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The Secrets of Fireworks Photography
July 3, 2009
The Secrets of Fireworks Photography — Big fireworks shows are thrilling to watch, and they make thrilling photo subjects. Because it's night photography, you'd think that all of the rules of shooting in low light would apply. Ha! This hack from Digital Photography Hacks wouldn't be necessary if that were so. Learn what to bring with you, details on setting up your camera, taking the shots, and of course it's also all about location, location, location. Read the secrets now!
Pre-OSCON, Free Webcast Lineup - And a special offer - Save 40% off registration pricing
July 2, 2009
The theme of this year's OSCON is "Open for Business." Times are tough, making open source technology a smart choice for staying competitive. It gives you the means to drive down costs while increasing system and staff efficiencies. In anticipation of the conference, we've lined up three free webcasts featuring OSCON speakers. And if you're planning to attend OSCON, you can save 40% off registration pricing right now. In celebration of Independence Day—and freedom from commercial software—we're offering the discount code os09jul4, good through July 7.
The Secrets of Fireworks Photography
July 2, 2009
The Secrets of Fireworks Photography — Big fireworks shows are thrilling to watch, and they make thrilling photo subjects. Because it's night photography, you'd think that all of the rules of shooting in low light would apply for this assignment. Ha! This hack from Digital Photography Hacks wouldn't be necessary if that were so. Learn what to bring with you, details on setting up your camera, taking the shots, and of course it's also all about location, location, location. Read the secrets now!
In Defense of Social Media (At Least Some Of It)
By Joshua-Michéle RossJuly 2, 2009
Scott Berkun just posted a great rant titled, Calling Bullshit on Social Media. I suggest everyone read it. Berkun raises good points - and I agree the hype around social media warrants taking a critical look. Despite being in general agreement, there are a few areas I can't abide, starting with this statement: social media is a stupid term. Is there any anti-social media out there? Of course not. All media, by definition, is social in some way.
TOC Coming to Frankfurt
By Andrew SavikasJuly 2, 2009
I've had the opportunity to speak with quite a few of my industry colleagues in Europe during the past year, and it became increasingly obvious there was an opportunity to bring the Tools of Change for Publishing message to a European audience. So we've teamed up with the Frankfurt Book Fair to put on a special one-day TOC Frankfurt on Tuesday October 13, the day before the Book Fair begins.
Velocity and the Bottom Line
July 2, 2009
Velocity 2009 took place last week in San Jose, with Jesse Robbins and I serving as co-chairs. Back in November 2008, while we were planning Velocity, I said I wanted to highlight "best practices in performance and operations that improve the user experience as well as the company's bottom line." Much of my work focuses on the how of improving performance - tips developers use to create even faster web sites. What's been missing is the why. Why is it important for companies to focus on performance?
Everyblock's Code is Open-Sourced
By Brady ForrestJuly 2, 2009
The code for Adrian Holovaty's Everyblock has been released. The open-sourcing of the site's system were apart of the Knight News Challenge Program. Everyblock is a very impressive site that aggregates and geocodes local data -- news, crime, fire, restaraunt inspections and reviews - and then lets users define their interests down to the block-level.
Patrick Collison Puts the Squeeze on Wikipedia - How to Cram the Wikipedia onto an 8GB iPhone
July 2, 2009
Think about Wikipedia, what some consider the most complete general survey of human knowledge we have at the moment. Now imagine squeezing it down to fit comfortably on an 8GB iPhone. Sound daunting? Well, that's just what Patrick Collison's iPhone application does. App Store purchasers of Collison's open source application can browser and search the full text of Wikipedia when stuck in a plane, or trapped in the middle of nowhere (or as defined by AT&T coverage...) Collison will be presenting a talk on how he did it at OSCON, O'Reilly's Open Source conference at the end of July, and he spent some time talking to me about it recently.
Radical Career Success in a Down Economy - Free live webcast now underway!
July 1, 2009
Radical Career Success in a Down Economy — We all know we're in the middle of an economic downturn. The news is full of statistics on job loss and unemployment. Everyone is feeling the crunch. In times like this it's natural to worry about your career. Career experts and authors Andy Lester and Chad Fowler will walk you through strategies for preparing yourself to not only stay employed but to find the work you love. Join the webcasts now!
