[PLUG] Fwd: Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, April 29

Thu May 1 17:43:11 UTC 2008

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marsee Henon <marsee at oreilly.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 2:12 PM
Subject: Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, April 29
To: dmandel at pdxlinux.org

If you cannot read the information below, click here.

Hi there—

 Hope you are having a wonderful April. We are here at O'Reilly. We
just released some big news at our recent Web 2.0 Expo, our new
consulting and training division called O'Reilly InPractice. Here's an
interview with the new Chief Strategy Officer George LeBrun that's
worth a quick read.

 And as usual around here, we've got lots of new books, conferences,
and other projects going on. One of the latest is a new book widget
that lets you share O'Reilly and our partners' books on your web site.
You can choose by author, topic, or just show all our new releases
automatically and it's completely customizable for your web site so
you can choose the size, design, and more.

 I'm willing to trade you a book of your choice for posting one of
these cool new widgets. Send me a link and let us know how you like
them.

 Many thanks to our beta testers including Stephen Henry from NCMUG,
Michael Ross from SDOUG, Jen Blackledge from COWPU, and Satish Talim
from the RubyLearning User Group.

 New books we're hoping to get Amazon and Slashdot reviewers for
include "Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide," "The Principles of Project
Management," "Subject To Change," and "bash Cookbook." Send me an
email if your interested and I'll get the book right out.

 Travel Alert: Are you going to Tech•Ed or JavaOne? Please let me
know! I'll be attending both shows and want to say hi.

 We're also getting ready for OSCON in Portland, OR. If you have any
UG activities or ideas we should know about or attend--pass them
along. This will be our 10th Year of OSCON.

 And here's a funny video every cat person should watch--"An
Engineer's Guide to Cats"

 Marsee
 ________________________________

In this issue:

O'Reilly UG Program News—Just for User Group Leaders
New Releases
Upcoming Events
Conference News
School of Technology
News from O'Reilly & Beyond ________________________________

O'Reilly UG Program News—Just for User Group Leaders
 April 29, 2008
 ________________________________

Put Up a Banner Get a Free Book We're looking for user groups to
display our discount banners on their web sites. If you send me your
group's site with one or more banners, I'll send you the O'Reilly
book(s) of your choice. Choose from the following list:

Customizable O'Reilly Book Widgets
OSCON 2008 Banners
Graphing Social East Banners
Ubuntu Live Banners
InsideRIA Banners
35% off Digital Media User Group banners
35% off User Group Discount Banner
 ________________________________

O'Reilly News for User Group Members
April 29, 2008

New Releases: Books, Short Cuts, and Rough Cuts

Get 35% off from O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing,
Pragmatic Bookshelf, Rocky Nook, SitePoint, or YoungJin books you
purchase directly from O'Reilly. Just use code "DSUG" when ordering
online or by phone 800-998-9938.

Free ground shipping on orders of $29.95 or more. See details.

Did you know you can request a free book or PDF 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

New Releases: Books, Short Cuts, and Rough Cuts:

 Adobe AIR for JavaScript Developers Pocket Guide
 Big Book of Apple Hacks
 Fine Art Printing for Photographers, Second Edition (Rocky Nook)
 Flex 3 Cookbook Rough Cut
 FXRuby (Pragmatic Bookshelf)
 Google Apps Hacks
 Hackerteen
 Harnessing Hibernate
 Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments
 Java Power Tools
 Learning Flash Media Server 3
 My New Mac (No Starch)
 MySQL in a Nutshell, Second Edition
 Painting the Web
 Photoshop CS3 Accelerated (Young Jin)
 Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers
 Programming Flex 3 Rough Cut
 Programming Groovy (Pragmatic Bookshelf)
 Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an
Uncertain World (Hard Cover)
 Take Control of iWeb: iLife '08 (TidBITS)
 Web 2.0 Mashups and Niche Aggregators
 Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide (Hard Cover)

 MAKE Magazine Subscriptions The annual subscription price for four
issues is $34.95. When you subscribe with this link, you'll get a free
issue--one plus four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or
friends with this great offer for UG Members: five volumes for the
cost of four.

