From stefano.rodighiero at gmail.com Fri May 16 06:02:08 2008 From: stefano.rodighiero at gmail.com (Stefano Rodighiero) Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 15:02:08 +0200 Subject: [Firenze-pm] Fwd: User Groups Newsletter - Issue 04-08 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <699026fb0805160602r2a600920ka74ac9e90ee93fe8@mail.gmail.com> Buona lettura. S. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Josette Garcia Date: Fri, May 2, 2008 at 1:54 PM Subject: User Groups Newsletter - Issue 04-08 To: Stefano Rodighiero O'Reilly UK User Group Programme NEWSLETTER Issue 04-08 PDF available for download - http://www.richplum.co.uk/oreilly/0408.pdf ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hope you are having a wonderful Spring. At O'Reilly UK we are rather wet and miserable, so please send us some sunshine. We just released some big news at our recent Web 2.0 Expo, our new consulting and training division called O'Reilly InPractice. Here's an interview with the new Chief Strategy Officer George LeBrun that's worth a quick read. And as usual around here, we've got lots of new books, conferences, and other projects going on. One of the latest is a new book widget that lets you share O'Reilly and our partners' books on your web site. You can choose by author, topic, or just show all our new releases automatically and it's completely customizable for your web site so you can choose the size, design, and more. I'm willing to trade you a book of your choice for posting one of these cool new widgets. Send me a link and let us know how you like them. New books we're hoping to get Amazon and Slashdot reviewers for include "Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide," "Principles of Project Management," "Subject to Change," and "bash Cookbook." Send me an email if you are interested and I'll get the book right out. --------------------------------------------------------------- New Releases--Books, Short Cuts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Get 35% off from O'Reilly, Pragmatic Bookshelf, Rocky Nook or YoungJin books you purchase directly from O'Reilly. Just use your User Group Promo code when ordering online using the UK Shopping Cart. http://www.oreilly.com Did you know you can request a free book or PDF to review for your group? Ask your group leader for more information. For book review writing tips and suggestions, go to: Books available or soon available for review - ***Adobe AIR for JavaScript Developers Pocket Guide ISBN 13: 9780596518370 ***Big Book of Apple Hacks ISBN 13: 9780596529826 ***Fine Art Printing for Photographers, Second Edition (Rocky Nook) ISBN 13: 9781933952314 ***FXRuby (Pragmatic Bookshelf) ISBN 13: 9781934356074 ***Google Apps Hacks ISBN 13: 9780596515881 ***Hackerteen ISBN 13: 9780596516475 ***Harnessing Hibernate ISBN 13: 9780596517724 ***Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments ISBN 13: 9780596514921 ***Java Power Tools ISBN 13: 9780596527938 ***Learning Flash Media Server 3 9780596515904 ***MySQL in a Nutshell, Second Edition ISBN 13: 9780596514334 ***Painting the Web ISBN 13: 9780596515096 ***Photoshop CS3 Accelerated (Young Jin) ISBN 13: 9788931434378 ***Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers ISBN 13: 9780596529888 ***Programming Groovy (Pragmatic Bookshelf) ISBN 13: 9781934356098 ***Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World (Hard Cover) ISBN 13: 9780596516833 ***Web 2.0 Mashups and Niche Aggregators ISBN 13: 9780596514006 ***Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide (Hard Cover) ISBN 13: 9780596529963 ***MAKE Magazine Subscriptions The annual subscription price for four issues is $34.95. When you subscribe with this link, you'll get a free issue--one plus four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or friends with this great offer for UG Members: five volumes for the cost of four. Subscribe at: ***Craft Magazine Subscriptions The annual subscription price for four issues is $34.95. When you subscribe with this link, you'll get a free issue--one plus four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or friends with this great offer for UG Members: five volumes for the cost of four. Subscribe at: ================================================ Your Book Reviews ================================================ ***Durham Computer Society reviewed Cisco IOS Cookbook (2nd edition) - http://compsoc.dur.ac.uk/reviews/Cisco-IOS-Cookbook.html *** Polish Adobe Flex User Group Programming Flex 2 -http://adobers.org/recenzje http://www.amazon.com/review/R1WCELDC1AZZI7/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm/ Essential ActionScript 3.0 - http://adobers.org/recenzje http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/catalog/view/cs_msg/95781 Essential ActionScript 3.0 - http://adobers.org/recenzje Programming Flex 2.0 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/059652689X/ref=cm_rv_thx_view *** Poland Developer Group (reviews published in English on www.oreilly.com ) C++ Cookbook - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cplusplusckbk/ Head First C# - http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514822/index.html ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ ***XTech, Dublin, May 6-9th - http://2008.xtech.org/public/content/about XTech is the premier European conference for developers, information designers and managers working with web and standards-based technologies bringing together the worlds of web development, open source, Web 2.0 and open standards. The theme for this year's conference is "The Web on the Move." ***Pycon, Italy, Florence, May 