[ale] Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, September 14

Marsee Henon marsee at oreilly.com
Wed Sep 14 16:42:28 EDT 2005 

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O'Reilly UG Program News--Just for User Group Leaders
September 14, 2005
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-Want in invite to O'Reilly Connection? Let me know
-Do you have any special events, holiday parties, or installfests
 planned for the rest of the year?
-Put Up an O'Reilly EuroOSCON 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.

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General News
----------------------------------------------------------------
***Want in invite to O'Reilly Connection?
I am looking for people to invite to the O'Reilly Connection, a
tech-centric jobs and networking site for developers and those who want
to hire them. Send me an email if you want an invite.
For more information, go to:
http://connection.oreilly.com/


***Do you have any special events, holiday parties, or installfests
planned for the rest of the year? Let us know and we can send some
raffle prizes, promotional material, and spread the word. Send me an
email with the date of your event and what books (title and ISBN) might
be helpful. I'll see what I can do.


***Put Up an O'Reilly EuroOSCON 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 O'Reilly European Open Source Convention banner, I will
send you the O'Reilly book of your choice.

EuroOSCON Banners:
http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/eurooscon/


***Promotional Material Available:
The following items are available for your next meeting. Numbers are
limited.Let me know the item and the amount you'd like and I'll do my
best:

-O'Reilly Catalog
-EuroOSCON Brochures
-PhotoPlus Expo Pass, New York, NY--October 20-22
-30% UG Discount bookmarks
-MAKE Magazine (limit one per group)
-MAKE Magzaine Brochures
-Safari Bookshelf Postcard


***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

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O'Reilly News for User Group Members
September 14, 2005
================================================================
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Book News
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-Podcasting Hacks
-Commercial Photoshop Retouching
-Learning SQL
-The eBay Survival Guide 
-GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual
-Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers
-The Debian System
-RT Essentials
-Making Music on the Apple Mac
-XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference
-Essential Business Process Modeling
-Stealing the Network: How to Own an Identity
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Upcoming Events
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-MAKE at the Apple Store University Village Seattle, WA--September 17
-O'Reilly at Podcastcon UK, London, UK--September 28
-Rich Bowen ("Apache Cookbook"), Ohio LinuxFest 2005, 
 Columbus, OH--October 
-NCMUG Macintosh Computer Expo, Santa Rosa, CA--October 1
-Jack Herrington ("Podcasting Hacks"), NCMUG, 
 Rohnert Park, CA--November 15
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Conference News
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-ETech 2006 CFP Open
-Registration is Open for EuroOSCON
----------------------------------------------------------------
News
----------------------------------------------------------------
-O'Reilly Media Acquires Useractive
-User Group Members receive special a 50% discount Learning Lab Courses
-GAO Report: Tim O'Reilly's Letter to Congressman Wu
-Michal Zalewski on the Wire 
-State of AJAX
-RSS Feeds: More Hype Than Reality
-The Next 50 Years of Computer Security: An Interview with Alan Cox 
-Perl Internationalization and Haskell: 
 An Interview with Autrijus Tang  
-An Introduction to Tiger Terminal, Part 4 
-What Is Automator (and Can It Make Your Life Easier?)
-What Is .NET
-Using Your Webcam for Surveillance 
-Announcing the 2005 ONJava Reader Survey
-Building J2EE Projects with Maven
-Hosting Your Podcasts
-Top Ten Digital Photography Tips
-Inside Katrina

================================================
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 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

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New Releases
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***Podcasting Hacks
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596100663
Perfect for aspiring and experienced podcasters, this book delivers the
ultimate how-to for anyone interested in creating their own internet
audio programs. Covering both entry-level and advanced topics, it shows
you how to create quality sound, use the right software, develop a show,
distribute a podcast, and build an audience. More advanced topics
include audio editing, podcasting on the go, and even videocasting.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/podcastinghks/

Sample hack 50, "Choose the Right Audio Tools," is available online: 
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/podcastinghks/chapter/index.html


***Commercial Photoshop Retouching
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 059600849X
Written by 20-year photo retouching veteran Glenn Honiball, this book
details all the tools, techniques, and skills you need to achieve
consistent, professional results with Photoshop CS2, enabling you to
tackle your greatest photo-retouching challenges with ease, precision,
and efficiency. It's the ideal resource for any digital artist who wants
to take their skills to the next level and produce sharp, expert photos
that don't look retouched.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/comretouch/


