Cisco IOS in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition -- Fully revised, this second edition takes the mystery out of IOS 12.3 and consolidates the most important commands and features of IOS into a single, well-organized volume that you'll find refreshingly user-friendly. This book covers IOS configuration for the TCP/IP protocol family, and includes information on the user interface, configuring lines and interfaces, dial-on-demand routing and security, access lists, and much more. Sample Chapter 14, Switches and VLANs (PDF), is available free online.

Podcasting Hacks -- Perfect for aspiring and experienced podcasters, this book delivers the ultimate how-to for anyone interested in creating their own internet audio programs. Covering both entry-level and advanced topics, it shows you how to create quality sound, use the right software, develop a show, distribute a podcast, and build an audience. More advanced topics include audio editing, podcasting on the go, and even videocasting. Sample Hack 50, Choose the Right Audio Tools (PDF), is available free online.

Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio -- Written by 20-year photo retouching veteran Glenn Honiball, this book details all the tools, techniques, and skills you need to achieve consistent, professional results with Photoshop CS2, enabling you to tackle your greatest photo-retouching challenges with ease, precision, and efficiency. It's the ideal resource for any digital artist who wants to take their skills to the next level and produce sharp, expert photos that don't look retouched.

Learning SQL -- This introductory guide gets you up and running on SQL in short order. A series of chapter exercises teaches you how to generate, manipulate, and retrieve the data stored in your organization's database. Ideal for anyone writing applications, performing administrative tasks, or generating reports. Sample Chapter 3, Query Primer (PDF), is available free online.

GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual -- Now revised to reflect GarageBand's latest features, this authoritative, witty guide provides you with all the know-how you need to produce commercial-quality musical recordings entirely on your own. This top-selling book by David Pogue explains how to maximize the program's entire set of tools, including pre-recorded loops, sampled sounds, and live recordings. Easy-to-understand language makes it ideal for serious musicians and novices alike.

Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers -- This book tells you everything you need to know to adjust, correct, retouch, and manipulate your photographs, without making you first learn everything there is to know about Photoshop CS2. These straightforward, easy-to-follow recipes cover everything from fixing problems with exposure, color, and focus to hand-tinting, adjusting lighting, adding special effects, and restoring faded and damaged photos.

Linux Made Easy (No Starch) -- Based on Xandros 3 (included), this book is a step-by-step, project-based guide that will make it easier than ever for you to join the world of Linux. It concentrates on subjects of most interest to the average home user: installation, using the internet, playing CDs and audio files, using scanners, working with digital cameras and images, games, downloading software and fonts, USB storage devices, PDAs, printing, internet telephony, and more.

RT Essentials -- This comprehensive guide shows you how to customize RT to better fit your organization's business needs. After introducing you to what ticketing systems are, the book shows you how to install and configure RT. From there, it explains how to perform simple tasks that will turn your RT server into a highly useful tracking tool. Sample Chapter 3, Getting Started (PDF), is available free online.

Making Music on the Apple Mac (PC Publishing) -- Making music on the Mac is now easier than ever. This book provides advice on setting up your studio and configuring your audio and MIDI interfaces for optimum performance. Step-by step projects show you how to record with GarageBand, and when your masterpiece is complete, learn how to organize your music, create playlists, burn CDs, and publish your music on the net.

XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference -- This handy pocket guide quickly gets you up to speed on XSLT so you can convert XML like a seasoned pro. It covers topics such as stylesheet structure, template rules, result trees, conditional processing, number formatting, and more. Best of all, its concise approach saves you time, aggravation, and effort. Sample Chapter 3, How XSLT Works, (PDF) is available free online.

Essential Business Process Modeling -- This guide gathers all the concepts, design, architecture, and standard specifications of Business Process Management (BPM) into one concise book, and offers hands-on examples that illustrate BPM's approach to process notation, execution, administration, and monitoring. You'll also learn about BPM design patterns and best practices, as well as underlying theory. Sample Chapter 2, Prescription for a Good BPM Architecture (PDF), is available free online.

