O'Reilly User Group Program
Newsletter
July 28, 2003

Please share the information your members would be interested in....


Highlights This Week:
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Book News
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-RTF Pocket Guide
-Practical RDF
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Upcoming Events
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-Come See Me at LinuxWorld, San Francisco, CA--Aug 5
-James Duncan Davidson ("Cocoa in a Nutshell"), 
Utah Java User Group, West Valley City, UT--Aug 21
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Conferences
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-Call For Participation: The 2004 O'Reilly Life Science 
Informatics Conference
-The Second Annual O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference
-Put Up an O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference Banner, Get a Free Book
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Safari
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-"Go On Safari" Tip of the Week Winner--John Davey, 
Philadelphia Area Computer Society, Web Design SIG
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News
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-Amazon Hacks: Beta Chapter available online
-New User Group page and Book Review Guideline section 
for the O'Reilly UG Program
-Secure Cooking with C and C++
-Simplify Your Life with Apache Virtual Hosts
-Why Web Developers Need JavaServer Faces
-StringBuilders Explained
-Why Choose RSS 1.0?
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News From Your Peers
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-Mactopia interview with Lorene Romero NCMUG, CA

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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/

***RTF Pocket Guide
Order Number: 4753
Any programmer working with text files today needs a way to deal with
Microsoft Word documents and their underlying Rich Text Format. Our
handy quick reference is the only book available on this notoriously
difficult format. Small and easy to use on the job, RTF Pocket Guide
focuses on the "workhorse" codes that programmers can't do without,
including text style codes, paragraph formatting codes, and page
formatting codes--all with real-world examples.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rtfpg/?CMP=EMC-OC5466230545

A Sample Excerpt, "RTF Tutorial," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rtfpg/chapter/index.html


***Practical RDF
Order Number: 2637
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a structure for describing
and interchanging metadata on the Web. "Practical RDF" explains RDF
from the ground up, providing real-world examples and descriptions of
how the technology is being used in applications like Mozilla, FOAF,
and Chandler, as well as infrastructure you can use to build your own
applications. This book cuts to the heart of the W3C's often obscure
specifications, giving you tools to apply RDF successfully in your own
projects.  
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pracrdf/?CMP=EMC-79IF02722688

Chapter 8, "Jena: RDF in Java," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pracrdf/chapter/index.html

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

***Come See Me at LinuxWorld, San Francisco, CA--Aug 5
Stop by the O'Reilly booth #1473 and say hi to me on Tuesday, August 5.
The show runs August 5-7. Here is the list of O'Reilly Events at
LinuxWorld:  
http://linux.oreillynet.com/linux/linuxworld2003/


***James Duncan Davidson ("Cocoa in a Nutshell"), Utah Java User Group,
West Valley City, UT--Aug 21
Author James Duncan demonstrates techniques for writing clear and
robust code at this UJUG event. For more information and to RSVP please
go to:  
http://www.ujug.org/meetings.html

IHC Lake Park Facility,
4646 West Lake Park Blvd. 
West Valley City, UT
http://www.ujug.org/location.html

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Conference News
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***Call For Participation: The 2004 O'Reilly Life Science 
Informatics Conference
O'Reilly & Associates invites biologists, computer scientists, software
engineers, mathematicians, and experts in other related fields to
submit proposals to lead tutorial and conference sessions at the
O'Reilly Life Science Informatics Conference, slated for February 9-12,
2004 at the Westin Horton Plaza in San Diego, CA. 
Proposals are due September 1, 2003.
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/lsi2004/


** The Second Annual O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference 
User Group members who register before September 12, 2003 get a double
discount. Use code DSUG when you register, and receive 20% off the
"Early Bird" price.

To register, go to:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/macosx2003/create/ord_mac03

O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference
October 27-30, 2003
Westin Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA
http://conferences.oreilly.com/macosxcon/


***Put Up an O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference 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 Mac OS X Conference banner, I will send you the O'Reilly
book of your choice.

