================================================================ O'Reilly News for User Group Members August 24, 2007 ================================================================ --------------------------------------------------------------- New Releases--Books, Short Cuts, and Rough Cuts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Get 35% off from O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, Pragmatic Bookshelf, Rocky Nook, SitePoint, or YoungJin books you purchase directly from O'Reilly.
Just use code DSUG when ordering online or by phone 800-998-9938. <http://www.oreilly.com/store/> Free ground shipping on orders of $29.95 or more. For more details, go to: <http://www.oreilly.com/news/freeshipping_0703.html> Did you know you can request a free book or PDF to review for your group? Ask your group leader for more information. For book review writing tips and suggestions, go to: <http://ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html> ***3ds Max 9.0 (Young Jin) ISBN 10: 8931433719 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/8931433719/> ***The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects (No Starch) ISBN 10: 1593271212 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593271212/> ***The Book of Qt 4 (No Starch) ISBN 10: 1593271476 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593271476/> ***Designing Web Navigation ISBN 10: 0596528108 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596528102/> ***Dynamic Learning: Flash CS3 Professional ISBN 10: 0596510586 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510589/> ***FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual ISBN 10: 0596514131 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514136/> ***Forbidden LEGO (No Starch) ISBN 10: 1593271379 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593271379/> ***Google in Education ISBN 10: 0596515189 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596515188/> ***Head First SQL ISBN 10: 0596526849 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596526849/> ***iPhone: The Missing Manual ISBN 10: 0596513747 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596513740/> ***JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook, Second Edition ISBN 10: 0596514085 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514082/> ***Learning PHP & MySQL, Second Edition ISBN 10: 0596514018 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514013/> ***The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book (No Starch) ISBN 10: 1593271506 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781593271503/> ***MAKE: Technology on Your Time Volume 11 ISBN 10: 0596513879 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596513870/> ***Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual ISBN 10: 0596528361 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596528362/> ***The Nikon D200 Dbook (Rocky Nook) ISBN 10: 0596514018 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514013/> ***The Nikon D80 Dbook (Rocky Nook) ISBN 10: 1933952156 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933952154/> ***Photoshop Lightroom Adventure ISBN 10: 059610099X <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596100995/> ***Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit, Second Edition (Pragmatic Bookshelf) ISBN 10: 0977616673 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/0977616673/> ***Programming Collective Intelligence ISBN 10: 0596529325 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529321/> ***Security Power Tools ISBN 10: 0596009631 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596009632/> ***SOA in Practice ISBN 10: 0596529554 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529550/> ***Visualizing Data: Rough Cuts Version ISBN 10: 0596515936 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596515935/> ***Windows Vista Accelerated (Young Jin) ISBN 10: 8931434383 <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/8931434383/> ***MAKE Magazine Subscriptions MAKE Magazine Subscriptions The annual subscription price for four issues is $34.95. When you subscribe with this link, you'll get a free issue--one plus four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or friends with this great offer for UG Members: five volumes for the cost of four. Subscribe at: <http://www.makezine.com/go/ugsub> ***Craft Magazine Subscriptions The annual subscription price for four issues is $34.95. When you subscribe with this link, you'll get a free issue--the first one plus four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or friends with this great offer for UG Members: five volumes for the cost of four. Subscribe at: <http://www.craftzine.com/go/craftug> ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ For more events, please see: <http://events.oreilly.com/> ***O'Reilly Authors at No Fluff Just Stuff eXchange 2007, Aug 29-31 --London, England NFJS eXchange 2007 will feature over 50 sessions covering core Java, Enterprise Java, Web Services, Open Source Technology, Architecture, and Agile Software Development. The NFJS eXchange is a technically focused event, which is vendor free and offers a limited attendance model ensuring a great deal of interaction between speakers and attendees. Come learn from industry experts and from each other, see real world case studies and delve into hands-on code examples. Features Scott Davis(JBoss at Work: A Practical Guide and GIS for Web Developers), Ted Neward (C# in a Nutshell, Second Edition and Shared Source CLI Essentials), and Venkat Subramaniam (Practices of an Agile Developer and .NET Gotchas). O'Reilly readers get a free Nintendo Wii when booking a ticket! Just quote NFJS-ORE644. <http://www.nfjs-exchange.com/pcd/1182> ***O'Reilly at Photoshop World Expo, Sep 6-8--Las Vegas, NV This conference brings together