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Apparently, they stay in place: Perl 6 and Parrot Essentials, 2E. (Disclaimer: I did tech review on the book.)

I just started going through the joke links on the O'Reilly Parrot pages and started to wonder...

What happens to the joke pages when (if?) Parrot becomes mature enough to actually warrant a book?

A quick search on google gave me this one which looks helpful.

OK, it's not like I've used many of these (o.k., just e-gold). Also, they don't have a O'Reilly hacks title dedicated to them:

iKobo, Epassporte, e-gold, authorize.net, Yahoo! PayDirect, 2Checkout, iBill, Kagi, ClickBank, DigiBuy, VeriSign Payflow Pro® and Payflow Link®, Affero, BTClick&Buy, CCAvenue, CCBill, CCNow, ClickBank, DigiBuy, DigitalCandle, FastPay, ImagineNation, InstaBill, Jettis, Kagi, MembershipPlus, Moneybookers, MultiCards, MyPaySystems, NoChex, PartyKey, Pay-Line, Paymate, Process54, ProPay, Reg.Net, RegNow, RegSoft, Share*It, StormPay, SWREG, V-Share, Verotel, VolPay

Up until I was hired on as the Slashdot Games editor, I was an editor over at MMORPGDot.com, where I was known as Dialogue. I also recently worked with simoniker on the Gaming Hacks book for O'Reilly Press. I do have a website, located at Randomdialogue.net. I don't keep my editor name linked to it because I'm not sure I could handle the traffic.

Actionscript 2.0 the language behind the latest Flash, is a real programming language. It feels very java-ish. So, why again do we need Lazlo?

• Eric Meyer on CSS -- goes through several hypothetical projects that demonstrate techniques for laying out pages. I found ideas for navigation menus and sidebars a helpful start. Also, would have otherwise had no idea that you can specify a separate style sheet for printing!
• Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference by Danny Goodman who will actually explain to you the difference between relative and absolutely position layers. Also, as per the title, this book is a great introduction for manipulating pages with Javascript and includes references for HTML, CSS, DOM and Javascript. A great resource, it perpetually sits open on my desk.

Of course the most interesting way to learn the new standards is to practice coding and to look at how other folks have coded their sites. I think that what is interesting about XHTML/CSS is that there are several different ways one might go about coding a page to reveal the same layout. Its also interesting to see just how much you can manipulate what amounts to very simple HTML into something more complex and attractive.

The challenge, however, is to come up with a finished design that has the same visual polish as those you might have chopped up from Photoshop or some other graphics program. Not to say that it is impossible to have a graphics heavy design using new standards. Rather, I have found that in working with CSS encourages a bottom-up process in designing a page starting with your code, while earlier Web design methods follow a more top-down approach, starting from a design comp.

However, I think that the new standards also encourage a certain simplicity aesthetic. I think many Web folks are appreciating designs that aren't so clutered, that download and render really fast, and have built in accessibility and search engine performance advantages.

If you need a more detailed (but not terse) guide to Tiger, try O'Reilly's Java 1.5 Tiger: A Developer's Notebook. It's one of those books with light-hearted writing style and nice simple examples written by dudes who really know the stuff.

At my current job (a second-hand recycling store) I'm implementing a database system to track repairs and warranties.

I'm switching the clients over from OpenOffice (forms were written in starbasic) to Firefox (or less) because the systems are P200's/64M/1Gb or less and just can't handle OOo.

Besides, the distance between the repair shop (where I'm actually repairing and refurbishing donated television sets) and the stores (clients) is about 2km.

With a server running apache/php/mysql it's easy to create web-based forms and queries. I'm sure it will keep me busy this weekend, I just bought two O'Reilly books on the subject ( this and this one). Some experience in HTML and CSS required though.

Too bad I can't post a link to some working examples, wouldn't want you to know how I think about some customers :-)

(btw: did you know that those old large and heavy IBM keyboards can survive a ten ton truck? :-)

At my current job (a second-hand recycling store) I'm implementing a database system to track repairs and warranties.

I'm switching the clients over from OpenOffice (forms were written in starbasic) to Firefox (or less) because the systems are P200's/64M/1Gb or less and just can't handle OOo.

Besides, the distance between the repair shop (where I'm actually repairing and refurbishing donated television sets) and the stores (clients) is about 2km.

With a server running apache/php/mysql it's easy to create web-based forms and queries. I'm sure it will keep me busy this weekend, I just bought two O'Reilly books on the subject ( this and this one). Some experience in HTML and CSS required though.

