Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom -- This step-by-step guide offers bloggers, web developers, and programmers an understanding of content syndication and the technologies that make it possible. It highlights all the new features of RSS 2.0, and offers complete coverage of its rival technology, Atom. If you're interested in producing your own content feed, this is the one book you'll want in hand. Sample Chapter 4, RSS 2.0 (PDF) is available free online.

Photoshop Elements 3 for Windows One-on-One is a complete training system on how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements software to edit and optimize images. Written in conversational style and packed with full-color photos, this book contains 12 step-by-step lessons on real-world tasks, along with two hours of video tutorials on CD. You’ll also learn about photography and graphic theory, best practices, and tips for avoiding problems. Both image-editing novices and those already familiar with using Photoshop Elements will benefit from this book.

Silence on the Wire (No Starch) -- This narrative dissects a variety of uncommon security challenges that defy classification and eschew the traditional attacker-victim model, uncovering these silent attacks so that system administrators can defend against them and better monitor their systems. By taking an in-depth look at modern computing, from hardware on up, this unique book enables sys admins to better understand security issues and to approach networking from a new, more creative perspective.

Spring: A Developer's Notebook -- This no-nonsense book quickly gets you up to speed on the new Spring open source framework. Favoring examples and practical application over theory, Spring: A Developer's Notebook features ten code-intensive labs that will force you to hone your skills by working through multiple instructional examples. In the end, you'll understand how to produce simple, clean, and effective applications. Sample Chapter 6, Services and AOP (PDF) is available free online.

Network Security Tools accessibly shows experienced administrators how to modify, customize, and extend popular open source security tools such as Nikto, Ettercap, and Nessus. This concise, high-end guide discusses the common customizations and extensions for these tools, then shows you how to write even more specialized attack and penetration reviews that are suited to your unique network environment. It also explains how tools like port scanners, packet injectors, network sniffers, and web assessment tools function.

Snort Cookbook -- This invaluable book covers important issues that sys admins and security pros face everyday. Each "recipe" offers a clear description of a gnarly problem, a concise but complete solution, and practical examples, saving you countless hours of trial and error. But this ultimate Snort sourcebook offers more than just immediate cut-and-paste answers; it also showcases the best insider tips and tricks to leverage the full power of Snort. Sample Chapter 7, Miscellaneous Other Uses (PDF) is available free online.

iPod and iTunes: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition -- To keep up with all the recent changes to the iPod and iTunes, O'Reilly has once again fully updated and refreshed its bestselling Missing Manual. Covering all iPod models for both Mac and Windows, this book lays bare an astonishing collection of useful tips, tricks, and shortcuts for prospective iPod owners as well as experienced iPodders. It's also the ultimate guide to iTunes software and the iTunes Music Store. Sample Chapter 2, The iPod Sync Connection (PDF) is available free online.

Learning the bash Shell, 3rd Edition -- If you are new to shell programming, this book provides an excellent introduction, covering everything from the most basic to the most advanced features. And if you've been writing shell scripts for years, it offers a great way to find out what the new shell offers. This refreshed edition is full of practical examples of shell commands and programs guaranteed to make everyday use of Linux that much easier. Sample Chapter 4, Basic Shell Programming (PDF) is available free online.

Degunking Your PC (Paraglyph) -- This concise book will show you the best way to get out of the rat's maze of cables and old plug-and-play devices and onto the road of perfect PC organization. It covers techniques for everything from tweaking your monitor to suit your needs to installing and uninstalling peripherals to networking several computers, all without technical jargon. It's time to get your PC and all your gadgets running in tip-top shape.

Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security -- Using an application-specific approach, this book provides sound technical information on FreeBSD and OpenBSD security in conjunction with real-world examples to help you configure and deploy a secure system. The authors walk you through the installation of a hardened operating system, the installation and configuration of critical services, and ongoing maintenance of your FreeBSD and OpenBSD systems. Even administrators in other environments--like Linux and Solaris--can find useful paradigms to emulate here. Sample Chapter 1, The Big Picture (PDF) is available free online.

Safe from the Spam Flood? -- Rumored to be capable of deluging your inbox with spam, ProxyLock, a new feature in a popular spamware program, appears to have a fatal flaw. Researchers have discovered that the dreaded ProxyLock feature lacks a smart way to find the SMTP server affiliated with a spam proxy. As a result, it presents no big threat to existing blacklist systems. Brian McWilliams, author of Spam Kings, explains why.

