From timc+perl at divide.net Fri Apr 2 00:30:51 2004 From: timc+perl at divide.net (Tim Chambers) Date: Thu Aug 5 00:18:31 2004 Subject: Fw: Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, April 1 Message-ID: <014e01c4187c$138ac790$5538f144@CEPHAS> ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -SQL Pocket Guide -Windows Server Hacks -Excel Hacks -Digital Photography: Expert Techniques -Network Security Assessment -Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition -Linux for Non-Geeks ---------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Events ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Robbie Allen ("DNS on Windows Server 2003," "Active Directory "), Windows & .NET Magazine Connections, Las Vegas, NV--April 4-7 -Brian Aker ("Running Weblogs with Slash") and Jeremy Zawodny ("High Performance MySQL"), MySQL Users Conference, Orlando, FL--Apr 14-16 -Mac User Group Day at O'Reilly in Sebastopol, CA--April 24 ---------------------------------------------------------------- News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Resizing an Image with Photoshop -What's New in Photoshop CS? -400 O'Reilly Books on Safari -Top Ten Tips to Make Attackers??T Lives Hell -Eleven Metrics to Monitor for a Happy and Healthy Squid -You Sexy Thing! -Creating Online Help with Tinderbox -Windows Server Hacks: Resetting User Passwords -Kill Internet Ads with HOSTS and PAC Files -Power Up Internet Explorer with Three Shells -Java and Sound, Part 1 -Create Project Item Wizards -O'Reilly Learning Lab's .NET Certificate Series -Fun April Fool's Day Stuff ---------------------------------------------------------------- News From Your Peers ---------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the new O'Reilly User Group Wiki for the latest news ================================================ 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, 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***SQL Pocket Guide Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596005121 Not just an endless collection of syntax diagrams, this guide succinctly covers the four commonly used SQL variants: Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL. It also addresses the language's complexity head on, offering a concise reference to frequently used SQL statements and commonly used SQL functions. This handy book provides pocket-size help to programmers who use SQL in their day-to-day work. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sqlpr/index.html A sample excerpt on Hierarchical Queries is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sqlpr/chapter/index.html ***Windows Server Hacks Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0-596-00647-0 The tools, or hacks, in this book reveal techniques that go well beyond basic management tasks found in most handbooks. Hacks range from those that deal with general administration to more esoteric hacks in the areas of network deployment, patch management, performance, security, and backup and recovery. No matter which Windows Server you use--NT, IIS, 2000, or 2003--"Windows Server Hacks" will put the knowledge and expertise of veteran system administrators to work for you. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/winsvrhks/ Sample hacks are available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/winsvrhks/chapter/index.html ***Excel Hacks Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 059600625X The tips and tools in this book include little-known "backdoor" adjustments for everything from reducing workbook and worksheet frustration to hacking built-in features such as pivot tables, charts, formulas and functions, and even the macro language. This resourceful, roll-up-your-sleeves guide shows you new ways to make Excel do things--from data analysis to worksheet management to import/export--that you never thought possible. Excel Hacks increases your productivity and gives you hours of "hacking" enjoyment along the way. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/excelhks/ Sample hacks are available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/excelhks/chapter/index.html ***Digital Photography: Expert Techniques Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596005474 Rather than a general discussion of photography principles, this four-color book focuses on workflow: time-tested, step-by-step procedures based on practitioners??T experiences of the art of digital photography. The book provides detailed information about what to look for in today's high-end digicams, how to use simple techniques and equipment to shoot breathtaking shots and great panoramas, do??Ts and don'ts for creating better Photoshop masks, and professional digital darkroom techniques. Serious photographers and professionals will find this problem-solving book invaluable. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dphotohdbk/ Chapter 3, "Bringing Out the Best Picture," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dphotohdbk/chapter/index.html ***Network Security Assessment Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 059600611X Using the same steps professional security analysts have adopted to identify and assess risks, this book offers an efficient testing model you can adopt, refine, and reuse to create defensive strategies to protect your systems from current threats, as well as those still being developed. This thorough guide covers offensive technologies by grouping and analyzing them at a higher level--from both an offensive and defensive standpoint--helping administrators design and deploy networks that are immune to exploits, tools, and scripts. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/networksa/ Chapter 4, "IP Network Scanning," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/networksa/chapter/index.html ***Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596005253 "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition" is a thorough review of all aspects of CSS2.1 and a comprehensive guide to CSS implementation. The book includes new content on positioning, lists and generated content, table layout, user interface, paged media, and more. It explores in detail each individual CSS property and how it interacts with other properties, and shows how to avoid common mistakes in interpretation. This book prepares you to take the next step with your HTML coding and incorporate CSS into your web pages. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/css2/ Chapter 2, "Selectors," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/css2/chapter/index.html ***Linux for Non-Geeks Publisher: No Starch Press 1593270348 "Linux for Non-Geeks" introduces you to Linux, without the technical jargon and advanced topics that you'd find in other books. You'll learn how to use Linux to do the normal, day-to-day computer tasks that you know how to do with another operating system, like connecting to and surfing the Internet, listening to CDs, playing with audio files, customizing your desktop, playing games, downloading software and fonts, printing, and more. Includes a complete installation of Fedora Linux on two CDs. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270348/ ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ ***For more events, please see: http://events.oreilly.com/ ***Robbie Allen ("DNS on Windows Server 2003," "Active Directory "), Windows & .NET Magazine Connections, Las Vegas, NV--April 4-7 Robbie is a speaker at this networking technology conference. Hyatt Lake Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV http://www.winconnections.com/win/ ***Brian Aker ("Running Weblogs with Slash") and Jeremy Zawodny ("High Performance MySQL"), MySQL Users Conference, Orlando, FL--Apr 14-16 Brian and Jeremy are a featured speakers and several O'Reilly editors and other authors will be be attending the conference--be sure to say hello if you run into them. Our friends at Digital Guru will be staffing the booth for us, so stop by to check out our newest titles. Peabody Hotel, Booth #301, Orlando, FL http://www.mysql.com/events/uc2004/index.html ***Mac User Group Day at O'Reilly in Sebastopol, CA--April 24 Join O'Reilly and NCMUG for a special Mac User Group Day in Sebastopol on Saturday, April 24 from 2-6pm. Speakers include Derrick Story ("Digital Photography Pocket Guide, 2nd Edition," "iPhoto 2: The Missing Manual"), Chris Stone ("Mac OS X Panther in a Nutshell"), Tom Negrino & Dori Smith ("Mac OS X Unwired"), and Scott Fullam ("Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks"). For more information and a complete schedule of events, go to: http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/macugday_hi_res.pdf Please RSVP to let us know you will be attending at mugevent@oreilly.com. Mac User Group Day 2:00pm-6:00pm, Saturday, April 24 O'Reilly 1005 Gravenstein Hwy North Sebastopol, CA 95472 800-998-9938 Ext. 7103 For directions, go to: http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/seb_directions.html The 58th Annual Sebastopol Apple Blossom Festival will be also be happening. Come to Sebastopol early to watch the parade downtown. It starts at 10am and ends by noon, followed by a festival in Ives Park. For more info, go to: http://www.sebastopolappleblossom.org/ ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- General News --------------------- ***Resizing an Image with Photoshop Learn how to modify image size, when to resample, and how to handle resolution issues from Photoshop expert Deke McClelland. We've included a sample video file so you can get a taste of the hands-on video tutorials that are an integral part of Deke's recently released "Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One." http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/excerpt/PhotoshopCS_chap05/index.html ***What's New in Photoshop CS? Photoshop CS may have fewer new features than version 7, but quality counts more than quantity, and Ken Milburn is pretty jazzed about the quality. In this article, he covers the new features in CS he's most excited about. Ken is the author of "Digital Photography: Expert Techniques" http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2004/03/23/digphoto.html ***400 O'Reilly Books on Safari O'Reilly now boasts more than 400 books on Safari, the premier electronic reference library for IT professionals and programmers. We're proud to have such a strong presence on Safari, where we share company with the industry's leading technical publishers in bringing readers time-saving access to the information they need. If you are not yet a Safari convert, give the service a try with a free trial subscription: https://secure.safaribooksonline.com/promo.asp?code=ORA14&portal=oreilly&CMP=BAC-TP2974244892 --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***Top Ten Tips to Make Attackers??T Lives Hell Chris McNab breaks down his top ten tips all network administrators should follow to protect their networks from opportunistic threats and make it hard for the more determined attackers to get anywhere. Chris is the author of the recently released "Network Security Assessment." http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/security/2004/03/25/ntwksecurityassess.html ***Eleven Metrics to Monitor for a Happy and Healthy Squid Duane Wessels offers 11 tips to help you stay on top of Squid's performance. If you follow this advice, you should be able to discover problems before your users begin calling you to complain. Duane is the creator of Squid and the author of "Squid: The Definitive Guide." http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/03/25/squid.html --------------------- Mac --------------------- ***You Sexy Thing! Just about everyone looks great behind a cursor, but the days of communicating online exclusively with text are numbered. So Snaggy and Nitrozac offer their brand of advice on how to look great on iChat AV, in spite of iSight. With tips on proper lighting, camera angles, and using the right foundation, Snaggy and Nitrozac offer more of the high-tech humor you've come to know and love in their comic and in their book, "The Best of The Joy of Tech." http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/03/16/iSight.html ***Creating Online Help with Tinderbox Apple's online help system, Apple Help, has a dubious reputation among some Mac users, mainly because of poky performance. But Panther has improved the situation. Matt Neuburg built an online help system for a Mac application using a note-taking hypertext outliner called Tinderbox. He explains the process in this article. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/03/30/online_help.html --------------------- Windows --------------------- ***Windows Server Hacks: Resetting User Passwords Resetting user passwords from the command line can save you time, but there are "gotchas" along the way. Mitch Tulloch, author of "Windows Server Hacks," shows you what to watch out for and how to reset passwords fast. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/03/30/serverhacks_passwords.html ***Kill Internet Ads with HOSTS and PAC Files You don't need special software to kill ads and objectionable Internet content--just use the power built right into the Windows browser. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/03/30/hosts.html ***Power Up Internet Explorer with Three Shells Supercharge Internet Explorer with one of these three wrappers, and you won't be able to imagine how you got along without them. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/03/23/ie_shells.html For all the latest Windows tips and tricks visit: http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/ --------------------- Java --------------------- ***Java and Sound, Part 1 Where can you learn how to play simple audio clips with the java.applet.AudioClip class, as well as how to use the javax.sound.sampled and javax.sound.midi packages to do such things as load and play sound clips, and monitor and change the playback position within a clip? In these first excerpts in a two-part series of excerpts from Chapter 17 ("Sound") of "Java Examples in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition." http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/excerpt/jenut3_ch17/index.html ***Bug Prevention with Code Generation: A J2EE Case Study If you had to drill 12,000 holes, would you prefer a manual drill, or its automated equivalent? Francesco Aliverti-Piuri describes using code generation for discovering bugs in a J2EE example. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/03/31/codeGen.html --------------------- .NET --------------------- ***Create Project Item Wizards In a recent project, Niel Bornstein and his team had to produce a platform that included a set of base classes that other developers could use to develop Windows forms in Visual Studio .NET 2003. As the team worked on the base classes, it became clear that the developers would be able to crank out their forms a lot faster if they could also generate stubs and skeleton code for all the methods they needed to override in their own classes. Niel explains how to do it in this article. http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/03/22/wizards.html ***O'Reilly Learning Lab's .NET Certificate Series Learn .NET programming skills and earn a .NET Programming Certificate from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education. The .NET Certificate Series is comprised of three courses that give you the foundation you need to do .NET programming well. The courses are: Learn XML; Learn Object-Oriented Programming Using Java; and Learn