Cooking with Python, Part 1 -- With these sample recipes, learn how to use Unicode to handle international text strings that include non-ASCII characters, and how to select the nth smallest element of a sequence. Part 2 will feature two more recipes on implementing a ring buffer and computing prime numbers. To really get cooking, check out the whole Python Cookbook, Second Edition.

History of Programming Languages -- For 50 years, computer programmers have been writing code, and now, there are more than 2,500 documented programming languages. O'Reilly has produced a poster called History of Programming Languages, which plots over 50 programming languages on a multi-layered, color-coded timeline. The poster is available online in PDF format, but while supplies last, U.S. residents can also get a hard copy of the poster free when purchasing two books through oreilly.com.

Jump Start Your Career in Programming with the O'Reilly Learning Lab -- Learn programming, systems, and networking skills through the O'Reilly Learning Lab. All Learning Lab courses are online, self-paced, and provide the technology environments needed to develop and practice new skills. In addition, every student is assigned a personal O'Reilly instructor for coaching and feedback throughout each course. Completion of selected course sequences earns students a Certificate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Enroll and start today!

The Youngest "Learning Python" Fan -- How old do you have to be to appreciate O'Reilly's books? Not very. Tim Pietzcker shows us how much his 17-month-old son likes Learning Python, and other readers chime in with similar experiences. The appeal of O'Reilly animals proves to be cross-generational in our latest Letters.

Batch-Running Word Macros from the DOS Command Line -- Looking for an easy way to run any Word macro, on any number of files, right from the DOS command line? Andrew Savikas shows how to do just that, using Perl, Python, and Ruby, with code samples for each scripting language. Andrew is the author of Word Hacks.

Cameron Laird Wins Frank Willison Award -- At OSCON 2004, the Python community paid tribute to one of its own by bestowing the Frank Willison Award for Contributions to the Python Community on Cameron Laird, vice president of Phaseit. Guido van Rossum and Tim O'Reilly speak to the contributions acknowledged by the award.

Open Source Content Management with Plone -- When you're tired of being asked to make tiny changes to your web sites--changes that users could easily make themselves--it's time to consider a content management system (CMS). If you're a Python or Zope fan, Brad Bollenbach suggests that you try Plone, a powerful and easy-to-use CMS.

Python Quick Reference -- If you program in Python, this collection of quick refs will save you time and energy. Included here are common file operations, dictionary literals and operations, tuple literals and operations, and object methods. For exhaustive coverage of these commands, see the books from which they were plucked: Python in a Nutshell and Learning Python, 2nd Edition.

Installing Python from Source Code -- Have you been wanting to try Python? Chapter 2 of Python in a Nutshell includes a step-by-step guide that shows you where to get the code, and covers installation, configuration, building, testing, and more. Get a free trial to read this and four other O'Reilly books on Safari.

Guido van Rossum Speaks -- Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language, recently announced that he'll be leaving PythonLabs to work for a California startup. In this interview, Guido talks about the move, recent developments, and Python in general.

Your O'Reilly Account: New, Single Sign On -- O'Reilly customers and guests now have a single address and one password to access all things O'Reilly, from oreilly.com and Safari Bookshelf to all of the O'Reilly Network sites and DevCenters. When possible, we've consolidated your prior, separate accounts into one new account. Logging into the new system is quick and easy; details on how to do it have been emailed to you, and you can read more about O'Reilly's single sign on in Tony Stubblebine's weblog.