Building a 3D Engine in Perl, Part 4  The ultimate goal of all programming is to be as unproductive as possible--to write games. In part four of a series on building a 3D engine with Perl, Geoff Broadwell explains how to profile your engine, how to improve performance and code with display lists, and how to render text.   [Perl.com]

Give Your Business Logic a Framework with Drools  It's almost too easy to express your business logic as a spaghetti-code fiasco. The result is hard to test, hard to maintain, and hard to update. Rule engines offer an alternative: express your business logic as rules, outside of your Java code, in a format even the business side of the office can understand. Paul Browne uses the open source Drools framework to introduce the idea.   [ONJava.com]

Will Congress Ban Municipal WiFi?  The recently introduced U.S. Senate bill, called the Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act of 2005, may spell the end for municipal wireless. Among other things, the bill says that when there is a case of competing bids between a private company and local government, preference will be given to the private company. Richard Koman reports on the implications of this bill and what it could mean for consumers long-term.   [Policy DevCenter]

Revenge of the Combinator  When Propellerhead Software unveiled the Combinator in Reason 3.0, many musicians scratched their heads. But this misunderstood meta-module lets you create monstrous new instruments. Learn how in this hands-on tutorial.   [DigitalMedia.oreilly.com]

Dashboard Widgets - David Pogue's Podcast  Listen to David Pogue cover Dashboard Widgets--what they are, how to use the Widget Bar, and what Widgets can do for you. He provides tips on some of the crazy and fun widgets available for free download. (6 minutes)   [MacDevCenter.com]

Features
On the Extreme Fringe of XML  Roger Sperberg describes Extreme Markup Languages 2005, which is ongoing this week in Montreal. Extreme plays an important role in the XML conference ecosystem, as Sperberg explains.   [XML.com]

Hibernate 3 Formulas  Hibernate's formula element has been limited in previous versions of the popular object-relational mapping framework, but in Hibernate 3, your formulas can be used in many new ways that will simplify and empower your programming. Dai Yifan shows you what's new.   [ONJava.com]

Transforming XML
Appreciating Libxslt  In this month's Transforming XML column, Bob DuCharme introduces libxslt, a very performant and feature-rich XSLT processor with roots in the GNOME world.   [XML.com]

An In-Depth Look at Vista, Part 1  The long wait for the first beta of Microsoft's new Windows OS is finally over. Wei-Meng Lee took it for a spin and gives a detailed overview of Vista.   [WindowsDevCenter.com]

Using Perl to Manage Plist Files, Part 2  Part 2 goes into much more detail on managing Plist files. You'll change some values and save the altered Plist file back to disk. Then you'll loop over entries in a Plist file, get a dump of the NetInfo database, and print all the users in the database using Perl foreach loops. To do that you'll convert the Cocoa dictionaries and arrays to Perl hashes and arrays. Finally, you'll create a Plist file from scratch, build the sample Xgrid cal job listed in the Xgrid man page by creating the structure using Perl hashes and arrays, and then convert them to Cocoa equivalents.   [MacDevCenter.com]

Internet Security Annoyances  Spyware, Trojans, worms, viruses, phishing, and now pharming--all security issues that can lead to a disenchanting internet experience. This excerpt from Internet Annoyances can help you prevent these kinds of security breaches with tips on configuring your home router for maximum security, constructing your own personal firewall, and more.   [WindowsDevCenter.com]

What Is Flickr (and Hot Tips for Using It)  Flickr is an online photo management and sharing application. And it's also one of the most innovative photo services available today. In this article, Giles Turnbull shows you how Flickr works, then introduces you to some of the great tools you can use to interact with it.   [MacDevCenter.com]

The Virtual Internship: Taking Control of Your Future by Becoming an Open Source Developer  Looking for a job fresh out of college, and finding the competition thick? Brian Fitzpatrick recommends you create your own virtual internship by contributing to an open source project. You'll get real-world experience, and advice and criticism from talented programmers. More importantly, from a career perspective, you'll start building a publicly visible portfolio of your work that you can show to any prospective employer. Wondering how to choose an open source project to contribute to? Come to OSCON 2005 this week and rub elbows with just about everyone connected to the community.   [ONLamp.com]

Calling Web Services Asynchronously  Making synchronous calls to web services can be problematic on occasion, because they have the potential to cause considerable delay. The reason for this is the manner in which synchronous calls work: the application blocks the client until the web service call returns. To overcome the necessity of having to wait for the web service response, we can call web services asynchronously. Raj Makkapati walks you through how to call web services asynchronously.   [ONDotnet.com]

