O'Reilly User Group Program
NEWSLETTER
May 7, 2002


HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK:
NEWS:
-Weakening Google and other O'Reilly Network Weblogs
-Flash MX: Building an Address Book
-Using Jini to Build a Catastrophe-Resistant System
-Indefatigable TicTacToe Contest
-O'Reilly Network Launches macdevcenter.com
-Steve Jobs and the History of Cocoa, Part One

CONFERENCE NEWS
-We are pleased to announce our first Mac OS X Conference
-Free Exhibit hall passes still available for the O'Reilly Emerging
Technology Conference, May 13-16, 2002

BOOK NEWS:
-Managing & Using MySQL, 2nd Edition
-Learning the Korn Shell, 2nd Edition
-Windows XP in a Nutshell
-VB.NET Language in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition
-C# & VB.NET Conversion Pocket Reference
-Perl & XML
-Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM YOUR PEERS
-Boca Raton Computer Society, Inc.

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NEWS FROM O'REILLY & BEYOND
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Spread the word to your members....
 
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GENERAL NEWS
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WEAKENING GOOGLE
by David Sims
Google's top result for "Michael Eisner" is Tim O'Reilly's blog. 
Is that a good thing?  
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/1376

See all the O'Reilly Network Weblogs at:
http://www.oreillynet.com/weblogs/

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FLASH
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FLASH MX: BUILDING AN ADDRESS BOOK
Colin Moock shows you how to create an address-book application using
Flash MX's new Flash UI Components, in this article on Macromedia's
Flash Development Center. Colin is the author of "ActionScript: The
Definitive Guide."
http://macromedia.com/desdev/mx/flash/articles/addressbook.html

"ActionScript: The Definitive Guide: Mastering Flash Programming"
Order Number: 8520
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/actscript/

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JAVA
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USING JINI TO BUILD A CATASTROPHE-RESISTANT SYSTEM
September 11 caught the IT departments of several firms without timely
backups. To the author, the tragedy made clear the need for
self-healing, distributed systems that could survive the unthinkable.
The article describes such a system, based on Sun's Rio technology.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/05/01/911proof.html


INDEFATIGABLE TICTACTOE CONTEST
O'Reilly is sponsoring a contest on "Focus on Java" at About.com
http://java.about.com/

Contest Details:
http://java.about.com/library/contests/bl-tttcontest.htm

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MAC
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O'REILLY NETWORK LAUNCHES MACDEVCENTER.COM
macdevcenter.com is a new web site for Mac OS X professionals. The
heart of it is a rich collection of tutorials on Mac OS X, covering the
OS and the key technologies that work with its BSD Unix core. Topics
include the Terminal application, AppleScript, QuickTime, Cocoa, Java,
Aqua, and Apache. The site also features news and regular columns from
Mac experts such as David Pogue, Simson Garfinkel, James Duncan
Davidson, and Kevin Hemenway.  
http://www.macdevcenter.com

The macdevcenter.com staff also produces a bi-weekly Mac OS X email
newsletter. 
To subscribe, go to http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/home


STEVE JOBS AND THE HISTORY OF COCOA, PART ONE
In this first part of a two-part series, Simson Garfinkel and Michael
Mahoney explain why Cocoa and Mac OS X aren't nearly as revolutionary
as they are evolutionary-and still in the process of refinement. The
story begins with Apple's genesis in the 1970s and takes you through
key events up through 1993, when NeXTSTEP began to flounder. In Part
Two (Friday, May 10), Simson and Michael pick up the story with the
Star Trek project and bring you to the current iteration of Mac OS X.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2002/05/03/cocoa_history_one.html

"Building Cocoa Applications: A Step-by-Step Guide"
Order Number: 2351
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/buildcocoa/index.html

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CONFERENCE NEWS
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WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE OUR FIRST MAC OS X CONFERENCE
The first O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference will be held September
30-October 3, 2002 in Santa Clara, CA. We will explore how Apple's
completely rebuilt operating system is creating fertile ground for Mac
users, *nix programmers, and Java developers alike. 
Registration opens in June.
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/macosx2002/

Join our mailing list to receive the latest information about all
O'Reilly conferences.  http://conferences.oreilly.com/form.html


FREE EXHIBIT HALL PASSES....
for the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, May 13-16, 2002
Westin Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA

For more information or to register:
http://conferences.oreilly.com/etcon/


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BOOK NEWS
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REVIEW COPIES ARE AVAILABLE, email me for a copy.
If you need your books by a certain date, please allow at least three
weeks for shipping.  Please send me copies of your newsletters.

Don't forget, your members get 20% off any O'Reilly book they purchase
direct from O'Reilly. Just use code DSUG when ordering.

