================================================================ O'Reilly UG Program News--Just for User Group Leaders January 9, 2006 ================================================================ -"PHP Hacks" Author Available to Speak to SF Bay Area Groups -New--Put Up an O'Reilly ETech Banner, Get a Free Book -New--Put Up a MySQL Users Conference Banner Get a Free Book -Promotional Material Available -Safari Affiliate Program for User Groups ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book Info ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Review Books are Available Copies of our books are available for your members to review-- send me an email and please include the book's ISBN number on your request. Let me know if you need your book by a certain date. Allow at least four weeks for shipping. ***Please Send Copies of Your Book Reviews Email me a copy of your newsletter or book review. For tips and suggestions on writing book reviews, go to: http://ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html ***Discount Information Don't forget to remind your members about the 30% discount on O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, Pragmatic Bookshelf, SitePoint, and Syngress books. Just use code DSUG. ***Group Purchases with Better Discounts are Available Please let me know if you are interested and I can put you in touch with our sales department. ---------------------------------------------------------------- General News or Inquiries ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Jack Herrington, author of "PHP Hacks," is available to speak with Northern California groups. Let me know if you are interested. ***New--Put Up an O'Reilly ETech Banner, Get a Free Book We're looking for user groups to display our conference banner on their web sites. If you send me the link to your group's site with our O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference banner, I will send you the O'Reilly book of your choice. ETech Banners: http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/etech/ ***New--Put Up a MySQL Users Conference Banner Get a Free Book We're looking for user groups to display our conference banner on their web sites. If you send me the link to your group's site with our MySQL Users Conference banner, I will send you the O'Reilly book of your choice. MySQL Users Conference: http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/mysql/ ***Promotional Material Available: The following items are available for your next meeting. Let me know the item and the amount you'd like: -MAKE Magazine Volume 4 -O'Reilly Catalog -30% UG Discount bookmarks -ETech Conference brochures http://conferences.oreilly.com/etech/ -ETel Conference brochures http://conferences.oreilly.com/etel/ ***Safari Affiliate Program for User Groups Give your members access to content from Safari's thousands of technology books right on your site and raise money for your user group at the same time. Use custom designed search boxes, show the latest releases, or display your favorite book cover with our easy to use tools. For more information and to sign up for the Safari Affiliate Program, go to: http://ug.oreilly.com/safari_affl.html?CMP=EMC-U1L284871961 ================================================================ O'Reilly News for User Group Members January 9, 2006 ================================================================ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Information Dashboard Design -Understanding Linux Network Internals -QuickBooks 2006: The Missing Manual -Google Maps Hacks -AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition -Window Seat -Active Directory, Third Edition -Excel Scientific and Engineering Cookbook -Google Advertising Tools -RFID Essentials -We the Media -PSP Hacks ---------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Events ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Peter Krogh at ASMP PixelCash Seminar, Montclair, NJ--February 9 -Peter Krogh at ASMP PixelCash Seminar, New Haven, CT--February 16 -Photo Marketing Association International Convention and Tradeshow, Orlando, FL--February 26-March 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Conference News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -MySQL Registration is Open -ETech Registration is Open -40% discount for ETel--Early Registration Pricing Ends January 9 ---------------------------------------------------------------- News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -O'Reilly Books on Amazon's Best of 2005 -IP Telephony: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet -MacVoices #521: Getting the Most Out of eBay with Nancy Conner -Clone Pong, Using Only SDL (and Your Brain) -Top 7 PHP Security Blunders -Inside NetBSD's CGD -O'Reilly Happenings at Macworld SF -The Power of mdfind -Mac Users and the Macs They Use -Unit Testing in Visual Studio 2005 Team System -Just-In-Time Data Loading For DataGrids -10 Easy Steps to a Horrible Ecommerce Site -Web 2.0 Connectedness -Using Global/Distributed Transactions in Java/JDBC with Oracle Real Application Clusters -Maven Project Reporting and Publishing, Part 1 Introduction to Camera Raw -Andy West: From Dregs to (Software) Riches -Calling all Digital Crafters! -MAKE Forums ---------------------------------------------------------------- From Your Peers ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***SCALE 4X, Southern California Linux Expo, February 11-12 ================================================ Book News ================================================ Did you know you can request a free book to review for your group? Ask your group leader for more information. For book review writing tips and suggestions, go to: http://ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html Don't forget, you can receive 30% off any O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, Pragmatic Bookshelf, SitePoint, or Syngress book you purchase directly from O'Reilly. Just use code DSUG when ordering online or by phone 800-998-9938. http://www.oreilly.com/ ***Free ground shipping is available for online orders of at least $29.95 that go to a single address. This offer applies to US delivery addresses in the 50 states and Puerto Rico. For more details, go to: http://www.oreilly.com/news/freeshipping_0703.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- New Releases ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Information Dashboard Design Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596100167 Dashboards have become popular in recent years as uniquely powerful tools for communicating important information at a glance. This book will teach you the visual design skills you need to create dashboards that communicate clearly, rapidly, and compellingly. The greatest display technology in the world won't solve this if you fail to use effective visual design. And if a dashboard fails to tell you precisely what you need to know in an instant, you'll never use it, even if it's filled with cute gauges, meters, and traffic lights. Don't let your investment in dashboard technology go to waste. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/infodashboard/ ***Understanding Linux Network Internals Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596002556 A no-nonsense guide to Linux networking, "Understanding Linux Network Internals" offers a clear view of the underlying concepts and teaches you to follow the C code that implements it. Topics include system initialization, network interface card (NIC) device drivers, bridging, routing, ICMP, and more. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/understandlni/ ***QuickBooks 2006: The Missing Manual Publisher:O'Reilly ISBN: 0596101848 If your company is ready to minimize paperwork and maximize productivity, control spending and boost sales, QuickBooks 2006 can help you make it happen--but only if you know how to use it. And it doesn't come with a manual. Lucky for you, there's "QuickBooks 2006: The Missing Manual," the comprehensive, up-to-date guide to saving time and money while beefing up business with QuickBooks. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/quickbookstmm2/ ***Google Maps Hacks Publisher:O'Reilly ISBN: 0596101619 The nearest pizza, the cheapest gas, the best meeting place for a group--"Google Maps Hacks" shows you creative ways to add to and customize the satellite images and underlying API of Google Maps for applications serendipitous or serious. Written by Schuyler Erle and Rich Gibson (with a foreword by Google Maps tech leads, Jens and Lars Rasmussen), Google Maps Hacks shares dozens of tricks for combining the capabilities of Google's Keyhole map feature with your own datasets, so you can create interactive maps for unlimited personal and commercial applications. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/googlemapshks/ ***AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition Publisher:O'Reilly ISBN: 0596102119 Fully revised and updated--and with more and better examples than ever--this new edition of the top-selling "AppleScript: The Definitive Guide" shows anyone how to use AppleScript to make your Mac time more efficient and more enjoyable by automating repetitive tasks, customizing applications, and even controlling complex workflows. It's perfect for novices, developers, and everyone in between who wants to know how, where, and why to use AppleScript. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/applescpttdg2/index.html ***Window Seat Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596100833 "Window Seat: The Art of Digital Photography and Creative Thinking" is a complete view of a creative project from the artist's perspective. Julieanne Kost, a Photoshop and creative thinking guru, has taken her own experience shooting images out of airplane windows to create a unique seminar in three parts: a manifesto of ways to stay creatively alive; a portfolio of stunning photographs, with commentaries describing her experiences and thought process; and a technical appendix that includes the details of the images were shot, manipulated, and prepared for printing. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/windowseat/ A sample excerpt, "The Art of Creative Thinking," is availble online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/windowseat/chapter/index.html ***Active Directory, Third Edition ISBN: 0596101732 Fully updated to cover Active Directory for Windows Server 2003 SP1 and R2, this third edition is full of important updates and corrections. Discover how to design, manage, and maintain a small, medium, or enterprise Active Directory infrastructure. It's perfect for all Active Directory administrators, whether you manage a single server or a global multinational with thousands of servers. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/actdir3/ ***Excel Scientific and Engineering Cookbook Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596008791 This quick, look-up reference is perfect for anyone in the science and engineering community who wants to improve upon their Excel skills. You'll learn how to leverage Excel to perform both routine and complex calculations, and then visualize the results for presentation. Features practical data analysis techniques and real-world examples from a range of scientific disciplines. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/excelseckbk/ Chapter 9, "Solving Equations," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/excelseckbk/chapter/index.html ***Google Advertising Tools Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596101082 This comprehensive guide takes a close look at advertising on the web--how it works and how Google's advertising programs can turn your site into a money-maker. Tasks include delivering image ads precisely targeted to your site, and generating text ads that accompany specific search term results. After reading this book, you'll know Google's AdSense and AdWords services inside and out. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/buildinggoogle/ ***RFID Essentials Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596009445 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is rapidly changing the way businesses track inventory and assets. From Walmart and Tesco, to the U.S. Department of Defense, early efforts are already showing benefits, but software, integration, and data processing for RFID still present a challenge. If you are a developer or an architect charged with developing an RFID system, this book is for you. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rfid/ ***We the Media Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596102275 In "We the Media," nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make and consume the news. Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today. "We the Media" casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wethemedia/ ***PSP Hacks Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596101430 "PSP Hacks" shows you how to make the versatile and powerful new PlayStation Portable (PSP) do more than you ever imagined--and more than Sony ever intended--with 50 innovative hacks, tweaks, tricks, and how-tos for customizing your PSP and taking full advantage of features, capabilities, and functionality far beyond what's listed in the PSP user manual. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/psphks/ ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ ***For more events, please see: http://events.oreilly.com/ ***Peter Krogh at ASMP PixelCash Seminar, Montclair, NJ--February 9 Author Peter Krogh (The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers) gives a three-hour comprehensive overview of Digital Asset Management techniques for the professional photographer. http://www.peterkrogh.com/Pages/digital/digital_asset_management_seminar.html#anchorpixelcash ***Peter Krogh at ASMP PixelCash Seminar,New Haven, CT--February 16 Author Peter Krogh (The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers) gives a three-hour comprehensive overview of Digital Asset Management techniques for the professional photographer. http://www.peterkrogh.com/Pages/digital/digital_asset_management_seminar.html#anchorpixelcash ***Photo Marketing Association International Convention and Tradeshow, Orlando, FL--Febuary 26-March 1 Stop by our booth( #2117) to check out our new titles. Orange County Convention Center West. http://pmai.org/ ================================================ Conference News ================================================ ***MySQL Users Conference Registration in Open Join us at the 2006 edition of the MySQL Users Conference, the largest gathering of MySQL developers, users, and DBAs. It is the only event where you will be able to join the core MySQL development team and over 1000 users, open source innovators, and technology partners under one roof. MySQL Users Conference, April 24-27, 2006 Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA http://www.mysqluc.com/ User Group members who register before March 6, 2006 get a double discount. Use code "mys06dusg" when you register, and receive 15% off the early registration price. To register for the conference, go to: http://www.mysqluc.com/pub/w/45/register.html ***Register for O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference We're five years into the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference and the stuff of which it is made shows no sign of abating: bandwidth continues to broaden, storage grows ever larger and cheaper, and content keeps streaming from the firehose. How do we visualize all of this digital data, filter it, remix it, and access it in meaningful ways? The coming technical challenge is not about generating digital content-we have