all- recent ORA newsletter below... ================================================================ O'Reilly UG Program News--Just for User Group Leaders September 14, 2005 ================================================================ -Want in invite to O'Reilly Connection? Let me know -Do you have any special events, holiday parties, or installfests planned for the rest of the year? -Put Up an O'Reilly EuroOSCON Banner, Get a Free Book -Promotional Material Available -Safari Affiliate Program for User Groups ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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 newsletter or book review. 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 the 30% discount on O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, Pragmatic Bookshelf, SitePoint, and Syngress books. 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Want in invite to O'Reilly Connection? I am looking for people to invite to the O'Reilly Connection, a tech-centric jobs and networking site for developers and those who want to hire them. Send me an email if you want an invite. For more information, go to: http://connection.oreilly.com/ ***Do you have any special events, holiday parties, or installfests planned for the rest of the year? Let us know and we can send some raffle prizes, promotional material, and spread the word. Send me an email with the date of your event and what books (title and ISBN) might be helpful. I'll see what I can do. ***Put Up an O'Reilly EuroOSCON Banner, Get a Free Book We're looking for user groups to display our conference banner on their web sites. If you send me the link to your group's site with our O'Reilly 2005 O'Reilly European Open Source Convention banner, I will send you the O'Reilly book of your choice. EuroOSCON Banners: http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/eurooscon/ ***Promotional Material Available: The following items are available for your next meeting. Numbers are limited.Let me know the item and the amount you'd like and I'll do my best: -O'Reilly Catalog -EuroOSCON Brochures -PhotoPlus Expo Pass, New York, NY--October 20-22 -30% UG Discount bookmarks -MAKE Magazine (limit one per group) -MAKE Magzaine Brochures -Safari Bookshelf Postcard ***Safari Affiliate Program for User Groups Give your members access to content from Safari's thousands of technology books right on your site and raise money for your user group at the same time. Use custom designed search boxes, show the latest releases, or display your favorite book cover with our easy to use tools. For more information and to sign up for the Safari Affiliate Program, go to: http://ug.oreilly.com/safari_affl.html?CMP=EMC-U1L284871961 ================================================================ O'Reilly News for User Group Members September 14, 2005 ================================================================ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Podcasting Hacks -Commercial Photoshop Retouching -Learning SQL -The eBay Survival Guide -GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual -Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers -The Debian System -RT Essentials -Making Music on the Apple Mac -XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference -Essential Business Process Modeling -Stealing the Network: How to Own an Identity ---------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Events ---------------------------------------------------------------- -MAKE at the Apple Store University Village Seattle, WA--September 17 -O'Reilly at Podcastcon UK, London, UK--September 28 -Rich Bowen ("Apache Cookbook"), Ohio LinuxFest 2005, Columbus, OH--October -NCMUG Macintosh Computer Expo, Santa Rosa, CA--October 1 -Jack Herrington ("Podcasting Hacks"), NCMUG, Rohnert Park, CA--November 15 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Conference News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -ETech 2006 CFP Open -Registration is Open for EuroOSCON ---------------------------------------------------------------- News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -O'Reilly Media Acquires Useractive -User Group Members receive special a 50% discount Learning Lab Courses -GAO Report: Tim O'Reilly's Letter to Congressman Wu -Michal Zalewski on the Wire -State of AJAX -RSS Feeds: More Hype Than Reality -The Next 50 Years of Computer Security: An Interview with Alan Cox -Perl Internationalization and Haskell: An Interview with Autrijus Tang -An Introduction to Tiger Terminal, Part 4 -What Is Automator (and Can It Make Your Life Easier?) -What Is .NET -Using Your Webcam for Surveillance -Announcing the 2005 ONJava Reader Survey -Building J2EE Projects with Maven -Hosting Your Podcasts -Top Ten Digital Photography Tips -Inside Katrina ================================================ 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 30% off any O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Podcasting Hacks Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596100663 Perfect for aspiring and experienced podcasters, this book delivers the ultimate how-to for anyone interested in creating their own internet audio programs. Covering both entry-level and advanced topics, it shows you how to create quality sound, use the right software, develop a show, distribute a podcast, and build an audience. More advanced topics include audio editing, podcasting on the go, and even videocasting. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/podcastinghks/ Sample hack 50, "Choose the Right Audio Tools," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/podcastinghks/chapter/index.html ***Commercial Photoshop Retouching Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 059600849X Written by 20-year photo retouching veteran Glenn Honiball, this book details all the tools, techniques, and skills you need to achieve consistent, professional results with Photoshop CS2, enabling you to tackle your greatest photo-retouching challenges with ease, precision, and efficiency. It's the ideal resource for any digital artist who wants to take their skills to the next level and produce sharp, expert photos that don't look retouched. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/comretouch/ ***Learning SQL Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596007272 This introductory guide gets you up and running on SQL in short order. A series of chapter exercises teaches you how to generate, manipulate, and retrieve the data stored in your organization's database. Ideal for anyone writing applications, performing administrative tasks, or generating reports. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learningsql/ Chapter 3, "Query Primer," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learningsql/chapter/index.html ***The eBay Survival Guide Publisher: No Starch ISBN: 1593270631 A guide to safe and successful buying and selling on eBay. Reveals the strategies of winning bidders and offers tips for beating competitors to get the items you want--without overpaying or becoming the victim of scams. Filled with practical advice for avoiding scrams, what to do if an item doesn't sell, how to list items effectively, choosing an auction type, and how to get the best price. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270631/index.html ***GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596100353 Now revised to reflect GarageBand's latest features, this authoritative, witty guide provides you with all the know-how you need to produce commercial-quality musical recordings entirely on your own. This top-selling book by David Pogue explains how to maximize the program's entire set of tools, including pre-recorded loops, sampled sounds, and live recordings. Easy-to-understand language makes it ideal for serious musicians and novices alike. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/garageband2/ ***Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596100302 This book tells you everything you need to know to adjust, correct, retouch, and manipulate your photographs, without making you learn everything there is to know about Photoshop CS2 first. These straightforward, easy-to-follow recipes cover everything from fixing problems with exposure, color, and focus to hand-tinting, adjusting lighting, adding special effects, and restoring faded and damaged photos. oreilly.com/catalog/photoretouch/ ***The Debian System Publisher: No Starch ISBN: 1593270690 "The Debian System" introduces the concepts and techniques of the Debian operating system, explaining their usage and pitfalls, and illustrating the thinking behind each of the approaches. The book's goal is to give the reader enough insight into the workings of the Debian project and operating system so that they will understand the solutions that have evolved as part of the Debian system over the past decade. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270690/index.html ***RT Essentials Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006683 This comprehensive guide shows you how to customize RT to better fit your organization's business needs. After introducing you to what ticketing systems are, the book shows you how to install and configure RT. From there, it explains how to perform simple tasks that will turn your RT server into a highly useful tracking tool. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rtessentials/ Chapter 3, "Getting Started," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rtessentials/chapter/index.html ***Making Music on the Apple Mac Publisher: PC Publishing ISBN: 1870775953 Making music on the Mac is now easier than ever. This book provides advice on setting up your studio and configuring your audio and MIDI interfaces for optimum performance. Step-by step projects show you how to record with GarageBand, and when your masterpiece is complete, learn how to organize your music, create playlists, burn CDs, and publish your music on the net. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1870775953/ ***XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596100086 This handy pocket guide quickly gets you up to speed on XSLT so you can convert XML like a seasoned pro. It covers topics such as stylesheet structure, template rules, result trees, conditional processing, number formatting, and more. Best of all, its concise approach saves you time, aggravation, and effort. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xsltpr/ Chapter 3, "How XSLT Works," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xsltpr/chapter/index.html ***Essential Business Process Modeling Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596008430 This guide gathers all the concepts, design, architecture, and standard specifications of Business Process Management (BPM) into one concise book, and offers hands-on examples that illustrate BPM's approach to process notation, execution, administration, and monitoring. You'll also learn about BPM design patterns and best practices, as well as underlying theory. Chapter 2, "Prescription for a Good BPM Architecture," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/essentialpm/chapter/index.html ***Stealing the Network: How to Own an Identity Publisher: Syngress ISBN: 1597490067 The first two books in this series have become classics in the hacker and infosec communities because of their chillingly realistic depictions of criminal hacking techniques. In this third installment, the all-star cast of authors tackle one of the fastest growing crimes in the world: identity theft. Now, the criminal hackers, who readers have grown to both love and hate, try to cover their tracks and vanish into thin air. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1597490067/ ***MAKE Magazine Subscriptions Available 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 ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ ***For more events, please see: http://events.oreilly.com/ ***MAKE at the Apple Store University Village Seattle, WA--September 17 This Saturday MAKE will present Podcasting 101: How to Make, Produce and Publish Podcasts - 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Learn what a podcast is and how to make them using your Mac and GarageBand. Also learn how to get listed in iTunes, RSS and more. http://www.apple.com/retail/universityvillage/week/20050911.html ***O'Reilly at Podcastcon UK, London, UK--September 28 Podcastcon UK 2005 is the first conference in Europe dedicated to podcasting. The conference will include presentations, practical sessions, and debate on all aspects of podcasting as it moves into its second year. If you're going, look for our O'Reilly book display at the event. http://www.podcastcon.co.uk/ ***Rich Bowen ("Apache Cookbook"), Ohio LinuxFest 2005, Columbus, OH--October 1 Author Rich Bowen is a speaker at this event for Linux and open source software professionals and enthusiasts. http://www.ohiolinux.org/ ***NCMUG Macintosh Computer Expo, Santa Rosa, CA--October 1 Authors Derrick Story ("Digital Photography Pocket Guide" and "iPhoto 5: The Missing Manual") and Jack Herrington ("Podcasting Hacks") will be speaking at the annual NCMUG Macintosh Computer Expo. O'Reilly will be on hand to sell books at the Expo. For location and parking information: http://www.ncmug.org/mce.html ***Jack Herrington ("Podcasting Hacks"), NCMUG, Rohnert Park, CA--November 15 Jack will walk through the basics of podcasting starting with audio recording using a variety of equipment that he will bring along. Then into multi-track editing and mixdown with Audacity. Conversion to MP3 and upload to a podcasting enabled blog that integrates into iTunes. http://www.ncmug.org/events.html#nov ================================================ Conference News ================================================ ***ETech 2006 CFP Now Open O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference 2006 is scheduled for March 6-9 in San Diego. We invite technologists, strategists, CTOs, chief scientists, researchers, programmers, hackers, standards workers, business developers, and entrepreneurs to lead sessions and tutorials at ETech. This year's challenge focuses on the amazing amount of digital data in our worlds: how do we visualize the data, filter it, remix it, and access it in meaningful ways? Proposals are due by September 19th. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech/ ***Registration is Open for EuroOSCON Join developers, systems and network administrators, and IT managers at the very first O'Reilly European Open Source Convention in Amsterdam on October 17-20. EuroOSCON will explore the best and newest open source technologies, particularly for companies, governments, and nonprofits. EuroOSCON showcases the diversity in open source while maintaining a practical edge. http://conferences.oreilly.com/eurooscon/ Use code "euos05usrg" when you register, and receive 25% off the registration price. To register for the conference, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/eurooscon/create/ord_euos05 ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- General News --------------------- ***O'Reilly Media Acquires Useractive Useractive is the company behind the O'Reilly Learning Lab. With Useractive's Learning Sandbox technology, Learning Lab offers a browser-based, creative learning environment that is based on a learning-by-doing philosophy. Programming environments and technologies are all supplied online. For instance, students in the Linux System Administration Course get root access on O'Reilly-maintained Linux systems online. The Web Programming Series, for example, supplies all of the tools and technologies needed to learn the programming languages. This means students can practice what they are learning without having to get separate administrative access to a host machine. Students can earn a Certificate for Professional Development from the University of Illinois' Office of Continuing Education upon completion of a selected series of courses. For more information, go to: http://learninglab.oreilly.com/ ***User Group Members receive a special 50% discount Learning Lab Courses As an O'Reilly User Group member, you save on all the courses in the following University of Illinois Certificate Series: -Linux/Unix System Administration -Web Programming -Open Source Programming -.NET Programming -Client-Side This offer ends December 31st, 2005. To redeem, use Promotion Code "ORALL1" to save 50%. Each course comes with a free O'Reilly book and a 7-day money-back guarantee. Register online: http://learninglab.oreilly.com/ ***GAO Report: Tim O'Reilly's Letter to Congressman Wu The GAO recently announced the findings for a report on the cost of college textbooks requested by Congressman Wu of Oregon. Tim O'Reilly wrote this letter to Congressman Wu referencing O'Reilly's solution: SafariU. SafariU empowers professors to create and publish their own textbooks, costs professors nothing to use, and offers their students more focused course content at less cost. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/09/gao-tim- oreilly-letter-congressman-wu.html ***Michal Zalewski on the Wire What motivates a hacker? Perhaps curiosity, the pursuit of knowledge, or the simple joy of saying "Hmm, that's funny! What happens if I ...?" Eccentric security researcher Michal Zalewski exhibits these traits. Fearless interviewer Federico Biancuzzi recently talked with Zalewski about his curious approach to computer security, the need for randomness, and how the hacker mind works. