[Nottingham] User Group Newsletter - Issue 12-05

Michael perl at tecspy.com
Wed Jul 27 17:33:21 BST 2005


All,

O'Reilly's latest news...

PS: I have still yet to re-order our review books - sorry for the delay: 
rather snowed-under at the moment. Anyhoo, here ya go...


---------------------------------------------

O'Reilly UK User Group Programme
NEWSLETTER
Issue 12-05

================================================
HIGHLIGHTS
================================================

NEWS FROM O'REILLY AND BEYOND
-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
-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
- Books for review
- Coming soon
CONFERENCE NEWS
YOUR BOOK REVIEWS
YOUR NEWS


================================================
NEWS FROM O'REILLY AND 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.
<http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2005/07/14/openbsd_live.html>


***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>


---------------------
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/>



================================================
BOOK NEWS
================================================

****Latest books available for review -
	*	Learning Perl <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/> (Fourth 
Edition)
Informed by their years of success at teaching Perl as consultants, the 
authors have re-engineered the Llama to better match the pace and scope 
appropriate for readers getting started with Perl, while retaining the 
detailed discussion, thorough examples, and eclectic wit for which the 
Llama is famous. If you ask Perl programmers today what book they relied 
on most when they were learning Perl, you'll find that an overwhelming 
majority will point to the Llama. With good reason. Other books may 
teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl 
programmer.
	*	MAKE: Technology on Your Time Volume 03 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/makemag05v3/>
The third issue of MAKE looks at how you can turn your car into a Wi-Fi
blasting, computer-controlled, GPS-enabled, biodiesel monster; how to 
turn a
VCR into a pet feeding robot, make a see-through potato cannon, create a
remote-controlled haunted house for Holloween, and gives you the skinny on
cheap welding. Our feature profile looks at Ed Storms ideas behind
low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR)--an alternative power source and
potential solution for global warming.
	*	Perl Best Practices <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlbp/>
Perl Best Practices offers a collection of 256 guidelines on the art of 
coding to help you write better Perl code--in fact, 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.
	*	 Perl Best Practices <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlbp/>
Perl Best Practices offers a collection of 256 guidelines on the art of 
coding to help you write better Perl code--in fact, 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.


****Coming Soon
?  Adobe Photoshop CS2 One-on-One 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/photocs2/>
?  Car PC Hacks <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/carpchks/>
?  Computer Privacy Annoyances 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/privacyannoy/>
?  Nokia Smartphone Hacks <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/nokiasmarthks/>
?  PC Pest Control <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pcpestcontrol/>
?  Programming .NET Components 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pnetcomp2/> (Second Edition)
?  Using Moodle <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/moodle/>


================================================
CONFERENCE NEWS
================================================

***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 15% off the 
registration price.

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



================================================
YOUR BOOK REVIEWS
================================================

*** JUGTrento reviewed - Learning Java
<http://www.jugtrento.org/trewiki/?/jug/libri/LearningJava>

***HXP reviewed -
Enterprise JavaBeans -
<http://www.hxp.it/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=3> (Italian)
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/059600530X/ref=ase_hackingextrem-21/202-8575157-1115820> 
(English)
UML 2.0 in a Nutshell
<http://www.hxp.it/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=4>

***London.pm  reviewed -
Advanced Perl Programming 2e
<http://london.pm.org/reviews/advanced_perl_programming_2e.html>
802.11 Security
<http://london.pm.org/reviews/802.11_security.html>
AI for Game Developers
<http://london.pm.org/reviews/ai_for_games_developers.html>

***Mugara reviewed - Assembling Panoramic Photos
<http://mugara.dualmac.com/?p=115>
Emulando a los maestros franceses
<http://mugara.dualmac.com/?p=117>
English versions by Google translation tool
<http://tinyurl.com/7rpt4>
<http://tinyurl.com/ccal5>
Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger
<http://mugara.dualmac.com/?p=116> (Italian)
English versions by Google translation tool
<http://tinyurl.com/9umbk>

***Scottish Coldfusion User Group reviewed - Google Hacks, 2nd Edition
<http://www.scottishcfug.com/go/gh-ps/>

***JUG Milano reviewed - Ship it!
<http://www.jugmilano.it/jsp/Wiki?ShipIt> (Italian)
<http://www.diotalevi.com/weblog/?p=94> (English)

***GNUraghe Llnux User Group reviewed - Learning the bash Shell, 3e
<http://www.gnuraghe.org/?O%27Reilly_Users_Group:Recensioni:Learning_the_bash_Shell%2C_Third%0AEdition> 


***Weblabor reviewed -
Linux Desktop Hacks
<http://weblabor.hu/konyvek/linuxdesktophacks>
Mono
<http://weblabor.hu/konyvek/monoadn>


================================================
YOUR NEWS and more
================================================

***Annual UKUUG Linux Technical Conference - Thursday 4th August - 
Sunday 7th August 2005, Swansea - <http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2005/>
A wide cross-section of the Linux community will gather in Swansea, 
Wales for the annual UKUUG Linux Technical Conference. It's a great way 
to broaden your knowledge and keep up-to-date with what's happening in 
the world of linux. This low-cost event is for anyone with a serious 
interest in linux including systems administrators, linux professionals, 
developers and enthusiasts from companies and linux user groups 
throughout the UK and beyond.

***The HP User Group - Seminars: Further information from admin at hpug.org 
<mailto:admin at hpug.org>
"Making and Breaking OpenVMS Clusters"  -  15th September  -  Warrington
"Unified Messaging"  -  29th September  -  London

Kindest regards
Josette




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