[Cialug] O'Reilly User Group Letter

Josh More morej at alliancetechnologies.net
Thu Jun 26 13:24:47 CDT 2008


For anyone who cares.
-----
Hi there,

Sorry I'm late with this newsletter, but as usual around here, we've got
lots of new announcements, books, and activities going on.

First off, we've got a new and improved home page and search at
oreilly.com <http://oreilly.com/> along with news.oreilly.com
<http://news.oreilly.com/> This is the first of many updates so stay
tuned.

Our next big news is soon we'll offer select O'Reilly books on Kindle
and as DRM-free digital bundles. Read the whole story on our Tools of
Change blog.
<http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/06/select-oreilly-books-soon-on-kindle-and-
as-drm-free-digital-bundle.html>

Third, we've got not one but two iPhone resources to offer our
readers--Inside iPhone <http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/iphone/>, a
meeting place for developers and power users, and iPhone Hacks
<http://iphonehacks.oreilly.com/wiki>--advanced access to hacks, tips,
and tricks to make your iPhone experience even better. 

And Fourth, don't miss our newest video from DekePod "101 Photoshop Tips
in 5 Minutes" <http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/dekepod>. I just dare you
to watch it three times in a row to see if you can write down all the
tips.

And if you're using twitter, please follow O'Reilly Media
<http://twitter.com/oreillymedia>, Tim O'Reilly
<http://twitter.com/timoreilly>, or me <http://twitter.com/marsee>.
But Tim's probably a bit more exciting.

Going to OSCON? We've got special Twitter contests going on at our booth
in the expo hall. Follow us for more info and we'll follow you back.
<http://twitter.com/oreillyatoscon>

New books we're hoping to get Amazon and Slashdot reviewers for include
"Essential SQLAlchemy," "Dojo: The Definitive Guide," "Fashioning Technology,"
and "Your Brain: The Missing Manual." Send me an email if your interested
and I'll get the book right out.


--Marsee

PS Don't forget we're willing to send books to giveaway at your meetings
anytime. Although we love reviews, we don't expect them for every book
we send. You can also request books for special events or your group
library. 



================================================================
O'Reilly UG Program News--Just for User Group Leaders
June 26, 2008
================================================================
***Put Up a Banner, Get a Free Book
We're looking for user groups to display our discount banners on their
web sites. If you send me your group's site with one or more banners,
I'll send you the O'Reilly book(s) of your choice. Choose from
the following list:

****RailsConf Europe 2008 Banners
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***Customizable O'Reilly Book Widgets
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***OSCON 2008 Banners
<http://ug.oreilly.com/promote/oscon/>

***InsideRIA Banners
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***35% off User Group Discount Banners
<http://ug.oreilly.com/promote/discount/>

***35% off Digital Media User Group Banners
<http://ug.oreilly.com/promote/>

================================================================
O'Reilly News for User Group Members
June 26, 2008
================================================================
---------------------------------------------------------------
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>

***Ableton Live 7 Tips and Tricks (PC Publishing)
ISBN 13: 9781906005085
<http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781906005085/>

***Advanced Rails Recipes (Pragmatic Bookshelf)
ISBN 13: 9780978739225
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780978739225>

***Deploying Rails Applications (Pragmatic Bookshelf)
ISBN 13: 9780978739201
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780978739201>

***Dojo: The Definitive Guide
ISBN 13: 9780596516482
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596516482>

***Essential SQLAlchemy
ISBN 13: 9780596516147
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596516147>

***Face to Face: Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Photographing People
ISBN 13: 9780596515744
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596515744>

***Fashioning Technology
ISBN 13: 9780596514372
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514372>

***Flex 3 Cookbook
ISBN 13: 9780596529857
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529857>

***Getting Started with Flex 3
ISBN 13: 9780596520649
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596520649>

***Google Apps: The Missing Manual
ISBN 13: 9780596515799
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596515799>

***High Performance MySQL, Second Edition
ISBN 13: 9780596101718
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101718>

***JavaScript: The Good Parts
ISBN 13: 9780596517748
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596517748>

***Learning Flex 3
ISBN 13: 9780596517328
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596517328>

***Learning Perl, Fifth Edition
ISBN 13: 9780596520106
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596520106>

***MAKE: Technology on Your Time Volume 14
ISBN 13: 9780596518967
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596518967>

