installing software to places like /usr/local

[Simon Schuster]

I'm really new to all this, so I'm unclear of how even to check if
it's possible, but for instance, I'm installing the java runtime
environment from the self-extracting .bin ... and I'm realizing how
much of this sort of thing will have to end up in my home directory,
or does sudo also take care of the write permissions? not that this is
a problem, it will just result in a really mucked up home directory
and a distant, alien and unused /usr one. :)