all- attached is the latest iteration of the oreilly & assoc. newsletter. -- steve ulrich sulrich at botwerks.org PGP: 8D0B 0EE9 E700 A6CF ABA7 AE5F 4FD4 07C9 133B FAFC -------------- next part -------------- ================================================================ O'Reilly UG Program News--Just for User Group Leaders January 20, 2005 ================================================================ -LinuxWorld Boston Expo Passes, Photoshop World Expo Passes, MySQL Users Conference Brochures, and ETech Brochures all available for your members -Put Up an Emerging Technology Conference Banner, Get a Free Book ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book Info ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Review books are available Copies of our books are available for your members to review-- send me an email and please include the book's ISBN number on your request. Let me know if you need your book by a certain date. Allow at least four weeks for shipping. ***Please send copies of your book reviews Email me a copy of your newsletters or book reviews. For tips and suggestions on writing book reviews, go to: http://ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html ***Discount information Don't forget to remind your members about our 20% discount on O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, Pragmatic Bookshelf, SitePoint, and Syngress books and O'Reilly conferences. Just use code DSUG. ***Group purchases with better discounts are available Please let me know if you are interested and I can put you in touch with our sales department. ---------------------------------------------------------------- General News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -LinuxWorld Boston Expo Passes, Photoshop World Expo Passes, MySQL Users Conference Brochures, and ETech Brochures all available for your members Here is a list of the events, locations, and dates to peruse. Please let me know which event and how many passes or brochures you would like. (I have a limited number of each, so don't wait too long!) LinuxWorld, Boston, MA--February 15-17 Expo Passes Photoshop World, Las Vegas, NV--March 9, Expo Passes O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (ETech), San Diego, CA --March 14-17 Brochures MySQL Users Conference, Santa Clara, CA--April 18-21 Brochures ***Put Up an Emerging Technology Conference Banner, Get a Free Book We are looking for user groups to display our conference banner on their web sites. If you send me the link to your user group site with our banner, I will send you the book of your choice. Emerging Technology Conference Banners: http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/etech2005/ ================================================================ O'Reilly News for User Group Members January 20, 2005 ================================================================ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -QuickTime for Java: A Developer's Notebook -Excel: The Missing Manual -Learning Windows Server 2003 -Excel Annoyances -Degunking eBay -Google Hacks, 2nd Edition -AspectJ Cookbook -The Book of Postfix -Home Hacking Projects for Geeks -Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition -Illustrations with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook -Small Web Sites, Great Results -Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition ---------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Events ---------------------------------------------------------------- -O'Reilly at LinuxWorld, Boston, MA--Feb 15-17 -Mark Lutz ("Programming Python") at Python Bootcamp, Atlanta, GA--Feb 21-25 -Allison Randal ("Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials") at UKUUG's 2005 LISA/Winter Conference, Birmingham, UK--Feb 24-25 -FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium--Feb 26-27 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Conference News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -OSCON Call For Proposals now open -Early Registration ends January 31 for the 2005 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference San Diego, CA--March 14-17 -Registration Is Open for the 2005 MySQL Users Conference, Santa Clara, CA--April 18-21 ---------------------------------------------------------------- News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Race for the Ultimate Car Hacks -"Make" subscriptions now available--Just in Case you Missed This Last Time -Color for Coders--Color and Design for the Non-Designer -Designing for Clients Made Easy -Printing XML: Why CSS Is Better than XSL -A Review of PalmOne???s Zire 72 and 31 -BoundCast interview with Andy Hertzfeld, author of "Revolution in the Valley" -A Podcast With Wallace Wang, author of "Steal This File Sharing Book" -Network Installation of Windows Printers from Samba -An Introduction to Quality Assurance -Macworld 1984 -A RAW Look at iPhoto 5 -How to Use mutt, FastMail, and Mail.app Together on Your Mac -Disk Cleanup Hacks -Using SQL Cache Dependency -Run Mac OS X on a PC -Parsing an XML Document with XPath -Mock Objects in Unit Tests -Time-Saving Digital GEM Plug-Ins for Photoshop -Frank Serafine: Turning Elephants into Explosions ================================================ Book News ================================================ Did you know you can request a free book to review for your group? Ask your group leader for more information. For book review writing tips and suggestions, go to: http://ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html Don't forget, you can receive 20% off any O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, Pragmatic Bookshelf, SitePoint, or Syngress book you purchase directly from O'Reilly. Just use code DSUG when ordering online or by phone 800-998-9938. http://www.oreilly.com/ ***Free ground shipping is available for online orders of at least $29.95 that go to a single U.S. address. This offer applies to U.S. delivery addresses in the 50 states and Puerto Rico. For more details, go to: http://www.oreilly.com/news/freeshipping_0703.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- New Releases ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***QuickTime for Java: A Developer's Notebook Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN:0596008228 Java developers who need to add audio, video, or interactive media creation and playback to their applications find that QuickTime Java is a powerful toolkit, but one that's not easy to get into. This book offers the first real look at this important software with an informal, code-intensive style that lets impatient early adopters focus on learning by doing. You get just the functionality you need. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/quicktimejvaadn/ Chapter 5, "Working with QuickDraw," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/quicktimejvaadn/chapter/index.html ***Excel: The Missing Manual Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006640 Whether you're an Excel neophyte, a sophisticate who knows the program inside out, or an intermediate-level plodder, this "Missing Manual" will become your go-to resource for all things Excel. Covering all the features of Excel 2002 and 2003, this easy-to-read, thorough, and downright enjoyable book is an indispensable guide to one of the most popular and complicated computer programs. It has all you need to excel at Excel. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/exceltmm/ Chapter 4, "Formatting Worksheets," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/exceltmm/chapter/index.html ***Learning Windows Server 2003 Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006241 "Windows Server 2003" is the right server for a world dominated by enterprise networks and web-based server applications, but getting this server up and running is a formidable task. This no-fluff guide gives you exactly what you need for installing, configuring, securing, and managing Server 2003, and offers hands-on advice for planning, implementing, and growing Windows networks without trying to teach you how to be a system administrator. Chapter 10, "Windows Terminal Services," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lwinsvr2003/chapter/index.html ***Excel Annoyances Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596007280 At last, Excel users have some relief. This book addresses all of the quirks, bugs, inconsistencies, and hidden features found in the various versions of Excel. Broken into easy-to-follow categories, such as Entering Data, Formatting, Charting, and Printing, "Excel Annoyances" reveals a goldmine of helpful nuggets you can use to maximize Excel's seemingly limitless potential. If you've found anything about Excel confusing, you'll learn how to address it here. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/excelannoyances/ Chapter 3, "Formula Annoyances," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/excelannoyances/chapter/index.html ***Degunking eBay Publisher: Paraglyph Press ISBN: 1932111999 "Degunking eBay" will show you how to maximize your buying and selling opportunities, how to clean up and optimize your strategies, how to get organized and save valuable time and money, and how to protect yourself from scams and rip-offs--in short, how to clean up and speed up your transactions on eBay so you run an efficient and profitable business. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1932111999/ ***Google Hacks, 2nd Edition Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596008570 Featuring dozens of refreshed hacks, plus 25 completely new ones, this updated edition of "Google Hacks" is a collection of real-world solutions to practical Google research problems. Thanks to these industrial-strength tips, now you can easily save hours of research time mining Google. Best of all, each of the book's 100 hacks is easy to read and digest; there's no confusing terminology or extraneous information to hamper your understanding. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/googlehks2/ Sample hacks are available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/googlehks2/chapter/index.html ***AspectJ Cookbook Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006543 This hands-on book shows readers why and how common Java development problems can be solved by using new Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) techniques. With a wide variety of code recipes for solving day-to-day design and coding problems using AOP's unique approach, "AspectJ Cookbook" demonstrates that AOP is more than just a concept: it's a development process that will benefit users in an immediate and visible manner. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/aspectjckbk/ Sample excerpts are available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/aspectjckbk/chapter/index.html ***The Book of Postfix Publisher: No Starch Press ISBN: 1593270011 Developed with security and speed in mind, Postfix has become a popular alternative to sendmail and comes preinstalled in many Linux distributions as the default mailer. "The Book of Postfix" is a complete guide to Postfix whether used at home, as a mailrelay or virus-scanning gateway, or as a company mailserver. Practical examples show how to deal with daily challenges like protecting mail users from spam and viruses, managing multiple domains, and offering roaming access. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270011/ ***Home Hacking Projects for Geeks Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596004052 "Home Hacking Projects for Geeks" presents a wide range of projects, from automating light switches to building home theaters using Windows or Linux-based PCs to building home security systems that rival those offered by professional security consultants. The thirteen projects in the book are divided into three categories: Home Automation, Home Entertainment Systems, and Security. Designed for hackers of all skill levels, this fun, new guide combines creativity with electricity and power tools to achieve cool, and sometimes even practical-home automation projects. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/homehpfg/ Sample excerpts are available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/homehpfg/chapter/index.html ***Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 059600897X This comprehensive guide offers a wealth of tips, instructions, and expert advice dedicated to making your time with Windows XP safer, easier, and more fun. It's perfectly suited for both first-time PC fans and budding power users. Best of all, it's been updated to include Service Pack 2 (SP2), so you can better defend yourself against viruses, worms, and hackers. Fill the void in XP documentation with the technical insight, crystal-clear objectivity, and humor that define the Missing Manuals series. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/windowsxptmm2/ ***Illustrations with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596008597 World-renowned French artists share their exciting and innovative digital creations in this first-time English translation of their cutting-edge work. The images in this book will energize image professionals, graphic artists, photographers, and computer graphics designers--all creators of images, whether still or animated--and will forever change the way you see and perform your design work. This visually stunning book will give you the creative license and technical knowledge needed to create one-of-a-kind digital illustrations with Photoshop. You are limited only by your imagination. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/illustphotoadn/ ***Small Web Sites, Great Results Publisher: Paraglyph Press ISBN: 1932111905 Simplicity leads to great results. This book offers design guidelines to make websites look professional even on a small scale, techniques to get more hits from search engines, and much more that will help readers construct a holistic web presence that garners real results. The simple website system described in the book includes a series of pages and scripts that users can download and instantly put to use on their own sites. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1932111905/ ***Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006489 "Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition" shows readers how to get started with the GNU Emacs editor. This thorough guide grows with you: as you become more proficient, it teaches you how to use Emacs more effectively. The new edition describes Emacs 21.3 from the ground up, including new user-interface features such as an icon-based toolbar and an interactive interface to Emacs customization. There's also a new chapter that details how to install, run, and use Emacs on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/gnu3/ Chapter 6, "Writing Macros," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/gnu3/chapter/index.html ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ ***For more events, please see: http://events.oreilly.com/ ***O'Reilly at LinuxWorld, Boston, MA--Feb 15-17 Stop by our booth (#509) to check out our latest Linux and open source titles and listen to our authors including Jonathan Corbet ("Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Ed."), Kyle D. Dent ("Postfix: The Definitive Guide"), Jay Beale "Snort 2.1 Intrusion Detection, 2nd Ed.", Sam Hiser and Tom Adelstein ("Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop"), and Adam Trachtenberg ("PHP Cookbook"). http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/events/12BOS05A ***Mark Lutz ("Programming Python") at Python Bootcamp, Atlanta, GA--Feb 21-25 Mark will be teaching a week-long Python Bootcamp retreat for Big Nerd Ranch, based on his books. http://www.bignerdranch.com/about/python0205pr.shtml ***Allison Randal ("Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials") at UKUUG's 2005 LISA/Winter Conference, Birmingham, UK--Feb 24-25 Author and editor Allison Randal presents a Perl 6 Workshop at this event. http://www.ukuug.org/events/winter2005/ ***FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium--Feb 26-27 O'Reilly is a Cornerstone sponsor of the fifth Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting, a 2 day event organized by volunteers. Stop by our stand to check out our latest books and chat with editor and author Allison Randal (Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials), who will also be there. http://www.fosdem.org/2005 ================================================ Conference News ================================================ ***OSCON Call For Proposals Now Open Circle August 1-5 on your calendar and join us at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in beautiful Portland, Oregon. OSCON 2005 will be at the Oregon Convention Center, where we'll have tutorials, sessions, parties, BOFs, and a huge exhibit hall. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2005/ The call for participation is open, and you're invited to submit a proposal to lead tutorials and sessions. Visit the submissions page for all the details on tracks and proposal guidelines. Proposals are due no later than February 13, 2005. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2005/create/e_sess ***Early Registration ends January 31 for the 2005 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference San Diego, CA--March 14-17 Early Bird registration for ETech has just opened. This year's conference theme is "Remix," which infuses ETech's roll-up-your-sleeves tutorials, to-the-point plenary presentations, and real world focused breakout sessions. Come to ETech and discover how applications and hardware are being deconstructed and recombined in unexpected ways. Learn how users and customers are influencing new interfaces, devices, business models, and services. For all the scoop on tutorials, featured speakers, and conference events, check out: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech/ User Group members who register before January 31, 2005 get a double discount. Use code DSUG when you register, and receive 20% off the early registration price. To register for the conference, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2005/create/ord_et05 ***Registration Is Open for the 2005 MySQL Users Conference, Santa Clara, CA--April 18-21 The MySQL Users Conference, co-presented by O'Reilly Media and MySQL AB, brings together experts, users, and industry leaders with unique MySQL insights, offering attendees a detailed look into new features in MySQL 5.0, sessions and workshops designed to teach best practices, and exposure to new open source technologies. For more information, go to: http://www.mysqluc.com/ User Group members who register before Febuary 28, 2005 get a double discount. Use code DSUG when you register, and receive 20% off the early registration price. To register for the conference, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/mysqluc2005/create/ord_mysql05 ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- General News --------------------- ***Race for the Ultimate Car Hacks "People have been tinkering with their cars since the first horseless buggy hit the road. Now, thanks to onboard computerized systems that control everything from engine management systems to radios, hackers can customize their rides in ways that are likely to have Henry Ford doing back flips in his grave." TechnologyReview.com writer Michelle Delio speaks with Damien Stolarz, CEO of Carbot, and Raffi Krikorian, director of Synthesis Studios. http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/12/wo_delio121604.asp?trk=nl Join Damien and Raffi at O'Reilly's upcoming ETech for their tutorial, "Hack Sci-Fi Features into Your Car." http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2005/view/e_sess/6242 ***"Make" subscriptions now available--Just in Case you Missed this Last Time The annual subscription price for four issues is $34.95. When you subscribe with this link, you'll get a free issue--the first one plus four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or friends with this great offer for charter subscribers: five volumes for the cost of four. Subscribe at: https://www.pubservice.com/MK/Subnew.aspx?PC=MK&PK=M5ZUGLA ***Color for Coders--Color and Design for the Non-Designer Programmers do have to work with color sometimes, but even the least artistic coder can choose snappy color combinations with Jason Beaird's handy how-to. This tutorial cuts through the artsy hyperbole to provide the nuts and bolts of color theory--and its practical application. http://www.sitepoint.com/article/color-for-coders ***Designing for Clients Made Easy Clients can be among the biggest hurdles to a web design project's success. Astute designers use a number of tactics to ensure they keep the project in control, on time, and on budget...and have some creative fun along the way. http://www.sitepoint.com/article/designing-for-clients-made-easy ***Printing XML: Why CSS Is Better than XSL One of the old school debates among XML developers is "CSS versus XSLT." Hakun Wium Lie and Michael Day revive that debate with a shot across XSL's bow. http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/01/19/print.html ***A Review of PalmOne???s Zire 72 and 31 Wei-Meng Lee takes a look at a couple of PalmOne devices, and is pleased by what he finds. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2005/01/17/zire.html --------------------- Audio Webcasts --------------------- ***BoundCast interview with Andy Hertzfeld, author of "Revolution in the Valley" This is the first of a two part series interview with Andy Hertzfield that covers his book "Revolution in the Valley," Apple, and the future. http://www.boundcast.com/ ***A Podcast With Wallace Wang, author of "Steal This File Sharing Book" Wallace and Denise Howell discuss the future of P2P networks, nefarious knitters, macchiato moms, the Ninth Circuit's Grokster decision, the economics of digital media, and other topics. http://www.thestandard.com/movabletype/denisehowell/archives/000825.php --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***Network Installation of Windows Printers from Samba The combination of Samba and CUPS makes network printing on a mixed Linux/Windows LAN easier than ever. You can share Linux printers with Windows clients, and Windows printers with Linux clients. A Linux/Samba/CUPS printer server is reliable and reasonably simple to set up and maintain. Carla Schroder, author of "Linux Cookbook," shows you how. http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2005/01/13/lnxckbk_samba.html ***An Introduction to Quality Assurance The libraries and syntax for automated testing are easy to find. The mindset of quality and testability is harder to adopt. Tom McTighe reviews the basic principles of quality assurance that can make the difference between a "working" application and a high-quality application. http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2005/01/13/quality_assurance.html --------------------- Mac --------------------- ***Macworld 1984 Animation As seen at Macworld Live! with David Pogue at the recent Macworld Expo San Francisco 2005. http://www.macboy.com/macworld/index.html ***A RAW Look at iPhoto 5 Apple overhauled much of iPhoto in version 5 and presented photographers with a more robust tool for managing their media files. Derrick Story looks at importing existing iPhoto libraries, using the new editing tools, and working with RAW and QuickTime files. Image samples of RAW comparisons are included. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/01/19/iphoto5.html ***How to Use mutt, FastMail, and Mail.app Together on Your Mac Many Linux users who are adding Mac OS X to their computing life look to combine the control of command line with the convenience of GUI. In this article, Philip Hollenback, a seasoned Linux user himself, shows how to bring these worlds together on Mac OS X using mutt, FastMail, and Mail.app. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/01/18/fastmail.html --------------------- Windows/.NET --------------------- ***Disk Cleanup Hacks No matter how much space you have on your hard disk, it's never enough. Mitch Tulloch, author of "Windows Server Hacks," shows you better ways to clean your hard disk quickly. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/01/18/disk_cleanup.html ***Using SQL Cache Dependency Caching has long been recognized as one of the more effective ways to improve your ASP.NET web applications. One particular caching feature missing in ASP.NET 1.x was SQL cache dependency: the ability to invalidate a database cache if data in a table is changed. In ASP.NET 2.0, Microsoft has added the new SQL cache dependency feature. Wei-Meng Lee discusses the SQL cache dependency in ASP.NET 2.0, and how you can manually implement it in ASP.NET 1.x. http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2005/01/17/sqlcachedependency.html ***Run Mac OS X on a PC You can get the best of both worlds--you can run the real Mac OS X on your own PC. Wei-Meng Lee shows you how to run the Mac operating system on an emulator called PearPC. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/01/18/PearPC.html --------------------- Java --------------------- ***Parsing an XML Document with XPath Pulling just a single node value or attribute from an XML document can be inefficient if you have to parse over a whole list of nodes you don't want, just to get to one you do. XPath can be much more efficient, by letting you specify the path to the desired node up front. J2SE adds XPath support, and the JDOM API also offers support through an XPath class. Deepak Vohra looks at both approaches. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/01/12/xpath.html ***Mock Objects in Unit Tests Unit testing your code against a service or process that's either too expensive (commercial databases) or just not done yet is something you can deal with by simulating the other piece with a mock object. EasyMock can suffice in some cases, but it can only create mock objects for interfaces. Mocquer, based on the Dunamis project, can create mocks for classes, too. Lu Jian shows how it works. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/01/12/mocquer.html --------------------- Digital Media --------------------- ***Time-Saving Digital GEM Plug-Ins for Photoshop Removing noise from images or trying to retouch facial blemishes is time-consuming work. Fortunately these Photoshop plug-ins from Kodak's Austin Development Center can help photographers work more efficiently. Derrick Story takes them for a spin. http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/01/05/kodak_plugins.html ***Frank Serafine: Turning Elephants into Explosions Academy Award-winning sound designer Frank Serafine discusses the art and science of sound effects, tape-baking, and why selling all his analog gear on eBay made him happier musically. http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/01/12/serafine_0105.html ================================================ >From Your Peers =============================================== Don't forget to check out the O'Reilly UG wiki to see what user groups across the globe are up to: http://wiki.oreillynet.com/usergroups/index.cgi Until next time-- Marsee