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When it comes to Java, Oracle has been having just about the worst year ever. If there is any kind of silver lining to the company's troubles, perhaps it is the hope that Oracle is finally learning that security updates must go out as soon as they're needed, and not only at the firm's convenience.

Lately, Oracle has embraced cloud computing in a big way. The company's latest twist on its cloud infrastructure as a service is an on-demand option that incurs no large up-front costs and only a monthly fee. But you'd better take a look at the fine print before you sign on the dotted line.

Playing catch-up in the cloud computing arena, Oracle acquired Eloqua this month in a deal worth $871 million. Vienna-based Eloqua went public just this summer. The deal with Oracle should close during the first half of 2013.

Why are some large companies very good at innovation and others more likely to drop the ball? Earlier this year, Oracle sponsored a survey, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, to answer that question. The survey queried 226 senior executives across a wide range of industries, and some of the findings may surprise you.

Oracle got embarrassed at a recent Black Hat security conference when one researcher exposed a bug in its Oracle Database Server. Fortunately, there is a patch available.

For perhaps the first time in its history, Apple synchronized its Java update for Mac OS X to happen at about the same time that Oracle released its security patches to the system. While Apple seems to have learned its lesson from a security breach back in April, the company could still be doing a better job; some lingering questions remain.

In response to the increased demand for application platforms that stress high availability and session integrity, Oracle announced the release of the Oracle Communications Service Availability Machine. The offering is described as a hardware and software solution specifically made to cater to network equipment providers (NEPs) that require the ability to deliver zero downtime applications to communications service providers (CSPs).

Oracle recently announced the breakthrough release of its Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine. Described as the industry’s first high-speed engineered system of its kind featuring in-memory business intelligence software and hardware, Oracle Exalytics supplies customers with unparalleled results when it comes to analytic and performance management applications.

Oracle recently released the latest edition of its Communications Network Integrity offering, version 7.1. The release answers the demand by network operators for increased network data accuracy by giving them a viable solution to improve assurance process efficiency and service fulfillment while cutting operational costs.

Will competitors such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and SAP follow Oracle’s lead when it comes to big data? Some analysts believe so, as they claim Oracle’s recent release of its Big Data Appliance running Cloudera’s distribution of Apache Hadoop will likely catch the eye of IT managers looking for a comprehensive solution for their corporate data needs.

Oracle recently announced the release of the newest edition of its PeopleSoft PeopleTools offering, version 8.52. PeopleTools is a set of tools that gives developers the power to create and customize PeopleSoft applications that stresses ease of use and efficiency. PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.52 comes equipped with a host of new features that showcase Oracle’s continuing persistence in ensuring its customers get the most out of their PeopleSoft applications.

Cloudera, a provider of Apache Hadoop-based software, consulting, and other services, has teamed up with Oracle to provide enterprise users the full range of Hadoop’s functionality on a platform that is easy to deploy and user-friendly. Through the partnership, Oracle has integrated Cloudera Distribution Including Apache Hadoop (CDH) and Cloudera Manager software into the Oracle Big Data Appliance.

Oracle recently released the latest update to the production version of its open source database in the form of MySQL 5.5.18. The release comes with various fixes, most of which deal with replication issues that were detected.

Oracle has been busy the last few weeks, as it recently released its NoSQL Database that supposedly offers advantages over its competitors in terms of installation, configuration, management, and support.

In this conclusion to a multi-part series on using the SELECT statement in an Oracle database, you'll learn how to sort a result set by an alias, an expression, or a column number. This article is excerpted from chapter three of the book Murach's Oracle SQL and PL/SQL, written by Joel Murach (Murach Publishing; ISBN: 9781890774509).