O'Reilly User Group Program
Newsletter
April 4, 2003


Please share this information with your members...


Highlights This Week:
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Book News
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-Outlook Pocket Guide
-Mastering Visual Studio .NET
-.NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell
-Content Syndication with RSS
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Upcoming Events
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-Brian McConnell ("Beyond Contact"), SFPCUG, San Francisco, CA
--April 15
-JavaRanch Online Author Forum--Apr 15-18
-PHPCon East 2003, New York, NY--Apr 23-25
-Linuxfest Northwest 2003, Bellingham, WA--April 26
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Conference 
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-Free Amazon Workshop at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
-Registration is open for the 2003 O'Reilly Open Source Convention
-O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference Call for Participation
-Put Up an O'Reilly Open Source Convention Banner, 
Get a Free Book
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Safari 
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-"Go On Safari" winner--Hamster, LinuxChix
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News
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-Sift, Stir, Code: O'Reilly Cookbooks
-Daddy, Are We There Yet? A Discussion with Alan Kay
-Cheap IP Takeover
-What's New in Python 2.3?
-Top 12 Reasons to Write Unit Tests
-Inside the Workings of Rotor
-Oracle 9i Release 2 Developments for PL/SQL Collections
-iMovie 3 and Other New Books
-A Photographer's Review of the Canon EOS 10D Digital SLR
-A Developer's Perspective on Apple's 12-inch PowerBook
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News From Your Peers
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-MUG ONE Special Event with Dave Marra, Oneonta, NY--May 6
-Peninsula Apple Users Group Celebrates 20 years, Redwood City,
CA--July 19

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Book News
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Review books are available--email me for a copy.

***Please include the book order number on your requests.

Let me know if you need your books by a certain date.
Allow at least four weeks for shipping. 
Send or email me copies of your newsletters and book reviews.

Don't forget, your members get 20% off any O'Reilly book they purchase
directly from O'Reilly. Just use code DSUG when ordering.
http://www.oreilly.com/

***Group purchases with better discounts are available***
Please let me know if you are interested.

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


***Outlook Pocket Guide
Order Number: 4443
This pocket-size reference explains how Outlook works behind the
scenes, allowing you to more efficiently manage your schedule,
contacts, and deadlines. The book includes an extensive guide section
for common tasks and little-known solutions, as well as reference
tables for keyboard shortcuts, regular expressions, and common file
locations.  
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/outlookpg/


***Mastering Visual Studio .NET
Order Number: 3609
Most developers can perform the basics inside Visual Studio .NET, like
creating a project, typing some code, compiling, and debugging.
"Mastering Visual Studio .NET" covers these topics quickly, and then it
gives intermediate and advanced programmers the kind of depth that's
really needed: advanced window functionality, macros, advanced
debugging, add-ins, and so on.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastvsnet/

Chapter 7, "Integrating Components with Visual Studio .NET," is
available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastvsnet/chapter/index.html


***.NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell
Order Number: 3382
".NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell" offers an accelerated introduction
to this next generation of rich user-interface development. Experienced
programmers will find a comprehensive guide to developing Windows
applications within the .NET Windows Forms platform, along with a
compact yet complete reference to the .NET Framework Class Library
(FCL) Windows Forms namespaces and types. The bonus CD-ROM includes an
add-in that integrates the book's reference directly into the help
files of Visual Studio .NET.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/netwinformian/

Chapter 3, "Forms, Containers, and Applications," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/netwinformian/chapter/index.html


***Content Syndication with RSS
Order Number: 3838
RSS is an XML-based format that allows web developers to describe and
syndicate web site content. Written for webloggers, developers, and
programmers who want to offer XML-based feeds of their content, or who
want to use content that other people are syndicating, this book
explores and explains metadata interpretation, different forms of
content syndication, and the increasing use of web services in this
field. Produce your own RSS feed with this step-by-step guide to
implementation.  
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/consynrss/

Chapter 4, "RSS 0.91, 0.92 and 2.0 Really Simple Syndication," is
available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/consynrss/chapter/index.html

===============================================
Upcoming Events
===============================================
***Brian McConnell ("Beyond Contact") at SFPCUG, San Francisco,
CA--April 15 
Author Brian McConnell will discuss the current status of SETI programs
and his research with the San Francisco PC User's Group.

7 p.m. meeting; doors open at 6
Meetings take place in the auditorium of the
Community College District Office, 33 Gough Street,
(a half-block south of Market Street) San Francisco, CA.
www.sfpcug.org


***JavaRanch Online Author Forum--April 15-18 
Author Ron Hitchens ("Java NIO") moseys up to the JavaRanch for four
days, answering questions and responding to Forum topics. On the last
day, four winners will be randomly selected from all Forum participants
to win a copy of the book.  
http://www.javaranch.com/bookpromo.jsp


***PHPCon East 2003, New York, NY-- April 23-25
Join O'Reilly author and PHP inventor Rasmus Lerdorf ("PHP Pocket
Reference") at PHPCon for his opening keynote and session on "PHP Tips
and Tricks." Also, don't miss "PHP Cookbook" authors Adam Trachtenberg
and David Sklar for their session, "Taming Large-Scale PHP Projects."

