all - the latest ORA user group newsletter. ================================================================ ================================================================ O'Reilly UG Program News--Just for User Group Leaders July 22, 2005 ================================================================ -Does you Group Podcast? -Going to OSCON? -Put Up an O'Reilly OSCON Banner, Get a Free Book -Promotional Material Available ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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, 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Does Your Group Podcast? We have a new book coming out in August called "Podcasting Hacks"-- let me know if your group is currently podcasting or if you are interested in starting your own podcast. I have also included two articles on podcasting below in the news for members section. ***Are you going to OSCON in Portland, Oregon this year? Please let me know! ***Put Up an O'Reilly OSCON 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 2005 Open Source Convention banner, we'll send you the O'Reilly book of your choice. OSCON Banners: http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/oscon2005/ ***Promotional Material Available: The following items are available for your next meeting. Numbers are limited so please don't wait too long. Let me know the item and the amount you'd like and I'll do my best. -30% UG Discount bookmarks -O'Reilly Open Source Convention Brochures -MAKE Magazine (limit one per group) -LinuxWorld Passes (Paper) ================================================================ O'Reilly News for User Group Members July 22, 2005 ================================================================ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Book News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook -Write Portable Code -Home Networking: The Missing Manual -Perl Best Practices -Talk Is Cheap -Switching to VoIP -Ending Spam -Swing Hacks -Word Annoyances -Advanced Perl Programming, Second Edition -MAKE Magazine Subscriptions Available ---------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Events ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Jeremy Zawodny ("High Performance MySQL"), Open Tech 2005, London, UK--July 23 -UKUUG Linux 2005 Conference, University of Wales--August 4-7 -O'Reilly at LinuxWorld, San Francisco, CA--August 8-11 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Conference News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Visit the 2005 O'Reilly Open Source Convention Exhibit Hall for Free -Register for the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, Portland, OR--August 1-5 -Registration is Open for EuroOSCON ---------------------------------------------------------------- News ---------------------------------------------------------------- -New Annoyances Central Site -O'Reilly Nominated for Lovemarks -Choosing the Best Star Atlases -Information Security with Colin Percival -Calculating the True Price of Software -Learning Lab: Save 50% on the Open Source Programming Certificate Series -Building an OpenBSD Live CD -The Virtual Referral: Mitigating Risk by Hiring Open Source Developers -PHP 5.1's Killer Features -David Pogue Photos from Mug Event -Programming with Spotlight -An Introduction to Tiger Terminal, Part 3 -How to End Wars Between Testers and Programmers -Unit Testing in .NET Projects -Making Internet Phone Calls Using Skype -Taking JUnit Out of the Box -What Is Business Process Modeling? -What Is Podcasting? -Gary Garritan: A Personal Orchestra for Everyone -My Five Favorite Soft Synths -HOW TO Make Enhanced Podcasts -Phil Torrone on "Attack of the Show" -MAKE Volume 03 at the Press ================================================ 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, 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 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596100922 With this series of hands-on labs, you'll learn how Perl's test tools work and how to use them effectively. Once mastered, these lessons will help you ensure low-level code correctness, reduce software development cycle time, and ease maintenance burdens. You don't have to be a diehard Perl developer to use this book; you just have to want to do your job a little bit better. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perltestingadn/ Chapter 4, "Distributing Your Tests (and Code)", is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perltestingadn/chapter/index.html ***Write Portable Code Publisher: No Starch ISBN: 1593270569 This handy book contains the lessons, patterns, and knowledge for developing cross-platform software that programmers usually must acquire through sheer trial and error. Targeted at intermediate-to-advanced programmers, it is a valuable resource for designers of cross-platform software, programmers looking to extend their skills to additional platforms, and programmers faced with the tricky task of moving code from one platform to another. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270569/ ***Home Networking: The Missing Manual Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 059600558X Using clear language, straightforward explanations, and a dash of humor, this Missing Manual shows you how to do everything you need to set up a home network. Including both Windows and Mac info, it will help you understand the difference between what you need to know to create and use your home network and what's best left to system administrators. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/homenettmm/ Chapter 5, "Using the Network with Windows Computers," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/homenettmm/chapter/index.html ***Perl Best Practices Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596001738 This collection of 256 guidelines on the art of coding will help you write the best Perl code you possibly can. The guidelines cover code layout, naming conventions, choice of data and control structures, program decomposition, interface design and implementation, modularity, object orientation, error handling, testing, and debugging. Offering only guidelines that actually work, this book presents coherent and widely applicable suggestions based on real-world experience. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlbp/ Chapter 9, "Subroutines," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlbp/chapter/index.html ***Talk Is Cheap Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596009607 A straightforward, quick introduction to the ins and outs of using VoIP and other internet telephone options, this book details how to make the switch and what the tradeoffs will be. In addition, you will learn advanced techniques, including how to turn your Palm or Pocket PC into an internet phone and how to work with Wi-Fi phones and videophones. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/talk/ Chapter 3, "Free Internet Phone Features That You're Paying For Now," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/talk/chapter/index.html ***Switching to VoIP Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596008686 Based on real-world experience, this handy manual addresses the most common VoIP migration challenges. Learn how to build your own VoIP system, install it, and begin making calls. You'll also explore the strengths and weaknesses of circuit-switched and packet-switched networks, how VoIP systems impact network infrastructure, as well as solutions for common challenges involved with IP voice migrations. Ideal for IT managers, network engineers, and system administrators. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/switchingvoip/ Chapter 14, "Traditional Apps on the Converged Network," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/switchingvoip/chapter/index.html ***Ending Spam Publisher: No Starch ISBN: 1593270526 This landmark title describes, in-depth, how statistical filtering is being used by next-generation spam filters to identify and filter spam, how spam filtering works, and how language classification and machine learning combine to produce remarkably accurate spam filters. Readers gain a complete understanding of the mathematical approaches used in today's spam filters, decoding, tokenization, the use of various algorithms, and the benefits of using open source solutions to end spam. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270526/ ***Swing Hacks Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596009070 Packed with programming lessons, this book will show you how to extend Swing's rich component set in advanced ways. The hacks touch upon the entire Swing gamut--tables, trees, sliders, spinners, progress bars, internal frames, and text components. You'll learn how to filter lists, power up trees and tables, add drag-and-drop support, and generally increase your competency with interface-building tools. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/swinghks/ Sample Hack 89, "Fun with Keyboard Lights," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/swinghks/chapter/index.html ***Word Annoyances Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596009542 This helpful book offers to-the-point solutions to your most vexing editing, formatting, printing, faxing, and scanning problems. It covers everything from installation and templates to tables, columns, and graphics. It also provides a gentle introduction to the power of macros so you can slay your annoyances by the truckload. The fixes will work with most versions of Word, including Word 2000, 2002 (XP), and 2003. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wordannoyances/ Chapter 3, "Text Entry and Editing," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wordannoyances/chapter/index.html ***Advanced Perl Programming, Second Edition Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0596004567 O'Reilly's most high-level Perl tutorial to date, this book teaches you all the complex techniques for production-ready Perl programs. This completely updated guide clearly explains concepts such as introspection, overriding built-ins, extending Perl's object-oriented model, and testing your code for greater stability. Whatever your current level of Perl expertise, this book will help you push your skills to the next level. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/advperl2/ Chapter 3, "Templating Tools," is available online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/advperl2/chapter/index.html ***MAKE Magazine Subscriptions Available 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 charter subscribers: five volumes for the cost of four. Subscribe at: https://www.pubservice.com/MK/Subnew.aspx?PC=MK&PK=M5ZUGLA ================================================ Upcoming Events ================================================ ***For more events, please see: http://events.oreilly.com/ ***Jeremy Zawodny ("High Performance MySQL"), Open Tech 2005, London, UK--July 23 This event features "Yahoo Troublemaker" and author Jeremy Zawodny. O'Reilly will be there selling books. http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2005/ ***UKUUG Linux 2005 Conference, University of Wales--August 4-7 O'Reilly will be there selling books. http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2005/ ***O'Reilly at LinuxWorld, San Francisco, CA--August 8-11 Stop by our booth to check out our latest Linux and open source titles. We'll also have info on some of our groovy new projects like Make, Safari, and SafariU. Moscone Center, Booth #818 http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/live/12/events/12SFO05A ================================================ Conference News ================================================ ***Visit the 2005 O'Reilly Open Source Convention Exhibit Hall for Free This year's OSCON Exhibit Hall is the largest in our seven-year history, and will feature a virtual "who's who" of open source companies. From exciting start-ups such as ActiveGrid, BlackDuck Software, LogicBlaze, MarvelIT, Merchere, Palamida, SpikeSource, Sourcebeat, SourceLabs, and SugarCRM to industry giants like