[ale] Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, January 9
Jonathan Glass
jonathan.glass at oit.gatech.edu
Tue Jan 10 10:26:02 EST 2006
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O'Reilly UG Program News--Just for User Group Leaders
January 9, 2006
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-"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
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Book Info
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***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 or Inquiries
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***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>
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O'Reilly News for User Group Members
January 9, 2006
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Book News
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-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
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Upcoming Events
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-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
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Conference News
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-MySQL Registration is Open
-ETech Registration is Open
-40% discount for ETel--Early Registration Pricing Ends January 9
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News
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-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>
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New Releases
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***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
================================================
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General News
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***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>
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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>
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Mac
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***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>
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Windows/.NET
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***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
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