Joshua-Michele Ross's Social Web Guiding Principals for Business - New O'Reilly Insights on Forbes.com
July 1, 2009
A Corporate Guide For Social Media—Radar blogger Joshua-Michele Ross offers social media guidelines for business in a new O'Reilly Insights column on Forbes.com. "Social technologies turn many corporate policies upside down," writes Ross. And, he adds: " If you think these guidelines don't apply to you, you are probably already on the endangered species list." Check out O'Reilly Insights to learn how to build your company's social media policies. Read more.
The Hacker Ethic - Harming Developers?
By Jim StogdillJuly 1, 2009
Is the hacker ethic harming developers? We don't think so, but maybe the idea resonates a little bit? On Monday Neil McAllister posed the question "is the hacker ethic harming American developers?" Slashdot picked it up and Tim forwarded it to the Radar list. As you might expect, it resulted in some spirited discussion.
The US Online Job Market Was (still) Down Big In June 2009
July 1, 2009
Updating my post from early June, the U.S. online job market still hasn't shown signs of recovering from steady declines that began in September of last year. Compared to the same period last year, there were 50% less job postings in June 2009.
Clean Energy and Security Act - First Step for U.S.
July 1, 2009
While we may have had the weekend to try to digest the House's passage (by a close vote of 219-212) of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, I find there's still no consensus on what it means for the U.S. It's not just because it is hard to extract saliency from the 1200 pages that make up the bill, but rather because it's virtually impossible to understand what form the bill will ulitimately take if (and that's a potentially sizeable if) it gets through the Senate. (You may fondly remember the catchy Schoolhouse Rock song "I'm just a bill").
Radical Transparency: The New Federal IT Dashboard
June 30, 2009
Today, at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York, Vivek Kundra, the US national CIO, unveiled the new IT spending dashboards at usaspending.gov. The dashboards are designed to help Vivek and the CIOs of individual government agencies get a handle on the effectiveness of government IT spending.
Take Your iPhone to the Next Level--Best iPhone Apps Is Here - The essential guide for discriminating downloaders
June 30, 2009
Josh Clark, author of O'Reilly's Best iPhone Apps: The Essential Guide for Discriminating Downloaders says he waited three decades until the iPhone finally arrived in 2007. "Apple's fabulous device is the only thing that's ever resembled my childhood notions of the 21st century, the first time the future got here," writes Clark. "A computer. In your pocket." And for his new book, Clark scoured the App Store to find the best apps that will make your iPhone shine and you more productive, more creative, more happy. The PDF of Clark's Best iPhone Apps is available now. Check these excerpts to find some of the cool apps Clark recommends.
Bing's Sanaz Ahari on System Feedback (2 of 2)
By Brady ForrestJune 30, 2009
The second part of this two-part interview with Sanaz Ahari, Lead PM on Bing, my interview focuses on the systems used to generate the categorization. Together we review some of the images from her presentation at a recent small search summit held by Bing for analysts, bloggers, SEO experts, entrepreneurs and advertisers.
Personal Democracy Forum conference: initial themes
June 30, 2009
"So what's this conference you're going to?" asked my friends, not braced for an explanation that usually took me more than ten minutes. Ultimately, though, they all ended up excited about the ideas behind Personal Democracy Forum. The first day at the Personal Democracy Forum conference revolved around the freedom to experiment, necessary infrastructure, and the need to change.
Bing's Sanaz Ahari on Query Level Categorization (1 of 2)
June 30, 2009
A couple of weeks ago Bing had a small search summit for analysts, bloggers, SEO experts, entrepreneurs and advertisers. It was held in Bellevue; they put us up in the hotel and fed us. While there we received demos from Bing project teams. I was able to snag an interview with Sanaz Ahari, Lead PM on Bing. She led the team that developed the categories you see on a Bing web search. The interview was based on the slides from her presentation at the event. I have posted the significant images from her slides. The first portion of the interview focuses on how the Bing team handles Query level categorization and some of the problems they face.
Low End Linux Netbook Prices Continue To Drop
By Caitlyn MartinJune 29, 2009
It almost goes without saying that you won't find anything that runs Windows at anywhere near these prices. Oh, and no, that doesn't mean that Linux is somehow inferior as Windows fans would want you to believe. It is, however, free of charge.