***Learning SQL
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596007272
This introductory guide gets you up and running on SQL in short order. A
series of chapter exercises teaches you how to generate, manipulate, and
retrieve the data stored in your organization's database. Ideal for
anyone writing applications, performing administrative tasks, or
generating reports.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learningsql/

Chapter 3, "Query Primer," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learningsql/chapter/index.html


***The eBay Survival Guide 
Publisher: No Starch
ISBN: 1593270631
A guide to safe and successful buying and selling on eBay. Reveals the
strategies of winning bidders and offers tips for beating competitors to
get the items you want--without overpaying or becoming the victim of
scams. Filled with practical advice for avoiding scrams, what to do if
an item doesn't sell, how to list items effectively, choosing an auction
type, and how to get the best price. 
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270631/index.html


***GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596100353
Now revised to reflect GarageBand's latest features, this authoritative,
witty guide provides you with all the know-how you need to produce
commercial-quality musical recordings entirely on your own. This
top-selling book by David Pogue explains how to maximize the program's
entire set of tools, including pre-recorded loops, sampled sounds, and
live recordings. Easy-to-understand language makes it ideal for serious
musicians and novices alike.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/garageband2/


***Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596100302
This book tells you everything you need to know to adjust, correct,
retouch, and manipulate your photographs, without making you learn
everything there is to know about Photoshop CS2 first. These
straightforward, easy-to-follow recipes cover everything from fixing
problems with exposure, color, and focus to hand-tinting, adjusting
lighting, adding special effects, and restoring faded and damaged photos.
oreilly.com/catalog/photoretouch/


***The Debian System 
Publisher: No Starch
ISBN: 1593270690
"The Debian System" introduces the concepts and techniques of the Debian
operating system, explaining their usage and pitfalls, and illustrating
the thinking behind each of the approaches. The book's goal is to give
the reader enough insight into the workings of the Debian project and
operating system so that they will understand the solutions that have
evolved as part of the Debian system over the past decade.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1593270690/index.html


***RT Essentials
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596006683
This comprehensive guide shows you how to customize RT to better fit
your organization's business needs. After introducing you to what
ticketing systems are, the book shows you how to install and configure
RT. From there, it explains how to perform simple tasks that will turn
your RT server into a highly useful tracking tool.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rtessentials/

Chapter 3, "Getting Started," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rtessentials/chapter/index.html


***Making Music on the Apple Mac
Publisher: PC Publishing
ISBN: 1870775953
Making music on the Mac is now easier than ever. This book provides
advice on setting up your studio and configuring your audio and MIDI
interfaces for optimum performance. Step-by step projects show you how
to record with GarageBand, and when your masterpiece is complete, learn
how to organize your music, create playlists, burn CDs, and publish your
music on the net.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1870775953/


***XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596100086
This handy pocket guide quickly gets you up to speed on XSLT so you can
convert XML like a seasoned pro. It covers topics such as stylesheet
structure, template rules, result trees, conditional processing, number
formatting, and more. Best of all, its concise approach saves you time,
aggravation, and effort.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xsltpr/

Chapter 3, "How XSLT Works," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xsltpr/chapter/index.html


***Essential Business Process Modeling
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596008430
This guide gathers all the concepts, design, architecture, and standard
specifications of Business Process Management (BPM) into one concise
book, and offers hands-on examples that illustrate BPM's approach to
process notation, execution, administration, and monitoring. You'll also
learn about BPM design patterns and best practices, as well as
underlying theory. 

Chapter 2, "Prescription for a Good BPM Architecture," is available
online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/essentialpm/chapter/index.html


***Stealing the Network: How to Own an Identity
Publisher: Syngress
ISBN: 1597490067
The first two books in this series have become classics in the hacker
and infosec communities because of their chillingly realistic depictions
of criminal hacking techniques. In this third installment, the all-star
cast of authors tackle one of the fastest growing crimes in the world:
identity theft. Now, the criminal hackers, who readers have grown to
both love and hate, try to cover their tracks and vanish into thin air.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1597490067/


***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/


***MAKE at the Apple Store University Village Seattle, WA--September 17
This Saturday MAKE will present Podcasting 101: How to Make, Produce and
Publish Podcasts - 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Learn what a podcast is and how
to make them using your Mac and GarageBand. Also learn how to get listed
in iTunes, RSS and more.
http://www.apple.com/retail/universityvillage/week/20050911.html


***O'Reilly at Podcastcon UK, London, UK--September 28
Podcastcon UK 2005 is the first conference in Europe dedicated to
podcasting. The conference will include presentations, practical
sessions, and debate on all aspects of podcasting as it moves into its
second year. If you're going, look for our O'Reilly book display at 
the event.
http://www.podcastcon.co.uk/
	

***Rich Bowen ("Apache Cookbook"), Ohio LinuxFest 2005, 
Columbus, OH--October 1
Author Rich Bowen is a speaker at this event for Linux
and open source software professionals and enthusiasts.
http://www.ohiolinux.org/


***NCMUG Macintosh Computer Expo, Santa Rosa, CA--October 1
Authors Derrick Story ("Digital Photography Pocket Guide" and "iPhoto 5:
The Missing Manual") and Jack Herrington ("Podcasting Hacks") will be 
speaking at the annual NCMUG Macintosh Computer Expo. O'Reilly will be
on hand to sell books at the Expo.	
For location and parking information:
http://www.ncmug.org/mce.html


***Jack Herrington ("Podcasting Hacks"), NCMUG, 
Rohnert Park, CA--November 15
Jack will walk through the basics of podcasting starting with audio
recording using a variety of equipment that he will bring along. Then
into multi-track editing and mixdown with Audacity. Conversion to MP3
and upload to a podcasting enabled blog that integrates into iTunes.
http://www.ncmug.org/events.html#nov

================================================
Conference News
================================================
***ETech 2006 CFP Now Open
O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference 2006 is scheduled for March
6-9 in San Diego. We invite technologists, strategists, CTOs, chief
scientists, researchers, programmers, hackers, standards workers,
business developers, and entrepreneurs to lead sessions and tutorials at
ETech. This year's challenge focuses on the amazing amount of digital
data in our worlds: how do we visualize the data, filter it, remix it,
and access it in meaningful ways? Proposals are due by September 19th.
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech/


***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/

Use code "euos05usrg" when you register, and receive 25% off the
registration price.

To register for the conference, go to:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/eurooscon/create/ord_euos05

================================================
News From O'Reilly & Beyond
================================================
---------------------
General News
---------------------
***O'Reilly Media Acquires Useractive
Useractive is the company behind the O'Reilly Learning Lab. With
Useractive's Learning Sandbox technology, Learning Lab offers a
browser-based, creative learning environment that is based on a
learning-by-doing philosophy. Programming environments and technologies
are all supplied online. For instance, students in the Linux System
Administration Course get root access on O'Reilly-maintained Linux
systems online. The Web Programming Series, for example, supplies all of
the tools and technologies needed to learn the programming languages.
This means students can practice what they are learning without having
to get separate administrative access to a host machine. Students can
earn a Certificate for Professional Development from the University of
Illinois' Office of Continuing Education upon completion of a selected
series of courses.
For more information, go to:
http://learninglab.oreilly.com/


***User Group Members receive a special 50% discount Learning Lab Courses
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

This offer ends December 31st, 2005.  To redeem, use Promotion Code
"ORALL1" to save 50%. Each course comes with a free O'Reilly book and a
7-day money-back guarantee. Register online:
http://learninglab.oreilly.com/


***GAO Report: Tim O'Reilly's Letter to Congressman Wu 
The GAO recently announced the findings for a report on the cost of
college textbooks requested by Congressman Wu of Oregon. Tim O'Reilly
wrote this letter to Congressman Wu referencing O'Reilly's solution:
SafariU. SafariU empowers professors to create and publish their own
textbooks, costs professors nothing to use, and offers their students
more focused course content at less cost. 
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/09/gao-tim-
oreilly-letter-congressman-wu.html


***Michal Zalewski on the Wire 
What motivates a hacker? Perhaps curiosity, the pursuit of knowledge,
or the simple joy of saying "Hmm, that's funny! What happens if I ...?"
Eccentric security researcher Michal Zalewski exhibits these traits.
Fearless interviewer Federico Biancuzzi recently talked with Zalewski
about his curious approach to computer security, the need for
randomness, and how the hacker mind works.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/security/2005/08/25/zalewski.html

***State of AJAX
Where is AJAX headed? What does all the hype mean?
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/08/21/state-of-ajax/


***RSS Feeds: More Hype Than Reality
Only 11% of Bloggers actively use RSS Feeds according
to a recent study of 1000 blog readers. Two-thirds didn't even
know what RSS is! This is a wake up call to all bloggers
to better educate their readers.
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/08/21/rss-evokes-blank-stares/

---------------------
Open Source
---------------------
***The Next 50 Years of Computer Security: An Interview with Alan Cox 
Alan Cox is well known for his long-standing work on the Linux kernel,
but at O'Reilly's EuroOSCON (October 17-20), he will speak about
computer security. According to Alan, we're just at the beginning of a
long journey into getting security right. Eager for directions and a
glimpse of the future, O'Reilly Network interviewed him about his
upcoming keynote.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/09/12/alan-cox.html


***Perl Internationalization and Haskell: 
An Interview with Autrijus Tang  
Self-proclaimed "Net activist, artist, and anarchist" Autrijus Tang will
be a featured speaker at this October's EuroOSCON. He discusses one of
his conference topics--Haskell--extensively in this interview with
O'Reilly Network. Autrijus also covers Gettext bindings, Perl
internationalization tools, CPAN, and more in this wide-ranging
conversation.  
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2005/09/08/autrijus-tang.html

---------------------
Mac
---------------------
***An Introduction to Tiger Terminal, Part 4 
In part four of our introduction to Tiger Terminal, you'll learn how to
tap the power of shell scripting to automate repetitive tasks. Mary
Norbury-Glaser (MacinTech UG) walks you through the process, step by
step.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/09/09/terminal4.html


***What Is Automator (and Can It Make Your Life Easier) 
Automator provides an intuitive drag-and-drop workbench for quickly
streamlining repetitive tasks. Here's a look at creating workflows and
working around Automator's inherent limitations.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/09/06/what-is-automator.html

---------------------
Windows/.NET
---------------------
***What Is .NET 
.NET is probably one of the more muddled and mismanaged brands in the
history of Microsoft. Elucidator James Avery clarifies things by
describing the two chambers at the heart of .NET: the Common Language
Runtime (CLR) and its essential components, and the Base Class Library
(BCL) and its major features.
http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2005/09/06/what-is-dotnet.html


***Using Your Webcam for Surveillance 
Webcams can be used for more than videoconferencing--they can be used
for surveillance as well. Wei-Meng Lee shows you how to do it in a few
easy steps.
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/09/06/using-your-
webcam-for-surveillance.html

---------------------
Java
---------------------
***Announcing the 2005 ONJava Reader Survey 
The 2005 ONJava Reader Survey is underway. This is your opportunity to
steer the site by helping us understand what you use, what you're
interested in, and where you think Java is going.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/09/07/2005-onjava-survey-
advancer.html


***Building J2EE Projects with Maven 
Vincent Massol offers some real-life experience building J2EE
applications with Maven. Using the example of a Petstore app, Massol
shows you how to generate J2EE artifacts (EJB JARs, WARs, EARs) with
Maven. He is coauthor of "Maven: A Developer's Notebook."
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/09/07/maven.html

---------------------
Digital Media
---------------------
***Hosting Your Podcasts  
Once you've created an MP3 of your podcast, where do you store it? And
since podcast files are much larger than HTML files or JPEG images, what
about bandwidth? Jack Herrington offers several solutions to the podcast
hosting problem, from using a dedicated service to reusing your blog or
using your own ISP. Jack is the author of "Podcasting Hacks."
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/09/07/hosting-podcasts.html


***Top Ten Digital Photography Tips  
You have a digital camera and have taken the typical shots of family and
friends. Now what? Here are ten tips to make your next batch of digital
images so impressive that people will ask: "Hey, what type of camera do
you have?" Guess what? It's not the camera.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/10/22/digi_photo_tips.html

---------------------
MAKE
---------------------
***Inside Katrina
MAKE author Dave Prochnow sent us an exclusive writeup of his
experiences "inside the eye" of Hurricane Katrina, being off the grid
for 11 days, and using his maker skills to get through the trauma.
http://www.makezine.com/extras/25.html

MAKE Show Archive:
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/make_podcast/


***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

Until next time--

Marsee Henon


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