogs, articles, videos and more, covering topics and technologies of interest to architects and developers, including ADF, GlassFish, Java EE, OBIEE, WebCenter, and WebLogic. Click the link for that week's list of the ten most popular items.
10. Podcast: Going Mobile - Developing Enterprise Mobile Apps
    This four-part OTN ArchBeat Podcast series is devoted to a discussion about bringing mobility to the enterprise, and how architects and developers can take advantage of the opportunities in the evolution of mobile application development.

Martin Heinzl is a principal consultant with MH Enterprise Consulting in Germany, a specialist in Java EE, Oracle WebLogic, and middleware infrastructure architecture, and the author of Advanced WebLogic Server Automation: Administration and Monitoring with WLST and JMX, available from Rampant TechPress.

In this interview Martin offers a great deal of detail about what you'll find in his book. And if you want even more, check out Creating Domains with WLST, a sample chapter from the book.

Connect with Martin Heinzl