ETech 2006 CFP Ends Soon -- The 2006 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference will take place March 6-9 in San Diego. If you're a technologist, strategist, CTO, researcher, programmer, hacker, business developer, entrepreneur, or other interested person, you're invited to submit a proposal to lead sessions or tutorials. This year's challenge focuses on the abundant digital data in our world: how do we visualize, filter, remix, and access it in meaningful ways? Proposals are due by September 19.

GAO Report: Tim O'Reilly's Letter to Congressman Wu -- The GAO recently announced the findings for a report on the cost of college textbooks requested by Congressman Wu of Oregon. Tim O'Reilly wrote this letter to Congressman Wu referencing O'Reilly's solution: SafariU. SafariU empowers professors to create and publish their own textbooks, costs professors nothing to use, and offers their students more focused course content at less cost. Visit SafariU for more information.

Upgrade Your Domains from Windows 2000 Active Directory to Windows Server 2003 -- Upgrading your domains without proper planning can get you into deep water fast. Mitch Tulloch offers half-a-dozen tips for migrating your domains from Windows 2000 Active Directory to Windows Server 2003. Mitch is the author of Windows Server Hacks.

Ruby on Rails: An Interview with David Heinemeier Hansson -- Few can have missed the rise of the programming world's latest star platform: Ruby on Rails. O'Reilly Network recently talked with Rails' creator, David Heinemeier Hansson, about Rails' success and future. David already wowed the crowds at this year's OSCON, and is set to keynote the O'Reilly European Open Source Convention in Amsterdam this October.

What Is a Smartphone -- A single device that can act as mobile phone and PDA is much better than having to carry multiple devices, hence the emergence of the smartphone. Michael Yuan discusses the evolution of the device and then details key features to look for when you're buying a smartphone. For developers, he describes the programming languages and APIs you can use to develop smartphone apps. Michael is the author of Nokia Smartphone Hacks.

Web Programming Certificate Series Special -- The O'Reilly Learning Lab Web Programming Certificate Series can take you from web newbie to well-rounded web engineer in six courses, which span everything from JavaScript to XML, Perl to Linux/Unix, HTML to mySQL. Upon completion of the series, students receive a Certificate of Professional Development from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education. From now until September 21st, enroll in all six courses and receive a $200 instant rebate.

Make Internal Links Scroll Smoothly with JavaScript -- When users navigate a long document and encounter an internal link that jumps to another location in that same document, it often leads to confusion: are they on the same page or a different page? Using JavaScript, Stuart Langridge shows how to make links scroll through the document to the linked location rather than jumping straight there. Stuart is the author of DHTML Utopia.

Computer Privacy Annoyances: Privacy at Home -- Like charity, privacy begins at home. Today, privacy annoyances abound thanks to your telephone, mailbox, fax machine, cellphone, and so on. Perhaps worst of all, poor privacy practices could lead to the theft of your personal identity—-and a world of hurt for your reputation and credit rating. Feeling paranoid yet? Reading Chapter 2 of Computer Privacy Annoyances proves that knowledge is power. If you like this chapter, read the whole book (and up to nine others) on Safari with a free trial subscription.

What Is Visual Studio -- What can you really do with Visual Studio? James Avery discusses some of the various applications you can build, some of its most compelling development features, and what you need to know to get started writing quality applications in Visual Studio. James is the author of Visual Studio Hacks.

Cisco Titles Now on SafariU -- SafariU is happy to announce the addition of 165 new titles from Cisco Press, the only Cisco Systems-authorized publisher of books for Cisco certification study and network technology learning. From integrated voice and data networks to routers, IP telephony, and a host of certification guides, Cisco Press brings more essential course material to the SafariU library. To learn more and sign up for access, visit SafariU.

Linux for Video Production -- Linux is traditionally good for developers and system administrators, and recently good for business users. When will it be good for multimedia users? A handful of projects are making video production and editing possible (and useful), PiTiVi and GStreamer among them. Jono Bacon examines the present and future of video production with Linux and open source software. Jono is the coauthor of Linux Desktop Hacks.

What Is the GNOME Desktop -- Nope, it's not some elfish paperweight for the home office. GNOME is a desktop software environment designed to look familiar to anyone who has ever used a computer. Aaron Weber distills what the GNOME desktop is, what apps users will find as well as what platform development tools developers will find, and the resources to help you get started using it. Aaron is a coauthor of Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition.