================================================================
O'Reilly UG Program News--Just for User Group Leaders
August 6, 2004
================================================================
-Free Expo Hall Passes available for PhotoShopWorld in 
Orlando, Florida--September 2
-Put Up an O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference Banner, Get a Free Book
----------------------------------------------------------------
Book Info
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***Review books are available 
Copies of our books are available for your members to review--
send me an email and please include the book's ISBN number on 
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Allow at least four weeks for shipping. 

***Please send copies of your book reviews
Email me a copy of your newsletters or book reviews.
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***Discount information
Don't forget to remind your members about our 20% discount on O'Reilly, 
No Starch, Paraglyph, Pragmatic Bookshelf, and Syngress books and 
O'Reilly
conferences. 
Just use code DSUG.

***Group purchases with better discounts are available
Please let me know if you are interested and I can put you in 
touch with our sales department.

----------------------------------------------------------------
General News
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**Free Expo Hall Passes available for PhotoShopWorld in Orlando,
Florida--September 2
Let me know how many you need and I can send some.

***Put Up an O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference Banner, Get a Free Book
We are looking for user groups to display our conference banner 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:
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 ================================================================
O'Reilly News for User Group Members
August 6, 2004
================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------
Book News
----------------------------------------------------------------
-XML Hacks
-CSS Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition
-IRC Hacks
-Cyber Adversary Characterization
-OpenOffice.org Writer
-AI for Game Developers
-IT Ethics Handbook
-Upgrading to PHP 5
-SpamAssassin
-We the Media
-Zero-Day Exploit
-Mono: A Developer's Notebook
----------------------------------------------------------------
Upcoming Events
----------------------------------------------------------------
-Deke McClellend ("Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One") 
2004 Australian InDesign Conference--August 12-14
-Wil Wheaton ("Just a Geek" and "Dancing Barefoot") at 
Hollywood Borders--August 15
-Wil Wheaton ("Just a Geek" and "Dancing Barefoot") at Mysterious 
Galaxy
Books, San Diego, CA--August 21
-O'Reilly at PhotoShopWorld, Orlando, Florida--August 31 & September 2
----------------------------------------------------------------
Conference News
----------------------------------------------------------------
-Registration Is Open for O'Reilly's Mac OS X Conference--
October 25-28, 2004
----------------------------------------------------------------
News
----------------------------------------------------------------
-We the Media Blog
-Techies Reshape 9/11 History
-O'Reilly Radar: OSCON 2004
-Top 10 Online Investing Tips
-The Great Linux Desktop Migration Contest--Enter by August 9
-O'Reilly and MySQL AB Present the MySQL Users Conference
-Questioning Promises at LinuxWorld
-Open Source and NASA's Mars Rover
-21.5 Things You Can Do with Office 2004
-Creating DVD/VCD Photo Slide Shows for Your Mac
-OS 9, Mine, All Mine
-Windows Server Hacks: Creating a Password Reset Disk
-Power Up the Windows Clipboard
-Rapid Application Development with VB.NET 2.0
-XML-Java Data Binding Using XMLBeans
-Keeping Up with the Java Joneses
-What Countermeasures Really Mean
----------------------------------------------------------------
News From Your Peers
----------------------------------------------------------------
-Report from OSCON 2004

================================================
Book News
================================================
Did you know you can request a free book to review for your
group? Ask your group leader for more information.

For book review writing tips and suggestions, go to:
http://ug.oreilly.com/bookreviews.html

Don't forget, you can receive 20% off any O'Reilly, No Starch, 
Paraglyph, Pragmatic Bookshelf, or Syngress book you purchase directly
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Just use code DSUG when ordering online or by phone 800-998-9938.
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***Free ground shipping is available for online orders of at 
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----------------------------------------------------------------
New Releases
----------------------------------------------------------------
***XML Hacks
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596007116
This practical, roll-up-your-sleeves guide distills years of ingenious 
XML
hacking into a complete set of tips, tricks, and tools for people who 
want
to uncover the true power of XML. With plenty of real-world projects 
that
illustrate how to define, read, create, and manipulate XML documents,
you'll learn to put XML to work on the Internet and within productivity
applications. Explore and experiment, discover clever shortcuts, show 
off
just a little, and have fun in the process, with this invaluable book.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xmlhks/

A slew of sample hacks are available free online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/xmlhks/chapter/index.html


***CSS Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596007779
"CSS Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition" is an indispensable reference for 
web
designers and developers. This handy book condenses all the details in 
its
companion volume, "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide," into 
one
easy-to-use cheat-sheet, covering the essential information you need to
effectively implement CSS. There's an introduction to CSS, an 
alphabetical
reference to the CSS2 and CSS 2.1 properties, and detailed information
about CSS support in browsers. When you're stuck and need an answer
quickly, you'll want this completely updated pocket reference at your
fingertips.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csspr2/