Too bad I can't post a link to some working examples, wouldn't want you to know how I think about some customers :-)

(btw: did you know that those old large and heavy IBM keyboards can survive a ten ton truck? :-)

Your idea of using surplus is only good is you have whatever said surplus already laying around. I don't happen to have any of the old parts you mention (gameboys, zip drives, scanner, etc.) lying around, or you have a large enough surplus supply (electronic goldmine, ocean state electronics, ebay but prices get whacked quickly) on the market.

Experimenting with cheap 8-bit microcontrollers such as Microchip's PIC or Atmel's AVRs is quite cheap, and typically all you need is a chip and one (really cheap if want) device - a programmer to transfer the (binary/hex) programs from your PC to the microcontroller's flash memory.

You will quickly outgrow Radio Shack unless you need a part right now and you don't have the right one in your own stock pile, often referred to as a "junk box" regardless of actual physical size. You should be getting the free catalogs (or CDs) from Digikey, Mouser, Newark, and Jameco. These all have usable online ordering systems and reasonable minimum order & shipping fees. UK geeks check G3SEK's UK Component and Tool Suppliers web page.

Many useful projects can be made for less than $100 even if you need to buy all the parts. After you build a collection of common parts (common resistors, capacitor values, PIC 16F628, AVR AT90S2313, red & green LEDs, 2N2222A, 2N3904, 2N3906, 2N4401, 2N4403, 2N4416, 4N25, 1N4148, 1N4001, 1N4007, etc.) and tools this cost will go down.

The real question is do they assume a general audience or do they assume a "knowledgeable user" is their target market? If the stuff is purely "cookbook" & kit building (AmQRP kits as an example) with little or no encouragement (and knowledge transfer) for the average Make reader to explore and expand it won't survive IMHO. BTW AmQRP kits on their own are pretty limited at expanding your knowledge, but combined with the AMQRP Homebrewer magazine and Conference Proceedings they do teach a lot. There is also the QRP-L mailing list which is very useful for technical questions (and has a rich archive)

I think it should be what Nuts and Volts magazine tries to be, but without the "legacy" dead weight and filler articles. A gentler introduction to most of the Circuit Cellar type stuff.

If people think this will recreate the Homebrew Computer Club, I expect they will be mistaken, but if you expect it to awaken the curiousity and encourage youth to learn about electronics, then I hope it is a brillent success.

In the end, I am curious and not quite sure what to expect of Make. It could be really lame if all it ends up being is computer geeks pretending to be electronic engineers (or electronic hobbyists). I hope that at least 10% of it expands what I know, which is more than I can say of books like Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks (O'Reilly) and Hardware Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty. I am more interested in reading stuff like Hacking the Xbox (An Introduction to Reverse Engineering) by Andrew "bunnie" Huang which starts simple but gets into FPGAs and reverse engineering.

Both of them are confusing sometimes...
Both of them are popular...

Just for reference, we are talking about this O'Reilly, not this O'Reilly.

(grin)

Really though, get your boss to get you a subscription to Safari O'Reilly. You get access to any 10 O'Reilly books you want each month for less than $20. We've quit buying dead trees... and we just all use this now as our library.

Both of them are confusing sometimes...
Both of them are popular...

Just for reference, we are talking about this O'Reilly, not this O'Reilly.

(grin)

Really though, get your boss to get you a subscription to Safari O'Reilly. You get access to any 10 O'Reilly books you want each month for less than $20. We've quit buying dead trees... and we just all use this now as our library.

...is O'Reilly's Physics for Game Developers.

One of the chapters - on 'real world' projectile motion - is available for download at the above site, so you can get a feel for the writing and content.

While it's not free, Komodo is a slick app. built with the Mozilla framework. I've been meaning to take a look at Creating Applications with Mozilla to see whether it's worth considering for my projects.

Install a linux system at home (I prefer SlackWare), then perform an install of linux from scratch. I think its probably the best teacher out there as you actually see what components are getting installed on the system and get a little of the why. There will probably be some intricacies in whatever distro you pick but that will give you a very solid background. Also, pick up Unix power tools from somewhere - learning the tools inside that book is a better education then any class I ever took.

The full text of this book is available online via O'Reilly's Safari subscription service:

http://safari.oreilly.com/059600611X

This is a great service for serious readers. (I have no connection with them other than as a subscriber.)

I recently completed reading it from cover to cover, and while I didn't yet even code the examples myself (I plan to do that on my second read), every chapter felt like a series of revelations.

Highly recommended. Combine that with other books (Dive into Python looks very nice) and a few extra resources, and you and/or your students should be positively churning out code. A couple of nice ones:

Python Sidebar (originally for Mozilla, but works on at least Opera as well)
Python 2.3 Quick Reference (utterly brilliant)

Considering that people in rural areas still use animal power for most things, why not this? I'm thinking maybe a few oxen used to drive a generator or somthing along those lines.