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/security/2005/08/25/zalewski.html ***State of AJAX Where is AJAX headed? What does all the hype mean? http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/08/21/state-of-ajax/ ***RSS Feeds: More Hype Than Reality Only 11% of Bloggers actively use RSS Feeds according to a recent study of 1000 blog readers. Two-thirds didn't even know what RSS is! This is a wake up call to all bloggers to better educate their readers. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/08/21/rss-evokes-blank-stares/ --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***The Next 50 Years of Computer Security: An Interview with Alan Cox Alan Cox is well known for his long-standing work on the Linux kernel, but at O'Reilly's EuroOSCON (October 17-20), he will speak about computer security. According to Alan, we're just at the beginning of a long journey into getting security right. Eager for directions and a glimpse of the future, O'Reilly Network interviewed him about his upcoming keynote. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/09/12/alan-cox.html ***Perl Internationalization and Haskell: An Interview with Autrijus Tang Self-proclaimed "Net activist, artist, and anarchist" Autrijus Tang will be a featured speaker at this October's EuroOSCON. He discusses one of his conference topics--Haskell--extensively in this interview with O'Reilly Network. Autrijus also covers Gettext bindings, Perl internationalization tools, CPAN, and more in this wide-ranging conversation. http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2005/09/08/autrijus-tang.html --------------------- Mac --------------------- ***An Introduction to Tiger Terminal, Part 4 In part four of our introduction to Tiger Terminal, you'll learn how to tap the power of shell scripting to automate repetitive tasks. Mary Norbury-Glaser (MacinTech UG) walks you through the process, step by step. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/09/09/terminal4.html ***What Is Automator (and Can It Make Your Life Easier) Automator provides an intuitive drag-and-drop workbench for quickly streamlining repetitive tasks. Here's a look at creating workflows and working around Automator's inherent limitations. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/09/06/what-is-automator.html --------------------- Windows/.NET --------------------- ***What Is .NET .NET is probably one of the more muddled and mismanaged brands in the history of Microsoft. Elucidator James Avery clarifies things by describing the two chambers at the heart of .NET: the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and its essential components, and the Base Class Library (BCL) and its major features. http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2005/09/06/what-is-dotnet.html ***Using Your Webcam for Surveillance Webcams can be used for more than videoconferencing--they can be used for surveillance as well. Wei-Meng Lee shows you how to do it in a few easy steps. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/09/06/using-your- webcam-for-surveillance.html --------------------- Java --------------------- ***Announcing the 2005 ONJava Reader Survey The 2005 ONJava Reader Survey is underway. This is your opportunity to steer the site by helping us understand what you use, what you're interested in, and where you think Java is going. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/09/07/2005-onjava-survey- advancer.html ***Building J2EE Projects with Maven Vincent Massol offers some real-life experience building J2EE applications with Maven. Using the example of a Petstore app, Massol shows you how to generate J2EE artifacts (EJB JARs, WARs, EARs) with Maven. He is coauthor of "Maven: A Developer's Notebook." http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/09/07/maven.html --------------------- Digital Media --------------------- ***Hosting Your Podcasts Once you've created an MP3 of your podcast, where do you store it? And since podcast files are much larger than HTML files or JPEG images, what about bandwidth? Jack Herrington offers several solutions to the podcast hosting problem, from using a dedicated service to reusing your blog or using your own ISP. Jack is the author of "Podcasting Hacks." http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/09/07/hosting-podcasts.html ***Top Ten Digital Photography Tips You have a digital camera and have taken the typical shots of family and friends. Now what? Here are ten tips to make your next batch of digital images so impressive that people will ask: "Hey, what type of camera do you have?" Guess what? It's not the camera. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/10/22/digi_photo_tips.html --------------------- MAKE --------------------- ***Inside Katrina MAKE author Dave Prochnow sent us an exclusive writeup of his experiences "inside the eye" of Hurricane Katrina, being off the grid for 11 days, and using his maker skills to get through the trauma. http://www.makezine.com/extras/25.html MAKE Show Archive: http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/make_podcast/ ***For more information on MAKE, go to: http://www.makezine.com/ ================================================ From Your Peers ================================================ ***Don't forget to check out the O'Reilly UG wiki to see what user groups around the globe are up to: http://wiki.oreillynet.com/usergroups/index.cgi -- steve ulrich sulrich at botwerks.org PGP: 8D0B 0EE9 E700 A6CF ABA7 AE5F 4FD4 07C9 133B FAFC