An Interview with Chris Date  Tony Williams conducted this interview with Chris Date shortly after the release of his new book, Database in Depth: Relational Theory for Practitioners, from O'Reilly. In this extensive conversation, Chris debunks a lot of wrong information on "weaknesses of the relational model"; discusses the impact of his classic book, The Third Manifesto, with Hugh Darwen; evaluates the future of SQL as well as his past comments on the language; and closes with his thoughts on the future of DBMSs.   [O'Reilly Network]

Using Perl to Manage Plist Files  A common question is how to manage complex Plist files with scripts. The defaults command, which is often used to manage simple values in Plist files, does not easily manage the nested arrays or dictionaries that are present in most Plist files. In this first article of a two-part series, James Reynolds pulls together a little Perl and Cocoa to solve this problem.   [MacDevCenter.com]

Security Alerts
Problems in Oracle Reports  Noel Davis looks at problems in Oracle Reports, Skype for Linux, MediaWiki, Kate, Kwrite, Shorewall, ekg, libgadu, PHPNews, phpSurveyor, Affix, Heartbeat, and phpPgAdmin.   [LinuxDevCenter.com]

How to Schmooze at OSCON  OSCON is next week and you have people to meet, questions to ask, and assistance to offer. Where should you spend your time, and how should you start your valuable hallway, BOF, and party conversations? Robert Bernier offers a schmoozer's guide to effective conference attendance.   [ONLamp.com]

Porting Test::Builder to Perl 6  With Pugs and Parrot playing nicely and bringing Perl 6 to the rest of us, enterprising early adopters are experimenting with porting their popular Perl 5 modules to Perl 6. O'Reilly editor chromatic recently pushed the limits of Pugs by porting Test::Builder to Perl 6. Here's what he learned about Perl 6, Pugs, and his design along the way.   [Perl.com]

The Practicality of OO PHP  PHP is an easy language for doing practical things immediately. The easiest ways to begin aren't always the best ways to stay productive, though. PHP's support for object orientation requires a little more learning and a little more discipline, but it has many benefits for larger projects. David Day explains the basics of OO in PHP 4.   [ONLamp.com]

The Commons Doesn't Have a Business Plan  The commons used to be a grassy area in the center of town where anyone could graze animals. Now it's a metaphor for anything available to everyone without restriction. Andy Oram argues that this is the ground from which new businesses spring--and that open source and free software are the wellspring for new software and technology.   [ONLamp.com]

This Week in Perl 6, July 20-26, 2005  Matt Fowles summarizes the Perl 6 mailing lists, with p6i discussing garbage collection schemes, p6l rethinking object attribute access and plotting GC APIs and access, and p6c reporting problems, documenting PIL, and discussing the grammar.   [Perl.com]

What Is Vlogging (and How to Get Started)  Short for "video blogging," vlogging is another way to take advantage of the RSS enclosure tag. Josh Paul, author of "Digital Video Hacks," explains vlogging and shows you how to get your videos into the iTunes Music Store.   [DigitalMedia.oreilly.com]

XML Tourist
Analyzing the Web  In his latest XML Tourist column John E. Simpson asks whether XML has a role to play in reporting website traffic statistics. He finds two applications that use XML to analyze website traffic.   [XML.com]

Web Services Messaging with Apache Axis2: Concepts and Techniques  The messaging strategies needed for web services vary, and Apache Axis2 has addressed this problem by creating basic building blocks from which many messaging schemes can be built. Srinath Perera and Ajith Ranabahu show how it works.   [ONJava.com]

Country Music’s Digital Surprise  Some of the most cutting-edge music production is going on in Nashville. Join producer Spencer Critchley for a behind-the-scenes tour through the computer-powered recording sessions for “When I See You Smile,” Bo Billy’s acclaimed country remake of the hit Bad English song. Includes 18 MP3 examples.   [DigitalMedia.oreilly.com]

Eclipse Plugins Exposed, Part 3: Customizing a Wizard  Emmanuel Proulx's series on Eclipse plugin development continues by showing how to put together a useful data model and a wizard GUI.   [ONJava.com]

Python and XML
EaseXML: A Python Data-Binding Tool  In this month's Python and XML column, Uche Ogbuji examines a new XML data-binding tool for Python: EaseXML.   [XML.com]

What Is AdSense?  Looking for ways to generate some cash for that website you've been developing? Google's AdSense may be your answer. This introduction to AdSense will help you decide if the program, which allows you to sell advertising space for other people's ads on your own site, is right for you.   [O'Reilly Network]