 Subscribe at: http://www.makezine.com/go/ugsub

Craft Magazine Subscriptions The annual subscription price for four
issues is $34.95. When you subscribe with this link, you'll get a free
issue--one plus four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or
friends with this great offer for charter subscribers: five volumes
for the cost of four.

 Subscribe at: http://www.craftzine.com/go/craftug
________________________________

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

 Harold Davis Hosts a Weekend Workshop on Night Photography
 May 2-4, 2008
 Berkeley, CA
 Author Harold Davis (Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital
Photographers) will be hosting a weekend workshop on night photography
in Berkeley, CA.

 Maker Faire 2008
 May 3-4, 2008
 San Mateo County Fairgrounds
 San Mateo, CA
 A two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates arts, crafts,
engineering, and science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY)
mindset. It's for creative, resourceful people who like to tinker and
love to make things. We call them Makers. For more information,
contact Sherry Huss at sherry @ oreilly.com or see the Maker Faire web
site.

 Derrick Story at the Stanford/Palo Alto Macintosh User Group
 May 5, 2008
 Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)
 Palo Alto, CA
 Author Derrick Story (The Digital Photography Companion, iPhoto 8:
The Missing Manual, and Digital Photography Hacks) presents iPhoto 8.

Please see the SLAC information page for details on access and
security at SLAC.

 XTech 2008: The Web on the Move
 May 6-9, 2008
 Radisson SAS Royal Hotel
 Dublin, Ireland
 Doug Crockford (JavaScript the Good Parts) Doug Tidwell (XSLT, 2nd
Ed), Eric van der Vlist (XML Schema) and Edd Dumbill (Mono) at XTech.
XTech is the premier European conference for developers, information
designers and managers working with web and standards-based
technologies bringing together the worlds of web development, open
source, Web 2.0 and open standards. The theme for this year's
conference is "The Web on the Move."

 Pycon Italy
 May 9-11, 2008
 Viva Hotel Lauru
 Florence, Italy
 Alex Martelli (Python in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition) will give a talk at
Pycon Italy. This is the second Italian conference organized by a
bunch of Python enthusiasts and held in the beautiful city of
Florence. Come and see our latest publications at the O'Reilly booth.

 Where 2.0
 May 12-14, 2008
 Burlingame, CA
 The Where 2.0 Conference provides a unique environment for the
business community to interact with developers who are influencing
location-aware technology. In the O'Reilly tradition, leading trends
will be presented from the most innovative and interesting players in
the realm of geospace.

 Ignite! Where 2.0
 May 12, 2008
 SFO Marriott, 1800 Old Bayshore Highway
 Burlingame, CA
 Come join us for a night of fun as we take time out from Where 2.0 to
present ideas, share crazy projects, and hang out with the geek
community. You must have your Where Badge to enter. For more
information, email ignite @ oreilly.com.

 Subject to Change Book Release Event
 May 13, 2008
 Adaptive Path Offices
 363 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA

 Join O'Reilly Media & Adaptive Path as we celebrate the release of
our new book Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for
an Uncertain World. The event starts at 6 PM for reception and
mingling, then onto a quick presentation, more mingling, and ending
with a book signing.

 Python Author & Trainer Mark Lutz Leads 3-Day Seminar
 May 14-16, 2008
 Longmont, Colorado
 Python author and trainer Mark Lutz (Learning Python, Programming
Python, and Python Pocket Reference) will be teaching a 3-day Python
class.

 Dux Raymond Sy at the North Carolina PMI Chapter
 May 15, 2008
 Sheraton Imperial, Research Triangle Park
 Durham, NC
 Author Dux Raymond SY (SharePoint for Project Managers) presents
"Enhancing Project Communication and Collaboration with a PMIS."

 Dru Lavigne at BSDCan 2008 in Ottawa
 May 16-17, 2008
 University of Ottawa
 Ottawa, ON
 Dru Lavigne (BSD Hacks) will be giving a tutorial on system
administration, as well as manning the registration booth and
proctoring the BSDA exam. Keep an eye out for her!

