O'Reilly News

What's Hot in O'Reilly Answers - iPhone, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, MS Project

2009-11-11T15:54:02Z

Share knowledge, ask questions on O'Reilly Answers today.

Featured Make Magazine Video: The Inductor - Learn About Induction and Make Your Own Electromagnet with a D Cell Battery, an Iron Nail and Enameled Wire

2009-11-11T15:52:47Z

Four short links: 11 November 2009 - Participation Tools, Open Data Requests, Go Programming Language, Why Open Source is Better

2009-11-11T11:00:00Z

Go -- new language from Bell Labs and Unix central figures Rob Pike and Ken Thompson, who now work at Google. Bits of C, bits of Google, it compiles to native binaries and runs nearly as fast as C. Built with concurrency and memory management as central figures. Not used in production at Google yet, but grew from a 20% project to something worthy of public release. This and more in today's Four Short Links.

Leaked Draft of EU Interop Framework

2009-11-11T08:02:24Z

Two months ago I alerted readers Europeans: only two weeks left to comment on ICT & standards whitepaper. I am not sure on which dots actually join up, but a Dutch website has what is claimed to be a leaked late draft in English of European Interoperability Framework for European Public Services (EIF) Version 2.0. Here are some of the general recommendations related to standards and issues raised on this blog.

Converting to Electronic Health Records: fits and starts

2009-11-11T00:06:23Z

Data and communications are critical contributors to health care. I recently attended a forum on how my state, Massachusetts, is facilitating the move to Electronic Health Records, a prerequisite for many things doctors, patients, and insurance companies can do to improve health. It's notable that the chief sponsor of the event, the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, was largely set up by insurance companies. Lots of invective has been thrown at these companies recently, but the questions of technology can pull together the insurers, providers, and patients in a common quest. My own understanding of the progress and frustrations in deploying heath care technology was enhanced by the conversations I had that day and the statistics bandied about.

Upcoming Webcast: Tokyo Cabinet in One Hour - Meet Experts Online

2009-11-10T15:37:45Z

Tokyo Cabinet is a fast, synchronous key/value database library with support for several major languages, including Ruby. We will look at both its benefits and its problems, and work through several examples that demonstrate its capabilities, ease of use from Ruby, and performance potential. At the end of the talk there will be a question and answer session. Attendance is limited, so register now!

More Upcoming Webcasts and Online Conferences:

Check out our Webcast page for on-demand videos of past webcasts and more upcoming live events!

Featured Video: The Three Revolutions in American Law

2009-11-10T15:30:02Z

Four short links: 10 November 2009 - DIY Diagnostic Chips, Genetics on $5k a Genome, Cellphones as Diagnostic Microscopes, AR-Equipped Mechanics Do It Heads-Up

2009-11-10T11:00:00Z

A children's toy inspires a cheap, easy production method for high-tech diagnostic chips -- Microfluidic chips (with tiny liquid-filled channels) can cost $100k and more. Michelle Khine used the Shrinky Dinks childrens' toy to make her own. "I thought if I could print out the [designs] at a certain resolution and then make them shrink, I could make channels the right size for microfluidics," she says. This and more in today's Four Short Links!

Today in O'Reilly Answers - The Droid, Tip-of-the-Tongue Effect, Technology for Political Candidates, and more

2009-11-09T19:39:53Z

Share knowledge, ask questions on O'Reilly Answers today.

E-Readers Up Close: Getting to know the Sony Readers, Part 2

2009-11-09T16:41:26Z

William Stanek here, continuing with the in-depth look at e-readers and e-books. In my earlier blog entries, I introduced EPDs, discussed how the technology works, and delved briefly into ways they're being used. Now, I'm examining the Sony Reader as a case study in how e-readers work. My hope is that if you are better informed, you can decide whether an e-reader is right for you. And who knows, an e-reader may just replace your MP3 player as your favorite device. And now, back to the Sony Reader discussion of the PRS 505 and the PRS-700.

5 Tips For Flash Unit Testing

2009-11-09T14:00:00Z

Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world. In this AFT I will go over 5 Tips for Unit Testing. Unit Testing and Test Driven Development are a hot topics in the Flash community lately, especially on Twitter. A few weeks ago, after realizing how complex my F*CSS library was getting, I decided to go back and write FlexUnit test for the library in a hope to use TDD moving forward.

The Minds Behind Some of the Most Addictive Games Around - If you've wasted half your life playing Peggle, Bejeweled, Zuma or Plants vs. Zombies, blame these guys!

2009-11-09T13:54:38Z

An interview with Jason Kapalka, one of the founders and the creative director of PopCap. We discussed the evolution of PopCap, how the casual gaming industry differs from mainstream gaming, and the challenges of creating games that can be engaging, without being frustrating.

Four short links: 9 November 2009 - Moth Mind Readers, Shiny UI Futures, Usable Newspapers, Hardware Testing

2009-11-09T11:00:00Z

New Microsoft Interface Technology -- videos from Craig Mundie (Chief Research and Strategy Officer) on the MS Campus Tour talking about the future of UI using a sexy glass prototype that features tablet PC, gesture, speech recognition, and even eye tracking. Lustable. This and more in today's Four Short Links.

Unlikely Group Working Happily Together To Solve Patent Problem

2009-11-08T16:21:58Z

People following the issue of open sourcing the U.S. Patent Database might have been surprised to read an announcement in the official business opportunities web site of the U.S. Government: Synopsis for Public Data Dissemination Sole Source Contract to Google, Inc. While the first reaction of many might be "OMG, WTF, how could they," this is actually good news, with an unlikely cast of characters working together including Google, Intellectual Ventures, and the Internet Archive.

E-Readers Up Close: Getting to know the Sony Readers, Part 1

2009-11-07T22:30:00Z

William Stanek here, taking an up close look at e-readers. First up, the Sony e-readers. Sony unveiled its first reader device in January 2006 and the device became available in early 2007. The Sony Reader, like all currently available e-readers, has a black-and-white active matrix EPD display. As with other devices and E Ink itself, the Sony Reader has evolved through several generations of products.