photographers, designers, artists, educators, motion graphics designers, and Photoshop users of every kind for a three-day Photoshop love fest of training, learning, and fun. Stop by the O'Reilly booth (# 220) to say hi, and pick up some great new books. <http://www.photoshopworld.com/> ***Ignite Boston 2! Sep 6--Boston, MA Mingle and talk tech with your fellow FOOs, alpha geeks, and techies from the greater Boston area. We've picked a venue that is more acoustically-oriented and should allow everyone to hear what's going on. And we are planning to mix-up the format a little. There will be some short "launches," followed by lightening talks, and a couple of other ideas that we will inform you of in the coming weeks. Let's show our tech colleagues around the country that Boston/Cambridge have a vibrant tech community that gets involved in talking about cool new technologies and ideas. Not to mention that it's a social event to get to know other developers in the area. If you plan to attend, email IgniteBoston at oreilly dot com for the chance to win $300 worth of O'Reilly books of your choosing. You must be present to win. <http://www.oreillynet.com/ignite/blog/2007/08/ignite_boston_2.html> ***Steve Souders at The 2007 Rich Web Experience, Sep 6-8-- San Jose, CA Author Steve Souders (High Performance Web Sites) will be presenting a workshop titled "High Performance Web Sites with Tenni Theurer." Yahoo!'s Exceptional Performance team has identified 14 best practices for making web pages faster through a series of research studies on Yahoo!'s properties. These guidelines focus on the front end, for example, why it's bad to use "@import" for including stylesheets and why ETags disable browser caching. These best practices have proven to reduce response times of Yahoo! properties by 25-50%. <http://www.therichwebexperience.com/conference/san_jose/2007/09/index.html> ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 11-13--Los Angeles, CA Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips and tricks that can save you hours of time. <http://www.agitraining.com/cs3/cs3seminar/index.html> ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 11-13--Dallas, TX Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips and tricks that can save you hours of time. <http://www.agitraining.com/cs3/cs3seminar/index.html> ***Derrick Story and Mikkel Aaland at the Sonoma County Book Festival, Sep 15--Santa Rosa, CA Authors Mikkel Aaland (Photoshop Lightroom Adventure and Photoshop CS2 RAW) and Derrick Story (Digital Photography Hacks and Digital Photography Pocket Guide, 3rd Ed.) discuss "Photography Publishing Opportunities in the Digital Age" at the Eighth Annual Sonoma County Book Festival. <http://www.socobookfest.org/index.html> ***RailsConf Europe, Sep 17-19--Berlin, Germany Get on board with the latest Rails developments and hang out with the experts and other Rails fans making it all happen. Co-presented by Ruby Central and O'Reilly Media. <http://conferences.oreillynet.com/railseurope/> ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3",Sep 18--Orlando, FL Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips and tricks that can save you hours of time. <http://www.agitraining.com/cs3/cs3seminar/index.html> ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 18-20--San Francisco, CA Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips and tricks that can save you hours of time. <http://www.agitraining.com/cs3/cs3seminar/index.html> ***Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene at PMI Mass Bay, Sep 20--Boston, MA Head First PMP authors Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene talk through the ways that software projects fail, using the signature humor and insight in the acclaimed "Head First" series. There's an old saying: "There's only one way to succeed, but a million ways to fail." But that saying just isn't true when it comes to software projects. As it turns out, there are a small number of ways that projects fail, and they'll sound eerily familiar to any project manager, software engineer or programmer who's been around for more than a few years. Many software projects that started out as a small, stopgap utility turn into raging behemoths, sucking seemingly unlimited time from your programmers. Or the president of your company announced that your project will be done this week, even though you know that it still has an enormous number of bugs. Or your team delivered the software, only to have users complain that an entire feature is missing. Or every time the team fixes a bug, they seem to uncover a dozen moreincluding ones that you know were fixed six months ago. Once you know how projects fail, you can do what you need to do to keep them on track. <http://pmimassbay.org/newpage_nf3.cfm?pagename=home&slot=a1> ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 25-27,--Minneapolis, MN Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips and tricks that can save you hours of time. <http://www.agitraining.com/cs3/cs3seminar/index.html> ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 25-27--Toronto Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips and tricks that can save you hours of time. <http://www.agitraining.com/cs3/cs3seminar/index.html> ================================================ Conference News ================================================ ***Registration is Open for RailsConf Europe, 17-19 September in Berlin, Germany Use code "re07usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the registration price. To register for the conference, go to: <http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/61/register.html> For complete conference information, go to: <http://conferences.oreilly.com/> ***ETel 2008 call for participation is now open The O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference is happening March 3-4, 2008. We welcome plenary submissions for our audience of people who, like you, are pushing through the boundaries of communications into new ways of thinking and doing. Topics will be centered around the innovations and projects occurring at the intersection of voice, instant messaging, the mobile ecosystem, and the Web. Submit a proposal to speak at ETel. Proposals are due September 17. <http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/etel2008/create/e_sess> ***O'Reilly's inaugural Money:Tech Conference has been announced The dates are February 6-7, 2008 in New York City. That's right, in the heart of the financial universe, New York, NY, Money:Tech will raise the level of conversation around technology advances in the investment industry, and bring together innovators with established players to increase adoption and awareness and push the technology forward. Learn more about Money:Tech <http://conferences.oreilly.com/money/> ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- General News --------------------- ***Ignite Boston 2! September 6 Attention all New Englanders-here's a heads-up that we're having a second Ignite Boston on Thursday, September 6, from 6 to 10pm at Hurricane O'Reillys. Yes that's right, Hurricane O'Reillys at 150 Canal St, Boston, MA. No, it's not Tim's office after FOO Camp. We've picked a venue that is more acoustically-oriented and should allow everyone to hear what's going on. And we are planning to mix-up the format a little. There will be some short "launches," followed by lightening talks, and a couple of other ideas. <http://www.oreillynet.com/ignite/blog/> ***What is O'Reilly Editor Andy Oram Up to These Days? Andy continues his research into the free documentation written by users. Recent articles on the topic include "Why Do People Write Free Documentation?" (http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/06/14/why-do-people-write-free-document\ation-results-of-a-survey.html) which analyzes the results of an O'Reilly survey answered by over 350 respondents, and "How to Help Mailing Lists Help Readers" (http://praxagora.com/andyo/professional/mailing_list_follow_up/) which finds interesting results concerning how many questions get answered on mailing lists and how long the list members spend on questions. Andy presented his results at the July 2007 Open Source convention in Portland, OR. For more information or to read Andy's articles, go to: <http://praxagora.com/community_documentation/> ***The Watering Hole A weekly comic poking fun at O'Reilly and the technology industry in general. Think of it as User Friendly with animals. <http://www.oreillynet.com/wateringhole/blog/> ***DIY O'Reilly Gear Create Your Own Calendar, Shirt, Notebook, Poster...In just three easy steps you can create one of a kind calendars, greeting cards, keychains, luggage tags, magnets, mousepads, mugs, notebooks, postcards, posters, shirts, hoodies, and stickers adorned with your favorite O'Reilly animals. Create yours now! <http://www.qoop.com/photobooks/photofront/pub_store.php?pub_name=oreilly> ***Top 5 Blog posts on the O'Reilly Network: M. David Peterson--Dear WhyFirefoxIsBlocked.com <http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2007/08/dear_whyfirefoxisblockedcom.html> Carla Schroder--Linux Journal: the Last Idiot's Club <http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/blog/2007/08/linux_journal_the_last_idiots_1.html> Jeremy Jones--Is Firefox on Mac Unusable? <http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2007/08/is_firefox_on_mac_unusable.html> Joshua Scott Emmons--Bad Thurrott==Good Design <http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2007/08/to_invent_a_fallacious_argumen.html> Carla Schroder--Dear Linux Journal: News Flash--Women Are People <http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/blog/2007/08/dear_linux_journal_news_flash_1.html> ***O'Reilly School of Technology Courses: UG Members Receive a 30% Discount O'Reilly School of Technology has opened its virtual doors with educational offerings and certification for IT students looking to further their careers or to launch one. As an O'Reilly User Group member, you save on all the courses in the following University of Illinois Certificate Series: -Linux/Unix System Administration -Web Programming -Open Source Programming -.NET Programming -Client-Side Web Programming featuring AJAX To redeem, use Promotion Code "ORALL1," good for a 30% discount, in Step #2 of the enrollment process. Each course comes with a free O'Reilly book and a 7-day money-back guarantee. Register online: <http://www.oreillyschool.com/?CMP=BAC-ostug> --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***Cookin' with Ruby on Rails Bill Walton, well known for his "Rolling with Ruby on Rails Revisited" tutorials, is back with a new series that takes Rails to the next level. <http://www.oreillynet.com/topic/ruby.csp> ***Introduction to Flex Using PHP Flex is Adobe's next-generation platform of deploying browser-based applications. Jack Herrington provides us with an introduction to Flex, by showing us how to integrate it with a PHP-based backend. <http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/07/19/introduction-to-flex-using-php.html> ***Mono: A Progress Report Mono has always been a bit of an outsider. Open source folks distrust it because it helps people use Microsoft technologies on non-Microsoft platforms. Microsoft people don't see the need for it. But this social outcast has been making steady progress and can offer a lot if you take the time to check it out. Edd Dumbill gives us an update on the state of Mono. <http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/08/09/mono-a-progress-report.html> --------------------- Digital Media --------------------- ***iLife '08 for Aperture Users with Joe Schorr Apple recently released