 O'Reilly Authors at WebVisions
 May 22-23, 2008
 Oregon Convention Center
 Portland, OR
 David Verba (Subject To Change), Kevin Hoyt (Adobe Integrated Runtime
(AIR) for JavaScript Developers Pocket Guide), David McFarland
(Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual), Christopher Schmitt (CSS
Cookbook, Second Edition) are speakers at this year's event.

 RailsConf
 May 29-Jun 1, 2008
 Co-presented by O'Reilly Media and Ruby Central
 Portland, OR
 The largest official conference dedicated to everything Ruby on
Rails, RailsConf incorporates keynotes, sessions, and tutorials to arm
participants with the knowledge and skills they need to capitalize on
the wealth of services and opportunities the Rails framework has to
offer.

 O'Reilly at BookExpo America
 May 30-Jun 1, 2008
 Los Angeles Convention Center
 Los Angeles, CA
 Stop by and say hi at our table in the International Rights Center at
this year's event.

 David Ascher and Brian King at eLiberatica--The benefits of Open and
Free Technologies
 May 30-31, 2008
 The World Trade Centre
 Bucharest, Romania
 Authors David Ascher (Python Cookbook) and Brian King (Creating
Applications with Mozilla) will be talking at eLiberatica. Following
the huge public success of the first eLiberatica in 2007, this
conference will continue in the same tradition: to gather community
and business leaders around the world to talk about the hottest Open
and Free Technologies topics; you will hear from today's experts in
various fields of technical and business practice and become part of
an event that is far more than a simple conference. Come and see our
latest publications at the O'Reilly booth.

 Harold Davis at Book Passage in Corte Madera
 May 31, 2008
 Book Passage
 Corte Madera, CA
 Author Harold Davis (Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital
Photographers) will be presenting "100 Views of the Golden Gate." He
will present images of the Golden Gate and sign copies of his book.

 ________________________________

Conference News Last Chance for Where 2.0 2008 Registration
 May 12-14, 2008 in Burlingame, CA
 At the O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference, we expose the tools pushing the
boundaries of the location frontier, track the emergence of new
business models and services, and spend time examining new sources of
data and the platforms for collecting them.
 Use code "whr08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the
registration price. Click here to register for the conference.

 Registration for RailsConf 2008 is Open
 May 29-June 1, 2008 in Portland, OR
 Co-produced by Ruby Central and O'Reilly Media, RailsConf is "the"
event for the growing Rails Community--the largest official gathering
dedicatedto everything Rails. If you're passionate about Rails and
what it helps you achieve--or if you're curious about how Rails can
help you create web applications better and faster--this conference is
the place to be.
 Use code "rc08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the
registration price. Click here to register for the conference.

 Registration for the O'Reilly GSP East Conference is Open
 June 9-11, 2008 in Washington, DC
 GSP is the premier conference for developers and marketers building
and distributing apps for MySpace, Facebook, OpenSocial, and other
social networking platforms. Over three days of tutorials, sessions,
and keynotes, participants will explore how to reach online
communities using new and established social networking platforms and
applications.
 Use code "gspe08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the
registration price. Click here to register for the conference.

 Registration for the O'Reilly Velocity Conference is Open
 June 23-24, 2008 in Burlingame, CA
 Velocity is designed to deliver the best information on building and
operating web sites that are fast, reliable, and always up. We're
bringing together people from around the world who are doing the best
performance work, to improve the experience of web users worldwide.
Pages will be faster. Sites will have higher up-time. Companies will
achieve more with less. The next cool startup will be able to more
quickly scale to serve a larger audience, globally. Velocity is the
key for crossing over from cool Web 2.0 features to sustainable web
sites.
 Use code "vel08usgr" when you register, and receive 15% off the
registration price. Early registration discount is available until May
5. Click here to register for the conference.

