O'Reilly User Group Program
Newsletter
August 13, 2003
Please share the information your members would be interested in....


Highlights This Week:
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Book News
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-Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition
-.NET Framework Essentials, 3rd Edition
-Programming .NET Security
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Upcoming Events
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-Jesse Liberty ("Programming C#" & "Programming ASP.NET"), 
Cape Cod .NET User Group, Hyannis, MA--August 23
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Conferences
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-What to "See and Do" while you are at the 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--Mike Caprio, Worcester 
Macromedia User Group
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News
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-When Is 54 Not Equal to 54?
-Introduction to OOP in Flash and ActionScript
-Five Lessons You Should Learn from Extreme Programming  
-The Java Speech API, Part 1
-The Factory Design Pattern
-Comments in a "No comment" World
-Outboard Brains for Mac OS X
-Open Directory and Active Directory, Part 1
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Fun Stuff
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-Take the Geek Test

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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. 

Email me copies of your newsletters and book reviews.
For book review tips and suggestions on writing, go to:
http://ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html

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/

***Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition
Order Number: 3803
The first edition of this book has been called "the best reference
available on the subject." This new edition goes even further,
documenting the latest techniques for using ColdFusion MX to develop
and serve dynamic web page content. It's an exhaustive guide that
covers everything from the basics to advanced topics, with examples you
can use for your own applications. Packed with insider hints, tips, and
tricks, this book will help you make the most out of ColdFusion MX.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coldfusion2/?CMP=NLC-95OC69668232

Chapter 11, "Advanced Database Techniques," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coldfusion2/chapter/index.html


***.NET Framework Essentials, 3rd Edition
Order Number: 5059
Fully updated for version 1.1 of the .NET Framework, this new edition
of .NET Framework Essentials is an objective, no-nonsense overview of
.NET. It touches all the bases, from the Common Language Run-Time (CLR)
and key class libraries to the specialized packages for ASP.NET,
Windows Forms, XML web services, and data access (ADO.NET). Written for
intermediate to advanced VB, C/C++, Java, and Delphi developers, the
book is also useful to system leaders and architects who are assessing
tools for future projects.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess3/?CMP=NLC-2MV239432998

Chapter 2, "The Common Language Runtime," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess3/chapter/index.html


***Programming .NET Security
Order Number: 4427
With the spread of web-enabled desktop clients and web server-based
applications, developers can no longer afford to treat security as an
afterthought. In fact, .NET forces you to address the topic since
Microsoft has placed security-related features at the core of the .NET
Framework. Even so, carelessness and lack of experience can enable a
program to be used in an unintended way. This book shows programmers
how to use .NET's various tools to write secure applications.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prognetsec/?CMP=NLC-B12M76941348

Chapter 4, "The Lifetime of a Secure Application," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prognetsec/chapter/index.html

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


***Jesse Liberty ("Programming C#" & "Programming ASP.NET"), 
Cape Cod .NET User Group, Hyannis, MA--August 23 Author Jesse Liberty
presents an all-day "crash course" on ASP.NET for the Cape Cod .NET
User Group.  
http://www.ccdevgroup.net/

Saturday, August 23, 9am-5 pm
Cape Cod Community College
Hyannis Campus
Adult Learning Center
540 Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
http://www.capecod.mass.edu/directions/

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Conference News
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***What to "See and Do" while you are at the O'Reilly Mac OS X
Conference
Held in the heart of Silicon Valley, the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference
provides conference attendees and speakers the opportunity to network
with peers in a comfortable and enjoyable setting. Check out the things
to "See & Do" in Santa Clara.
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/25/see_do.html

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--Mike Caprio, 
Worcester Macromedia User Group
"I'm a partner in a three person software consulting firm; simply put,
Safari is the perfect tool for my business. Our clients often have
varied needs, and they sometimes need help with the latest
technologies--if we didn't have the resource we needed to refer to in
order to help, we'd have to order a book online or drive out to the
local bookstore to browse the shelves and hope they had something we
could use. Having Safari online texts at our fingertips gives us a much
faster response time providing expertise to our clients. Now that all
the text from so many books is available and searchable, we can access
that kind of specialized technical knowledge much more quickly from a
very reliable source."