PHPCon East 2003
Park Central Hotel 
870 Seventh Avenue at 56th Street 
New York City, New York 10019-4038
http://php-con.com/


***Linuxfest Northwest 2003, Bellingham, WA--April 26
Brian Aker ("Running Weblogs with Slash") and Randal Schwartz
("Learning Perl, 3rd Edition") will be speaking at Linuxfest Northwest
2003, a regional exposition for computer users interested in the Linux
operating system and other Open Source software. This event is being
organized by Linux User Groups from Bellingham, Kitsap Peninsula,
Seattle, and Tacoma, and hosted by BTC. Admission to the event is
free.

April 26th, 2003,10am to 4pm
Bellingham Technical College
3028 Lindbergh Avenue, 
Bellingham, WA 98225
For more information:
http://linuxnorthwest.com

For more events, please see:
http://events.oreilly.com/

================================================
Conference News
================================================
***Free Amazon Workshop at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
This full-day workshop, located at ETech, examines the Amazon platform
in depth, with a specific focus on web services APIs. Amazon.com
employees and third party developers share case studies and
demonstrations. Space is limited (and filling up quickly). Register for
the workshop by April 14, 2003.  

To register, send an email to Linda Holder at lholder@oreilly.com with
your contact information.

For more info, read the Slashdot article "REST vs. SOAP In Amazon Web
Services":
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/03/1942235

For more info on the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference: 
http://conferences.oreilly.com/etcon/


***Registration is open for the 2003 O'Reilly Open Source Convention
--Portland, OR
Programmers, developers, strategists, technical staff, and other open
source votaries from around the world congregate for five days of
tutorials, conference sessions, and networking of the flesh-and-blood
variety. Recognizing that open source tools have moved squarely into
the mainstream, this year's convention focuses on "embracing and
extending proprietary software."


Early Bird Discount--
User Group members who register before May 23, 2003, get a double
discount. Use code DSUG when you register, and you'll get 20% off the
"Early Bird" price.

To register, go to:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2003/create/ord_os03

O'Reilly Open Source Convention
Portland Marriott Downtown,
Portland, OR
July 7-11, 2003
http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/


***O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference Call for Participation
System administrators, developers, strategists, technical staff, and
power users are invited to submit proposals to lead tutorial and
conference sessions at the second annual O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference.
Suggested topics include: Scripting Genius, Amazing Applications,
Ingenious Hacks, and SysAdmin Mac Style, to name a few.
http://conferences.oreilly.com/macosxcon/

The submission deadline for proposals is May 14, 2003:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/macosx2003/create/e_sess


***Put Up an O'Reilly Open Source Convention Banner, Get A Free Book
We are looking for user groups to display our conference banners on
their web sites. If you send me the link to your user group site with
our O'Reilly Open Source Convention banner, I will send
you the O'Reilly book of your choice.

OSCON Conference Banners:
http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/oscon2003/

================================================
Safari News
================================================
***"Go On Safari" Tip of the Week Winner--Hamster, LinuxChix

"Make Safari your first port of call when searching the Web for
technical information. Search engines return an awful lot of junk, but
a search on Safari has a 100% signal to noise ratio!!"


Your group can also participate in this introductory program just for
user group members. To "Go on Safari," any of your members who sign up
for our Safari 14-day free trial send comments on their experiences, or
tips and tricks for how they used Safari  (it only needs to be 2
sentences long, but it may be longer) to safari_talk@oreilly.com.

Every week someone will be chosen from the tips or comments submitted
to receive fun stuff from O'Reilly (T-shirts, book bags, or other
surprises). If a member of your user group is selected, your group
receives free gifts, too. Whatever the individual member receives, your
UG will get one, too, to give away at your next meeting, or use however
you see fit. Recipients--and their comments--will be announced in the
User Group Newsletter.