O'Reilly Radar Blog Launched -- O'Reilly is constantly watching the horizon for emerging technologies and trends sure to affect you and your business. Featuring links, articles, and blog entries posted by Tim O'Reilly, Rael Dornfest, Mark Hedlund, and Nathan Torkington, the group weblog offers a window into the O'Reilly predictive sense, letting you track what O'Reilly tracks. Be sure to read the About page for an overview.

The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks, from SitePoint, offers a problem/solution format designed to help make your site easier to maintain and faster to load with CSS. If you've been working with images in CSS, you've probably looked for answers to questions like "How do I position my background image?" or "How do I set background images for other elements?" You'll find solutions to these image-related CSS problems in this sample excerpt from the book: Chapter 3, CSS and Images.

Open Source Programming Certificate Special -- Acquire the skills necessary for a complete understanding of programming using open source operating systems, languages, libraries, and databases. This five-course series covers CGI programming with Perl, SQL database programming, PHP programming, object-oriented programming with Java, and basic Linux/Unix system administration. Upon completion of the series, students receive a Certificate from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education. Enroll now and save 40%. Offer extended until April 30.

Mapping Hacks Safari Exclusive -- Mapping Hacks, a collection of one hundred simple techniques for digital mapmaking, is scheduled for a June release, but your advance purchase gives you full access to the book's content right now. Mapping Hacks is currently available as a Safari Exclusive, meaning only subscribers to Safari's e-library can read it before its release. Purchase now and receive 45 days of free access to the book with no subscription necessary.

Federated Network Authentication -- How can academic network administrators cope with the "roaming scholar" problem--that is, users having to use several guest provisioning processes to roam across wireless networks on a campus? This challenge applies outside the university setting too. Matthew Gast shows you how federated network authentication can make roaming easier for users and admins alike. Matthew is the author of 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition.

Where 2.0 Conference Registration Open -- Join us at the first O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference June 29-30, 2005 in San Francisco. Location-based services and mapping are becoming mainstream technologies. Meanwhile, innovative new software makes it possible to apply the wealth of new data to old business problems. Come explore the emerging consumer and enterprise ecosystems around location-aware technologies that increasingly impact the way we work and play. Register today.

Form Your Own Design Pattern Study Group -- Like most complex subjects, design patterns are best learned over a period of time, not in a few sittings. Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Freeman suggest one way to ease the learning curve (and have some fun along the way): form a study group using their book, Head First Design Patterns. Get your engineering team together and get started with this comprehensive article.

InfoWorld Recognizes Brian Behlendorf -- Brian Behlendorf was honored by InfoWorld as one of the top 25 CTOs whose vision has helped to guide his company, CollabNet, and the IT industry as a whole. Brian co-founded CollabNet with O'Reilly Media. CollabNet was also recently nominated as one of the finalists for the Red Herring 100, which recognizes the top private companies in North America.

Using DFS for Software Installation -- The Distributed File System (DFS) component of Windows Server 2003 is a powerful tool that can ease the task of deploying and maintaining applications using Group Policy's Software Installation feature. Mitch Tulloch, author of Windows Server Hacks, gives you tips on how to power it up.

Linux Cookbook: Installing Programs from Source Code --Even with all the package managers out there, there are times when building from sources is preferable. For example, a program you want may not be available in a packaged version or you may want to optimize it for your architecture. In Chapter 4 of Linux Cookbook, you’ll be introduced to the basics, including preparing your system and using CheckInstall. If you like this chapter, read the whole book (and up to nine others) on Safari with a free trial subscription.

Anatomy of an Attack: The Five Ps -- The five Ps--Probe, Penetrate, Persist, Propagate, and Paralyze--represent a model of how a security attack progresses. In this excerpt, Kerry Cox and Christopher Gerg discuss an attack's progression through these five steps, whether the attack is sourced from a person or an automated worm or script. Kerry and Christopher are the authors of Managing Security with Snort & IDS Tools.

Five More Annoying PC Annoyances -- After his first PC Annoyances book was released, Steve Bass was surprised by the barrage of email he received with yet more annoyances to fix. That led to the just-released second edition of PC Annoyances, where he added 160 more fixes to irritating PC quirks. And if that's not enough, he offers five more here.