C#. Limited time offer: Enroll in all three courses and save $895. http://oreilly.useractive.com/courses/dotnet.php3 ------------------------------------ Fun April Fool's Day Stuff ------------------------------------ 10 stories that could be pranks--but aren't http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3589239.stm Google Copernicus Center is hiring (Google, 2004) http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html The technology behind Google's great results (Google, 2002) http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html Programming Parrot in a Nutshell (O'Reilly, 2001) http://www.oreilly.com/parrot/ The Story Behind the Parrot Prank http://www.oreilly.com/news/parrotstory_0401.html Still a good joke--47 years on http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3591687.stm 10 funniest media jokes on April Fools day http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/363/12398_jokes.html ================================================ News From Your Peers ================================================ ***Check out the new O'Reilly User Group Wiki for the latest news You can look for a meeting, user group, or post information any time you want. http://wiki.oreillynet.com/usergroups/view?HomePage Until next time-- Marsee From timc+perl at divide.net Fri Apr 2 00:32:10 2004 From: timc+perl at divide.net (Tim Chambers) Date: Thu Aug 5 00:18:31 2004 Subject: Fw: Internet Annoyances Needed for New Book Message-ID: <015701c4187c$3b226e20$5538f144@CEPHAS> [Sorry about the delay.] Dear User Group Leader: Thanks for the great response to our call, over the last month or two, for annoyances, gripes, and complaints about Excel and PC hardware. The email we got was very useful and a lot of your members not only sent annoyances, but fixes! As always, many thanks for the input. This time around, we have yet another book in the wings--this one focusing on Internet annoyances. Some of the annoying areas: Email (and spam), connecting to the Net (via dialup, DSL, cable, configuration and all that), wireless annoyances (from WiFi hassles to hotspots to fiddling with WEP), web sites (namely creating, hosting, and maintaining your own web site), browsing and browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, and others), AOL, instant messaging, using search sites, security annoyances, and of course, shopping and auctions. Got Internet gripes/annoyances/kvetches? Send 'em our way by having your members email me (marsee@oreilly.com) with "Internet Annoyance" in the subject line and we'll put our author on the job. As thanks for sharing, we'll make sure to get copies of "Internet Annoyances" sent to your group shortly after publication. --Marsee *** An example: Pictureless Pages Predicament THE ANNOYANCE: There are some great pictures available on the Web, but certain pictures don't appear on web pages I visit. Instead I see a red X or a funny little icon where the picture is supposed to be. THE FIX: Several circumstances can keep pictures from appearing: * There's a logjam at the web server or somewhere along the miles of wires between the web server and your browser. Try refreshing the page (press F5 or click the Refresh button on the toolbar). But you probably already tried that. * Something's wrong with the web server. The picture might not be on the server, or the programmer who created the web page might have put in the wrong path to the picture. * Internet Explorer may be configured so that it doesn't show pictures, a common setup for those with slow dialup connections who don't want to waste time downloading pictures. (If this option is set, you can selectively display pictures by right-clicking the X or the icon and choosing Show Picture.) To undo this setting in Internet Explorer, choose Tools-->Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab, and in the Multimedia section, check the Show Pictures box to make your pictures appear. * An invalid value in the Windows Registry is preventing pictures from appearing. It's an easy fix, even for those who are squeamish about poking around in the Registry. (Before you mess around with the Registry, back it up as per the instructions in the sidebar on page 47.) Select Start-->Run, type in regedit, and hit Enter. In Registry Editor, navigate to \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.gif. In the right pane, click the Content Type item; its value should be image/gif. Then check \HKEY_CLASSES_ ROOT\.jpg; Content Type should be set to image/jpg or image/jpeg. For more information about this fix, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 307239. *** From timc+perl at divide.net Fri Apr 2 14:58:34 2004 From: timc+perl at divide.net (Tim Chambers) Date: Thu Aug 5 00:18:31 2004 Subject: Perl hack: ascii-binary Message-ID: <01c701c418f5$43edd250$5538f144@CEPHAS> Snipped from irc://irc.community.tummy.com/hackingsociety today. Quote of the day: "once again, irc to the rescue :)". s 12:47 Perl hack how do you convert from binary to ascii on the command line? convert what? BorD: theres a 'calc' or something like that which is a calculator... or you courl perl -e"print %something" man calc No manual entry for calc http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%2Bbinary+%2Bascii+%2Bconvert&btnG=Google+Search man bc i did man bc, see octal, hex, binary, decimal and i already looked at google. they have nice little applets that will do it. i wanted to do it on the command line (theres also dc... man -k calc) you can use bc or something to convert binary to octal and pipe that into an echo -e "\`script to spit out octal`" though you could probably do it directly by evaluationg the proper perl string BorD: gimme the problem, I'll give you the perl snippet. 0111010001101000011010010111001100100000011010010111001100100000011000010010 000001110100011001010111001101110100 i want to convert that to ascii on the command line I thought you wanted packed binary, like ^A ^@ stuff. Yours is a snap. Hold on... no, but thats what gave me the idea. there are tools on the web to convert it.. lol. i love thinkgeek but i wondered where the heck the tool was to just do it easily both ascii to binary and binary to ascii BorD: is that msb or lsb order? Can I assume the binary string can be split into byte-chunks for interpretation? heck if i know. yeah, it's like my tie that says "I Hate Ties" I'll try all the decoding techniques to see what sense comes of it. those are 8bit-at-a-time binary reps of an ascii character cracked it $ perl -e '$s=$ARGV[0];$l=length $s;@a=pack "B$l",$s;print "@a\n"' 0111010001101000011010010111001100100000011010010111001100100000011000010010 000001110100011001010111001101110100 this is a test $ here's the reverse, FWIW $ perl -e '$s=$ARGV[0];$l=(length $s)*8;@a=unpack "B$l",$s;print "@a\n"' "this is a test" 0111010001101000011010010111001100100000011010010111001100100000011000010010 000001110100011001010111001101110100 $ That was fun! once again, irc to the rescue :) could i < filename and read it in from a file? $ echo -e "this is the first line\nthis is the second line" > /tmp/ascii $ perl -ne '$l=(length $_)*8;@a=unpack "B$l",$_;print "@a\n"' /tmp/ascii|tee /tmp/bits 0111010001101000011010010111001100100000011010010111001100100000011101000110 1000011001010010000001100110011010010111001001110011011101000010000001101100 01101001011011100110010100001010 0111010001101000011010010111001100100000011010010111001100100000011101000110 1000011001010010000001110011011001010110001101101111011011100110010000100000 0110110001101001011011100110010100001010 $ perl -ne 'chomp;$l=length $_;next if(!$l);@a=pack "B$l",$_;print "@a"' /tmp/bits this is the first line this is the second line $ tada :-) someone should hire you :) * tbc smiles i love it when i have an itch and someone else scratches it :) Hey, don't think this means we're getting married or anything. :-) hahaha f 13:38 From timc+perl at divide.net Thu Apr 15 22:01:31 2004 From: timc+perl at divide.net (Tim Chambers) Date: Thu Aug 5 00:18:31 2004 Subject: Fw: Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, April 15 Message-ID: <01b601c4235f$232614a0$0107ee0f@CEPHAS> ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Linux Unwired -High Performance MySQL -Jeff Duntemann's Wi-Fi Guide, Second Edition -Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition -The GNOME 2 Developer's Guide -qmail -Access Cookbook, 2nd Edition -The Spam Letters ---------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Events ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Mac User Group Day at O'Reilly in Sebastopol, CA--April 24 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Conference News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Registration Is Open for OSCON 2004 -O'Reilly Open Source Convention Early Bird Discount Ends June 18 ---------------------------------------------------------------- News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Your O'Reilly Account: New Single Sign On -Virtual Book Signings -Planning for Disaster Recovery on LAMP Systems -Data Mining Email -Managing Packages on Panther with DarwinPorts -Launchers for Mac OS X -Panther Command-Line Tools: The Missing Manpages -Getting Connected While on the Road Using Infrared or Bluetooth -Hacking Windows Server -Java and Security, Part 1 -Wiring Your Web Application with Open Source Java -VSJ Reader Awards 2004 -New Language Features in C# 2.0 -O'Reilly Learning Lab's .NET Certificate Series ---------------------------------------------------------------- News From Your Peers ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Photos from recent UG events on the O'Reilly User Group Wiki ================================================ 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, 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Linux Unwired Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596005830 "Linux Unwired" is a one-stop wireless information source for on-the-go Linux users. The book provides a complete introduction to all the wireless technologies supported by Linux. If you're considering wireless as a supplement or alternative to cable and DSL, using wireless to network computers in your home or office, or using cellular data plans for access to data nearly everywhere, this book will show you the full-spectrum view of Linux's wireless capabilities, and how to take advantage of them. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lnxunwired/ Chapter 3, "Getting on the Network," is available free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lnxunwired/chapter/index.html ***High Performance MySQL Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596003064 "High Performance MySQL" is an insider's guide to the poorly documented issues of MySQL reliability, scalability, and performance. The book gives in-depth coverage of MySQL indexing and optimization so you can make better use of these key features. You'll learn practical replication, backup, and load-balancing strategies with information that goes beyond available tools to discuss their effects in real-life environments. And you'll learn the supporting techniques you need to carry out these tasks, including advanced configuration, benchmarking, and investigating logs. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/hpmysql/ Chapter 7, "Replication," is available free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/hpmysql/chapter/index.html ***Jeff Duntemann's Wi-Fi Guide, Second Edition Publisher: Paraglyph Press ISBN: 1932111883 This new edition of this bestselling Wi-Fi guide provides everything Wi-Fi users need to design, build, protect, and extend Wi-Fi wireless networks! Author Jeff Duntemann uses practical techniques for setting up and using Wi-Fi gear and software. The second edition is expanded and brought fully up to date, covering more on setting up hotspots, community networking, security, Wireless Protected Access (WPA), new Wi-Fi standards (802.11g), and more. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1932111883/ ***Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006802 "Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition" has been updated for Oracle10g. This pocket-size book covers: fundamental language elements; statements for program control, cursor management, and exception handling; the basics of records, procedures, functions, triggers, and packages; the calling of PL/QL functions in SQL; new Oracle 10g elements; and much more. When you need a reminder or a quick answer to a PL/SQL problem, you'll find it in this compact reference. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/orplpr3/ Sample excerpts on "Bulk Binds" and "Oracle Database 10g" are available free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/orplpr3/chapter/index.html *** The GNOME 2 Developer's Guide Publisher: No Starch Press ISBN: 1593270305 "The GNOME 2 Developer's Guide" is the official GNOME Foundation guide to programming GUIs and applications using the GTK+ and GNOME API. Developed in partnership with the GNOME Foundation, this book is for programmers working with the GNOME 2 desktop environment. Each section begins with an example program that serves as a tutorial, then develops into a reference on the topic. Knowledge of the C programming language is required, but no GUI programming experience is necessary http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270305/ ***qmail Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 1565926285 "qmail" concentrates on common tasks like moving a sendmail setup to qmail and setting up a "POP toaster," a system that provides mail service to a large number of users on other computers sending and retrieving mail remotely. The book fills crucial gaps in existing documentation, detailing exactly what the core qmail software does. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/qmail/ Chapter 8, "Delivering and routing local mail," is available free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/qmail/chapter/index.html ***Access Cookbook, 2nd Edition Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006780 Access power users and programmers at all levels will rely on the "Access Cookbook" for quick solutions to gnarly problems. The second edition is fully updated for Access 2003, and it's also one of the first books to thoroughly explore new support for .NET managed code and XML. All of the examples have been tested for compatibility with Access 2003, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. This new edition also covers Access with SharePoint, SmartTags, .NET, and XML. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/accesscook2/ Chapter 7, "VBA," is available free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/accesscook2/chapter/index.html ***The Spam Letters Publisher: No Starch Press ISBN: 1593270321 >From the man behind TheSpamLetters.com--featured in "Entertainment Weekly," the "New York Times," and Slashdot--comes a collection of brilliant and entertaining correspondence with the people who send out mass junk emailings (a.k.a. spam). Compiled from the nearly 200 entries written by Jonathan Land, "The Spam Letters" taunts, prods, and parodies the faceless salespeople in your inbox, giving you a chuckle at their expense. If you hate spam, you'll love "The Spam Letters." http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270321/ ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ ***For more events, please see: http://events.oreilly.com/ ***Mac User Group Day at O'Reilly in Sebastopol, CA--April 24 Join O'Reilly and NCMUG for a special Mac User Group Day