***Maker's Notebook (Hard Cover)
ISBN 13: 9780596519414
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596519414>

***Mastering Dojo (Pragmatic Bookshelf)
ISBN 13: 9781934356111
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781934356111>

***Painting the Web
ISBN 13: 9780596515096
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596515096>

***Programming Visual Basic 2008
ISBN 13: 9780596518431
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596518431>

***Simply Rails 2, Second Edition (SitePoint)
ISBN 13: 9780980455205
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780980455205>

***Take Control of .Mac (TidBITS)
ISBN 13: 9781933671086
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933671086>

***Take Control of Apple Mail in Leopard (TidBITS)
ISBN 13: 9781933671383
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933671383>

***Take Control of Back to My Mac (TidBITS)
ISBN 13: 9781933671468
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933671468>

***Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand '08 (TidBITS)
ISBN 13: 9781933671390
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933671390>

***Take Control of Recording with GarageBand '08 (TidBITS)
ISBN 13: 9781933671123
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933671123>

***Take Control of Screen Sharing in Leopard (TidBITS)
ISBN 13: 9781933671475
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933671475>

***Take Control of Spam with Apple Mail (TidBITS)
ISBN 13: 9781933671031
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933671031>

***Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Extreme Network (TidBITS)
ISBN 13: 9781933671284
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933671284>

***The Art of Black and White Photography (Hard Cover) (Rocky Nook)
ISBN 13: 9781933952277
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781933952277>

***The Art of Capacity Planning: Rough Cuts Version
ISBN 13: 9780596521356
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596521356>

***The Book of IMAP (No Starch)
ISBN 13: 9781593271770
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781593271770>

***The Ultimate HTML Reference (Hard Cover) (SitePoint)
ISBN 13: 9780980285888
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780980285888>

***Ubuntu For Non-Geeks, Third Edition (No Starch)
ISBN 13: 9781593271800
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9781593271800>

***Wikipedia Reader's Guide: The Missing Manual
ISBN 13: 9780596521745
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596521745>

***Windows PowerShell Pocket Reference
ISBN 13: 9780596521783
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596521783>

***Your Brain: The Missing Manual
ISBN 13: 9780596517786
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596517786>


***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--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/>

***Adventure in Technology
Jun 28, 2008
Trinity Arts Centre, Bristol, UK
John Honniball, whose articles are published in Make, is one of the many
contributors at Adventure in Technology. He will be demonstrating parts
of his large collection of historic computers.
<http://www.techadventure.org/>


***Judith Bishop on C# 3.0 Design Patterns at TOOLS Europe
Jul 3, 2008
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
If you are near Zurich, Switzerland, on 3 July, drop in to the TOOLS
Europe Conference and hear author Judith Bishop (C# 3.0 Design Patterns)
explain the advantages of programming design patterns in C# 3.0. Judith
will be joined by Nigel Horspool from University of Victoria, Canada.
<http://tools.ethz.ch/tutorials.html#Tutorial1>


***O'Reilly at Open Tech 2008
Jul 5, 2008
ULU, Malet Street, London, UK
Open Tech 2008, from UKUUG and friends, is an informal one-day
conference about technology, society and low-carbon living, featuring
Open Source ways of working and technologies that anyone can have a go
at. Totalling 60 talks across 3 sessions covering 9 hours, there's
plenty in the programme for everyone including Rembrandt, Pr0n and Robot
Monkeys, and all that's just in one session!
<http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/registration/>


***Harold Davis at the Marin Photography Club
Jul 8, 2008
Author Harold Davis (Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital
Photographers) discusses the ins and outs of night photography, and
shows his work. 
<http://www.marinphotoclub.org/>


***Rick Copeland Speaks on SQLAlchemy
Jul 10, 2008
The Atlanta Python Meetup Group, Atlanta, GA
Author Rick Copeland (Essential SQLAlchemy) will be giving a talk about
SQLAlchemy and will be available for book signing afterwards.
<http://python.meetup.com/46/calendar/7947544/>


***O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON)
Jul 21-25, 2008
Portland, OR
OSCON is the bazaar of open source technologies, welcoming new voices
and projects alongside the platforms, languages, and apps that started
it all. Where the open source community gathers to get inspired, acquire
knowledge and gain momentum, OSCON has become a place for enterprise
developers and managers to see the jewels of open source on display.
<http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/>


***Colin Moock's ActionScript 3.0: From The Ground Up Tour
Jul 23, 2008
Atahotel Executive, Milan, Italy
Join internationally renowned ActionScript expert Colin Moock (Essential
ActionScript 3.0) for an intensive full day of free ActionScript 3.0
training. Don't miss this rare opportunity to learn how to program from
one of the world's top ActionScript instructors. Open yourself to a
world of new possibilities through Moock's unique methodology for
demystifying intimidating concepts and code.
<http://adobeas3tour.com/>


***Dux Raymond Sy Presents a One-Day Seminar on SharePoint
Jul 24, 2008
Hyatt Regency Hotel, Reston, VA
During this one-day seminar, SharePoint expert Dux Raymond Sy
(SharePoint for Project Management) will detail the benefits SharePoint
can deliver to your organization through a combination of lecture,
presentations and demonstrations. 
<https://www2.learningtree.com/promos/sem080724.aspx>


***Harold Davis at Book Passage
Jul 27, 2008
1 Ferry Building, #42, San Francisco, CA
Author Harold Davis (Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital
Photographers) presents images of the Golden Gate, reads from his book,
answers questions, and signs copies of the book.
<http://www.bookpassage.com/event_detailed.php?id=1780>


***Harold Davis Hosts a Photography Night at the East Bay Mac Users Group
Aug 14, 2008
Author Harold Davis (Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital
Photographers) presents From Photography to Photoshop. He will use his
Ringing Cedars covers as a case study for a new digital art form at the
Expression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville. 
<http://ebmug.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=221&Itemid=35>


================================================
Conference News
================================================

***OSCON 2008 registration is Now Open, Portland, OR--July 21-25 
Join over 2,500 open source developers, hackers, experts, IT managers,
and users at OSCON 2008. This year's convention will include 40
tutorials that go deep into open source technology and over 400 sessions
focusing on Administration, Business, Databases, Emerging Topics, Java,
Linux, Mobile, People, Perl, PHP, Programming, Python, Ruby, Security,
Web Applications, and much more.

Use code "os08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the
registration price.

To register for the conference, go to:
<https://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/register>


****Registration for RailsConf Europe 2008, Berlin, Germany--
    September 2-4  2008
The European developer community showed itself to be deeply interested
in Rails at RailsConf Europe 2007, and the co-presenters of that event,
Ruby Central and O'Reilly Media, are coming back to do it again.
RailsConf Europe 2008, happening September 2-4 2008 in Berlin, will
feature presentations, keynotes, and tutorials by experts from the full
spectrum of Rails techniques and practices. Seasoned Rails practitioners
and newcomers alike will find a program honed to their particular
interests and needs.

Use code "re08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off
the registration price.

To register for the conference, go to:
<https://en.oreilly.com/railseurope2008/public/register>

================================================
O'Reilly School of Technology
================================================
***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 certifications 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:

-PHP/SQL Programming--New!
-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>

(This discount is not combinable with other offers.)

================================================
News From O'Reilly & Beyond
================================================
---------------------
News
---------------------
***Derrick Story and Lesa Snider King to Speak at Mac Computer Expo this
year in Santa Rosa, CA on September 27
For more information check out their blog.
<http://www.maccomputerexpo.com>


***The e-Book Test: Do Electronic Versions Deter Piracy?
Read David Pogue's latest take on e-books. (Free login required.)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/technology/personaltech/19pogue-email.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>


***Facebook No Longer The Second Largest Social Network
From TechCrunch "It was sort of inevitable given Facebook’s monster
growth over the last few years, but April 2008 was the milestone:
Facebook officially caught up to MySpace in terms of unique monthly
worldwide visitors, according to data released by Comscore."
<http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/12/facebook-no-longer-the-second-largest-social-network/>


***Expo Hall pass for PDN PhotoPlus 2008, New York, NY--October 23-25
Registration is open for the PDN PhotoPlus 2008 Register with Promo
Code ELBV1 to receive free admission to the expo floor.
<http://www.photoplusexpo.com/ppe/registration/index.jsp#attendee>


***FOSSCoach, July 23-25 in Portland, OR
FOSSCoach is a series of events designed to teach the essential skills
required to participate in collaborative, free and open online projects
like Firefox and Wikipedia.  Visit <http://fosscoach.wikia.com> or 
to register go to
<http://fosscoach.wikia.com/wiki/OSCON08:How_To_Register>


***Event Living Services is looking to help user groups
They recommend UG sponsorships to their clients as a way to keep in
touch with new technology and support developers who work in their
industry. Please contact Julie Anderson <janderson at eventliving.com>
if your group is interested in working with them
<http://www.eventlivingservices.com/>


***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.
<http://www.qoop.com/photobooks/photofront/pub_store.php?pub_name=oreilly>


***A Gallery of Illustrations from Your Brain: The Missing Manual
View images from Your Brain: The Missing Manual. You can read more about
the images by clicking on them to see excerpts from the book.
<http://missingmanuals.com/gallery_your_brain.csp>


***Top 10 Reasons to Switch from Microsoft Office to Google Apps
Author Nancy Conner offers 10 reasons why you should consider making the
leap from Microsoft Office to Google Apps.
<http://missingmanuals.com/google_apps/why_switch.csp>


***Gordon Mohr Takes Us Inside the Internet Archives
Gordon Mohr is the Chief Technologist for Web Projects at the Internet
Archive. In this interview, he gives us a peek behind the scenes at
what's involved in recording the continually updating web, as well as
the legal implications and how Web 2.0 is making their job both easier
and harder. 
<http://news.oreilly.com/2008/06/gordon-mohr-takes-us-inside-th.html>


***Steve Jobs on the Future of the iPhone
Apple CEO Steve Jobs stood in front of a sold out crowd at Apple's WWDC
and told them that Apple is about to release phones that are better than
the ones in their pocket and will cost half of what theirs cost. The
developers responded with sustained enthusiastic applause. That reaction
makes perfect sense. Jobs' keynote wasn't about products -- it was about
a promising future, especially for developers in the audience...
<http://blogs.oreilly.com/iphone/2008/06/steve-jobs-on-the-future-of-th.html>


****Getting Started with the Google App Engine
Continuing the trend started with Amazon's Elastic Cloud (EC2), Google
plans to make their vast resources available to developers who wish to
deploy massively scalable applications on the Google Infrastructure. In
this tutorial, you'll get a look into the APIs and database capabilities
that Google is providing, and how to leverage them in a sample
application.
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/onlamp/2008/05/20/getting-started-with-the-google-apps-engine.html>


***Building the Green Data Center
Bill Coleman, founder and CEO of the Cassatt Corporation, and one of the
founders of BEA, has made it his mission to make data centers more
energy-efficient. We caught up with him right before the O'Reilly
Velocity conference where he is scheduled to speak to get some pointers
on making data centers planet-friendly.
<http://news.oreilly.com/2008/06/building-the-green-data-center.html>


For more news, go to:
<http://news.oreilly.com/>

---------------------
Blogs
-------------------
***Author Bob Thompson bypasses the DEA and shows Phil Torrone how to
make Iodine
<http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/06/weekend_project_home_chem.html>

***Make a Presentation Like Al Gore
<http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Make_a_Presentation_Like_Al_Gore>

***Head First Physics coming soon--here's a taste of Chapter 4
<http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfphy/>

****Dojo Goodness, Part 9 (gfx foo with fx)
<http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2008/06/dojo_goodness_part_9_gfx_foo.html>

****NASA's Mars24 Sunclock (Keeping Track of Phoenix)
<http://www.oreillynet.com/onjava/blog/2008/05/nasas_mars24_sunclock_keeping.html>

***Freelance coder Gregory Brown gives you the latest on Prawn, a PDF
writing library for Ruby.
<http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2008/06/ruby_mendicant_proterozoic_pra.html>

***code_swarm: Animated Visualization of the Development of some High
Profile Open Source Projects
<http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2008/06/code_swarm_animated_visualizat.html>

****Catching up, Fighting distractions, Polyglotting
<http://softwarecraftsmanship.oreilly.com/news/2008/5/21/catching-up-fighting-distractions-polyglotting>

****Head First Ajax Sneak Preview
<http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfajax/>

****How Hackerteen Helps... By a White-Hat Hacker
<http://www.oreillynet.com/fyi/blog/2008/05/how_hackerteen_helps_by_a_whit.html>

****Cooking with Flex
<http://www.oreillynet.com/fyi/blog/2008/05/cooking_with_flex.html>

****Are you up-to-date?
<http://www.oreillynet.com/fyi/blog/2008/05/are_you_uptodate.html>

***What Should iPhone Applications Cost?
<http://blogs.oreilly.com/iphone/2008/06/what-should-iphone-application.html>

***Thinking in Wikis
<http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/06/thinking-in-wikis.html>


For more blogs, go to:
<http://news.oreilly.com/>

Until next time--

Marsee Henon


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