9th-11th - http://www.pycon.it/ Alex Martelli (Python in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition) will give a talk at Pycon Italy. This is the second Italian conference organized by a bunch of Python enthusiasts and held in the beautiful city of Florence. Come and see our latest publications at the O'Reilly booth. ***3rd Free/Libre/Open SourceSoftware Conference, Athens, May 27th-28th - http://conf.ellak.gr/2008/ The conference will bring together professionals, academics, practitioners, and users of FLOSS. High profile speakers, like Wietse Venema (Postfix creator), Jim Blandy (SVN creator), John Eaton (Octave creator), Mathias Bauer (Open Office), Pieter Hintjens (FFII president), Lisa Petrides (ISKME), Luca Deri (ntop) will participate and present their work. Moreover, there will be community sessions, where developers will share their views and exchange their experience. Come and see our latest publications at the O'Reilly booth. ***eLiberatica, Bucharest - May 30th-June1st - http://www.eliberatica.ro/2008/index Following the huge public success of the first eLiberatica in 2007, this conference will continue in the same tradition: to gather community and business leaders around the world to talk about the hottest Open and Free Technologies topics; you will hear from today's experts in various fields of technical and business practice and become part of an event that is far more than a simple conference. Come and see our latest publications at the O'Reilly booth. ***OpenTech, London, July 5th More information on http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/ after May 8th. ================================================ Conference News ================================================ ***Last Chance for Where 2.0 2008 Registration, Burlingame, CA--May 12-14 At the O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference, we expose the tools pushing the boundaries of the location frontier, track the emergence of new business models and services, and spend time examining new sources of data and the platforms for collecting them. Use code "whr08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the registration price. To register for the conference, go to: ****Registration for RailsConf 2008 is Open, Portland, OR-- May 29-June 1, 2008 Co-produced by Ruby Central and O'Reilly Media, RailsConf is "the" event for the growing Rails Community--the largest official gathering dedicated to everything Rails. If you're passionate about Rails and what it helps you achieve--or if you're curious about how Rails can help you create web applications better and faster--this conference is the place to be. Use code "rc08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the registration price. To register for the conference, go to: ****Graphing Social Patterns East Registration is Open, Washington, DC--June 9-11 GSP is the premier conference for developers and marketers building and distributing apps for MySpace, Facebook, OpenSocial, and other social networking platforms. Over three days of tutorials, sessions, and keynotes, participants will explore how to reach online communities using new and established social networking platforms and applications. Use code "gspe08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the registration price. To register for the conference, go to: ***Registration for Velocity is Open, Burlingame, CA--June 23-24 Velocity is designed to deliver the best information on building and operating web sites that are fast, reliable, and always up. We're bringing together people from around the world who are doing the best performance work, to improve the experience of web users worldwide. Pages will be faster. Sites will have higher up-time. Companies will achieve more with less. The next cool startup will be able to more quickly scale to serve a larger audience, globally. Velocity is the key for crossing over from cool Web 2.0 features to sustainable web sites. Use code "vel08usgr" when you register, and receive 15% off the registration price. Early registration discount is available until May 5 To register for the conference, go to: ***Registration for Ubuntu Live 2008 is Open, Portland, OR--July 21-22 Ubuntu Live is a vibrant and important gathering of IT professionals, government and business leaders, educators, community leaders, enterprise and business users. The conference brings together the people who deploy and manage Ubuntu in organizations, companies offering services and solutions based on Ubuntu, customers of those services, users of Ubuntu, and the folks who build Ubuntu and other key open source software. Use code "ubu08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the registration price. Early registration discount is available until June 2. To register for the conference, go to: ***OSCON 2008 registration is Now Open, Portland, OR--July 21-25 Join over 2,500 open source developers, hackers, experts, IT managers, and users at OSCON 2008. This year's convention will include 40 tutorials that go deep into open source technology and over 400 sessions focusing on Administration, Business, Databases, Emerging Topics, Java, Linux, Mobile, People, Perl, PHP, Programming, Python, Ruby, Security, Web Applications, and much more. Use code "os08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the registration price. Early registration discount is available until June 2. To register for the conference, go to: ================================================ O'Reilly School of Technology ================================================ ***O'Reilly School of Technology Courses: UG