in Sebastopol on Saturday, April 24 from 2-6pm. This event is free! Speakers include Derrick Story ("Digital Photography Pocket Guide, 2nd Edition," "iPhoto 2: The Missing Manual"), Chris Stone ("Mac OS X Panther in a Nutshell"), Tom Negrino & Dori Smith ("Mac OS X Unwired"), and Scott Fullam ("Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks"). For more information and a complete schedule of events, go to: http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/macugday_hi_res.pdf Please RSVP to let us know you will be attending at mugevent@oreilly.com. Mac User Group Day 2:00pm-6:00pm, Saturday, April 24 O'Reilly 1005 Gravenstein Hwy North Sebastopol, CA 95472 800-998-9938 Ext. 7103 For directions, go to: http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/seb_directions.html The 58th Annual Sebastopol Apple Blossom Festival will be also be happening. Come to Sebastopol early to watch the parade downtown. It starts at 10am and ends by noon, followed by a festival in Ives Park. For more info, go to: http://www.sebastopolappleblossom.org/ ================================================ Conference News ================================================ ***Registration Is Open for OSCON 2004 Come to the 2004 O'Reilly Open Source Convention and meet open source leaders, learn useful skills, and engage in conversations with developers, business leaders, and technology strategists. This year's OSCON explores everything from the latest innovations in Perl, PHP, and Python to the great Linux debate and much more. Join us in Portland, Oregon July 26-30. O'Reilly Open Source Convention Portland Marriott Downtown Portland, OR July 26-30, 2004 http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/ ***O'Reilly Open Source Convention Early Bird Discount Ends June 18 User Group members who register before June 18, 2004 get a double discount. Use code DSUG when you register, and you'll get 20% off the "Early Bird" price. To register, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2004/create/ord_os04 ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- General News --------------------- ***Your O'Reilly Account: New Single Sign On O'Reilly customers and guests now have a single address and one password to access all things O'Reilly, from oreilly.com and Safari Bookshelf to all of the O'Reilly Network sites and DevCenters. When possible, we've consolidated your prior, separate accounts into one new account. Logging into the new system is quick and easy; details on how to do it have been emailed to you, and you can read more about O'Reilly's single sign on in Tony Stubblebine's weblog. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4692 ***Virtual Book Signings Snaggy & Nitrozac are back this week offering their brand of humor and technical know-how to the use of video conferencing technology. They've used their virtual book signing events to demonstrate the power of iSight and iChat AV, but their aim is to spark your creative juices to find other ways to apply these technologies, perhaps to connect with friends and family around the world, or perhaps for use in your own business. Snaggy & Nitrozac are the authors of "The Best of the Joy of Tech." http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/04/13/virtualbooksigning.html --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***Planning for Disaster Recovery on LAMP Systems The beauty of LAMP systems is that you can develop them as formally or informally as you like. Unfortunately, when it comes time to plan for disaster recovery, that informality can work against you. Robert Jones presents several guidelines for development and configuration that can make recovery easier. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/04/08/disaster_recovery.html ***Data Mining Email Thousands of useful facts lie inaccessible on your hard drive, hidden within email messages and attachments. How much more productive would you be if you could extract, index, and search that information? Robert Bernier demonstrates how to store data from emails into a database, where you can use data-mining techniques to analyze it. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/04/08/datamining_email.html --------------------- Mac --------------------- ***Managing Packages on Panther with DarwinPorts Ernest E. Rothman provides an overview along with installation and update instructions for DarwinPorts, one of Mac OS X's many packaging options. Ernest is a coauthor of "Mac OS X Panther for Unix Geeks." http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/04/09/darwinports.html ***Launchers for Mac OS X LaunchBar is the best known Finder enhancer on the platform, but there are many noteworthy challengers, including Quicksilver. Giles Turnbull test drives a few launchers and gives a report. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/04/09/launchers.html ***Panther Command-Line Tools: The Missing Manpages Finally, Mac OS X system administrators and developers have a quick reference to the command-line utilities that have missing, incomplete, or inaccurate manpages. Find the command syntax, a brief description, and the command's directory location in Appendix B of "Mac OS X Panther for Unix Geeks." If you like this chapter, read the whole book (and up to nine others) on Safari with a trial subscription. https://secure.safaribooksonline.com/promo.asp?code=ORA14&portal=oreilly&CMP=BAC-TP2974244892 --------------------- Windows --------------------- ***Getting Connected While on the Road Using Infrared or Bluetooth The always-on Internet: How to connect to the Internet using your mobile phone, laptop, and infrared or Bluetooth. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/04/06/on_road_connect.html ***Hacking Windows Server Mitch Tulloch has gathered 100 hacks in his "Windows Server Hacks" book to help system administrators master the more powerful features of Windows Server. To provide a real look at what these hacks can help you do, we offer three excerpts here: How to use an ADSI-based script to search for domain users; how to use the Hyena utility to quickly find out which user on your network has a particular file open; and how to locate all machines that have automatic logon enabled in their registry. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/excerpt/winserverhacks_chap03/index.html --------------------- Java --------------------- ***Java and Security, Part 1 In part one in a two-part series of excerpts from Chapter 17 of "WebLogic: The Definitive Guide," authors Avinash Chugh and Jon Mountjoy examine WebLogic's various security mechanisms, beginning with a look at the Java Security Manager and how WebLogic filters connection requests. They also cover WebLogic's authentication and authorization framework and how it supports the standard J2EE security services. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/excerpt/weblogic_chap17/index.html ***Wiring Your Web Application with Open Source Java Building a web application with Java can be a complex process when architecting a combination of UI, business logic, and persistence. This article introduces a way to leverage open source software to lessen the burden. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/04/07/wiringwebapps.html --------------------- .NET --------------------- ***VSJ Reader Awards 2004 O'Reilly is among the winners of this year's VSJ Reader Awards, holding favored status in two categories: Best Book publisher for Developers, and Book of the Year for Jesse Liberty's "Programming C#." http://www.vsj.co.uk/survey/ "Programming C#, 3rd Edition," by Jesse Liberty ISBN: 0-596-00489-3 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/progcsharp3/ ***New Language Features in C# 2.0 Four years ago, a new upstart language named C# surprised the development world with its elegance and consistency. Now that Microsoft has released a technology preview version of Visual Studio 2005 (formerly codenamed Whidbey), .NET's favorite language is back, with some new innovations. In this two-part servies by Matthew MacDonald, you'll get a first look at three of the four major language refinements in the latest version of C#. Part One: http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/04/05/csharpwhidbeypt1.html Part Two: http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/04/12/csharpwhidbeypt2.html ***O'Reilly Learning Lab's .NET Certificate Series Learn .NET programming skills and earn a .NET Programming Certificate from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education. The .NET Certificate Series is comprised of three courses that give you the foundation you need to do .NET programming well. The courses are: Learn XML; Learn Object-Oriented Programming Using Java; and Learn C#. Limited time offer: Enroll in all three courses and save $895. http://oreilly.useractive.com/courses/dotnet.php3 ================================================ News From Your Peers ================================================ ***Photos from recent UG events on the O'Reilly User Group Wiki We've added a "Past Events" section on the UGEvents page to share photos and highlights from recent events. Check out David Pogue's visit to Gloucester County College, NJ and photos from Miquel de Icaza's LUG presentation at Novell's Brainshare, Salt Lake City, UT. http://wiki.oreillynet.com/usergroups/topics?UGEvents You can also look for a meeting or user group, or post info any time you want. http://wiki.oreillynet.com/usergroups/view?HomePage Until next time-- Marsee From timc+perl at divide.net Fri Apr 23 00:29:48 2004 From: timc+perl at divide.net (Tim Chambers) Date: Thu Aug 5 00:18:32 2004 Subject: Programming Python, 2nd Edition Message-ID: <000501c428f4$0259fe40$cc07ee0f@CEPHAS> According to library records [1], Programming Python, 2nd Edition is in my possession. But I cannot find it. Does anyone else have it? <>< Tim [1] http://pikes-peak.pm.org/library.html From timc+perl at divide.net Wed Apr 28 01:50:18 2004 From: timc+perl at divide.net (Tim Chambers) Date: Thu Aug 5 00:18:32 2004 Subject: Webmaster requested Message-ID: <000b01c42ced$147e2860$6e07ee0f@CEPHAS> Our previous Webmaster has stepped down. (Thanks for your service, Daniel!) If anyone is interested in helping in this capacity, please let me know. Meanwhile, if anyone sees a need to update anything at our Web site, also let me know. I gave it a face lift today, FWIW. <>< Tim