 Registration for Ubuntu Live is Open
 July 21-22, 2008 in Portland, OR
 Ubuntu Live is a vibrant and important gathering of IT professionals,
government and business leaders, educators, community leaders,
enterprise and business users. The conference brings together the
people who deploy and manage Ubuntu in organizations, companies
offering services and solutions based on Ubuntu, customers of those
services, users of Ubuntu, and the folks who build Ubuntu and other
key open source software.
 Use code "ubu08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the
registration price. Early registration discount is available until
June 2. Click here to register for the conference.

 Registration for the O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2008 is Open
 July 21-25, 2008 in Portland, OR
 Join over 2,500 open source developers, hackers, experts, IT
managers, and users at OSCON 2008. This year's convention will include
40 tutorials that go deep into open source technology and over 400
sessions focusing on Administration, Business, Databases, Emerging
Topics, Java, Linux, Mobile, People, Perl, PHP, Programming, Python,
Ruby, Security, Web Applications, and much more.
 Use code "os08usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off the
registration price. Early registration discount is available until
June 2. Click here to register for the conference.
 ________________________________

O'Reilly School of Technology

 O'Reilly School of Technology Courses: UG Members Receive a 30% Discount
 O'Reilly School of Technology has opened its virtual doors with
educational offerings and certification for IT students looking to
further their careers or to launch one. As an O'Reilly User Group
member, you save on all the courses in the following University of
Illinois Certificate Series:

PHP/SQL Programming
Linux/Unix System Administration
Web Programming
Open Source Programming
.NET Programming
Client-Side Web Programming featuring AJAX

(This discount is not combinable with other offers.) To redeem, use
Promotion Code "ORALL1" good for a 30% discount, in Step #2 of the
enrollment process. Each course comes with a free O'Reilly book and a
7-day money-back guarantee. Register online. (This discount may not be
combinable with other offers.) ________________________________

News from O'Reilly & Beyond

UG News

 Maker Faire Coming up Soon--May 3 & 4 at the San Mateo Expo Center
"Combining old-fashioned crafters with forward-thinking technorati,
fashionistas, and mad scientists of all stripes, the Maker Faire is a
hands-on celebration of all things DIY brought to life by Make
magazine."--The Onion

Linux Pro Magazine Free Issue Offer
 Linux Pro Magazine (known as Linux Magazine outside North America) is
offering a free issue to O'Reilly User Group newsletter readers. In
Linux Pro Magazine you will find the tools, tutorials, and reviews you
need to unlock the secrets of Linux. Each article is focused on
delivering the hands-on information you need in your daily Linux use.
As a bonus, each issue includes a DVD containing a full version of a
major Linux distribution. Sign up for your free copy.

 Adobe Lightroom Adventure continues in Tasmania
In April 2008, a group of internationally renowned photographers
traveled to the end of the world, literally, to the remote island of
Tasmania. Using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, photographers will upload,
sort, keyword, adjust, and output their Raw images while still working
in the field. Read the stories, see the images, and watch the
photographers discuss this challenging assignment. Mikkel Aaland,
project director, will capture the lessons learned for his book on
Adobe Lightroom, scheduled to be published later this year.

Tourism Tasmania is offering a chance to win a trip for two to
Tasmania, Australia. Read on for the details.

New Publishers on Safari Books Online
 We are pleased to announce the introduction of John Wiley & Sons
content to Safari Books Online. With the inclusion of Wiley content,
Safari Books Online is now the only source for online access to the
world's top four technology publishers. Pearson, John Wiley & Sons,
O'Reilly Media, and Microsoft Press represent 85% of the computer
books sold at retail in the U.S., according to Nielsen BookScan.
TECHbash 2008 in Northeastern Pennsylvania on May 10
 Join an estimated 300 Developers, IT Professionals, CIO's and
Industry Experts from Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and host-state,
Pennsylvania. This one day event brings together a broad spectrum of
Technology Professionals to network, knowledge share and discuss
existing technology solutions to business challenges, as well as
preview prerelease products on the bleeding edge.