Press releases are available on our press page: 
http://press.oreilly.com/

MANAGING & USING MYSQL, 2ND EDITION
Order Number: 2114
MySQL is a popular and robust open source database product that
supports key subsets of SQL on both Linux and Unix systems. MySQL is
free for nonprofit use and costs a small amount for commercial use.
Unlike commercial databases, MySQL is affordable and easy to use. This
book includes introductions to SQL and to relational database theory.
If you plan to use MySQL to build web sites or other Linux or Unix
applications, this book teaches you to do that, and it will remain
useful as a reference once you understand the basics. Ample tutorial
material and examples are included throughout.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/msql2/

Chapter 13, "Java," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/msql2/chapter/ch13.html


LEARNING THE KORN SHELL, 2ND EDITION
Order Number: 1959
The Korn shell is an interactive command and scripting language for
accessing Unix and other computer systems. As a complete and high-level
programming language in itself, it's been a favorite since it was
developed in the mid 1980s by David G. Korn at AT&T Bell Laboratories.
Knowing how to use it is an essential skill for serious Unix users.
"Learning the Korn Shell" shows you how to use the Korn shell as a user
interface and as a programming environment.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/korn2/


WINDOWS XP IN A NUTSHELL
Order Number: 2491
This compact and comprehensive book systematically unveils what
resolute users of the new Windows XP operating system will find
interesting and useful, with little-known details, utility programs,
and configuration settings all captured in a consistent reference
format.  http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/winxpnut/

Chapter 4, "Windows XP Applications and Tools," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/winxpnut/chapter/ch04.html

Chapter 7, "Networking," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/winxpnut/chapter/ch07.html


C# & VB.NET CONVERSION POCKET REFERENCE
Order Number: 3196
Though most programmers use two or more languages, they usually have a
mastery of one. Although Microsoft has advertised that the .NET runtime
is language agnostic and that C# and Visual Basic .NET are so close
that switching between the two is really quite easy, that's only true
up to a point. Some of the differences are obvious, but others are very
subtle. "C# & VB.NET Conversion Pocket Reference" helps you easily make
the switch from one language to another.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csharpvbpr/

The Table of Contents is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csharpvbpr/toc.html


VB.NET LANGUAGE IN A NUTSHELL, 2ND EDITION
Order Number: 3080
With the release of the Microsoft .NET platform comes a new version of
Visual Basic dramatically unlike its predecessors. So extensive are the
changes, in fact, that some VB programmers argue that Visual Basic .NET
is an entirely new programming language. In the updated second edition
of this popular book, you will find complete documentation for the
Visual Basic .NET language.  http://oreilly.com/catalog/vbdotnetnut2/

Chapter 8, "Attributes," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/vbdotnetnut2/chapter/ch08.html


PERL & XML
Order Number: 205X
XML is a text-based markup language that has taken the programming
world by storm. More powerful than HTML yet less demanding than SGML,
XML has proven itself to be flexible and resilient. XML is the perfect
tool for formatting documents with even the smallest bit of complexity,
from Web pages to legal contracts to books. However, XML has also
proven itself to be indispensable for organizing and conveying other
sorts of data as well, thus its central role in web services like SOAP
and XML-RPC.

As the Perl programming language was tailor-made for manipulating text,
few people have disputed the fact that Perl and XML are perfectly
suited for one another. The only question has been what's the best way
to do it. That's where this book comes in.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlxml/

Chapter 3, "XML Basics: Reading and Writing," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlxml/chapter/ch03.html


JAVA ENTERPRISE IN A NUTSHELL, 2ND EDITION
Order Number: 1525
Completely revised and updated for the new 2.0 version of Sun
Microsystems Java Enterprise Edition software, "Java Enterprise in a
Nutshell 2nd Edition" covers all of the J2EE APIs, including RMI, Java
IDL, JDBC, JNDI, Java Servlet, and Enterprise JavaBeans, with a
fast-paced tutorial and compact reference on each technology. Then
"Java Enterprise in a Nutshell" goes even further, providing a classic
O'Reilly-style quick reference for all of the classes in the various
packages that comprise the Enterprise APIs--covering the core
enterprise APIs as well as numerous standard extensions.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jentnut2/

Chapter 2, "JDBC," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jentnut2/chapter/ch02.html

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ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM YOUR PEERS
================================================
Florida-

BOCA RATON COMPUTER SOCIETY, INC.
Will hold their next General Meeting
Wednesday May 15, 2002 at 6:30 P.M
South County Civic Center,
16700 Jog Road in Delray Beach
For more information see:
http://www.brcs.org/


Until next week,

Marsee