They might inadvertantly take this cover litterally.

It was Xerox, not HP. Read your history.

HP might well have been doing the same, but it happened to be a Xerox printer in that case. But now they have lovely open source^W^Wfree inkjet drivers.

umm ... no
Atleast according to this book, it was a printer by Xerox, that ultimately led RMS to *start* the F/OSS movement ...

This sort of thing is becoming so common that O'Reilly is coming out with a magazine targetting this audience. The currently sparse site is at http://make.oreilly.com/.

You can draw your own conclusions from the fact that I already know about it. ;-)

Oops, it seems you got the wrong link, here's the correct one for The Bible.

Technological change in software programming modularizes and decomposes the functions into design, coding, maintenance, and user interface. Design and interface must be done together with the customer, but coding and maintenance do not require close proximity with customers and can be done by less costly programmers abroad. The higher-wage jobs, involving design and interface, must still be performed in the U.S.

Meanwhile, U.S. IT jobs continue to move up the IT skills ladder. Demand increases for workers with the skills needed to design, customize, and utilize IT applications, particularly in the lagging sectors and among SMEs. Some of the transformation in types of IT jobs in response to global sourcing of software can be seen in detailed occupation data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. From 1999 to 2002 (last available data), the number of "programming" jobs in the U.S. earning on average $64,000 fell by some 71,000. But jobs held by application and system software engineers earning on average $74,000 increased by 115,000. Thus, even as it increases the number of IT jobs, global sourcing of software and services changes the nature of IT jobs, moving them up the skills ladder and diffusing them throughout the U.S. economy.

O'Reilly now has a book about the 2003 XML. So, there is docs to do it. But then, there may nevertheless be showstoppers here.

The license terms, explained in the FAQ, gives so much room for FUDslinging against developers, I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole...

Q. Can I distribute a licensed program under an open source software license?

A. Yes. There are many open source licenses available in the developer community. One useful place to review the various licenses that have been approved by the open source community is at Open Source Initiative.

The terms and conditions of these licenses differ in material respects. We believe you can distribute your program under many open source software licenses so long as you include the notices described in the licenses for the Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas. On the other hand, some open source licenses may include specific constraints or restrictions that might preclude development under the Office 2003 XML Reference Schema licenses. You should check with your legal counsel if you have questions about a particular open source software license.

I'm definitly unable to fully appreciate the terms, but it wouldn't surprise me if they are designed to stamp out any real competition and only allow licensing that allows Microsoft to use Free Software hackers as free labor. Give me a "no restrictions", and I would feel more confident about it.

Correct me if I'm the one who is spreading FUD now...

Well, you can't modify software you buy, so I don't know (sarcastic)....Read Free Software, Free Society by RMS, it's a good one. Or Read Free As in Freedom

Here's the answer

Two more years, apparently.

Flash has grown up. What it represents (to me) is a potentially really solid thin client for building remote applications.

Why not use Java? Well compare the amount and quality of flash games to java games, that's my metric for my belief that at least for gaming, that flash is probably a better dev environment.

But the huge problem right now is the lack of quality documentation/tutorials/books on actionscript 2.0 (released last november). It's not completely backwards compatible. Most of the books are oriented towards dumbasses, and they are just actionscript 1.0 books with the code tweaked so it works on 2.0 (i.e. not OOPy).

If anyone has a good recommendation in terms of actionscript 2.0 books, I'd appreciate it. I have this one, which is a good book, but is very oriented towards AS1.0 programmers moving to AS2.0. It's hard to find a book that is geek friendly, example oriented, and designed from scratch for actionscript 2.0.

I don't have a recommendation but I do have a strong anti-recommendation.

I normally recommend the associated Oreilly book for most computer topics but in the case of PostgreSQL I have to say Practical PostgreSQL is the worst Oreilly book that I have read. Most of the book is a regurgitation of the freely available postgres manual with an additional chapter that is a blatant plug for the author's proprietary product.

I thought Oreilly could do no wrong until I bought this piece of crap.

I don't have a recommendation but I do have a strong anti-recommendation.

I normally recommend the associated Oreilly book for most computer topics but in the case of PostgreSQL I have to say Practical PostgreSQL is the worst Oreilly book that I have read. Most of the book is a regurgitation of the freely available postgres manual with an additional chapter that is a blatant plug for the author's proprietary product.

I thought Oreilly could do no wrong until I bought this piece of crap.

good starting point, it's also on Safari so you could read it online.

