Hi John,
I agree with Radhika that HttpSessionBindingListener and HttpSessionActivationListener are not needed to configure.
Lot of people get confusion on this, because in HFSJ book it is given like only HttpSessionBindingListener is not needed to configure in web.xml.
But this is corrected in HFSJ errata
HFSJ errata
Rizwan
SCJA, SCJP, SCWCD, SCBCD, SCDJWS.