**Please use this special UG URL to sign up for the 14-day trial**
http://www.oreilly.com/safari/ug


For more information on Safari:
http://safari.oreilly.com/

================================================
News From O'Reilly & Beyond
================================================
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General News
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***Sift, Stir, Code: O'Reilly Cookbooks 
Looking for the right ingredients to solve a programming problem? Look
no further than O'Reilly Cookbooks. Each cookbook contains hundreds of
programming recipes presented in a special Problem/Solution/Discussion
format, and includes hundreds of scripts, programs, and command
sequences you can use to solve specific dilemmas.
http://cookbooks.oreilly.com/


***Daddy, Are We There Yet? A Discussion with Alan Kay
Daniel Steinberg chats with Alan Kay, the creator of Smalltalk, about
where computing is today and where it's headed. Alan will deliver a
keynote at O'Reilly's upcoming Emerging Technology Conference.
http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2003/04/03/alan_kay.html

For more info on the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference: 
http://conferences.oreilly.com/etcon/

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Open Source
---------------------
***Cheap IP Takeover
Rob Flickenger offers a scheme for monitoring the health of your server
using ping, bash, and a simple network utility. This is an example of
the 100 hacks you'll find in Rob's "Linux Server Hacks."
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/04/03/linuxhacks.html

Linux Server Hacks
Order Number: 4613
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxsvrhack/


***What's New in Python 2.3?
Will the forthcoming Python 2.3 invalidate what you learn from
O'Reilly's recently released "Python in a Nutshell?" Is it worth
upgrading to 2.3, or should you stick to 2.2 as long as possible? This
article, by Alex Martelli, the author of "Python in a Nutshell,"
answers these questions with a look at the changes and improvements in
the new version, including reviews of the new modules 2.3 has to
offer.  
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2003/03/27/pythonian.html

Python in a Nutshell
Order Number: 1886
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pythonian/index.html

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Java
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***Top 12 Reasons to Write Unit Tests
Most programmers don't write tests, which is unfortunate since testing
improves software quality and design, reduces bugs, and provides
material for accurate documentation. If those reasons don't convince
you, here are 12 more, brought to you by Eric M. Burke and Brian M.
Coyner, coauthors of "Java Extreme Programming Cookbook."
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/04/02/javaxpckbk.html

Java Extreme Programming Cookbook
Order Number: 3870
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jextprockbk/

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.NET
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***Inside the Workings of Rotor
Get under the Shared Source CLI hood in this OET interview with David
Stutz, a former member of Microsoft's .NET Framework core design team
and a coauthor of the first book on the inside operations of Rotor,
O'Reilly's "Shared Source CLI Essentials."
http://www.oetrends.com/cgi-bin/page_display.cgi?194

Shared Source CLI Essentials
Order Number: 351X
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sscliess/

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Oracle
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***Oracle 9i Release 2 Developments for PL/SQL Collections
Steven Feuerstein and Bryn Llewellyn explore the extended flexibility
of the collection syntax, storage, and access in Oracle 9i Release 2,
which makes it possible to write simpler, more efficient code. Steven
is a coauthor of "Oracle PL/SQL Programming, 3rd Edition."
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2003/04/01/feuerstein.html

Oracle PL/SQL Programming, 3rd Edition
Order Number: 3811
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/oraclep3/index.html

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Mac
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***iMovie 3 and Other New Books
Author David Pogue talks about a number of upcoming releases that will
cover everything you need to know about the Apple iLife suite, in the
latest From David's Desk.  http://missingmanuals.com/david/

***A Photographer's Review of the Canon EOS 10D Digital SLR 
The concept of digital photography is exciting. But in reality,
shooting with a typical digicam elicits a raft of frustrations, from
shutter lag to those miserable optical viewfinders. The Canon EOS 10D
digital SLR changes all of that. It's a photographic tool that
distinguishes itself as a capable camera first, then amazes you that it
uses CompactFlash media instead of film. Here's a photographer's look
at what might be your next digital camera.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/q/all_mac_articles


***A Developer's Perspective on Apple's 12-inch PowerBook
Many of our developers have been eyeing Apple's new 12-inch PowerBook
as a possible upgrade for their iBooks. Yes, the PowerBook does have a
G4 processor, but does it pass muster in other areas? Wei Meng Lee made
the leap and reports on how he landed.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/03/28/powerbook.html

================================================
News From Your Peers
================================================

***MUG ONE Special Event with Dave Marra, Oneonta, NY--May 6
Dave Marra, Apple Senior Systems Engineer, will be presenting to The
Macintosh User Group of Oneonta, NY on May 6, 2003 at 7:30 PM in Hogdon
IRC Classroom 4 on the State University at Oneonta campus for an
exciting evening exploring the amazing new Macintosh hardware and
software recently released from Apple.  
http://www.mugone.com/


***Peninsula Apple Users Group Celebrates 20 years, Redwood City,
CA--July 19
All Macintosh enthusiasts are invited to join Saturday, July 19, 2003
from 11am-3pm at the Red Morton Community Park in Redwood City,
California.  
http://homepage.mac.com/ipaug/20-yrs.html

Please RSVP by July 11 to Audrey Hargis at audreyrwc@aol.com.

Until next time--

Marsee