Here it is on amazon

After the weekend, the owner of the computer came to me complaining that he couldn't log in. It turned out that the intruder wiped his whole home directory, which had no recent back-up!
[...]
These incidents have taught me the value of staying up-to-date

Perhaps it also should have taught you the role that a religious zeal in making regular backups has as part of basic security?

No publishers have ever taken much interest in writing specific books for it.

You mean like this one, this one, this one, even this one or any of these?

Sure, probably lots of those are re-treads from other Unix books and somewhat dated, but many books about other versions of Unix are like that too.

In almost every section of the excerpt from the CSS TDG book, it introduces some cool CSS feature only to conclude with, "unfortunately IE doesn't implement this", or, "IE doesn't implement this correctly". It's really sad.

Does protocol 1 not give you protection from man in the middle attacks?

No, SSH protocoll 1 is vulnerable to man in the middle attacks. There is even a program called dsniff that do MITM attacks against SSH protocol 1.

I haven't yet read the subject of this book review, but I did find O'Reilly's Programming PHP to be a useful and comprehensive overview of the language. Of course, it was published in 2002, so today I would recommend going with something a little newer. But really, the documentation on http://php.net is excellent -- I'd check that out before spending money on dead tree.

I will just choose to not buy any book published by Penguin, it is the least I can do.

Any true geek already won't buy any book from anyone other than Oreilly. ;)

here

I do this on my linux boxes and it works really well. A quick google talks about people doing this between *nix and windows.

Not so much E-V-I-L... the book is licensed under Creative Commons, so you're completely allowed to convert it.

Yes it is, here: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/

You can get PDFs of the entire book from http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/index. csp.

Before the Open Group had the trademark and developed the certification process, AT&T held the trademark and might allow AT&T source licensees to use it. In the later years, they had a certification process that became the initial Open Group certification. When AT&T owned it, anything marked as Unix had some amount of AT&T code as its base. BSD hadn't still contained AT&T code, the Net2 release was in 1994, so all commercial BSD based systems (older SunOS, NeXT, older SGI, etc.) were derivatives of a common code base . Xenix was a based on an early Bell Labs release. (I don't know where the reference to AmigaOS came from.)

The AT&T conformance was mostly to prove that when vendors made local modifications, they didn't mess anything up.

The main point that the author is missing is that there are two types of hackers: those that are really good at quickly making complicated code that does the job, and those that are really good at making beautiful code that does the job better and simpler. The speed-hackers like perl and C++ whereas the quality-hackers like Java and C. It's the difference between pixels and bitmaps vs vectors and display-pdf, or Windows vs Mac.

The author clearly has no experience with the kind of great hackers that favor elegance over quickness. That's why he doesn't stop to think that google probably requires python experience for their Java jobs because they're using python to script Java. . Also, he says retarded things like "the less smart people writing the actual applications wouldn't be doing low-level stuff like allocating memory". It takes just as much genius and skill to do a great job arranging high-level components as low-level components and the key is to get your great hackers to do the core parts at every level and have the rest fill in the details around it.

Still, there are a lot of good observations in the article.

might be time to try IronPython (~1.7 times faster than standard Py2.3). Here's some performance benchmarks comparing cpython to ironpython for those interested in the numbers. interestingly, IronPythons creator Jim Hugunin designed Jython.

Thanks for prompting me to look as Jim just completed a talk at OSCON, 28 ~ IronPython: A fast Python implementation for .NET and Mono and has released the source.

...wrote "Open Sources", which you can read/buy here. He's a fairly savvy fellow...

My good friend Michael Vince had two of his scripts included in the BSD Hacks book, including Quickpatch which was also featured as a sample chapter

His projects website is here at ROQ.COM and also has the very useful IPFilter script.

As an aside, he said that in his bio in the book, OReilly credited him with different hacks than the ones he actually wrote... editorial snafu.

There are several stings which may work...

A preliminary injunction to stop selling Windows or Office would devastate MS.

Oh, and IBM has quite a few patents, likes Linux, and doesn't particularly like MS. There are other companies that may also play the "white knight" for Linux and/or open source.

Is a hacks book a good way to go about learning more about the insides of an OS (BSD) and how it works, or are there other books out there for this purpose?

For me, O'Reilley's Linux in a Nutshell allowed me to charge in with both guns drawn back in 2000. (Read: I'd hosed my Windows installation, and the Compaq restore CD wasn't working.)

They have books on both Linux and BSD here. And, so long as you have a machine to read them from, check out their Safari service. I loved it. (but had to cancel to pay for tuition last Fall. I'm still planning on going back.)