Excel for Starters: The Missing Manual -- The first release in the new Missing Manual Starters Series, this down-to-earth guide gives you nothing more (and nothing less) than what you need to make Excel do exactly what you want. Clear explanations (with lots of examples), step-by-step instructions, illustrations, and timesaving advice steer you through the most useful features of Excel 2002 and 2003.

Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual -- Think you have to be a technical wizard to build a great web site? Think again. For anyone who wants to create an engaging web site--for either personal or business purposes--this Missing Manual demystifies the process and provides the tools, techniques, and expert guidance you need to make your ideas and vision a reality online.

Yahoo! Hacks -- This requisite collection of hacks shows you how to use, expand, personalize, and tweak Yahoo! in ways you never dreamed possible. You'll learn how to fine-tune search queries, manage and customize Yahoo! Mail, explore your social networks, roll your own Yahoo! applications, and much more. Whether you want to become a power searcher, news monger, super shopper, or innovative web developer, this new release will take you there.

Asterisk: The Future of Telephony This new cost-cutting guide offers a complete roadmap for installing, configuring, and integrating Asterisk with existing phone systems, opening the door to open source telephony. The authors walk you through a basic dial plan step by step, and give you enough working knowledge to set up a simple but complete system.

iWork '05: The Missing Manual -- While iWork '05 helps you create stunning documents and presentations, it doesn't come with any in-depth documentation of its own. Refreshingly entertaining and scrupulously detailed, our newest Missing Manual gives you all the essentials of iWork '05, including countless undocumented tips, tricks, and secrets that you won't find anywhere else. Best yet, you get an objective look at iWork's capabilities, its advantages over similar programs, and its limitations. Sample Chapter 6, Sharing Pages Documents (PDF), is available free online.

Retro Gaming Hacks -- Video game journalist Chris Kohler serves up 85 hard-nosed hacks for reviving classic games. Want to game on an original system? Kohler shows you how to hack ancient hardware, and includes a primer for home-brewing classic software. Rather adapt today's equipment to run retro games? Kohler provides emulation techniques, complete with instructions for hacking a classic joystick that's compatible with a contemporary computer.

Ambient Findability -- Written by best-selling author Peter Morville, this thought-provoking book describes the future of information and connectivity, examining how the melding of innovations like GIS and the internet will impact the global marketplace and society at large. Focused on information literacy, information architecture, and usability as critical components, this book doesn't preach or pretend to know all the answers; rather, Morville presents research, stories, and examples for support. Sample Chapter 1, Lost and Found (PDF), is available free online.

Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual -- Becoming a Mac convert is easy--so long as you've got our newest Missing Manual. This incomparable guide delivers what Apple doesn't: everything you need to know to smoothly and seamlessly move to a Mac. Bestselling author David Pogue teams up with Adam Goldstein to cover every aspect of the switch in a refreshingly funny and down-to-earth style.

Programming Visual Basic 2005 -- Perfect for experienced VB6 and VB .NET developers, this information-packed guide by bestselling author Jesse Liberty aims to make you immediately productive in creating Windows and web applications using Visual Basic 2005 and all of its tools. Liberty shares his thorough understanding of the subject matter through lucid explanations and intelligently designed lessons that guide you to increasing levels of expertise. Sample Chapter 12, Personalization (PDF), is available free online.

Essential SNMP, 2nd Edition -- Written for network and system administrators, this practical book introduces the basics of SNMP and offers the technical background to use it effectively. This updated edition covers version 3 and offers valuable information on SNMP scripting and programming. Five new chapters and a host of real examples have been added. Administrators will attain a solid foundation for managing their networks, creating managed objects, and extending the operation of SNMP agents. A complete set of code examples is available free online.

2006 MySQL Users Conference CFP Deadline Is Near -- The MySQL Users Conference, April 24-27 in Santa Clara, California, brings over 1,000 open source and database enthusiasts together to celebrate the MySQL ecosystem. The theme for the 2006 conference is "Discover. Connect. Succeed. Scale Your Business with MySQL." The submission deadline for all proposals is midnight (PST) November 7, 2005. Submit your proposal today.

Open Source Programming Certificate Series Special -- With beginning to intermediate courses in Perl, Java, PHP, MySQL, and the Linux/Unix file system, our Open Source Programming Certificate Series is designed to give you a breadth of real-world experience. Upon completion of the series, you'll receive a Certificate of Professional Development from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education, a plus for any resume. Enroll in all five courses and receive a $300 instant rebate. Offer expires November 30th.

ETel Early Registration Open -- Telephony and the internet have merged to offer a network with unprecedented potential for developers, entrepreneurs, and end users, disruption the communications establishment but opening up new opportunities and markets. Join us to explore this potential at O'Reilly's Emerging Telephony Conference, January 24-26 in San Francisco. Register now and save $300.

Hacking Your Car: Install Windows on a CompactFlash Card -- The car PC community is constantly searching for hardware and software solutions to improve the system's boot speed and reliability, and reduce the physical size of the computer. One of these solutions is to build a system that boots off of a CompactFlash (CF) drive. Learn how to install Windows on a CompactFlash card in this excerpt from Car PC Hacks.

What Is Phishing (Or, How to Fight Phishing at the User-Interface Level) -- Phishing attacks deceive users into disclosing personal, financial, or computer account information. This type of internet fraud will only grow more sophisticated in the days ahead, so our defenses against it must continue to improve. This excerpt from Security & Usability defines phishing, and offers techniques and advice on fighting phishing at the user-interface level.

Moving Past Java: An Interview with Bruce Tate -- WebServicesSummit.com recently interviewed Bruce Tate about the future of Java and web development. Bruce discusses scalable enterprise applications, database-enabled applications, AJAX, and lightweight solutions for web development, while questioning whether Java is still a technology for the masses. Bruce is the author of the newly released Beyond Java.

What Is Vonage -- The modernization of telephone service, driven by Vonage and hundreds of competitors, is transforming voice communications as we know it. But what is Vonage? James Gaskin provides the answer and looks at how Vonage is and isn't like traditional telephone companies. James is the author of Talk Is Cheap.

Prefactoring: General Development Issues -- Developers often stop in the middle of a project's build stage to rethink and recode the software design, a process known as refactoring. "Prefactoring" advocates considering the best possible design patterns before you even begin your project. Chapter 3 of Prefactoring looks at some general development issues related to all forms of software development: interface contracts, communicating with code, simplicity, dealing with errors, and the spreadsheet conundrum. If you like this chapter, read the whole book (and up to nine others) on Safari with a free trial subscription.

Encrypting Voice: An Interview with Phil Zimmermann -- VoIP Magazine recently interviewed Phil Zimmermann, creator of PGP, the most widely used email encryption software. Phil discusses the urgency of creating powerful encryption for VoIP, among other issues. Phil will be speaking at O'Reilly's upcoming Emerging Telephony Conference, January 24-26 in San Francisco. Join us!

Hacking Your Car: How to Get Clean Audio and Video Signals into Your Car -- In the living room, red, white, and yellow RCA jacks are the universal standard for input. Wouldn't it be nice if car manufacturers did the same and put these jacks in your car? Damien Stolarz thinks so, and shows you how to hack your ride to get a clean audio and video signal into your car. Damien is the author of Car PC Hacks.

EuroOSCON Is Almost Here -- The first annual O'Reilly European Open Source Convention, October 17-20 in Amsterdam, is a rare and valuable chance to immerse yourself in all things open source. Join us and spend four days with fellow open source enthusiasts, hear from experts from around the world on the latest technology developments, and test drive new products and services that can help you and your company work smarter. Register today!