A sample excerpt on "Basic Visual Layout" is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csspr2/chapter/index.html


***IRC Hacks
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 059600687X
IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is more than an accessible, multi-platform 
chat
environment; it's a network of intercommunicating servers that allows
thousands of clients to connect from anywhere in the world. "IRC Hacks"
shows you how IRC works, and how to best use some of the features that
have made IRC the most successful, most scalable, and most mature chat
system on the planet. Featuring contributions from renowned IRC 
hackers,
many of whom collaborated on IRC, this collection of tips and tools 
covers
just about everything needed to become a true IRC master.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/irchks/

Sample hacks are available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/irchks/chapter/index.html


***Cyber Adversary Characterization
Publisher: Syngress
ISBN: 1931836116
The ever-increasing emphasis and reliance on the use of computers and 
the
Internet has come hand in hand with the increased threat of 
cyber-crime.
Many systems and infrastructures are exceedingly vulnerable to attacks, 
as
the complexity of computer networks is growing faster than the ability 
to
understand and protect them. Heightened vigilance is not enough, but 
needs
to be coupled with active defensive measures to guarantee the best
protection. This book provides the reader with understanding of and an
ability to anticipate that "cyber adversary" silently waiting in the 
wings
to attack.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1931836116/


***OpenOffice.org Writer
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596008260
This handy reference to using Writer, the word processor that comes 
with
OpenOffice.org, is the open source alternative to Microsoft Word. 
You’ll
learn how to write, edit, and review documents; use templates and 
styles
effectively; control page layout; insert, edit, and create graphics; 
and
much more--even how to make a smooth transition from Word. With the
complete office suite included on a CD, this book makes using Writer an
easy decision.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/openoffice/ 

Chapter 2, "Writing, Editing, and Reviewing Documents," is available
online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/openoffice/chapter/index.html


***AI for Game Developers
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596005555
Written for the novice AI programmer, this book introduces techniques 
such
as finite state machines, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and many 
others,
in straightforward, easy-to-understand language, supported with code
samples written in C/C++. The book explains basic techniques such as
chasing and evading, pattern movement, and flocking to genetic 
algorithms,
then presents a mix of deterministic (traditional) and 
non-deterministic
(newer) AI techniques, all designed to provide usable techniques you 
can
apply to your games right now.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/ai/


***IT Ethics Handbook
Publisher: Syngress
ISBN: 1931836140
Ethical judgments are no different in the area of computing from those 
in
any other area. Computers raise problems of privacy, ownership, theft, 
and
power, to name but a few. This book covers subjects ranging from 
defensive
architecture, offensive issues, privacy, the use of information, and 
the
human element of employer and employee ethics. The book is written by 
IT
professionals for IT professionals, and always brings any discussion 
back
to a practical example and application.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1931836140/


***Upgrading to PHP 5
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596006365
If you're using PHP 4, chances are good that an upgrade to PHP 5 is in
your future. This book offers a concise appraisal of the differences
between versions 4 and 5, a detailed look at what's new in PHP 5, and
explanations of how these changes affect you. The book also covers more
advanced features and each new feature is shown in code, helping you to
know when to use it and how it's better than PHP 4. 

Chapter 4, "SQLite," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/upgradephp5/chapter/index.html


***SpamAssassin
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596007078
SpamAssassin is the leading open source spam-fighting tool. The 
drawback?
Until now, it was SpamAssassin's lack of published documentation. This
clear, concise new guide shows system administrators how to integrate 
this
tool effectively into their networks. The book clarifies installation,
configuration, and use of SpamAssassin versions 2.63 and 3.0 for Unix
sysadmins using Postfix, sendmail, Exim, or qmail mail servers.
SpamAssassin, together with this essential book, provides the tools you
need to take back your organization's inboxes.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/spamassassin/

Chapter 2, "SpamAssassin Basics," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/spamassassin/chapter/index.html


***We the Media
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596007337
Not content to accept the news as reported, grassroots journalists are
dismantling Big Media's news monopoly, and publishing in real time to a
worldwide audience via the Internet. The impact of their work is just
beginning to be felt by professional journalists and the newsmakers 
they
cover. In "We the Media," nationally known business and technology
columnist Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon, and
sheds light on this deep shift in how we make and consume the news.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/

The book's Introduction is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/chapter/index.html


***Zero-Day Exploit
Publisher: Syngress
ISBN: 19318360
A group of highly sophisticated cyber-terrorists have developed a 
Zero-Day
Exploit targeting critical, pertrochemical infrastructure systems in 
the
United States. Once launched, the exploit will cripple the country's
ability to respond or defend itself. The only defense against disaster
rests with an elite cyber-security expert with the skill and savvy to
thwart the plot.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1931836094/


