From timc+perl at divide.net Sun Aug 8 09:15:01 2004 From: timc+perl at divide.net (Tim Chambers) Date: Tue Aug 10 10:30:39 2004 Subject: [Pikes-peak-pm] Fw: Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, August 6 Message-ID: <018d01c47eeb$c21f9300$d807ee0f@CEPHAS> ================================================================ O'Reilly News for User Group Members August 6, 2004 ================================================================ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -XML Hacks -CSS Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition -IRC Hacks -Cyber Adversary Characterization -OpenOffice.org Writer -AI for Game Developers -IT Ethics Handbook -Upgrading to PHP 5 -SpamAssassin -We the Media -Zero-Day Exploit -Mono: A Developer's Notebook ---------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Events ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Deke McClellend ("Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One") 2004 Australian InDesign Conference--August 12-14 -Wil Wheaton ("Just a Geek" and "Dancing Barefoot") at Hollywood Borders--August 15 -Wil Wheaton ("Just a Geek" and "Dancing Barefoot") at Mysterious Galaxy Books, San Diego, CA--August 21 -O'Reilly at PhotoShopWorld, Orlando, Florida--August 31 & September 2 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Conference News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Registration Is Open for O'Reilly's Mac OS X Conference-- October 25-28, 2004 ---------------------------------------------------------------- News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -We the Media Blog -Techies Reshape 9/11 History -O'Reilly Radar: OSCON 2004 -Top 10 Online Investing Tips -The Great Linux Desktop Migration Contest--Enter by August 9 -O'Reilly and MySQL AB Present the MySQL Users Conference -Questioning Promises at LinuxWorld -Open Source and NASA's Mars Rover -21.5 Things You Can Do with Office 2004 -Creating DVD/VCD Photo Slide Shows for Your Mac -OS 9, Mine, All Mine -Windows Server Hacks: Creating a Password Reset Disk -Power Up the Windows Clipboard -Rapid Application Development with VB.NET 2.0 -XML-Java Data Binding Using XMLBeans -Keeping Up with the Java Joneses -What Countermeasures Really Mean ---------------------------------------------------------------- News From Your Peers ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Report from OSCON 2004 ================================================ 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, 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***XML Hacks Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596007116 This practical, roll-up-your-sleeves guide distills years of ingenious XML hacking into a complete set of tips, tricks, and tools for people who want to uncover the true power of XML. With plenty of real-world projects that illustrate how to define, read, create, and manipulate XML documents, you'll learn to put XML to work on the Internet and within productivity applications. Explore and experiment, discover clever shortcuts, show off just a little, and have fun in the process, with this invaluable book. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xmlhks/ A slew of sample hacks are available free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xmlhks/chapter/index.html ***CSS Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596007779 "CSS Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition" is an indispensable reference for web designers and developers. This handy book condenses all the details in its companion volume, "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide," into one easy-to-use cheat-sheet, covering the essential information you need to effectively implement CSS. There's an introduction to CSS, an alphabetical reference to the CSS2 and CSS 2.1 properties, and detailed information about CSS support in browsers. When you're stuck and need an answer quickly, you'll want this completely updated pocket reference at your fingertips. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csspr2/ A sample excerpt on "Basic Visual Layout" is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csspr2/chapter/index.html ***IRC Hacks Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 059600687X IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is more than an accessible, multi-platform chat environment; it's a network of intercommunicating servers that allows thousands of clients to connect from anywhere in the world. "IRC Hacks" shows you how IRC works, and how to best use some of the features that have made IRC the most successful, most scalable, and most mature chat system on the planet. Featuring contributions from renowned IRC hackers, many of whom collaborated on IRC, this collection of tips and tools covers just about everything needed to become a true IRC master. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/irchks/ Sample hacks are available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/irchks/chapter/index.html ***Cyber Adversary Characterization Publisher: Syngress ISBN: 1931836116 The ever-increasing emphasis and reliance on the use of computers and the Internet has come hand in hand with the increased threat of cyber-crime. Many systems and infrastructures are exceedingly vulnerable to attacks, as the complexity of computer networks is growing faster than the ability to understand and protect them. Heightened vigilance is not enough, but needs to be coupled with active defensive measures to guarantee the best protection. This book provides the reader with understanding of and an ability to anticipate that "cyber adversary" silently waiting in the wings to attack. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1931836116/ ***OpenOffice.org Writer Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596008260 This handy reference to using Writer, the word processor that comes with OpenOffice.org, is the open source alternative to Microsoft Word. You??Tll learn how to write, edit, and review documents; use templates and styles effectively; control page layout; insert, edit, and create graphics; and much more--even how to make a smooth transition from Word. With the complete office suite included on a CD, this book makes using Writer an easy decision. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/openoffice/ Chapter 2, "Writing, Editing, and Reviewing Documents," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/openoffice/chapter/index.html ***AI for Game Developers Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596005555 Written for the novice AI programmer, this book introduces techniques such as finite state machines, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and many others, in straightforward, easy-to-understand language, supported with code samples written in C/C++. The book explains basic techniques such as chasing and evading, pattern movement, and flocking to genetic algorithms, then presents a mix of deterministic (traditional) and non-deterministic (newer) AI techniques, all designed to provide usable techniques you can apply to your games right now. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/ai/ ***IT Ethics Handbook Publisher: Syngress ISBN: 1931836140 Ethical judgments are no different in the area of computing from those in any other area. Computers raise problems of privacy, ownership, theft, and power, to name but a few. This book covers subjects ranging from defensive architecture, offensive issues, privacy, the use of information, and the human element of employer and employee ethics. The book is written by IT professionals for IT professionals, and always brings any discussion back to a practical example and application. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1931836140/ ***Upgrading to PHP 5 Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006365 If you're using PHP 4, chances are good that an upgrade to PHP 5 is in your future. This book offers a concise appraisal of the differences between versions 4 and 5, a detailed look at what's new in PHP 5, and explanations of how these changes affect you. The book also covers more advanced features and each new feature is shown in code, helping you to know when to use it and how it's better than PHP 4. Chapter 4, "SQLite," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/upgradephp5/chapter/index.html ***SpamAssassin Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596007078 SpamAssassin is the leading open source spam-fighting tool. The drawback? Until now, it was SpamAssassin's lack of published documentation. This clear, concise new guide shows system administrators how to integrate this tool effectively into their networks. The book clarifies installation, configuration, and use of SpamAssassin versions 2.63 and 3.0 for Unix sysadmins using Postfix, sendmail, Exim, or qmail mail servers. SpamAssassin, together with this essential book, provides the tools you need to take back your organization's inboxes. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/spamassassin/ Chapter 2, "SpamAssassin Basics," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/spamassassin/chapter/index.html ***We the Media Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596007337 Not content to accept the news as reported, grassroots journalists are dismantling Big Media's news monopoly, and publishing in real time to a worldwide audience via the Internet. The impact of their work is just beginning to be felt by professional journalists and the newsmakers they cover. In "We the Media," nationally known business and technology columnist Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon, and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make and consume the news. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/ The book's Introduction is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/chapter/index.html ***Zero-Day Exploit Publisher: Syngress ISBN: 19318360 A group of highly sophisticated cyber-terrorists have developed a Zero-Day Exploit targeting critical, pertrochemical infrastructure systems in the United States. Once launched, the exploit will cripple the country's ability to respond or defend itself. The only defense against disaster rests with an elite cyber-security expert with the skill and savvy to thwart the plot. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1931836094/ ***Mono: A Developer's Notebook Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596007922 This no-fluff, lab-style guide jumps right into Mono 1.0 as you work through nearly 50 mini-projects that introduce you to the most important and compelling aspects of the 1.0 release. You'll learn how to acquire, install, and run Mono on Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X. You'll work with the various Mono components: Gtk#; the CLR; the class libraries (.NET and Mono); and much more. This book lets you roll up your sleeves and see what Mono can do. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/monoadn/ Chapter 3, "Core .NET," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/monoadn/chapter/index.html ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ ***For more events, please see: http://events.oreilly.com/ ***Deke McClellend ("Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One") 2004 Australian InDesign Conference, Melbourne, Australia--August 12-14 Deke is a featured speaker at the annual national conference dedicated to supporting this fast-growing application user community. http://www.theindesignconference.com/australia/indexa.html ***Wil Wheaton ("Just a Geek" and "Dancing Barefoot"), Hollywood Borders--August 15 Wil stops by the Hollywood Borders to sign copies of "Just a Geek" at 2:00pm. 1501 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=354 ***Wil Wheaton ("Just a Geek" and "Dancing Barefoot") at Mysterious Galaxy Books, San Diego, CA--August 21 WIl also stops by Mysterious Galaxy starting at 1:30 p.m. 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA http://www.mystgalaxy.com/ ***O'Reilly at PhotoShopWorld, Orlando, Florida--August 31 & September 2 Deke McClelland will be teaching Adobe Illustrator Techniques in a pre-conference session on August 31. Make sure you come by and say hi at our booth (#334) in the expo hall on September 2. Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL http://www.photoshopworld.com/ ================================================ Conference News ================================================ ***Registration Is Open for O'Reilly's Mac OS X Conference Join us for the third annual Mac OS X Conference, October 25-28, 2004, in Santa Clara, California. You'll hear from Stewart Copeland, the former drummer for the Police who now creates award-winning film and television scores using Mac OS X technology; "New York Times" columnist David Pogue; Andy Ihnatko of the "Chicago Sun-Times"; Karelia Sofware's Dan Wood; Brent Simmons of Ranchero Software; Michael Bartosh of 4AM Media; Mac authors Dori Smith, Gordon Meyer, and Ted Landau; and many more. User Group members who register before September 10, 2004 get a double discount. Use code DSUG when you register, and receive 20% off the "Early Bird" price. To register, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/macosx2004/create/ord_mac04 O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference October 25-28, 2004 Westin Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA http://conferences.oreilly.com/macosxcon/ ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- General News --------------------- ***"We the Media" Blog Nationally recognized technology columnist Dan Gillmor has launched a new blog that covers the shifts we're seeing as journalism becomes less of a lecture and more of a conversation. Check it out if you're interested in the future of journalism, and don't miss his latest book on the topic, "We the Media." http://wethemedia.oreilly.com/ ***Techies Reshape 9/11 History Within hours of the release of The 9/11 Commission Report, multiple formats of the report were posted online by people interested in increasing its accessibility and usability. One of those people was PDF expert Sid Steward, who reduced the file size of the commission's original PDF, added bookmarks, and created a front-page HTML portal. Learn how easy and flexible PDF can be in Sid's upcoming "PDF Hacks." http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64346,00.html ***O'Reilly Radar: OSCON 2004 Daniel Steinberg reports on Tim O'Reilly's OSCON 2004 keynote. Tim's remarks focused on what is currently on his radar. He discussed Internet applications and social software, and ended with the announcement that O'Reilly will be producing the third annual MySQL Conference next year in Santa Clara, CA http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/07/29/radar.html ***Top 10 Online Investing Tips Plucked from the pages of "Online Investing Hacks," author Bonnie Biafore offers ten of the most important things you can do to improve your financial situation, and the tools that will simplify these tasks. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/07/23/onlineinvestinghacks.html --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***The Great Linux Desktop Migration Contest--Enter by August 9 If you're considering, or you have already embarked upon, a Linux desktop migration, here's your chance to help guide and inspire others and be eligible to win an all-expense-paid trip to Barcelona, Spain. Novell and O'Reilly Media have joined forces to present this contest and are looking for entries that describe the benefits realized from a desktop migration, a phased migration plan, or the most practical tips for migrating to Linux. http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/linux/contest/ ***O'Reilly and MySQL AB Present the MySQL Users Conference According to Tim O'Reilly, "MySQL is at the heart of revolutionary changes in the computer industry." Join us in Santa Clara, CA in April 2005 to meet the MySQL development team, peruse the latest products and services, get detailed insight into new features in MySQL 5.0, and much more. http://www.mysqluc.com/ ***Questioning Promises at LinuxWorld O'Reilly editor Andy Oram reports this week from LinuxWorld 2004 in San Francisco. He'll be exploring the promises of Linux and trying to determine how realistic they are, because, as Andy writes, "In many areas, the important foundations have been laid--but a lot remains to be done." http://oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5357 ***Open Source and NASA's Mars Rover NASA's recent Mars Rover mission uses a host of open source tools. Three members of the team presented how they promoted open source software at NASA, use it in the project, and hope to release more code in the future. Ann Barcomb reports. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/08/02/oss_mars_rover.html --------------------- Mac --------------------- ***21.5 Things You Can Do with Office 2004 By now you've probably read about all the new features in Microsoft Office 2004. Good. Because we're not going to cover them here again. Instead, Giles Turnbull shows you 21 and a half things you can do in Office that you might not have previously realized. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/08/03/ms_office.html ***Creating DVD/VCD Photo Slide Shows for Your Mac Let's face it: you still have friends and family who've yet to enter the computer age. And yet you'd like to send them copies of your vacation photos (or your newborn, or your cat) taken with your digital camera. What to do? Wei-Meng Lee offers an alternative to using iPhoto for creating slide-show CDs--Ulead's DVD PictureShow for Mac. He walks us through how to burn digital photos onto disc so anyone with a DVD/VCD player can view them. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/07/27/DVDslideshowonMac.html ***OS 9, Mine, All Mine What serious Mac fan in his or her right mind would consider booting anything other than OS X? Well, lots of them. Giles Turnbull interviews a handful of dedicated OS 9 users to find out why. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/07/23/os9.html --------------------- Windows --------------------- ***Windows Server Hacks: Creating a Password Reset Disk Losing a password for an account can be anything from a pain to a disaster. Mitch Tulloch, author of "Windows Server Hacks," shows you how to solve the problem by creating a password recovery disk. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/08/03/password_reset.html ***Power Up the Windows Clipboard The Windows Clipboard is about as useless a utility as you can imagine. Throw it away and replace it with one of these clipboard power tools. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/08/03/clipboard.html ***Rapid Application Development with VB.NET 2.0 Jesse Liberty has supported the idea that it really doesn't matter if you program in C# or in VB.NET, since both are just syntactic sugar layered on top of the Microsoft Intermediate Language--the true language of .NET. But that appears to be changing with Whidbey. Get a look at the new My Object in VB.NET 2.0 in this article by Jesse, author of "Programming Visual Basic .NET, 2nd Edition." http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/08/02/libertywhidbey.html --------------------- Java --------------------- **XML-Java Data Binding Using XMLBeans XMLBeans, currently in the Apache incubation process, is a promising framework for providing XML/Java data binding unmarshalling well-formed XML into Java objects, and marshalling Java objects into XML files. Hetel Shah provides an introduction to its features. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/07/28/XMLBeans.html ***Keeping Up with the Java Joneses Ian Darwin covers a variety of new Java 1.5 features, including J2SE 1.5 threading, the return of printf, and the IDEs NetBeans and Eclipse. Ian wraps up this article with resources to help you keep up with the rest of the Java Joneses. Ian is the author of the recently released "Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition." http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/07/28/javackbk2.html --------------------- Security --------------------- ***What Countermeasures Really Mean As the number and range of attacks on computer systems have grown exponentially and conventional firewalls and intrusion detection systems have proven inadequate for the task, security researchers have started to talk about employing "countermeasures" to preserve security. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/security/2004/08/03/symbiot.html ================================================ News From Your Peers ================================================ ***Report from OSCON 2004 Steve Riggins of the Portland Mac Users Group and the statewide Oregon MacPioneers User Group gives us his scoop on the 2004 O'Reilly Open Source Convention in Portland, OR. Thanks Steve! And thanks to OMUG leader Steve Welsh for passing this along. http://homepage.mac.com/ydkm/News/oscon04report.htm 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/lpt?HomePage Until next time-- Marsee From timc+perl at divide.net Sun Aug 29 21:27:58 2004 From: timc+perl at divide.net (Tim Chambers) Date: Mon Aug 30 18:41:42 2004 Subject: [Pikes-peak-pm] Fw: Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, August 23 Message-ID: <003d01c48e39$8da8da70$d0e8f044@CEPHAS> ================================================================ O'Reilly News for User Group Members August 23, 2004 ================================================================ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing -PDF Hacks -iMovie 4 & iDVD: The Missing Manual, 4th Edition -The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition -CSS Cookbook -The Official Blender 2.3 Guide -Mono: A Developer's Notebook -SpamAssassin -Managing Security with Snort & IDS Tools ---------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Events ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Peter Morville ("Information Architecture for the World Wide Web"), Information Architecture & Findability, Boston, MA--September 17 -O'Reilly at the Macintosh Computer Expo, Santa Rosa, CA--September 18 -David Pogue (Missing Manual series), Digital Lifestyle Expo, New York, NY--September 25-26 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Conference News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Registration Is Open for O'Reilly's Mac OS X Conference, Santa Clara, CA--October 25-28, 2004 ---------------------------------------------------------------- News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Securing Key Chain Flash Drives -Technology and Tools of Change -Syngress Authors Scheduled to Appear on "60 Minutes" in September -Oracle Magazine's Editors' Choice Awards -Alleviate RSI the Hacker Way -A Day in the Life of #Apache -PHP Debugging Basics -What's on Your Macdar? -The Inside Scoop on the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference -Further Your CS Development with Mac OS X -Performing Web Queries in Excel 2003 -Personalization in ASP.NET -Windows Server Hacks: Using Preconfigured User Profiles -Develop Your Own Plugins for Eclipse, Part 1 -An Introduction to IKVM ================================================ 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, 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596005814 Licensing is a major part of what open source and free software are all about, and it's one of the most complicated areas of law. This concise guide focuses on annotated licenses, offering an in-depth explanation of your licensing options, how they compare and interoperate, and how license choices affect project possibilities. If you're an open source/free software developer, this book is an absolute necessity, bridging the gap between the open source vision and the practical implications of its legal underpinnings. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/osfreesoft/ Chapter 2, "The MIT, BSD, Apache, and Academic Free Licenses," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/osfreesoft/chapter/index.html ***PDF Hacks IISBN: 0596006551 "PDF Hacks" is ideal for anyone who works with PDF on a regular basis. The hacks presented here cover the full range of PDF functionality, from generating and manipulating to annotating and consuming PDF information. Far more than another guide to Adobe Acrobat, the book covers a variety of readily available tools for generating, deploying, and editing PDF. You'll be creating documents that are far more powerful than simple representations of paper pages. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pdfhks/ Ten sample hacks are available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pdfhks/chapter/index.html ***iMovie 4 & iDVD: The Missing Manual, 4th Edition Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006934 Many annoyances have been eliminated and polished touches added to the new incarnations of iMovie and iDVD. This witty and entertaining guide from celebrated author David Pogue has been updated to reflect all of the changes, in detail and with scrupulous objectivity. The book covers every step of iMovie video production, from choosing and using a digital camcorder to burning the finished work onto DVDs. The book also provides a firm grounding in basic film technique. Make your movies look like Hollywood hits with "iMovie 4 & iDVD: The Missing Manual, 4th Edition." http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/imoviemm4/ ***The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition Publisher: No Starch Press ISBN: 1593270313 "The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition" is your guide to getting the most out of Linux. Organized by general task (such as working with text, managing files, and manipulating graphics), each section contains a series of step-by-step recipes that help you get your work done quickly and efficiently, most often from the command line. Perfect as an introduction to Linux and the command line, or as a desktop reference for the seasoned user. Covers the major Linux distributions. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270313/ ***CSS Cookbook Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596005768 "CSS Cookbook" offers hundreds of examples and CSS code recipes you can use immediately to format your web pages. An explanation accompanies each recipe, enabling you to customize the formatting for your specific purposes, and showing why the solution works so the techniques can be adapted to other situations. Reflecting CSS2 and including topics that range from basic web typography and page layout to techniques for formatting lists, forms, and tables, "CSS Cookbook" is a must-have resource for any web author considering CSS. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cssckbk/ Chapter 2, "Page Elements," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cssckbk/chapter/index.html ***The Official Blender 2.3 Guide Publisher: No Starch Press ISBN: 1593270410 Blender is a powerful, open source, cross-platform, free 3D graphics creation suite. Written by the developers who created and currently maintain Blender, "The Official Blender 2.3 Guide" covers methods of designing models, defining materials, and simulating light; rendering 3D scenes; creating 3D animations; as well as advanced topics such as using Blender as a video editor. Includes a 4-color insert and CD-ROM. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270410/index.html ***Mono: A Developer's Notebook Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596007922 This no-fluff, lab-style guide jumps right into Mono 1.0 as you work through nearly 50 mini-projects that introduce you to the most important and compelling aspects of the 1.0 release. You'll learn how to acquire, install, and run Mono on Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X. You'll work with the various Mono components: Gtk#; the CLR; the class libraries (.NET and Mono); and much more. This book lets you roll up your sleeves and see what Mono can do. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/monoadn/ Chapter 3, "Core .NET," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/monoadn/chapter/index.html ***SpamAssassin Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596007078 SpamAssassin is the leading open source spam-fighting tool. The drawback? Until now, it was SpamAssassin's lack of published documentation. This clear, concise new guide shows system administrators how to integrate this tool effectively into their networks. The book clarifies installation, configuration, and use of SpamAssassin versions 2.63 and 3.0 for Unix sysadmins using Postfix, sendmail, Exim, or qmail mail servers. SpamAssassin, together with this essential book, provides the tools you need to take back your organization's inboxes. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/spamassassin/ Chapter 2, "SpamAssassin Basics," is available free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/spamassassin/chapter/index.html ***Managing Security with Snort & IDS Tools Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596006616 This practical guide to managing network security covers reliable methods for detecting network intruders, from using simple packet sniffers to more sophisticated IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems) applications and the GUI interfaces for managing them. The book provides step-by-step instructions on getting up and running with Snort 2.1, and it covers how to shut down and secure workstations, servers, firewalls, routers, sensors, and other network devices. This is your comprehensive resource for monitoring illegal entry attempts. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/snortids/ Chapter 6, "Deploying Snort," is available free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/snortids/chapter/index.html ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ ***For more events, please see: http://events.oreilly.com/ ***Peter Morville ("Information Architecture for the World Wide Web"), Information Architecture & Findability, Boston, MA--September 17 Peter leads a new full-day seminar on information architecture from top to bottom, explaining how search and navigation systems can be designed to support and shape user behavior. http://semanticstudios.com/presentations/iaf/ ***Come Join O'Reilly at the Macintosh Computer Expo, Santa Rosa, CA--September 18 MCE is the North Coast Mac Users Group annual fundraising event. Speakers include O'Reilly authors Tom Negrino and Dori Smith ("Mac OS X Unwired"), Jason Snell (Macworld Magazine), Mike Descher (Adobe), author Jim Heid (Peachpit Press and Avondale Media), and Ronnie Roche (Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist). O'Reilly will be selling books onsite as one of the vendors. http://www.ncmug.org/mce.html MCE Flier: http://www.ncmug.org/mce/MCE_ad.pdf MCE Poster: http://www.ncmug.org/mce/MCE_poster.pdf Mac Computer Expo Saturday, September 18 9:30am to 3:30pm Student Lounge/Cafeteria Santa Rosa Junior College 1501 Mendocino Ave Santa Rosa, CA 95401 Admission is free to event, but parking fee is $3.00. ***David Pogue (Missing Manual series), Digital Lifestyle Expo, New York, NY--September 25-26 Author and Mac guru David Pogue is a keynote speaker at this event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York, NY. http://www.dlexpo.com/ ================================================ Conference News ================================================ ***Registration Is Open for O'Reilly's Mac OS X Conference Join us for the third annual Mac OS X Conference, October 25-28, 2004, in Santa Clara, California. You'll hear from Stewart Copeland, the former drummer for The Police who now creates award-winning film and television scores using Mac OS X technology; "New York Times" columnist David Pogue; Andy Ihnatko of the "Chicago Sun-Times"; Karelia Sofware's Dan Wood; Brent Simmons of Ranchero Software; Michael Bartosh of 4AM Media; Mac authors Dori Smith, Gordon Meyer, and Ted Landau; and many more. User Group members who register before September 10, 2004 get a double discount. Use code DSUG when you register, and receive 20% off the "Early Bird" price. To register, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/macosx2004/create/ord_mac04 O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference October 25-28, 2004 Westin Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA http://conferences.oreilly.com/macosxcon/ ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- General News --------------------- ***Securing Key Chain Flash Drives The current crop of key chain Flash drives have incredible storage capacity. They are perfect for keeping personal data with you at all times. But what if you lose your keys? Here are a couple of easy ways to protect yourself, and your data. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/08/20/secure_flash.html ***Technology and Tools of Change Building the next generation of technology won't be easy, and will require developers, entrepreneurs, and the customers they serve to learn new skills. O'Reilly has a collection of tools for building the future, including a new book series, a new conference, and a new print-on-demand, custom books service. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/opensource/toolsofchange_0804.html ***Syngress Authors Scheduled to Appear on "60 Minutes" in September Dr. Herbert Thompson and Spyros Nomikos, authors of "The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency" (due out in October), will appear on the show on either September 22 or September 26. Make sure you tune in. For more information on this upcoming book go to: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1931836833/ ***Oracle Magazine's Editors' Choice Awards O'Reilly authors Cary Millsap and Jeff Holt have been named by Oracle Magazine's editors as Authors of the Year in recognition of their work on the "definitive tuning text," Optimizing Oracle Performance. http://www.hotsos.com/e-library/oop.html --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***Alleviate RSI the Hacker Way Chances are, if you use a keyboard for several hours a day you'll eventually experience repetitive strain injury. Thankfully, it's possible to avoid or alleviate the symptoms with exercises, breaks, posture, and software. Software? Jono Bacon explores free software to help save your tender wrists. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/08/19/rsi_prevention.html ***A Day in the Life of #Apache Rich Bowen is back this month after a brief summer hiatus with his latest column based on his conversations on the IRC channel #apache. Want to know how to make your web site faster? Rich has some tips to enhance your server's performance. Rich is a coauthor of O'Reilly's "Apache Cookbook." http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/apache/2004/08/19/apacheckbk.html ***PHP Debugging Basics Whether you're a PHP newbie or a wizard, your programs are going to have bugs in them. Nobody's perfect. David Sklar, author of "Learning PHP 5," provides some basic techniques for finding and fixing the problems in your programs. In particular, he covers how to set up error reporting as you like it, how to find parse errors, and how to inspect program data. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2004/08/12/DebuggingPHP.html --------------------- Mac --------------------- ***What's on Your Macdar? O'Reilly Editor Chuck Toporek asks in his latest weblog "What would you like to see us publish a book on? Is there something we might have missed in one of the Panther editions that you'd like to see us work into an update?" http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5453 ***The Inside Scoop on the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference Sometimes, looking at a conference program grid is like looking at Edinburgh Castle. It's impressive, but you really don't know where all the bodies are buried unless you have a tour guide. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/08/12/osxcon.html ***Further Your CS Development with Mac OS X As the new school year approaches, Julie Starr has some ideas about what type of computer CS students should be considering. We'll give you a hint: It isn't a Windows box. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/08/13/dev_osx.html --------------------- Windows --------------------- ***Performing Web Queries in Excel 2003 "Excel 2003 Programming: A Developer's Notebook" shows programmers how to best use Excel 2003's new features, through a series of hands-on projects. In this sample lab from the book, learn how to perform a web query to import data from a web page into a worksheet using Excel's QueryTable object. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/excerpt/excel2003prog_chap1/index.html ***Personalization in ASP.NET Personalizing your web site can enhance the experiences of users visiting your site. Personalization allows information about visitors to be persisted so that the information can be useful to the visitor when he visits your site again. Wei-Meng Lee shows you how it all works in ASP.NET 2.0. http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/08/16/whidbey_personalization.html ***Windows Server Hacks: Using Preconfigured User Profiles Roaming profiles make life easier for both users and system administrators. Mitch Tulloch, author of "Windows Server Hacks," shows you how to preconfigure roaming profiles to make them even more effective. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/08/17/roaming_profiles.html --------------------- Java --------------------- **Develop Your Own Plugins for Eclipse, Part 1 Part of the appeal of the Eclipse platform is its extensibility--in Eclipse, almost everything is a plugin, and it's easy to get plugins from third parties or write your own. Jerome Moliere shows how to get started with deploying Eclipse plugins. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/08/18/eclipseplugins.html ***An Introduction to IKVM Java and .NET are two different worlds, but they can live within one process with IKVM. This "JVM for .NET" allows .NET (or Mono) to leverage Java code, and vice versa. Avik Sengupta provides an introduction to this important new environment. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/08/18/ikvm.html 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/lpt?HomePage Until next time-- Marsee