iLife '08 with a truckload of goodies for Aperture users. In this podcast, Joe Schorr tells you how to use some of these new tools and discusses the latest Aperture update (1.5.4). <http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007/08/16/ilife-08-for-aperture-users.html> ***Thinking Camera, Lens, Lightroom before taking the shot--George Mann's Blog When I saw this scene in front of me, I realized that it was going to be very difficult to get what I was seeing. For one it was very dark and I was standing on a very narrow and slippery ledge between the lichen encrusted ruins of Banteay Kdei (Angkor, Cambodia) and the jungle. I didn't have a tripod with me but it was doubtful that I could have gotten the angle I was after even if I had one anyway (where is that Gitzo ladder tripod when you really need one). <http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/2007/08/thinking_camera_lens_lightroom.html> ***Highlight and Shadow Recovery in Harsh Light--Derrick Story's Blog Nothing like a midday August wedding to strike fear into the heart of this digital photographer. Harsh sun, sparse shade, black suits, white gowns, black skin, white skin often all in the same shot. This is a situation where you have to shoot Raw and thank goodness for the Highlight and Shadow recovery sliders in Aperture. I have lots of tricks for dealing with bad lighting (find shade whenever possible, fill flash, reflectors, etc.), but as you know, sometimes clients say, "We don't have time to walk over there; let's just take the shot here." Horror. "Not here!" I think. "This is the last place on the planet I want to take this shot." <http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/2007/08/highlight_and_shadow_recovery.html> --------------------- Mac/Apple --------------------- ***The Good Easy on OS X Giles Turnbull examines Mark Hurst's "Good Easy" productivity tools and methods for Macs. Giles spoke with the author of "Bit Literacy" about his philosophy and choices for simplifying computing. <http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2007/07/25/the-good-easy-on-os-x.html> ***Understanding Exceptions and Handlers in Cocoa Learn how to use Cocoa to build an exception handling system. This article shows the classes and keywords needed, how to prepare and raise a Cocoa exception, as well as how to intercept and process the exception. <http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2007/07/31/understanding-exceptions-and-handlers-in-cocoa.html> --------------------- Microsoft/.NET --------------------- ***Build Dynamic Database Applications in .NET with Project Codename "Jasper" Instead of moving to Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET developers might consider Project Codename "Jasper" and the growing number of .NET dynamic languages. In this article, you'll learn how to use Jasper. <http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2007/07/31/build-dynamic-database-applications-in-net-with-project-codename-jasper.html> ***Introduction to JavaFX Script In this article, Anghel Leonard give us a walkthrough of JavaFX Script, the syntax, several examples, and usage within Eclipse and NetBeans. <http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2007/07/27/introduction-to-javafx-script.html> --------------------- Head First --------------------- ***Big Head Photo Contest Ends this month Brain packed full of Head First learning? Show us! Send in a photo of yourself in the Head First "Big Head" style (like on the covers of our books). At the end of August, we'll pick our favorite one and send the winner a free Head First T-Shirt and their pick of $200 in O'Reilly books. We might put the picture inside our next Head First book. If it's cool enough, we might even use it on the cover. <http://www.headfirstlabs.com/bighead.php?CMP=NLC-July07> ***New Forums for Head First SQL Head First SQL is at the Printers. And now you can chat with the author and other SQL readers at our new forums. <http://headfirstlabs.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=12> --------------------- Web --------------------- ***Inside Adobe's onAIR Summer Bus Tour FOOs and O'Reilly Folk Hit the Road. Read our blog posts, tips, photos, dates, and more. <http://www.oreilly.com/store/series/adl_onair.csp> ***Nifty Navigation Using CSS Navigation is the key to surfing the Web, and in this collection of ready-made solutions Rachel steps us through horizontal and vertical menus, drop-down, fly-out, and tabbed navigation systems. <http://www.sitepoint.com/article/navigation-using-css> ***Microformats: More Meaning from your Markup Hidden on many pages of the Web are tiny packets of information -- people, places, events, and more. You and I can read them, but they're invisible to machines. Imagine the possibilities if that information became visible to other sites and applications! In this article, Brian shows how the addition of microformats to your web site markup can open up a whole new raft of possibilities. <http://www.sitepoint.com/article/microformats-meaning-markup> ***OSCON 2007 Coverage: High Performance Web Pages Matthew Eernisse covers O'Reilly author Steve Souders (High Performance Web Sites) session at OSCON in Portland this year. <http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/08/07/oscon-2007-high-performance-web-pages> ================================================================ O'Reilly 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol, CA 95472 http://ug.oreilly.com/ http://ug.oreilly.com/creativemedia/ ================================================================ -- Neil Schneider pacneil_at_linuxgeek_dot_net http://www.paccomp.com Key fingerprint = 67F0 E493 FCC0 0A8C 769B 8209 32D7 1DB1 8460 C47D The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best. - Will Rogers -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-newbie