Manage Your Performance with Cgroups and Projects
By David Collier-BrownJune 29, 2009
Imagine for a moment that you're a capacity planner for a successful LAMP-based web site, and management has just "gifted" you with a new reporting program. You now have to somehow shoehorn it onto the server without hurting the performance of the existing programs. Insoluble problem? Not a bit! All you need is a resource manager like cgroups, the resource manager for Linux containers.
PyMOTW: pyclbr
By Doug HellmannJune 29, 2009
pyclbr can scan Python source to find classes and stand-alone functions. The information about class, method, and function names and line numbers is gathered using tokenize without importing the code.
Rethinking ecommerce security: security experts asked to redesign credit card payments
June 29, 2009
Ed Bellis, the chief information security officer at Orbitz, is trying to design a secure online system for credit card payments.
Want A Job? Learn SharePoint, Says Gary Blatt - 100% of the Federal Government has licenses, but they can't find developers to implement their sites.
June 29, 2009
Even with an improving economy, there's still a lot of developers out there who are looking for work. And though it may make seasoned Open Source hackers cringe at the thought, one quick way to find employment may be to go over to "the Other Side" and become a Microsoft SharePoint developer. I recently attended the SPTechCon conference, and talked...
Silicon Valley's First Phone Company - A conversation with Ted Griggs
June 29, 2009
Ribbit bills itself as "Silicon Valley's First Phone Company." Recently I sat down with Ted Griggs, Ribbit's CEO to talk about that tag line, Ribbit's business and what's behind their recent acquisition by British Telecom. It will be interesting to see how the telecommunications industry is going to handle the coming disruption as the public becomes accustomed to near-free calling and outside competitors like Google Voice and Ribbit accelerate the pace of innovation.
How Active is Twitter Now? Tweespeed
June 29, 2009
As of Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 1:10PM PST Twitter is pumping out 13,574 tweets per minute. I know from TweeSpeed, The Twitter Instant Speed Meter. The auto-refreshing application averages the last five minutes of Twitter's public timeline to get its figure. The simple app was built using "Java (JSP), uses the Twitter Java API, and runs on Google App Engine, Ajax, Sitemesh for page decoration,Eclipse as dev tool, Google Visualization API Gauge."
Mini-Maker Faire Series Starts Saturday in Sonoma County - Dale Dougherty Teaches DIY Wreath Making
June 26, 2009
MAKE IT @ Copperfield's This Summer! Dale Dougherty, editor and publisher of MAKE magazine and creator of Maker Faire, along with some fellow makers bring the DIY movement to Copperfield's Books on Saturday, June 27th. Based in Sebastopol, CA — also the world headquarters of O'Reilly Media — the independent bookseller plays host to a series of Mini-Maker Faires throughout the summer. On Saturday's Mini-Maker Faire, Dale and Nancy Dougherty teach wreath making, Brooklelynn Morris explores felt making, and Tim Allwine demonstrates fancy knots, braids, and splices. Learn more.
Naming an Emerging Movement
By John GeraciJune 26, 2009
There's a movement going on around the world. We don't have a name for it, though. Gov2.0, e-gov, e-democracy, open gov--these are all names that get applied to what is happening. And they are great for describing a certain aspect of this movement, the aspect that actually deals with government. Recalling my post last week about the four pillars of an open civic system, these "gov" names--e-gov, gov2.0, open gov--focus on the G2C aspect of what is going on, to the exclusion of the other aspects of this open civic system that is emerging. So what do we call this new thing?
Tim O'Reilly's and John Battelle's Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On - Web + World = Web Squared
June 25, 2009
Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On — Tim O'Reilly, CEO and founder of O'Reilly Media, and John Battelle, founder and chairman of Federated Media Publishing, discuss where the Web is headed in the post Web 2.0 era. "Increasingly, the Web is the world--everything and everyone in the world casts an 'information shadow,' an aura of data which, when captured and processed intelligently, offers extraordinary opportunity and mind bending implications," explain the authors. "Web Squared is our way of exploring this phenomenon and giving it a name." They're also looking to create a list of applications, services, and projects that reflect the Web Squared theme and want your input. Read more.