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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***When Is 54 Not Equal to 54?
"Protection" mechanisms added to 802.11g to ensure backward
compatibility with legacy 802.11b clients can cut throughput by 50
percent or more. Matthew Gast, author of "802.11 Wireless Networks: The
Definitive Guide," explains.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2003/08/08/wireless_throughput.html?CMP=NLC-2439WB792718

802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide
Order Number: 1835
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/802dot11/


***E-Commerce Pioneers Split on Patent Rights
In this "Associated Press" article, Tim O'Reilly talks about why he
didn't patent the idea of using advertising revenue to run a web portal
as a "business method"--a move that would have changed the course of
internet history.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001274072_btpatents28.html


***Introduction to OOP in Flash and ActionScript
One of the greatest stumbling blocks in learning object-oriented
programming is the inherent abstractness. Enter the simplicity of Flash
and ActionScript. In this first of two articles, Joey Lott offers an
introduction to basic OOP with ActionScript.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2003/08/12/actionscriptckbk.html

Joey is the author of "ActionScript Cookbook."
Order Number: 4907
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/actscptckbk/

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Open Source
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***Five Lessons You Should Learn from Extreme Programming
Extreme Programming (XP) is yet another popular idea gaining press. It
adapts the best ideas from the past decades of software development.
Whether or not you adopt XP, it's worth considering what XP teaches.
chromatic, author of "Extreme Programming Pocket Guide," offers five
lessons you should learn from Extreme Programming.
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/07/31/extremeprogramming.html?CMP=NLC-Q87B09432775

Extreme Programming Pocket Guide
Order Number: 4850
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/extprogpg/index.html

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Java
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***The Java Speech API, Part 1
Speech technology has advanced to the point where it's practical to
consider speech synthesis and speech recognition in certain
applications. In the first of two articles, Mandar Chitnis and Lakshmi
Ananthamurthy explore JSAPI, an API for accessing various speech
engines, building a simple application with speech synthesis.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/08/06/jsapi.html?CMP=NLC-4G1A98664309

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.NET
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***The Factory Design Pattern
Many popular software libraries make extensive use of design patterns
so that the APIs can be abstracted out at a high level for the end
programmer. The .NET Framework Class Library (FCL) is no exception.
Given that the FCL builds on the strengths of Microsoft's experience
with developing software libraries, one can assume that instances of
design patterns found in the FCL are fairly appropriate usages of these
patterns. In this article, Amit Goel describes some instances of a
commonly occurring design pattern in the FCL: the Factory Method design
pattern.
http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2003/08/11/factorypattern.html

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XML
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***Comments in a "No comment" World
In this month's XML Q&A column, John E. Simpson examines two issues
related to documentation of, and comments in, XML documents and
schemas.  
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/07/30/qa.html

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Mac
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***Outboard Brains for Mac OS X
Here's a brief look at some applications designed to be digital
brain-dumps; electronic Pensieves into which you can throw any
information you want, knowing that it will still be there when you need
it later. Giles Turnbull looks at a variety of "outboard brains"
utilities and highlights their particular strengths.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/08/05/outboard_brains.html

***Open Directory and Active Directory, Part 1
For the last number of months, Michael Bartosh has been working on this
series of articles for Mac DevCenter readers that examines Mac OS X's
Directory Services architecture in depth and explores how to integrate
these services with Microsoft's Active Directory.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/08/05/active_directory.html?CMP=NLC-J9A196900446

This is the same topic that Michael will be discussing in person at the
O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference.
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/macosx2003/view/e_sess/4513

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Fun Stuff
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***Take the Geek Test
http://www.innergeek.us/geek.html

Until next time--

Marsee