Computer Privacy Annoyances -- Written by privacy pro Dan Tynan, and based on interviews with privacy experts from all over the globe, this book serves up real-world advice in bite-sized portions that will help you stop snoops in their tracks. You'll learn how to keep private information private, stop nosy bosses, get off that incredibly annoying mailing list, and more. It's your complete guide to a safer, saner, and more private life. Sample Chapter 2, Privacy at Home (PDF), is available free online.

Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition -- Considered by many to be the most complete and authoritative command reference for Linux available, this book covers all substantial user, programming, administration, and networking commands for the most common Linux distributions and has been updated to cover all new features. Everything that system administrators, developers, and power users need to know about Linux is referenced here. Sample Chapter 4, Boot Methods (PDF), is available free online.

Degunking Your Mac, Tiger Edition (Paraglyph) -- This Tiger edition shows all Mac users the tried-and-true techniques they need to to run Tiger at peak performance. It explains how to get the most from the new Tiger features, including Spotlight, Dashboard, Safari RSS, iChat AV, OS X Tiger Mail, and many others. Mac users will love this book because it will help them get organized, optimize their workspace, solve clutter problems, and keep their Macs running smoothly.

Open Source for the Enterprise -- The authors of this important book have each used open source software for some 15 years at IT departments large and small, and they have collected the wisdom of a host of experts from IT departments, open source communities, and software companies. This book provides a top to bottom view not only of the technology available, but of the skills required to manage it and the organizational issues that must be addressed.

Car PC Hacks -- This comprehensive and easy-to-read guide is the first book available to introduce and entrench you into the hot new car PC market. It gets you started with its introduction to the basics of car electrical systems and is packed with clear explanations and real-life examples. Whether you're venturing into the car PC world for the first time or you're an experienced hobbyist, you're guaranteed a joy ride. Sample Hack 60, Control Your Car PC with Voice Recognition (PDF), is available free online.

Adobe Photoshop CS2 One-on-One -- A straightforward, step-by-step guide to the features and functions of Photoshop, this book covers the new features of CS2 in depth, with plenty of real-world projects and insider tips along the way. Learn how to use the new workflow and file handling features, how to batch process digital camera raw files, search metadata, quickly review images in Slideshow mode, and much more. Comes with two hours of video training on CD.

Using Moodle -- Developed by an extremely active open source community, Moodle is a sophisticated course management system that's ideal for creating dynamic online learning communities and for supplementing face-to-face learning. This book is a comprehensive, hands-on guide that explains how the system works, with plenty of examples and best practices for its many features and plug-in modules. For anyone who is using (or thinking of using) this CMS, this is required reading. Sample Chapter 1, Introduction (PDF), is available free online.

Nokia Smartphone Hacks -- Whether you want to use your smartphone as your lifeline on the road, or you're just looking for ways to maximize the time you spend waiting in lines, you'll find all the user-friendly tips, tools, and tricks you need to become massively productive with your Nokia smartphone. Learn how to take screen shots, access internet content, use email and messaging, and so much more. Sample Hack 31, Record a Phone Call (PDF), is available free online.

Propellerhead Reason Tips and Tricks (PC Publishing) -- This invaluable guide covers everything you need to know about using Reason in your everyday music making. Ideal for beginners, intermediate, and experienced users, this book covers topics from advice on computer audio setups and operating systems through to working methods, linking Reason with other programs, detailed MIDI editing, and more. It even tells you how to mix and publish your original tracks.

Learning Perl, 4th Edition -- Informed by their years of success at teaching Perl as consultants, the authors have re-engineered the Llama to better match the pace and scope appropriate for readers getting started with Perl, while retaining the detailed discussion and eclectic wit for which the Llama is famous. This latest edition has been updated to account for all the recent changes to the language up to Perl 5.8. Sample Chapter 11, File Tests (PDF), is available free online.

Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition -- As soon as Apple comes out with another version of Mac OS X, David Pogue hits the streets with another impeccable Missing Manual to cover it. This new edition explores the latest features in Mac OS X Tiger, such as Spotlight, iChat AV, and Automator. Ideal for every user, this guide has something new on every page, along with David Pogue's celebrated wit and expertise.

