[Nottingham] O'Reilly UK User Group Programme newsletter - Issue 13-05

Michael Erskine msemtd at yahoo.co.uk
Fri Sep 23 10:06:00 BST 2005


All,

News from O'Reilly -- I especially liked the interview with Autrigus Tang 
(author of PAR) and his info on the Haskell language.

Enjoy,
Michael Erskine.


O'Reilly UK User Group Programme
NEWSLETTER
Issue 13-05 

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

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


================================================
NEWS FROM O'REILLY AND 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> 
 

---------------------
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/> 
 


================================================ 
BOOK NEWS
================================================  
Copies of our books are available for your members to review -- send me an 
email with the delivery address together with the book you would like to 
review. When the review is published, please send me a copy or the url. I 
would also appreciate if you could send a copy to www.amazon.co.uk 
<http://www.amazon.co.uk>

Latest books available for review -
        *       Asterisk: The Future of Telephony 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/asterisk/> 
        Many organizations are drawn to Internet telephony's promise of cost 
savings, and its ability to move data, images, and voice traffic over the 
same connection. Asterisk, an open source system than runs on Linux, offers 
the best option. This guide covers installing, configuring, and integrating 
Asterisk with existing phone systems, without the need for additional 
hardware.  
        *       Prefactoring <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prefactoring/> 
Cut back on the refactoring time in your projects with new software design 
process called "prefactoring." This book presents prefactoring guidelines in 
design, code, and testing, derived from lessons learned by many developers 
over the years. With these guidelines, you'll create more readable code 
before you reach the second-guessing stage.
        *       Programming Visual Basic 2005 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/progvb2005/> 
This information-packed guide helps you understand Visual Basic 2005, the 
next-generation release of the popular Visual Basic programming language. 
This book aims to make you immediately productive in creating Windows and web 
applications using Visual Basic 2005 and all of its tools. Perfect for 
experienced VB6 and VB .NET developers. 
        *       Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/switchmacmm2/> 
Maybe you're fed up with the Windows way of life. Maybe you're drawn to the 
Mac's stability and user-friendliness, its digital media suite, or the fact 
that a whole computer can be as slick as your iPod. Becoming a Mac convert is 
easy--so long as you've got Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger 
Edition. Covering the latest features in Mac OS X Tiger, it teaches you how 
to smoothly and seamlessly switch to a Mac. 
        *       Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/vbjumpstart/> 
        Okay, VB6 developers--time's up. Microsoft no longer supports this 
version of Visual Basic, but VB 2005 offers several attractive reasons to 
upgrade. Our jumpstart guide lets you test-drive the beta version of VB 2005 
with three hands-on projects that let you learn the new syntax quickly. It's 
the painless way to migrate, and the perfect training manual for moving to 
the world of .NET.
        *       Windows Server 2003 Network Administration 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/windowsvrnet/>
        This guide is dedicated to helping you master networking on Windows 
Server 2003 systems. In addition to fundamental concepts and essential TCP/IP 
protocols, the book provides a tutorial for planning, installing, and 
configuring various network programs as they're implemented on Windows 
servers. Ideal for system administrators and network managers. 
****Coming Soon
        *       Ambient Findability <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/ambient/> 
        *       Beyond Java <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/beyondjava/> 
        *       Essential SNMP <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/esnmp2/> 
(Second Edition) 
        *       FileMaker Pro: The Missing Manual 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/fmakerprotmm/> 
        *       Halo 2 Hacks <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/halo2hks/> 
        *       iWork '05: The Missing Manual 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/iwork5tmm/> 
        *       Linux Desktop Pocket Guide 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxdesktoppr/> 
        *       Practical Development Environments 
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/practicalde/> 


================================================
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 25% off the registration 
price.

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

***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/> 


***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/> 



================================================
CONFERENCES/EXHIBITIONS ATTENDED BY O'REILLY UK
================================================

***Developing Software for an Open Source Environment, IBM Bedfont Lakes, Sept 
29th
This major seminar will take a look at software development in the Open Source 
environment and what you need to think about when planning your next software 
project. Our keynote speaker, Jono Bacon (Linux Evangelist and Journalist), 
is one of the foremost commentators on the adoption, advantages and pitfalls 
of Open Source architecture. He will be ably supported by cornerstone vendors 
in this burgeoning field: IBM, Red Hat, MySQL, Corexe and 
TheDevelopersCatalogue.Com will look at the directions for Linux, databases 
and software development.
<http://www.ccd.co.uk/events/OSevent1.htm> 

***Linux World, Olympia, London - 5-6 October 
This year's annual event for the UK's Linux community will provide your 
company the unrivaled platform to showcase your products and services in 
front of thousands of visitors and buyers. LinuxWorld Conference & Expo 2005 
is being held at Olympia 2 on the 5-6th October 2005. 
<http://www.linuxworldexpo.co.uk/> 

***Quest Software Seminar, London - 7th October
A one day PL/SQL training seminar "You Wrote WHAT?" - 
Presented by Steven Feuerstein 
<http://www.quest.com/plsql> 

***EuroOSCON, Amsterdam -17-20 October
The Future Is Open - The 2005 O'Reilly European Open Source Convention brings 
together diverse projects and communities from across the continent and 
around the world to address the changes and challenges unique to the European 
computing community.
<http://conferences.oreillynet.com/eurooscon/> 

***Mac Expo, Olympia, London 27-28th October
Thought-leaders such as David Pogue, Deke McClelland and Andy Ihnatko will 
throw the spotlight on cutting-edge developments in applications such as Mac 
OS Tiger, Apple's iLife, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and QuarkXPress. Discover 
the hidden tips and tricks utilized by the Mac's top practitioners to 
dramatically enhance your skills and gain the insights you need to get the 
most from your technology investment.
www.mac-expo.co.uk <http://www.mac-expo.co.uk> 


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

*** Scottish ColdFusion User Group reviewed - JavaScript 4e -
<http://www.scottishcfug.com/go/jstdg-gc/> 

***Udruzenje Linux Korisnika BiH, ULK - reviewed
- Network Security Tools
<http://www.linux.org.ba/osvrti/index.php?l=10> 

- Linux in a Windows World
<http://www.linux.org.ba/osvrti/index.php?l=11> 

Eclipse IDE Pocket Guide
<http://www.linux.org.ba/osvrti/index.php?l=12> 

***Edinburgh Perlmongers reviewed - Perl Testing
<http://edinburgh.pm.org/book-reviews/perl-testing-developers-notebook.html> 


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

***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
"Data Centre Operations: Coping Today, Developing Tomorrow" - 27th September, 
Bristol
"Unified Messaging"  -  29th September  -  London

That's all for now
Josette

		
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