This year, they've expanded to three tracks offering more
presentations and providing more content choices. The event opens with
a keynote presentation by Joe Stagner, Program Manager for Microsoft's
Web Tools and Platform Division.

Getting Started with Dreamweaver and CSS--A One-Day Web Publishing
Workshop from Mogo Seminars Learn everything you need to know about
building compelling websites using Adobe Dreamweaver CS3! Whether
you're totally new to building websites, or migrating from GoLive or a
previous version of Dreamweaver, this fast-paced one-day seminar
brings the entire workflow together-- from design and prototyping
through development and testing--using easy-to-understand examples
from a designer's point of view. Most importantly, you'll learn the
key to cool, functional, and flexible web layouts: CSS - how it works,
and how you can use it to your advantage. Cities and dates are 5/29
Los Angeles, CA, 6/4 New York, NY, 6/17 Washington, DC, 6/24 Chicago,
IL, and 6/26 Boston, MA.

Southwest Computer Conference, San Diego, CA--May 30-June 1
 This conference is now open to all computer enthusiasts--not only
computer club members. You will have an opportunity to network with
other computer users who have similar interests: share ideas and
experiences as well as solutions to problems. Speak directly to the
vendors whose products you use or want to use. The $60 early-bird
registration closes May 1.

MacVoices--Barbara Brundage Discusses Adobe Elements 6 for the Mac
 Join Chuck Joiner and Barbara Brundage (Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac:
The Missing Manual) as they talk about why Elements 6 really does 90%
of what most photographers need, why Layers are and are not important
in Elements 6, and why the addition of Curves is such an important
addition. Barbara talks about her favorite features and provides some
tips for improving your photo editing.

DIY O'Reilly Gear
 Create Your Own Calendar, Shirt, Notebook, Poster...In just three
easy steps you can create one of a kind calendars, greeting cards,
keychains, luggage tags, magnets, mousepads, mugs, notebooks,
postcards, posters, shirts, hoodies, and stickers adorned with your
favorite O'Reilly animals. ________________________________

Articles

Why should I upgrade to Office 2008 for Macintosh?
 Author Jim Elferdink talks about what's new in Office 2008 for
Macintosh. If you're still using Office 2004, you'll find some great
reasons to upgrade. Jim also fills you in on some cool features that
Office for Windows can't match, and why you may not need to invest in
iWork.

Ruport: Business Reporting for Ruby
 No one likes developing reporting tools for an application. But
without them, many applications are only half-done. Luckily, Ruby has
a great reporting infrastructure available to build on, and in this
article, you'll learn how to use it.

The iPhone SDK: APIs Apple Didn't Want You to Know About
 The iPhone has been a hot item ever since it came out, but running
non-Apple supplied software on it isn't easy. But the secrets to
building a successful toolchain to create iPhone applications can be
found right here.

Step by Step: Using Samba to join a Windows Domain
 Samba has made getting Linux and Windows systems talking to each
other much easier than it once was. But there are still some tasks
that are more than a little finicky. One of them is definitely joining
a Samba client to a domain-based Windows network. Luckily, now you'll
have a step by step guide to doing just that.

 For more articles, go to: http://www.oreillynet.com/
________________________________

Blogs SpongeBob SquarePants Supports O'Reilly Research Finding
 Good Devices Gone Bad
 Removing the Remains of the 15-day Trial
 Is the Closed Source Inevitable?
 My Transition to Using O'Reilly Safari Online Books Service
 Making Connections With Hackerteen
 Five Steps to Web 2.0
 The Best ActionScript Book Ever Written
 Unforgettable Tasmania--Leo Laporte reports on the latest Lightroom Adventure
 Looking for a Few Good SysAdmin Problems to Solve in Python
 How to Make Applets (and JavaFx) Viable
 Web 2.0 Expo SF Launchpad: Six New Startup Stars
 Get Info on a Mac Without Logging in

 For more blogs, go to: http://www.oreillynet.com/blogs/ Until next time—
 Marsee Henon

 O'Reilly Media, Inc. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472
 http://ug.oreilly.com/   http://ug.oreilly.com/creativemedia/