O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference Banners:
http://ug.oreilly.com/banners/macosx2003/

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Safari News
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***"Go On Safari" Tip of the Week Winner--John Davey, 
Philadelphia Area Computer Society, Web Design SIG
"...Safari dovetails very well with your print library. I have a couple
books that now have second editions. Safari lets me review the new
editions on the Safari bookshelf for reference when I need them. And of
course, when looking to buy a book on a subject, Safari lets you search
the catalogs of several publishers and read as much of each book as you
need to make a decision."

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 can 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.  (Please include your UG name in the email.)

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/

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News From O'Reilly & Beyond
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General News
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***Amazon Hacks: Beta
O'Reilly's upcoming "Amazon Hacks" is a collection of real-world tips,
tricks, and full-scale solutions to practical uses of amazon.com and
the Amazon Web services API.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/amazonhks/chapter/index.html?CMP=EMC-UO9997498356


***New User Group page and Book Review Guideline section for the 
O'Reilly UG Program
We have decided to give the UG page (http://ug.oreilly.com/) a new look
by updating the graphics section, adding a "User Group Programs and
Resources" section, and a "Book Review Guidelines and Suggestions"
section. Writing a review has never been so easy....
http://ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html?CMP=NLC-6DT281319197


***Secure Cooking with C and C++ 
In this first in a three-part series of sample recipes from "Secure
Programming Cookbook for C and C++," the authors offer nine basic rules
for proper data validation, which they recommend all programmers
follow. From their first rule: "Assume all input is guilty until proven
otherwise" to their last: "The better you understand the data, the
better you can filter it," the advice presented here will help
programmers keep unwanted, malicious data out of their applications.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/excerpt/spcookbook_chap03/index.html

Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++
Order Number: 3943
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/secureprgckbk/index.html

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Open Source
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***Simplify Your Life with Apache Virtual Hosts
Not every web site needs its own server or IP address. Apache and HTTP
1.1 both allow different sites to share a single box and an IP address.
Russell Dyer explains how virtual hosts can make your life easier as a
web developer and a system administrator.
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/apache/2003/07/24/vhosts.html

***Defending Your Site Against Spam
To users, unsolicited commercial email is an annoyance. To mail server
administrators, it's a threat. Dru Nelson recently had his network
attacked by spammers. He explains the various defenses he considered
for protecting against future attacks.

Part one:
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2003/06/26/blocklist.html

Part two:
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2003/07/24/blocklist.html

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Java
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***Why Web Developers Need JavaServer Faces
Several good frameworks exist to make the Java server programmer's life
easier. Unfortunately, several hard problems still exist, including
multiple output-format support and separation of content from
presentation. In this first Java Q&A column, Chuck Cavaness explains
why JSF matters.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/07/23/java_qa.html

Chuck is the author of the "Jakarta Struts Pocket Reference"
Order Number: 5199
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jakartapr/index.html

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.NET
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***StringBuilders Explained
Visual Basic programmers have long enjoyed ease in string
manipulations. It is easy to create a string, split it up, concatenate
multiple strings, etc. However, this seemingly innocent piece of code
is not the recommended way to perform string manipulations in .NET.
Wei-Meng Lee shows you how to make sense of the StringBuilder class.
http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2003/07/21/stringbuilder.html

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XML
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***Why Choose RSS 1.0? 
Part of RSS 1.0's value is in retaining its roots as primarily a
metadata specification. A journal publisher explains why they chose RSS
1.0 as the basis for distributing RSS feeds of their publications.
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/07/23/rssone.html

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Mac
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***Penny-Pinching PowerBook
Do you need portability for email and word processing, but don't want
to plunk down a pile of cash for a new Apple laptop? Diehard Mac user
Michael Norton describes his penny-pinching Odyssey that explored the
PowerBook 280c and the 1400.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/07/22/cheap_powerbook.html


***Welcome to Swaine Manor
Swaine Manor is a new column for Mac DevCenter written by technology
veteran Michael Swaine. In this debut, Michael comments on dancing with
Apple, Mac rumors, REALbasic, and more.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/07/18/swaine.html?CMP=NLC-A5T991393753

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News From Your Peers
================================================''
***Mactopia interview with Lorene Romero NCMUG, CA 
Lorene is a board member and past president for the North Coast Mac
Users Group in Northern Cailfornia.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/community/usergroups/usergroups.aspx?pid=whyjoin&page=romero


Until next time--

Marsee