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New O'Reilly Radar Report

By Laura Adair
July 24, 2008
Comments: 0
New O'Reilly Radar Report
Open Source in the Enterprise — Using open source in the enterprise — the question is no longer "if," but "how?" The low cost, easy access, and expansive license terms of open source are certainly attractive — especially since IT budgets have decreased 3-5% every year, while software costs have increased, and IT staffs have been tasked to create web services and pursue Web 2.0 initiatives.
Nathan Torkington at OSCON: What's Coming up on the Radar
O'Reilly blogger Nathan Torkington spent some time with James Turner of O'Reilly News at OSCON 2008 in Portland. He shares some of the trends and technologies that he thinks will play a big role in the near future, including open source biology and the rise of mobile computing.
New Book: Intellectual Property and Open Source
"Clear, correct, and deep, this is a welcome addition to discussions of law and computing for anyone — even lawyers!" — Lawrence Lessig, law professor at Stanford Law School, founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society

Most legal sources are too scattered, arcane, and too hard to read. Intellectual Property and Open Source is a friendly, easy-to-follow overview of the law that programmers, system administrators, graphic designers, and many others will find essential.
Mark Shuttleworth and the Art of Software Engineering
Mark Shuttleworth's life to date seems more like the daring hero of a science fiction pulp magazine than that of a programmer. A South African programmer working on the earliest Debian code, he founded a company called Thawte which specialized...
The ability to create an "instant" communications experience through the Web is the strength of the Comet recipe. The use of long-polling via the XMLHttpRequest is a critical technology to meebo. It enabled meebo to implement low-latency bi-directional communication on any modern computer that can access the Web, without the need to download software.
Lefkowitz: Open Development Lifecycle, Quintillian Rhetoric, Juggling
Who needs Agile or RUP? r0ml builds upon Quintillian's Insitutes of Oratory (from 80 AD) and the Compendium of Juggling to create a working model of Open Source Software Development. Robert Lefkowitz (r0ml) discussed software development methodologies at Tuesday night's OSCON session...
Damian Conway has a well-deserved reputation as the mad scientist of Perl. His opening night keynote at OSCON 2008 combined Perl programming, the difference engine, quantum mechanics, and general relativity to produce variables which travel backwards in time.
I am a Perl hacker. I have written parts of the core, created CPAN modules and written tons of perl code. In fact I am addicted to it ; or rather, CPAN. I have been wanting to play around with Google App Engine, but I haven't had time to get up to speed in Python. Today at OSCON I met up with Brad Fitzpatrick, who told me he had permission from Google to talk about and work on a Perl on App Engine project.
Tim O'Reilly Reflects on 10 Years of OSCON
It's been 10 years since O'Reilly held the first OSCON. At the latest edition of O'Reilly's open source convention, Tim O'Reilly sat down with O'Reilly News to talk about the anniversary. He also reflected on how open source has changed in that period, whether Web 2.0 (a term he helped coin) has met his expectations, and how the nature of technical book publishing has changed.
Larry Wall at OSCON: Open Source as a Parenting Experience
Larry Wall, father of perl, likens the history of perl to raising a child. In this live interview at OSCON 2008, Larry talks about perl's rebellious teen years, the role of the benevolent dictator, and dual licensing as a quantum physics phenomenon.
Anthony Baxter at OSCON: Google Apps Engine and You
Anthony Baxter, one of the lead engineers working on Google's new App Engine, spent some time at O'Reilly's source convention, OSCON, talking about the features that App Engine can offer to developers. James Turner interviews Baxter for O'Reilly News at OSCON in Portland.
Jim Zemlin at OSCON: The Mysterious Work of the Linux Foundation
Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, talked with O'Reilly News at OSCON, the O'Reilly open source convention. He demystifies the role that the Linux Foundation plays in helping to promote Linux use, provide legal defense, and broker cooperative work between Linux related projects.
Pia Waugh, President of Software Freedom International sat down at O'Reilly's open source convention, OSCON, to talk about some of her interests. These include how women are entering the computer field worldwide and her work getting laptops into the hands of children across Australia and the Pacific islands.
What to See at OSCON 2008
OSCON 2008 -- O'Reilly's annual open source conference -- is going on now. O'Reilly News interviews Allison Randal, co-chair of OSCON, for a quick survey of what's new and interesting in the world of open source. Here's what to see and do and what to watch for in the world of free software for the next year.
Terry Childs: San Francisco's Imprisoned FiberWAN Administrator
Is Terry Childs a Maniacal Hacker-Terrorist or a Capable and Dedicated System Administrator. While the mainstream media paints a colorful picture of villain and vice, Paul Venezia of infoworld uncovers a different story. What if this is just the case of job termination gone wrong.
Stay Competitive in Your I.T. Career
Student Success Story: Last time the O'Reilly School of Technology highlighted Ingrid as Student of the Month, she was in the midst of taking our Web Programming Certificate Series. At this point, she has now completed fifteen courses, five Certificate Series, and is currently working on her sixth — the new PHP/SQL Programming Certificate Series.

Here's what she has to say:

"I truly enjoy my work more now that I have a better understanding and grasp of programming. I also get much more interesting work assignments and get more out of my work. [OST] courses are a challenge and so much fun to do!" —Ingrid Mifflin, Systems Librarian

During the month of July, enroll to get certified and SAVE 15%!
O'Reilly has released 30 titles as DRM-free downloadable ebook bundles. The bundles include three ebook formats (EPUB, PDF, and Kindle-compatible Mobipocket) for a single price -- at or below the book's cover price.Ebooks are certainly nothing new for us at O'Reilly. We've offered PDFs of hundreds of our titles for some time now, and until quite recently Safari Books Online, our online-publishing joint venture with Pearson, generated more revenue than was typically associated with the entire downloadable ebook business. But it's clear that things are changing...


OSCON Updates

Recent Flickr photos:

Recent Twitter posts:

Overheard at oscon party: iPhone sdk prohibits JIT by denying access to NX bit. Also interpretation is forbidden by license terms. Wow. john_lam (john_lam)

Too many free drinks at OSCon = :( schammy (schammy)

Anyone at the Jupiter that tweets the results of the Sourceforge 2008 Community Choice Awards?? #oscon h0bbel (Christian Mohn)

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