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Dear Reader,
We've been trying to figure out if Apple's new iPod photo is a
breakthrough device or an unfocused spinoff to the most popular digital
music player of all time.
One one hand, I really like how the iPod photo works smoothly with iPhoto
4.0 on the Mac and with Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 or Photoshop Elements
3.0 (for Windows users) to store your entire photo collection right beside
all of your digital music. iPod photo supports all of the common image
formats, and it allows you to connect to your TV and make beautiful
slideshow presentations complete with transitions.
Another nifty benefit of its 65,536-color liquid crystal display is that
the iPod photo displays your album artwork along with the song when you're
listening to music. And when you're not tapping your foot or showing off
the kids to the person sitting next to you on the plane, you can check
your appointment calendar, play a game of Solitaire, or review your ToDo
list--all in beautiful color.
But many photographers are disappointed that you can't upload your digital
pictures directly from the camera to the iPod photo and view them.
Instead, you have to connect to the computer first, upload the images,
then download them back to the iPod.
We asked our resident iPod expert and author of "iPod and iTunes Hacks,"
Hadley Stern, to take a look at the iPod photo. In his review just
published on Mac DevCenter, Hadley weighs the pros and cons of this
innovative device.
Is it for you? Take a look at what Hadley has to say. It might help you
reach the right decision.
Until next time,
-Derrick
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*** Featured Articles ***
iPod photo: Breakthrough Device or Work in Progress?
After spending three years as the most popular digital music player, the
iPod has evolved. No longer just music to your ears, the new color iPod
photo boasts plenty of eye candy with storage for as many as 25,000
photos. Is it really everything you ever wanted? Hadley Stern, author of
iPod and iTunes Hacks, takes an in-depth look with his review.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/11/16/ipod_photo.html
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Building Simple Lists Using Strings in VBA
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), the language used for scripting
Microsoft Word, isn't really known for its string-processing abilities.
But sometimes, string hacking is a quick and convenient way to solve a
problem, and the string functions VBA does provide are often up to the
task. In this article, Andrew Savikas, author of Word Hacks, shows you how
to use strings for simple lists.
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/11/16/wdhks_2.html
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Liberty on Whidbey: Skins and Themes
In his previous column, Jesse Liberty showed you how to use web forms
security to create a personalized site. Here, he builds on that work to
introduce the concepts of skins and themes, which allow users to configure
the look and feel of your site.
http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/11/15/libertyonwhidbey.html
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Implementing Flood Control
If the load of application relies on incoming events, you may eventually
face the happy curse of popularity: too much work to do with your
available resources. If you set a limit on how many events you can process
within a time period, you can avoid the flood. Vladi
Belperchinov-Shabanski explains the algorithm and demonstrates working
code.
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2004/11/11/floodcontrol.html
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Primetime Hypermedia: Movies of Software
Jon Udell examines using movies to describe, demonstrate, or document the
behavior of software in this month's installment of Primetime Hypermedia.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/11/11/primetime.html
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Hacks for Smart Homes
Implementing home automation may be easier and less expensive than you
ever imagined. By using your computer, your home can become much smarter.
Gordon Meyer, author of Smart Home Hacks, covers the basics of automating
your home with MisterHouse, an open source, home automation application
for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. Move a step beyond automatic lights to a
home that actually responds to stimuli.
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/11/11/smrthome_hks1.html
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Writing "Learning PHP 5"
Developers often write open source software in public, but what about
developers who write about open source software? Do they build tools? How
do your favorite books come about? David Sklar explains how he wrote
Learning PHP 5.
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/php/2004/11/11/writingphp5.html
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Transferring Presentations to DVD with DVDSP 3
Marc Loy, author of DVD Studio Pro 3: In the Studio, brings you yet
another way to embrace the digital video revolution. In this article, Marc
shows you how to transfer your presentations onto DVD for archive and
distribution purposes. Learn how to extract each slide or extract a movie
of the presentation. The end result? Simple and impressive.
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2004/11/10/dvdsp_3.html
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Could Ringtones BE More Annoying?!
People absolutely LOVE annoying ringtones, and the annoying effect they
have on everybody else around them. This is REALLY GOOD NEWS for those of
us in the audio business.
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2004/11/10/drescher_bbq04_ringtone.html
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Memory Contention in J2EE Applications for Multiprocessor Platforms
You can scale an enterprise app on a single box by adding CPUs, right?
Yes--to a point. As Deepak Goel and Ramchandar Krishnamurthy have
discovered and documented, the battle for access to memory from threads on
the different CPUs creates a memory contention that, in time, becomes a
bottleneck. In this article, they document the phenomenon and suggest some
ways to improve the situation.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/11/10/memory.html
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Features: Introducing del.icio.us
Matt Biddulph introduces del.icio.us, the social bookmarks manager, by
showing us how to interact with it programmatically via Python.
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/11/10/delicious.html
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*** New Books from O'Reilly Media ***
Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses (Paraglyph)
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/193211193X/
Smart Home Hacks
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/smarthomehks/
Head First Design Patterns
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/hfdesignpat/
PC Hacks
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pchks/
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*** O'Reilly Network Top Five Articles Last Week ***
1. FreeBSD for Linux Users
BSD and Linux are both Unix workalikes. How different can they be? In
certain cases, very! Though the systems share a family tree, their
differences sometimes stand out. Dru Lavigne explains FreeBSD's runlevels,
startup scripts, kernel configuration, and documentation systems to Linux
users.
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2004/11/11/FreeBSD_Basics.html
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2. Feather Linux: The Swiss Army Knife of LiveCDs
Bootable LiveCDs have made the lives of Linux dabblers easier. They're
also good for administrators and people facing system recovery woes. Among
LiveCDs, Feather Linux is a lean and powerful tool. KIVILCIM Hindistan
demonstrates how it can make backing up and restoring partitions easy.
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/11/11/featherlinux.html
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3. Got Project Automation?
Each project chore you automate is an investment that pays off immediately
and increases in value over time. Mike Clark, author of Pragmatic Project
Automation, presents an overview of the benefits that automating your
project can bring.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/11/10/automation.html
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4. Fun iPod Tricks
Seems like everyday someone figures out new and cool things to do with the
iPod. Wei-Meng Lee discusses five of his favorite discoveries, including
podcasting and internet radio, in this survey of fun iPod tricks.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/11/09/ipod_tricks.html
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5. Extending Struts
With so many web application frameworks available, there's little point
reinventing the wheel, especially when Struts offers remarkable
extensibility. Sunil Patil introduces the three basic means of extending
Struts to achieve custom web application behavior.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/11/10/ExtendingStruts.html
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