THE O'REILLY NETWORK NEWSLETTER
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The latest from http://oreillynet.com
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Dear Reader,
We're featuring some exciting articles this week that move beyond our
traditional developer content.
Brian McConnell, the author of "Beyond Contact," has written up his
experiences reducing the energy footprint of his home in "Hacking Your Way
Off the Utility Grid." If you're interested in alternative energy sources,
you won't want to miss this detailed article on installing solar electric
panels, water heating, and forced air heating.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/12/03/grid.html
For another kind of hacking, check out "Paying Attention (or Not)" from
the authors of "Mind Hacks." By looking at Flickr's Daily Zeitgeist, they
explore how the brain deals with vision and what attention is. Don't miss
this chance to explore your own internal operating system.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/12/06/mndhcks_1.html
And Brian McWilliams weighs in with a piece on the new crop of aggressive
spam-fighting tools that are becoming popular in "Chongq and the Spam
Vampires." These techniques are controversial and legally questionable,
causing Brian to note that "the rise of new retaliatory tools shows that
desperation is the mother of spam-fighting invention." Brian is the author
of the recently-released "Spam Kings," which provides an inside look at
the spam industry.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/12/03/chongq.html
Happy reading,
Bruce Stewart
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Register for the 4th annual O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
March 14-17, 2005, San Diego, California
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech/
Come immerse yourself in a network of like minds. This year's theme is
"Remix," dedicated to finding new ways to further the hacker spirit,
extend the architecture of participation, and uncover unconventional
innovations. Be there to see what the buzz is all about. Be there and
Remix with the best of the best!
For all the scoop on tutorials, featured speakers, and conference events,
check out http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech/ Register before Jan.
31, 2005 to take advantage of great early bird discounts.
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*** Featured Articles ***
Brian McConnell describes how he retrofitted his home to generate its own
energy and significantly reduce its energy footprint. Learn how he
installed a grid-intertied solar electric system, as well as solar water
heating and solar forced air heaters.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/12/03/grid.html
***
Paying Attention (or Not) to the Flickr Daily Zeitgeist
Perhaps the most complex operating system in the world is the human brain.
In Mind Hacks, authors Tom Stafford and Matt Webb use cognitive
neuroscience to present experiments, tricks, and tips related to vision,
motor skills, attention, cognition, and subliminal perception. In this
article, they explore how elements of web pages attract attention and
influence reading. They then apply some of the ideas from their book in
the examination of one such element, an animated photo-sharing widget, the
Flickr Daily Zeitgeist.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/12/06/mndhcks_1.html
***
Chongq and the Spam Vampires
The rise of new retaliatory tools shows that desperation is the mother of
spam-fighting invention.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/12/03/chongq.html
***
Homemade Dot-Mac: Remote Control
Ever dreamed of having remote access to your Mac? This edition of Homemade
Dot-Mac proves that having remote access, actually getting to see your
screen and take control of your mouse, is a lot easier than you ever
imagined. Alan Graham promises that it's quick and painless using VNC.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/12/07/homemade_mac.html
***
Learning ASP.NET for the ASP Developer - Part 3
In the final part of this tutorial, Nihal Mehta will demonstrate how to
construct largescale ASP.NET websites. In the previous tutorials of this
series, Nihal showed how to build single ASP.NET pages where all the code
for a page was written on the page itself. This approach can quickly get
tedious when you have code that is common across several pages. Thus, one
of the most important elements in sites with a large number of pages is
the ability to share code.
http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/12/06/asp2aspnet_pt3.html
***
Security Centers and Firewalls
With the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Microsoft's latest
and most reliable corporate desktop operating system now provides better
protection against viruses, worms, and malicious hackers. David Pogue,
creator of the Missing Manuals series, offers an excerpt from his newest
book, Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition, which covers all
the intricacies of SP2. This excerpt deals more specifically with the
Security Center and the Windows Firewall. Knowledge is power; protect your
system.