Apple, the Boomer Tablet and the Matrix
By Mark SigalJune 25, 2009
I have written here, here and here about Apple’s inevitable assault on the Tablet market. What I hadn’t factored until recently is how symbiotic such a device would be for Baby Boomers. Why Baby Boomers? Well, for the same two reasons that this demographic is unlikely to embrace the palm-sized iPhone en masse. One, such a bookish-sized tablet device –...
Tab bars and Navigation bars together
June 25, 2009
The TableView is a common way to display data on an iPhone. Combining a tab bar with a table view and navigation bar isn't very difficult, but it took me forever to figure out how to do it properly. In my screencast, learn how to avoid common beginner errors and enjoy a practical follow-along exercise to build an app with a tab bar, navigation bar and table view controllers.
Web Squared webcast is now underway! - Presented by Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle
June 25, 2009
Web Squared — Join John Battelle and Tim O'Reilly as they outline their ideas for how the Web is evolving—how the world is putting the Web to work to make business more efficient, culture more vibrant, and society more tolerant. It's been six years since the original Web 2.0 thesis and definite trends are emerging. Applications are becoming platforms for collective action, not just collective intelligence. The "data shadows" that people leave in cyberspace are becoming richer and deeper. When web meets world, we get Web Squared — the theme of this year's Web 2.0 Summit. This live webcast gives you the chance to ask questions and share your own web-squared ideas. Join the webcasts now!
Scott Berkun on Why and How to Speak (at Ignite)
By O'Reilly MediaJune 25, 2009
Subscribe to this video podcast series via iTunes. Or, visit the O'Reilly Media area at iTunes to find other podcasts from O'Reilly.
Case Study: Twitter Usage at Wordcamp SF
June 25, 2009
One of my many hats is as an events organizer. Twitter has become an invaluable tool for me to gauge the mood of the attendees. Are they excited by the current speaker? Bored or excited at the latest news? Are they having a good time? And most important, are they making connections? Pathable, an events social networking company, has...
Does "green" really matter?
By Sarah SorensenJune 24, 2009
"Green" has a definite role in business, while politics and religion are probably best left outside the board room. Why does "green" matter? Setting aside issues around climate change - which is often where religious debates occur - from a practical standpoint, there are real business implications.
Twitter Boot Camp Slides
June 24, 2009
Presenters at O'Reilly's Twitter Boot Camp, held June 15 in New York, offered a variety of best practices and case studies revolving around Twitter's business, marketing, branding and advertising opportunities. Presentations include Tim O'Reilly's Keynote, "Create More Value Than You Capture" and Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital's presentation, "Using Twitter to Market Your Corporate All-Stars." Other slides from the day's presentations are available for viewing.
Jonathan Heiliger on Web Performance, Operations, and Culture
June 24, 2009
We were honored to have Jonathan Heiliger, Facebook's VP of Technology Operations, as our opening keynote speaker at Velocity. Jonathan is one of the most accomplished leaders in our field, and is a master of the craft. Here is his keynote in it's entirety...
My 140conf Talk: Twitter as Publishing
June 24, 2009
I spoke at Jeff Pulver's 140conf a few weeks ago. My subject was the continuity of what I do, from publishing through conferences through my presence on twitter. I tried to draw the connections, and to explain how "social media" means drawing from, curating, and amplifying the voices of a community. I suggest that the role of an editor and publisher is analogous to the role of a point guard in basketball, handing out "assists" and improving the performance of his or her teammates. After all, I point out, I couldn't possibly tweet enough to cover all the topics I am interested in. But by using my retweets to build the visibility of others, I can create and foster a community that cares about the ideas, trends, and people that I care about.
Personal Democracy Forum ramp-up: adaptive legislation can respond to action in the agora
June 24, 2009
If legislatures could rely on public participation during the implementation of the law, they could write laws that embrace such input.
App Growth, PalmOS vs iPhoneOS
June 24, 2009
There's a chart I've been meaning to put together for a while to explain why I'm expecting the iPhoneOS to be the dominant mobile platform for at least the next decade. I've been thinking of the role third-party applications played in helping Palm maintain its mobile platform dominance for about that same period, from 1996 to 2006. If you believe...
Nine Essential Truths for Entrepreneurial Success
By Mark SigalJune 24, 2009
Leveraging the pattern recognition of others is one of the best ways to build upon best practices, while sidestepping avoidable mistakes. What follows is a primer of nine key lessons learned from doing eight startups (four as co-founder, four liquidity events).
The First Step into the Cloud: Which Kinds of Applications Make the Most Sense?
By George ReeseJune 24, 2009
A key to successfully integrating the public cloud into your IT infrastructure is identifying a first application that will provide you with measurable results and learnings that can apply to future deployments without putting your business at risk. IT annoyances make the ideal first cloud projects.
Final Day to Register for Around the World in 32 Minutes with The Geek Atlas - A Free Live Webcast - June 24th at 10am PT
June 23, 2009
Around the World in 32 Minutes with The Geek Atlas — In this webcast, author John Graham-Cumming presents a tour of 32 places from his book, The Geek Atlas, in 32 minutes. From Jaipur to Hawaii, via Spain, Paris, London, New York and beyond, The Geek Atlas covers places that will fascinate anyone interested in science, technology or mathematics. Attendance is limited, so register now!
John Viega Explains What Motivates Bad Guys - An Excerpt from The Myths of Security
June 23, 2009
Longtime security professional John Viega reports on the sorry state of security in his new book, The Myths of Security: What the Computer Security Industry Doesn't Want You to Know. "Today, the tech world might hear a lot about security issues, but the world at large rarely does," writes Viega. In this excerpt from The Myths of Security, Viega explains what motivates bad guys to break into computers.
Scott Berkun Wants You to Share Your Worst Public Speaking Disasters - For a Chance to Win a Prize
June 23, 2009
O'Reilly's bestselling author Scott Berkun is working on a new book, Confessions of a Public Speaker. In it, the author of Making Things Happen and The Myths of Innovation aims to uncover and share what separates great speakers from most of the rest of us. And over at his new blog, Speaker Confessions, Berkun hopes to get you to share your worst public speaking disasters. Any story can win a chance to appear in his new book, which we will publish in October. Even better, the best, most embarrassing stories can win from a pool of $200 in prizes. Learn more.
Velocity: The Art of Web Operations
By Tim O'ReillyJune 23, 2009
Two years ago, at the 2007 O'Reilly Open Source Convention, a group of web operations professionals, led by Jesse Robbins and Steve Souders along with O'Reilly editor Andy Oram, asked for a meeting with me. Their message: "We need a separate conference for our community." That community: the web operations professionals who keep sites up and running. They knew I...
A Manifesto on Health Data Rights
June 23, 2009
I was surprised when I met recently with a congressman in Washington, a former physician, to talk about healthcare reform. When we moved to the topic of portable health care records, I was quite startled to hear him say "When I was practicing as a physician, I considered those records to be my property." After all, he said, they were his notes, his analysis. Given this disconnect, I was glad to endorse today's Health Data Bill of Rights.
Before and After Shots of Google's Iran Maps
June 23, 2009
There many places in the world where it is not possible for larger companies to map them. These can be for economic reasons as is the case for Black Rock City (the temporary 40,000 person home for Burning Man). Or for political reasons as is the case for Iran and countries such as China. As I mentioned the other day Google greatly improved their map coverage of Iran via user contributions through their Mapmaker program.
Where are the learners?
June 23, 2009
I tend to browse around Flickr a lot, and came across this image of an empty classroom. So what's missing here? Well, it would seem obvious... except to many technical book authors. See, for most folks, the obvious answer here is, "There are no students!" But for the average technical book author -- and to be clear, I'm one of that crowd, so I'm speaking personally and from experience -- we would all, loudly, cry out, "There's no teacher!" What a fundamental disconnect.
Big learning curve for iPhone development
By Elisabeth RobsonJune 22, 2009
I just started learning how to develop for the iPhone. After helping to put together an iPhone workshop with my friend Joe Heck, I got really excited about this new platform. I've dabbled in Cocoa and Objective C before, many years ago, and figured it was time to relearn Mac development so I could write my own apps for the iPhone.
Velocity is Now Underway!
By O'Reilly MediaJune 22, 2009
O'Reilly Velocity Conference is now underway in San Jose, CA. You can follow the conference on Twitter and check the conference site for news, coverage, videos, presentation files, and photos.
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