more than enough already. It's time to do something with that data. It's time to build The Attention Economy. O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, March 6-9, 2006 Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, CA http://conferences.oreilly.com/etech/ User Group members who register before January 16, 2006 get a double discount. Use code "et06dsug" when you register, and receive 20% off the early registration price. To register for the conference, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/43/register.html ***New 40% discount for ETel Join us on January 24-26 in San Francisco when telephony's key figures, like Jim Van Meggelen, Peter Cochrane, Mark Spencer, Norman Lewis, and Clay Shirkey, convene to provide a high-level perspective of the future of telephony. And as a special offer to our friends, save an additional 40% when you register using code etel06lms. http://conferences.oreilly.com/etel/ To register for the conference, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/etel2006/create/ord_etel06 ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- General News --------------------- ***O'Reilly Books on Amazon's Best of 2005 "Head First Java," "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual," and MAKE magazine were voted Best of 2005 in the Computers & Internet category of both the Editors' Picks and the Top 10 Customers' Favorites lists. In addition, "iLife: The Missing Manual," "Mapping Hacks," and "Revolution in the Valley" were all chosen as Editors' Picks in the Digital Life category. Thanks! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/15959201/ref%3Dgw%5Fbr%5Fbb05/102-5317297-3006519 ***IP Telephony: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet Developers now have the right tools and the right motivation to build a wide range of new desktop applications, telephone services, and corporate phone systems that integrate voice with the Web, IM, WiFi, and more. Ed Stephenson talks with program cochair Surj Patel about what's emerging in telephony, and what you can expect to learn at O'Reilly's upcoming Emerging Telephony Conference. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/etel/2006/01/05/ip-telephony-you-aint-seen-nothin-yet.html ***MacVoices #521: Getting the Most Out of eBay with Nancy Conner Didn't get what you wanted for the holidays? Need to get rid of what you did get? Or maybe you just are looking to get a great deal on anything? Nancy Conner, the author of "eBay: The Missing Manual" talks about getting the most out of the online auction service. Tips for both novice and experienced users cover the many types of auctions on eBay, basic and advanced bidding and sales techniques and ways to protect yourself when buying and selling. Want to know how to snipe auctions? What all those eBay ratings mean? Nancy covers all this and more. http://www.macvoices.com/archives/2005/521.html --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***Clone Pong, Using Only SDL (and Your Brain) One of the great things about the games of yore is that they tended to be pretty simple, and as Josh Glover explains, Pong is one of the simplest to implement. In this first article of a three-part series, Josh shows you how to clone Pong all by yourself. http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2005/12/15/clone-pong-using-sdl.html ***Top 7 PHP Security Blunders PHP's availability, ease of use, and support makes it the first choice for many budding developers. Yet the potential for the unwary coder to overlook certain key aspects of security lands countless developers in hot water. Pax explores the key security holes, common issues, and typical oversights in this hands-on primer. http://www.sitepoint.com/article/php-security-blunders ***Inside NetBSD's CGD Security-minded laptop users live in fear of theft, not only of their computer, but also of their precious secret data. NetBSD's CGD project is a cryptographic virtual disk that can protect sensitive data while acting like a normal filesystem. Federico Biancuzzi recently interviewed its author, Roland Dowdeswell, on the goals and implementation of the system. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2005/12/21/netbsd_cgd.html --------------------- Mac --------------------- ***O'Reilly Happenings at Macworld SF Macworld SF 2006 is shaping up to be a busy show for O'Reilly Media. We have great specials, lots of books, a full speaker lineup, and a menu of activities. Here's a comprehensive overview. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/12/20/macworld.html ***The Power of mdfind In addition to the little blue magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of your desktop, Tiger provides the mdfind and mdls commands for searching. Andy Lester discovered them while working on his updates to "Mac OS X Tiger In A Nutshell." Essentially, they provide the power of Spotlight in the Unix shell. Here's how it works. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2006/01/04/mdfind.html ***Mac Users and the Macs They Use When you read the articles and weblog posts by prominent Mac users and Mac pundits, do you ever find yourself wondering what kind of computer setup they're using? Giles Turnbull does. He recently contacted a spat of Mac professionals and asked them what they depend on. Here's what they had to say. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/12/28/mac-users-and-the-macs-they-use.html --------------------- Windows/.NET --------------------- ***Unit Testing in Visual Studio 2005 Team System Unit testing is one of the tasks that every programmer worth their salt needs to do. Wei-Meng Lee shows you how to use the new Unit Testing feature of Visual Studio 2005 Team System to auto-generate the code needed to test your application. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2006/01/03/unit-testing-in-visual-studio-2005-team-system.html ***Just-In-Time Data Loading For DataGrids One of Jesse Liberty's clients has a problem: she has a database with 2 million records and wants to display these records in a data grid, but does not want to load them all into memory from the database. She wants them loaded "just in time." Jesse shows how to use the new DataGridView to neatly solve the problem. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/12/20/just-in-time-data-loading-for-datagrids.html --------------------- Web --------------------- ***10 Easy Steps to a Horrible Ecommerce Site If you're about to launch into the world of ecommerce, or want to boost an existing site's revenue in the coming months, this article is for you. Jason's tongue-in-cheek advice will help you hone your approach to ecommerce, boost customer satisfaction, and your bottom line! http://www.sitepoint.com/article/steps-horrible-ecommerce-site ***Web 2.0 Connectedness Kevin Yank urges Web 2.0 Developers to stop creating the next killer app, and instead think of ways to improve on what's already out there. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2006/01/04/web-20-connectedness/ --------------------- Java --------------------- ***Using Global/Distributed Transactions in Java/JDBC with Oracle Real Application Clusters Maintaining transaction integrity, and rolling back failed steps, becomes more difficult on a cluster. One option is to move some of the load balancing decisions to your code, and account for which cluster nodes you're using. Sachin Shetty shows how this works in the context of an Oracle Real Application Cluster. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/12/21/global-distributed-transactions-with-oracle-rac.html ***Maven Project Reporting and Publishing, Part 1 Maven's not just about building; it's about viewing, understanding, and managing your projects. In this first part of a two-part excerpt from "Maven: A Developer's Notebook," authors Vincent Massol and Timothy M. O'Brien introduce Maven's reporting features for issue tracking, dependencies, code style, and more. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/excerpt/mavenadn_ch04/index.html --------------------- Digital Media --------------------- ***Introduction to Camera Raw Adobe's Camera Raw is arguably the most popular RAW-format converter available today. In this video, Deke McClelland introduces you to this tool and shows you tips for making image adjustments. http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/12/16/camera-raw.html ***Andy West: From Dregs to (Software) Riches Dixie Dregs co-founder Andy West discovered that virtuosity can be a liability in the music world, but a benefit in technology. Now this four-time Grammy nominee programs computers by day and pursues his amazing music at night, drawing the best from both disciplines. Here's how. http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2006/01/04/andy-west-dixie-dregs-software.html --------------------- MAKE --------------------- ***Calling all Digital Crafters! Do you like to knit robots? Do you make jewelry out of old computer parts? Share your crafty projects with us and you may see them on the MAKE: Blog. http://www.makezine.com/cs/user/create/link ***MAKE Forums MAKE now has forums They're just getting started, but feel free to go over and check them out. http://forums.makezine.com/. ***Meet Your Fellow Makers Find and post events, exhibits, and more with Maker events listings: http://www.makezine.com/events/ ***Try a Sample Project from MAKE: http://makezine.com/samples/ ================================================ From Your Peers ================================================ ***SCALE 4X, Southern California Linux Expo, February 11-12 The fourth annual Southern California Linux Expo will be held February 11-12, 2006. SCALE continues to grow year after year, and increasingly attracts the movers & shakers in Open Source software. SCALE is not strictly a commercial Expo; its primary focus is and always has been education. Expo booths are provided not only for commercial exhibitors, but also for non-profit organizations. On the commercial side, exhibitors include IBM, Google, Ticketmaster, Tolis Group, and Centrify. On the non-profit side, Ubuntu, KDE, Debian, and NetBSD are among the many groups that will be manning booths. Speakers include Chris Dibona, John Terpstra, Aaron Seigo, and Hans Reiser. For 35% off Expo admission use the promo code ORELY at: http://www.socallinuxexpo.org ***Don't forget to check out the O'Reilly UG wiki to see what user groups around the globe are up to: http://wiki.oreillynet.com/usergroups/index.cgi Until next time-- Marsee Henon