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/excerpt/winxpmm_ch10/index.html
***
Primetime Hypermedia: Mobile Webcasting
Jon Udell looks at streaming webcasts with both QuickTime and Helix.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/12/06/primetime.html
***
Reclaiming Hacks
The O'Reilly Hacks series has stirred a controversy that usually extends
no further than the front cover of a book. The hacking spirit, not the
promotion of illegal activities, is being reclaimed through each one of
these books. The curious nature of the hacker ethic, whether prompted by a
sheer spark of genius or the urge of an annoyance, celebrates rolling up
the sleeves and taking action. Hadley Stern, author of iPod and iTunes
Hacks, takes a stab at clarification and discusses the issues he faced
while writing his book.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/12/03/hadley_hks.html
***
Test-Driven Development in Python
The goal of test-driven development is not to produce tests; they're
merely a helpful by-product. The real goal is to produce elegant, working
code. Jason Diamond demonstrates how test-driven development works using
Python and PyUnit to create a sample event-tracking utility.
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2004/12/02/tdd_pyunit.html
***
True Stories of Knoppix Rescues
A battle-hardened sysadmin shares his near-death tales ... of Knoppix
rescue. Kyle Rankin, author of Knoppix Hacks, is a true Knoppix veteran
with endless stories of broken systems and machines in distress. In this
article, he shares a few of his favorites, complete with outcomes and
weapons of choice. Not for the faint of heart.
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/02/knpxhks_1.html
***
Featured Photographer: Greg Kessler: Rock and Roll Shooter
Greg Kessler has photographed plenty of well known artists in the music
industry, including the likes of Phish, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones,
String Cheese Incident, and Of A Revolution (O.A.R.). In this portfolio,
he not only presents the captivating images, Greg also includes anecdotes
about the subjects themselves.
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2004/12/01/featured.html
***
Reeking Havok with the Experience Music Project
High-tech drummer Reek Havok develops interactive music technology for
Seattle's Experience Music Project museum. In this interview, he takes you
behind the scenes and shares his software groove secrets.
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2004/12/01/reek_1204.html
***
The Restful Web: How to create a REST Protocol
In his first installment of XML.com's new column, The Restful Web, Joe
Gregorio, one of the people behind Atom, explains how to use REST to
create an application protocol in four easy steps.
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/12/01/restful-web.html
***
Building a 3D Engine in Perl
The ultimate goal of all programming is to be as unproductive as possible
-- to write games. Why hurt yourself to write in low-level languages,
though, when Perl provides all of the tools you need to do it well? Geoff
Broadwell demonstrates how to use OpenGL from Perl.
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2004/12/01/3d_engine.html
***
Simple Object Persistence with the db4o Object Database
Mapping Java objects to relational databases is a difficult task, fraught
with perils and gotchas. db4o dodges the issue entirely by providing an
object-oriented persistence mechanism that is small, lightweight and
efficient. Jim Paterson shows how it works.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/12/01/db4o.html
***
*** New Books from O'Reilly Media ***
PC Hardware Annoyances
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Xbox Fan Book
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Mac Annoyances
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*** O'Reilly Network Top Five Articles Last Week ***
1. Tiger Presents New Opportunities for Developers
In the feline evolution of Mac OS X, Jaguar was the release we had to
have, Panther is the version we wanted, and Tiger provides programmers
with some of the most tantalizing application development tools we've seen
to date. This article provides the latest information about Tiger from
Chris Bourdon, the project's senior product line manager.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/11/16/tiger.html
***
2. Why Install Linux on Your Mac?
Since you already have Mac OS X on your computer, why would you want to
install Linux instead? After all, isn't OS X Unix? Giles Turnbull talks to
those who run Linux on Mac, then gives it a spin himself.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/11/30/linux.html
***
3. Integrating Macromedia Flex with Java
Web applications don't have to be about HTML. Rich client-side
environments offer a better end-user experience but demand some rethinking
of the web app client-server relationship. Mark Eagle shows how you can
use Macromedia Flex to bring rich applications to Flash-equipped
browsers.
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/12/01/flexjava.html
***
4. True Stories of Knoppix Rescues
A battle-hardened sysadmin shares his near-death tales ... of Knoppix
rescue. Kyle Rankin, author of Knoppix Hacks, is a true Knoppix veteran
with endless stories of broken systems and machines in distress. In this
article, he shares a few of his favorites, complete with outcomes and
weapons of choice. Not for the faint of heart.
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/02/knpxhks_1.html
***
5. Five Favorite Annoyances
As much as we love our Macs, we've got to admit that sometimes they annoy
the patience out of us. John Rizzo, author of Mac Annoyances, picks five
of his favorite Mac annoyances to share. Better yet, he offers a fix for
every problem. Don't get mad, get clever.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/11/30/macannoy_1.html
***
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