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!

What Is C# -- Jesse Liberty reveals this little-understood secret: C# is really one of two "coatings" of MSIL, the Microsoft Intermediate Language (the second is Visual Basic 2005). Both C# and VB 2005 produce MSIL, and it is MSIL that runs on the .NET platform. Jesse provides an overview of the C# language and how it works within the .NET platform, and concludes with resources for coding in C#. Jesse is the author of Programming C#, 4th Edition.

Open Source Security: Still a Myth -- Open source may have many benefits over closed systems, but don't count security among them--yet. This article by John Viega looks at why open source software may currently be less secure than its commercial counterparts. John is a coauthor of Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++.

SafariU: Create, Customize, and Share Teaching Material -- Looking for a way to truly customize your course textbook and offer students exactly the material you choose to teach, while saving them a good bit of money? Become a SafariU beta tester and check out the new web-based publishing platform from O'Reilly that allows you to create custom textbooks and online syllabi.

SafariU: Create, Customize, and Share Teaching Material -- Looking for a way to truly customize your course textbook and offer students exactly the material you choose to teach, while saving them a good bit of money? Become a SafariU beta tester and check out the new web-based publishing platform from O'Reilly that allows you to create custom textbooks and online syllabi.

Making Sense of Programmable Logic -- Hardware engineers create the bulk of their new digital circuitry in programming languages such as VHDL and Verilog, and often target it to CPLDs and FPGAs. Michael Barr explains what these devices are and how they are changing the way embedded systems are designed. Michael is the author of Programming Embedded Systems in C and C++.

Choosing a Compiler: The Little Things -- Small differences between compilers can make a big difference in the success or failure of a project. In this article, Michael Barr looks at the criteria for selecting a C/C++ cross compiler. Michael is the author of Programming Embedded Systems in C and C++.

Secure Cooking with C and C++ -- Learn how to verify the authenticity of an email address in this recipe excerpted from O'Reilly's Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++.

Introduction to Closed-Loop Control -- Most control systems utilize feedback in some manner. Here's a look at several fundamental feedback mechanisms, culminating in a description of a basic PID controller, by Michael Barr, author of Programming Embedded Systems in C and C++.

Secure Cooking with C and C++ -- Keep unwanted, malicious data out of your applications with these nine basic rules for proper data validation. This recipe is excerpted from the newly released Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++.

Introduction to Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) -- PWM is a powerful technique for controlling analog circuits with a processor's digital outputs. Learn how it works from the author of Programming Embedded Systems in C and C++.

Input Validation in C and C++ -- In this sneak peek at an upcoming O'Reilly book, the authors present a security-critical problem: C and C++ do not perform array bounds checking, a particular issue when handling strings. Read about three solutions that will cover most situations in this beta recipe from Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++.

C++: Beyond the Standard Library -- If you are considering learning one or more of the C++ libraries, don't miss Ray Lischner's highlights of a number of open source C++ libraries, including ACE, Loki, and his personal favorite, Boost. Ray is the author of C++ in a Nutshell.

Programming with Exceptions in C++ -- In this article, O'Reilly author Kyle Loudon adds a new section on the differences between exception handling in C++ and Java to his excerpt on exception handling from C++ Pocket Reference.

Electronic Archaeology -- Programmers often have to sort out badly designed, badly implemented, uncommented, incomprehensible blobs of code that have (d)evolved into such a state over a period of years. Here are some tools to help you with your electronic archaeological dig, from Steve Oualline, author of Practical C++ Programming, 2nd Edition.

Objective-C: Dynamite! Andrew Duncan explains the unique advantages of Objective-C that enable you to avoid specifying object type so you can write simpler, more elegant program architectures. Andrew is the author of Objective-C Pocket Reference.

Computers for Albatrosses -- A computer small enough to fit on an albatross? This article details the datalogger John Catsoulis built in order to track an albatross's migration patterns. John wrote Designing Embedded Hardware.

Powering Up Your Home-Brewed Computer--John Catsoulis shows you how to construct and debug computers you've designed yourself. John is the author of O'Reilly's Designing Embedded Hardware.

Top Ten Traps in C# for C++ Programmers--There are a number of features in C# that are potential traps for the unwary C++ programmer. Learn about the ten most dangerous in this article by Jesse Liberty, author of O'Reilly's Programming C#, 2nd Edition.

Design Patterns in Qt--See how classic Design Patterns like the Mediator and the concepts of signals and slots are used in Qt programming, in this article by Matthias Kalle Dalheimer, author of O'Reilly's Programming with Qt, 2nd Edition.