***Mono: A Developer's Notebook
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0596007922
This no-fluff, lab-style guide jumps right into Mono 1.0 as you work
through nearly 50 mini-projects that introduce you to the most 
important 
and compelling aspects of the 1.0 release. You'll learn how to acquire,
install, and run  Mono on Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X. You'll work with
the various Mono  components: Gtk#; the CLR; the class libraries (.NET 
and
 Mono); and much more. This book lets you  roll up your sleeves and see
what Mono can do.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/monoadn/

Chapter 3, "Core .NET," is available online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/monoadn/chapter/index.html
================================================
Upcoming Events
================================================
***For more events, please see:
http://events.oreilly.com/


***Deke McClellend ("Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One") 2004 Australian 
InDesign Conference, Melbourne, Australia--August 12-14
Deke is a featured speaker at the annual national conference dedicated 
to
supporting this fast-growing application user community.
http://www.theindesignconference.com/australia/indexa.html


***Wil Wheaton ("Just a Geek" and "Dancing Barefoot"), 
Hollywood Borders--August 15
Wil stops by the Hollywood Borders to sign copies of "Just a Geek" at
2:00pm.
1501 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA
http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=354


***Wil Wheaton ("Just a Geek" and "Dancing Barefoot") at Mysterious 
Galaxy
Books, San Diego, CA--August 21
WIl also stops by Mysterious Galaxy starting at 1:30 p.m.
7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA
http://www.mystgalaxy.com/


***O'Reilly at PhotoShopWorld, Orlando, Florida--August 31 & September 
2
Deke McClelland will be teaching Adobe Illustrator Techniques in 
a pre-conference session on August 31. Make sure you come by and 
say hi at our booth (#334) in the expo hall on September 2. 
Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL
http://www.photoshopworld.com/

================================================
Conference News
================================================
***Registration Is Open for O'Reilly's Mac OS X Conference
Join us for the third annual Mac OS X Conference, October 25-28, 2004, 
in
Santa Clara, California. You'll hear from Stewart Copeland, the former
drummer for the Police who now creates award-winning film and 
television
scores using Mac OS X technology; "New York Times" columnist David 
Pogue;
Andy Ihnatko of the "Chicago Sun-Times"; Karelia Sofware's Dan Wood; 
Brent
Simmons of Ranchero Software; Michael Bartosh of 4AM Media; Mac authors
Dori Smith, Gordon Meyer, and Ted Landau; and many more. 

User Group members who register before September 10, 2004 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/macosx2004/create/ord_mac04

O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference
October 25-28, 2004
Westin Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA
http://conferences.oreilly.com/macosxcon/

================================================
News From O'Reilly & Beyond
================================================
---------------------
General News
---------------------
***"We the Media" Blog
Nationally recognized technology columnist Dan Gillmor has launched a 
new
blog that covers the shifts we're seeing as journalism becomes less of 
a
lecture and more of a conversation. Check it out if you're interested 
in
the future of journalism, and don't miss his latest book on the topic, 
"We the Media."
http://wethemedia.oreilly.com/


***Techies Reshape 9/11 History
Within hours of the release of The 9/11 Commission Report, multiple
formats of the report were posted online by people interested in
increasing its accessibility and usability. One of those people was PDF
expert Sid Steward, who reduced the file size of the commission's 
original
PDF, added bookmarks, and created a front-page HTML portal. Learn how 
easy
and flexible PDF can be in Sid's upcoming "PDF Hacks."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64346,00.html


***O'Reilly Radar: OSCON 2004 
Daniel Steinberg reports on Tim O'Reilly's OSCON 2004 keynote. Tim's
remarks focused on what is currently on his radar. He discussed 
Internet
applications and social software, and ended with the announcement that
O'Reilly will be producing the third annual MySQL Conference next year 
in
Santa Clara, CA
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/07/29/radar.html


***Top 10 Online Investing Tips 
Plucked from the pages of "Online Investing Hacks," author Bonnie 
Biafore
offers ten of the most important things you can do to improve your
financial situation, and the tools that will simplify these tasks.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/07/23/onlineinvestinghacks.html

---------------------
Open Source
---------------------
***The Great Linux Desktop Migration Contest--Enter by August 9
If you're considering, or you have already embarked upon, a Linux 
desktop
migration, here's your chance to help guide and inspire others and be
eligible to win an all-expense-paid trip to Barcelona, Spain. Novell 
and
O'Reilly Media have  joined forces to present this contest and are 
looking
for entries that describe the benefits realized from a desktop 
migration,
a phased migration plan, or the most practical tips for migrating to
Linux. http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/linux/contest/