Apple Computer, Computer Associates, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Novell, Sun Microsystems, and Yahoo!, you'll find the latest software and hardware offerings for your enterprise, small or large. To register for your free exhibit hall pass, please visit: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2005/create/ord_os05 ***Register for the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, Portland, OR--August 1-5 OSCON 2005 explores three deep trends affecting open source: the commoditization of software, network-enabled collaboration, and software customizability. Join us at this essential gathering of open source leaders and practitioners of every persuasion to exchange ideas and push the boundaries of vital open source technologies. This year, we introduce the Open Source Business Review, along with a host of other exciting presentations and events. http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/ Use code "os05grpusr" when you register, and receive 15% off the registration price. To register for the conference, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2005/create/ord_os05 ***Registration is Open for EuroOSCON Join developers, systems and network administrators, and IT managers at the very first O'Reilly European Open Source Convention in Amsterdam on October 17-20. EuroOSCON will explore the best and newest open source technologies, particularly for companies, governments, and nonprofits. EuroOSCON showcases the diversity in open source while maintaining a practical edge. http://conferences.oreilly.com/eurooscon/ User Group discounts are available, email marsee at oreilly.com for more information. To register for the conference, go to: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/eurooscon/create/ord_euos05 ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ --------------------- General News --------------------- ***New Annoyances Central Site O'Reilly has just launched the new Annoyances Central weblog site, focused on topics and issues from the Annoyances Series books. Check out the Daily Fix, the Experts' Blog, and Robert's Rant for the most annoying annoyances--and their fixes, of course. You can even subscribe to the RSS feed and have piping-hot annoyances delivered straight to you. http://www.annoyancescentral.com/ ***O'Reilly Nominated for Lovemarks The creators of Lovemarks wondered what makes some brands wildly inspirational and came up with Lovemarks, a celebration of respect and loyalty. "Take a brand away and people will find a replacement. Take a Lovemark away and people will protest its absence." Folks can nominate brands that inspire "loyalty beyond reason," and we're thrilled to be in the mix. Show your love! http://www.lovemarks.com/lm/read.php?LID=2603 ***Choosing the Best Star Atlases Whether you're an observer of deep-sky objects with your 20-inch Dobsonian reflector, or an amateur astronomer enjoying a simple night of stargazing with your binoculars, it's helpful to know which star atlases best suit your needs. Avid astronomers Robert and Barbara Thompson describe the atlases they use and their reasons for choosing them. Robert and Barbara are the authors of Astronomy Hacks. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/07/18/staratlases.html ***Information Security with Colin Percival The recent disclosure of side-channel techniques to retrieve cryptographic secrets on hyperthreading machines caused stirs in security and operating system development communities. Colin Percival, a FreeBSD security officer, reported the vulnerability and weathered the questions and criticisms. Michael W. Lucas recently interviewed him on this vulnerability, vendors' responses, and security research. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2005/07/21/Big_Scary_Daemons.html --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***Calculating the True Price of Software Businesses have long viewed support and maintenance as essential components of software. Open source business models often focus on charging for support and customization. Is there an economic model that can demonstrate the true worth of a piece of software and the option for support, maintenance, and upgrades? Robert Lefkowitz argues that open source exposes the true value of software itself as, essentially, worth less in comparison to support and maintenance. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/07/21/software_pricing.html ***Learning Lab: Save 50% on the Open Source Programming Certificate Series Our Open Source Programming Certificate Series will teach you the core technical skills necessary to fully understand programming using Linux or Unix operating systems, languages, libraries, and databases. Completion of this series also earns you a Certificate of Professional Development through the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education. For two weeks only, save 50% on all Open Source Programing Certificate Series classes. Offer ends July 31st. http://www.oreilly.com/redirector.csp?link=UAOSP&type=news ***Building an OpenBSD Live CD Linux isn't the only operating system that boots and runs off a CD. OpenBSD does as well. Kevin Lo uses his for didactic purposes, but this is a good example for taking your desktop or firewall along with you. Here's how to build and customize an OpenBSD installation on a CD. ***The Virtual Referral: Mitigating Risk by Hiring Open Source Developers Hiring a new employee is almost always a risk, and hiring the wrong employee can prove a costly mistake for managers. Brian Fitzpatrick suggests you hire an open source programmer. Find out why doing so mitigates the risks involved in hiring. Meet Brian at O'Reilly's Open Source Convention, where he'll be leading a Subversion tutorial and a session on switching from CVS to Subversion. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/07/14/osdevelopers.html ***PHP 5.1's Killer Features Learn about PHP Data Objects, perhaps the greatest new feature in PHP 5.1. http://www.sitepoint.com/blog-post-view.php?id=274359 --------------------- Mac --------------------- ***David Pogue Photos from our recent MUG event at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16228484@N00/sets/625100/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/wdn2/sets/625173/ (Special Thanks to Don Nelson of DVMUG for sending these along.) ***Programming with Spotlight The API for Spotlight offers highly advanced search capabilities. In fact, you can develop some of the very features of Tiger we've already grown to love using Spotlight's API. In this piece, Matthew Russell will ease you into Spotlight programming from a Cocoa dev perspective, showing you how to make your applications Spotlight enabled http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/07/12/spotlight.html ***An Introduction to Tiger Terminal, Part 3 In Part 3 of this Tiger Terminal introduction, you'll learn some helpful commands that you can use to view information about your network, including netstat, nslookup, traceroute, and more. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/07/05/terminal3.html ***How to End Wars Between Testers and Programmers There's a natural conflict between testers and programmers because of the difference in perspective each role has. The best way to end struggles is to redefine the goals of the work so that their roles can be collaborative, not adversarial. In this article, Scott Berkun draws upon his years of project-leading experience to provide some inside tips for managing your development team. Scott is the author of The Art of Project Management. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/07/08/dev_team.html --------------------- Windows/.NET --------------------- ***Unit Testing in .NET Projects Now is a pretty exciting time for unit testing in .NET. Tremendous progress is being made on several fronts: IDE integration, process integration, and new test fixtures. Jay Flowers and Andrew Stopford explain how to use Visual Studio's new integrated unit testing, as well as the NUnit and MbUnit testing frameworks. http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2005/07/18/unittesting_2005.html ***Making Internet Phone Calls Using Skype Skype lets you use the internet to make phone calls to other Skype users and also to regular telephones. Wei-Meng Lee shows you how to set it up and start talking. http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/07/19/skype.html --------------------- Java --------------------- ***Taking JUnit Out of the Box JUnit is practically ubiquitous among Java developers as a way to test code, but it's somewhat limited by the fact that it's only meant to run in one JVM on one box, hampering its usefulness when developing distributed applications. In this article, Amir Shevat shows how the open source JUnit extension Pisces helps JUnit overcome this limitation. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/07/13/pisces.html ***What Is Business Process Modeling? Business Process Modeling (BPM) is a set of technologies and standards for the design, execution, administration, and monitoring of business processes. In this article, Mike Havey, author of Essential Business Process Modeling, briefly describes the state of BPM today and the BPM standards, then builds an ideal BPM architecture using the example of a retailer process. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/07/20/businessprocessmodeling. html --------------------- Digital Media --------------------- ***What Is Podcasting? So, you're ready to hop on the podcasting bandwagon, but you're not sure how to get started? This article by Phillip Torrone briefly describes what podcasting is and the software you'll need, then takes you right to the fun with a comprehensive step-by-step guide to podcast production. From recording to editing to publishing and syndicating your podcasts, Phillip covers everything you need to know to serve up your first podcasts. http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/07/20/WhatIsPodcasting.html ***Gary Garritan: A Personal Orchestra for Everyone Producer Gary Garritan has made it his mission to put a high-quality digital orchestra in your hands--along with extensive free training. Hear how composers have seized the opportunity. http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/07/20/garritan.html ***My Five Favorite Soft Synths Looking for sonic inspiration? Synthesizer guru Jim Aikin reveals his top five virtual instruments, explains why they're great, and shares custom MP3 examples. http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/07/13/topsynths.html --------------------- MAKE --------------------- ***HOW TO make Enhanced Podcasts (Images, Links, and More with Audio) Apple's new iTunes 4.9 allows you to view (and listen to) "enhanced podcasts." These are audio files that can have slideshows, URLs and some cool features we have discovered. Here's how to get, make and all you need to know about enhanced podcasts! As a bonus, MAKE has put together some fun ideas they think many might use. http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/07/how_to_make_enh.html#more ***Phil Torrone on "Attack of the Show" Here's the video of MAKE's Associate Editor Phillip Torrone on G4TV's Attack of the Show. The show aired on Friday, July 15. He showed off some user submitted projects, hacks, mods, and blew up stuff with a high powered green laser. http://downloads.oreilly.com/make/g4tv.mov ***MAKE Volume 03 at the Press The third volume of MAKE magazine is at the press, and we have the Flickr photo stream to prove it. Our designers signed off on the final cover and raved that this is the hottest volume yet. Don't be left coveting thy neighbor's MAKE, and subscribe now! http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirk22/sets/612189/ ***For more information on MAKE, go to: http://www.makezine.com/ ================================================ From Your Peers ================================================ ***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 -- steve ulrich sulrich at botwerks.org PGP: 8D0B 0EE9 E700 A6CF ABA7 AE5F 4FD4 07C9 133B FAFC