Members Receive a 30% Discount O'Reilly School of Technology has opened its virtual doors with educational offerings and certifications for IT students looking to further their careers or to launch one. As an O'Reilly User Group member, you save on all the courses in the following University of Illinois Certificate Series: -PHP/SQL Programming--New! -Linux/Unix System Administration -Web Programming -Open Source Programming -.NET Programming -Client-Side Web Programming featuring AJAX To redeem, use Promotion Code "ORALL1" good for a 30% discount, in Step #2 of the enrollment process. Each course comes with a free O'Reilly book and a 7-day money-back guarantee. Register online: (This discount is not combinable with other offers.) ================================================ News from O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- UG News --------------------- ***Maker Faire Coming up Soon--May 3 & 4 at the San Mateo Expo Center "Combining old-fashioned crafters with forward-thinking technorati, fashionistas, and mad scientists of all stripes, the Maker Faire is a hands-on celebration of all things DIY brought to life by Make magazine."--The Onion ***Linux Pro Magazine Free Issue Offer Linux Pro Magazine (known as Linux Magazine outside North America) is offering a free issue to O'Reilly User Group newsletter readers. In Linux Pro Magazine you will find the tools, tutorials, and reviews you need to unlock the secrets of Linux. Each article is focused on delivering the hands-on information you need in your daily Linux use. As a bonus, each issue includes a DVD containing a full version of a major Linux distribution. Sign up for your free copy here: ***Adobe Lightroom Adventure contines in Tasmania In April 2008, a group of internationally renowned photographers traveled to the end of the world, literally, to the remote island of Tasmania. Using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, photographers will upload, sort, keyword, adjust, and output their Raw images while still working in the field. Read the stories, see the images, and watch the photographers discuss this challenging assignment. Mikkel Aaland, project director, will capture the lessons learned for his book on Adobe Lightroom, scheduled to be published later this year. Tourism Tasmania is offering a chance to win a trip for two to Tasmania, Australia. Read more for details. ***New Publishers on Safari Books Online We are pleased to announce the introduction of John Wiley & Sons content to Safari Books Online. With the inclusion of Wiley content, Safari Books Online is now the only source for online access to the world's top four technology publishers. Pearson, John Wiley & Sons, O'Reilly Media, and Microsoft Press represent 85% of the computer books sold at retail in the U.S., according to Nielsen BookScan. ***MacVoices--Barbara Brundage Discusses Adobe Elements 6 for the Mac Join Chuck Joiner and Barbara Brundage (Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual) as they talk about why Elements 6 really does 90% of what most photographers need, why Layers are and are not important in Elements 6, and why the addition of Curves is such an important addition. Barbara talks about her favorite features and provides some tips for improving your photo editing. ***DIY O'Reilly Gear Create Your Own Calendar, Shirt, Notebook, Poster...In just three easy steps you can create one of a kind calendars, greeting cards, keychains, luggage tags, magnets, mousepads, mugs, notebooks, postcards, posters, shirts, hoodies, and stickers adorned with your favorite O'Reilly animals. --------------------- Articles --------------------- ***Why should I upgrade to Office 2008 for Macintosh? Author Jim Elferdink talks about what's new in Office 2008 for Macintosh. If you're still using Office 2004, you'll find some great reasons to upgrade. Jim also fills you in on some cool features that Office for Windows can't match, and why you may not need to invest in iWork. ***Ruport: Business Reporting for Ruby No one likes developing reporting tools for an application. But without them, many applications are only half-done. Luckily, Ruby has a great reporting infrastructure available to build on, and in this article, you'll learn how to use it. ***The iPhone SDK: APIs Apple Didn't Want You to Know About The iPhone has been a hot item ever since it came out, but running non-Apple supplied software on it isn't easy. But the secrets to building a successful toolchain to create iPhone applications can be found right here. ***Step by Step: Using Samba to join a Windows Domain Samba has made getting Linux and Windows systems talking to each other much easier than it once was. But there are still some tasks that are more than a little finicky. One of them is definitely joining a Samba client to a domain-based Windows network. Luckily, now you'll have a step by step guide to doing just that. For more articles, go to: --------------------- Blogs ------------------- ***SpongeBob SquarePants Supports O'Reilly Research Finding ***Good Devices Gone Bad ***Removing the Remains of the 15-day Trial ***Is the Closed Source Inevitable? ***My Transition to Using O'Reilly Safari Online Books Service ***Making Connections With Hackerteen ***Five Steps to Web 2.0 ****The Best ActionScript Book Ever Written ***Unforgettable Tasmania--Leo Laporte reports on the latest Lightroom Adventure ***Looking for a Few Good SysAdmin Problems to Solve in Python ***How to Make Applets (and JavaFx) Viable ***Web 2.0 Expo SF Launchpad: Six New Startup Stars ***Get Info on a Mac Without Logging in For more blogs, go to: Until next time-- Josette