O'Reilly Network on Forbes Best of the Web -- Forbes.com recently chose the O'Reilly Network as one of the top Technology Blogs in its Best of the Web Directory. The criteria for selection included having a "limitless curiosity and passion for covering all that is next." Thanks, Forbes!

What Are Google AdWords -- What exactly are Google AdWords? What do all those sometimes confusing AdWord terms mean? What do you need to know before you sign up? If you're considering advertising on Google, this article has the information you need to know before you get started.

SafariU: MERLOT Partnership with O'Reilly Media -- The Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT), an open resource designed to aggregate, evaluate, and make available quality online instructional resources, and SafariU, O'Reilly's web-based platform for creating and sharing custom course materials, announced a new partnership. MERLOT and SafariU users will now have a greater quantity of high-quality online resources that can be easily incorporated into faculty-designed courses. Visit SafariU for more information and to sign up for access.

Refactoring in Visual Basic 2005 -- Refactoring is the one-size-fits-all name given to a set of coding shortcuts that help you rework code on the fly. C# developers have such a tool, but Visual Basic developers were not so lucky--till now. Matthew MacDonald reviews Refactor, the free VB 2005 tool, and offers some how-to techniques for using it. Matthew is the author of Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook.

ETech 2006 CFP Now Open -- O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference 2006 is scheduled for March 6-9 in San Diego. We invite technologists, strategists, CTOs, chief scientists, researchers, programmers, hackers, standards workers, business developers, and entrepreneurs to lead sessions and tutorials at ETech. This year's challenge focuses on the amazing amount of digital data in our worlds: how do we visualize the data, filter it, remix it, and access it in meaningful ways? Proposals are due by September 19th.

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. chromatic is the coauthor of Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook.

Learning Lab August Special -- In our practice-based, self-paced courses, you can build your online portfolio with plenty of instructor feedback and a free O'Reilly book for reference. For a limited time, use the discount passcode "tigercub" to save an extra 15% off any of our courses--including all University of Illinois Certificate Series. Take advantage of this great deal and register today!

My Favorite Macworld Product: The IRISPen -- Have you ever said, "If I learn just one great thing, then the whole conference was worth attending"? Last month, at Macworld Boston, Adam Goldstein discovered the IRISPen, and he shares the details of this handy text-scanning device with us. Adam is the author of AppleScript: The Missing Manual.

Makezine.com: DEFCON 13 Coverage -- Phillip Torrone from MAKE Magazine will be covering the thirteenth DEFCON annual hacker conference in Las Vegas July 29th to the 31st. We've put together an iPod notes version of the schedule for all three days of DEFCON as well the complete speaker list. You can even sign up to receive live audio and video coverage from DEFCON. All this and more on Makezine.com.

Scott Berkun Podcast Interview -- In this Podtech.net interview, author Scott Berkun speaks about the priceless lessons he has learned through his extensive work experience as an executive project manager at Microsoft and beyond. Scott discusses essentials for every project manager and his new O'Reilly book, The Art of Project Management.

PowerPoint Personal Trainer: Drawing and Working with Graphics -- Even if you don't have any artistic ability, PowerPoint makes it easy to add graphics to your slides, making them look as though you hired a professional graphic designer. Chapter 4 of PowerPoint 2003 Personal Trainer explains how to add lines, shapes, and text boxes to your slides, how to add pictures, and how to move, resize, align, group, flip, and rotate graphic objects. If you like this chapter, read the whole book (and up to nine others) on Safari with a free trial subscription.

What Is Preview? (and Why You Should Use It) -- Apple's Preview app is best known as a PDF viewer and a Macintosh alternative to Adobe Reader. This software, however, is also a capable image viewer, and you can even edit your pictures with its tools. Giles Turnbull shows you that there's more to Preview than first meets the eye.

What Is Business Process Modeling? -- Business Process Modeling (BPM) is a set of technologies and standards for the design, execution, administration, and monitoring of business processes. In this article, Mike Havey briefly describes the state of BPM today and the BPM standards, then builds an ideal BPM architecture using the example of a retailer process. Mike is the author of Essential Business Process Modeling.