***O'Reilly and MySQL AB Present the MySQL Users Conference
According to Tim O'Reilly, "MySQL is at the heart of revolutionary 
changes
in the computer industry." Join us in Santa Clara, CA in April 2005 to
meet the MySQL development team, peruse the latest products and 
services,
get detailed insight into new features in MySQL 5.0, and much more.
http://www.mysqluc.com/


***Questioning Promises at LinuxWorld
O'Reilly editor Andy Oram reports this week from LinuxWorld 2004 in San
Francisco. He'll be exploring the promises of Linux and trying to
determine how realistic they are, because, as Andy writes, "In many 
areas,
the important foundations have been laid--but a lot remains to be 
done."
http://oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5357


***Open Source and NASA's Mars Rover 
NASA's recent Mars Rover mission uses a host of open source tools. 
Three
members of the team presented how they promoted open source software at
NASA, use it in the project, and hope to release more code in the 
future.
Ann Barcomb reports.
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/08/02/oss_mars_rover.html

---------------------
Mac
---------------------
***21.5 Things You Can Do with Office 2004 
By now you've probably read about all the new features in Microsoft 
Office
2004. Good. Because we're not going to cover them here again. Instead,
Giles Turnbull shows you 21 and a half things you can do in Office that
you might not have previously realized.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/08/03/ms_office.html


***Creating DVD/VCD Photo Slide Shows for Your Mac 
Let's face it: you still have friends and family who've yet to enter 
the
computer age. And yet you'd like to send them copies of your vacation
photos (or your newborn, or your cat) taken with your digital camera. 
What
to do? Wei-Meng Lee offers an alternative to using iPhoto for creating
slide-show CDs--Ulead's DVD PictureShow for Mac. He walks us through 
how to burn digital photos onto disc so anyone with a DVD/VCD player 
can 
view them. 
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/07/27/DVDslideshowonMac.html


***OS 9, Mine, All Mine 
What serious Mac fan in his or her right mind would consider booting
anything other than OS X? Well, lots of them. Giles Turnbull interviews 
a
handful of dedicated OS 9 users to find out why.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/07/23/os9.html

---------------------
Windows
---------------------
***Windows Server Hacks: Creating a Password Reset Disk 
Losing a password for an account can be anything from a pain to a
disaster. Mitch Tulloch, author of "Windows Server Hacks," shows you 
how
to solve the problem by creating a password recovery disk. 
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/08/03/password_reset.html


***Power Up the Windows Clipboard 
The Windows Clipboard is about as useless a utility as you can imagine.
Throw it away and replace it with one of these clipboard power tools.
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/08/03/clipboard.html


***Rapid Application Development with VB.NET 2.0
Jesse Liberty has supported the idea that it really doesn't matter if 
you
program in C# or in VB.NET, since both are just syntactic sugar layered 
on
top of the Microsoft Intermediate Language--the true language of .NET. 
But
that appears to be changing with Whidbey. Get a look at the new My 
Object
in VB.NET 2.0 in this article by Jesse, author of "Programming Visual
Basic .NET, 2nd Edition."
http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/08/02/libertywhidbey.html

---------------------
Java
---------------------
**XML-Java Data Binding Using XMLBeans 
XMLBeans, currently in the Apache incubation process, is a promising
framework for providing XML/Java data binding unmarshalling well-formed
XML into Java objects, and marshalling Java objects into XML files. 
Hetel
Shah provides an introduction to its features.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/07/28/XMLBeans.html


***Keeping Up with the Java Joneses 
Ian Darwin covers a variety of new Java 1.5 features, including J2SE 
1.5
threading, the return of printf, and the IDEs NetBeans and Eclipse. Ian
wraps up this article with resources to help you keep up with the rest 
of
the Java Joneses. Ian is the author of the recently released "Java
Cookbook, 2nd Edition."
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/07/28/javackbk2.html

---------------------
Security
---------------------
***What Countermeasures Really Mean
As the number and range of attacks on computer systems have grown
exponentially and conventional firewalls and intrusion detection 
systems
have proven inadequate for the task, security researchers have started 
to
talk about employing "countermeasures" to preserve security. 
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/security/2004/08/03/symbiot.html

================================================
News From Your Peers
================================================
***Report from OSCON 2004
Steve Riggins of the Portland Mac Users Group and the statewide Oregon
MacPioneers User Group gives us his scoop on the 2004 O'Reilly Open 
Source
Convention in Portland, OR. Thanks Steve! And thanks to OMUG leader 
Steve
Welsh for passing this along.
http://homepage.mac.com/ydkm/News/oscon04report.htm


Don't forget to check out the O'Reilly UG wiki to see what user groups
across the globe are up to:
http://wiki.oreillynet.com/usergroups/lpt?HomePage


Until next time--

Marsee