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Ignite NYC II - Submit a talk

By Brady Forrest
August 28, 2008 | Comments: 1

On the night before the Web 2.0 Expo NY Ignite is coming back to NYC! On September 15th we will have 10 Ignite speakers who each get just five minutes on stage. Bre Pettis, the co-creator of Ignite will be hosting a cupcake decorating contest. Ignite is going to be at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street) where...

The Mac at 25: Andy Hertzfeld Looks Back

By James Turner
August 27, 2008 | Comments: 9

The Mac at 25: Andy Hertzfeld Looks Back

Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original designers of the Macintosh, is also the author of the book Revolution in the Valley, which tells the tale of the birth of the Mac. As the Mac approaches its 25th anniversary in January, Andy spent some time talking about how the Mac has changed over time, how a group of highly talented individuals was able to come together as a team to create it, why Xerox let it get away, and how life might have been different if Steve Jobs hadn't left the company for more than 10 years.

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Huge iPhone Security Risk? It's nothing new, says Jonathan Zdziarski

By Kathryn Barrett
August 27, 2008 | Comments: 0

Huge iPhone Security Risk? It's nothing new, says Jonathan Zdziarski

"There's a huge security problem in the latest iPhone 2.0.2," writes Jesus Diaz in a story on Gizmodo, "a very simple trick gives anyone full access to your cellphone private information in Mail, SMS, Contacts, and even Safari." But this is nothing new, says iPhone hacker Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the upcoming iPhone Forensics. "The iPhone passcode was cracked long ago," he explains, leaving the iPhone with certain inherent security flaws. Read more.

Are statistics part of your job?

By Laura Adair
August 26, 2008 | Comments: 1

Statistics in a Nutshell — Need to learn statistics as part of your job, or looking for help to pass a statistics course? Statistics in a Nutshell is a clear and concise introduction and reference for anyone with no previous background in the subject. You get a firm grasp of the basics before moving into increasingly advanced material. Each chapter presents you with easy-to-follow descriptions illustrated by graphics, formulas, and plenty of solved examples. Learn more.

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statistics

David Chappell's Taxonomy of Cloud Platforms and Microsoft

By John Osborn
August 22, 2008 | Comments: 1

Microsoft's response to the emerging cloud computing platforms of Amazon, Google, and Yahoo has been spotty to say the least. Now a new white paper from distributed computing maven David Chappell proposes a taxonomy for classifying what's available today and offers a map of where Microsoft may be headed.

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"I can only WISH my college classes were as effective as O'Reilly's"

By Laura Adair
August 22, 2008 | Comments: 3

That's what O'Reilly School of Technology student David Hammond said about his experience. And he should know; he's a computer science student at a large east coast school. Self-paced online courses in IT, with one-on-one coaching and proven teaching techniques. Get certified! Enroll Today and Save 20%!

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David Flanagan on JavaScript 2

By chromatic
August 22, 2008 | Comments: 5

Is JavaScript and HTML the new BASIC? What does the average programmer need from JavaScript 2? Is the web the new client-server model of computing? JavaScript guru David Flanagan addresses these questions and more in this interview.

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Learn How to Obtain iPhone Forensic Data

By Laurel Ackerman
August 21, 2008 | Comments: 1

Learn How to Obtain iPhone Forensic Data

Happening September 16-17, 2008 in Burlington, MA, this valuable workshop led by Jonathan Zdziarski, the original iPhone hacker, will guide you through a highly specialized forensic examination of the iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch. Register now to learn how to recover, process and remove sensitive data stored on these devices or learn more.

The Mind of Damian Conway: Science, Computer Science, the Future of Perl 6, and Advice for Today's Aspiring Programmers

By Kathryn Barrett
August 21, 2008 | Comments: 7

The Mind of Damian Conway: Science, Computer Science, the Future of Perl 6, and Advice for Today's Aspiring Programmers

At this year's OSCON, Terry Camerlengo sat down with Damian Conway, author of Perl Best Practices and Perl Hacks, to get his thoughts on a wide variety of subjects, including the what-and-when of Perl 6 and what he thinks is important for the next generation of computer scientists. Watch the video (or read on) to hear what he says.

Interview with David Heinemeier Hansson: Rails Culture, Scaling Basecamp, and Building Successful Companies

By Timothy M. O'Brien
August 20, 2008 | Comments: 2

Interview with David Heinemeier Hansson: Rails Culture, Scaling Basecamp, and Building Successful Companies

In this video interview, DHH discusses the current state of Ruby on Rails adoption. Who is using Rails? How was the culture changed over the past five years? Hansson also comments on the technologies that are catching his attention and how they might affect Rails in the months to come. Hansson also comments on his Startup School presentation, and why he thinks Chicago is an ideal environment for technology and innovation.

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dekePod Episode 004: Stretching a Photo in Illustrator

By Deke McClelland
August 20, 2008

Have you ever wanted to stretch a photo's background but leave the foreground unchanged? Or turn a horizontal photo into a vertical one without making a mess of it? You can't do it in Photoshop CS3, but you can in its companion program, Adobe Illustrator. Deke shows you how in a way that'll make you so happy, you'll think you're on drugs. And wait till you see the new look! Deke is dreamy.

slide:ology: A Gorgeous Presentation According to Garr Reynolds

By Sara Peyton
August 19, 2008 | Comments: 0

slide:ology: A Gorgeous Presentation According to Garr Reynolds

"Slide:ology is practical, it's highly visual, and it's beautiful. I love this book," observes the visionary author of "Presentation Zen," Garr Reynolds, in his popular blog discussing professional presentation design. According to Garr, "Slide:ology should come bundled with every copy of PowerPoint or Keynote ever sold from now on. I received a draft copy about three months ago that blew me away--the final product is even better than I expected. I just got my copy over the weekend. At 274 pages, the book is meaty without being bloated." In fact, in order to demonstrate how easy it is to artfully place elements in Keynote and save the file as a video, Garr created a entertaining video review of Nancy Duarte's slide:ology using a "cheap but useful Nikon point-n-shoot."

Rapping the Higgs Boson: Katherine McAlpine (aka AlpineKat) talks particle physics, the Large Hadron Collector, and Rapping at CERN

By James Turner
August 19, 2008 | Comments: 6

Rapping the Higgs Boson: Katherine McAlpine (aka AlpineKat) talks particle physics, the Large Hadron Collector, and Rapping at CERN

Katherine McAlpine spends her days putting together the online newsletter for the ATLAS project at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. But at night, she dawns her white labcoat and geek bling, and becomes AlpineKat, rapping about the world of high energy particle physics. O'Reilly News spent some time talking to this multi-talented woman about what's going on at CERN, what we can expect from the LHC, why the Higgs Boson is important, and guerrilla filmmaking in the bowels of CERN.

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Harmony comes to JavaScript, but Not Everyone's Singing

By Kurt Cagle
August 18, 2008 | Comments: 5

Harmony comes to JavaScript, but Not Everyone's Singing

A long and contentious struggle came to an end this week as ECMA Technical Committee 39, responsible for the development and maintenance of ECMAScript (known universally everywhere else as JavaScript), voted to establish ECMAScript 3.1 as the next "trunk" branch for the venerable web browser language, rather than the more ambitious (and contentious ECMAScript 4.0). While the breaking of the deadlock is a momentous achievement, not everyone is happy with it.