Hi,

We're excited to release the following news. Please share with your
members if you think they will be interested:

The O'Reilly School of Technology has officially opened its virtual
doors with educational offerings for students looking to further or
launch their IT careers, whether they aspire to become alpha geeks or
not. The school is a unique partnership between O'Reilly Media and the
University of Illinois.

Students can earn a Certificate for Professional Development from the
University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education upon completion
of
a selected series of courses. Certificates are currently offered in
Client-Side Web Programming, Linux/Unix System Administration, Web
Programming, Open Source Programming, and .NET Programming.

Courses are offered at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Whether students take the courses individually or with a certificate in
mind, the completion of each course earns Continuing Education Units
from the University of Illinois, and count toward the certificates that
include that course.

For more information about the O'Reilly School of Technology, including
a current list of certificate and courses, see:
<http://www.oreillyschool.com/?CMP=BAC-ostug>

Watch the video to see how it works:
<http://www.oreillyschool.com/why/theostmovie.mp4>


And UG Members Receive a 30% Discount!

As an O'Reilly User Group member, you save on all the courses and
certificate series. To redeem, use Promotion Code "ORALL1," good for a
30% discount, in Step #2 of the enrollment process. Each course comes
with a free O'Reilly book and a 7-day money-back guarantee. Register
online: <http://www.oreillyschool.com/?CMP=BAC-ostug>

It's .NET Month here at O'Reilly and we just put together a special
resource page dedicated to .NET developer essentials including books,
PDF Short Cuts, articles, etc. 
http://www.oreilly.com/go/ugdotnet


Don't forget MIND members can receive 35% off any of these titles when
they use discount code DSUG on O'Reilly's site.

Happy .NET Month.

To celebrate the tools that make Windows developers' lives easier–and the people who’ve created them–we’re unilaterally declaring Friday, January 19th to be "Windows Developer Tools Day." It’s an ad hoc and
spontaneous effort on our part to draw attention to the growing number of free and open source software (FOSS) tools that support developers who do their work on the Windows platforms.

We chose the date to coincide with the final day of CodeMash, a high-energy gathering of developers taking place in Sandusky, Ohio this week. We’re also launching a new title, "Windows Developer Power
Tools," by Jim Holmes and James Avery, which documents more than 170 of the FOSS tools available today for Windows.

Please help us spread the word.  DIGG the story here: http://www.digg.com/programming/The_tools_that_make_developers_lives_easier/share
(Send an email to powertools@oreilly.com to let us know you dugg it.)

Or, blog about it: Take a few minutes to think about the tools you use, the ones you couldn’t do without, or the tool that’d make your job easier, if only you knew where to find it. Or write about a tool that you’ve developed. Then, take part in Tools Day by doing one of the following:

* Blog about your favorite tool and why you like it
* Post a free copy of your favorite tool (if it’s legal, that is)
* Tell how a tool saved your life
* Describe a tool you’d like to see

Send a link to your blog to powertools@oreilly.com. We’ll post your link and point to your comments from our site. It’s a great way to bring attention to the tools developers rely on and the people who’ve created
them, as well as stirring up some innovation for much-needed tools that don’t exist yet. We’re always looking for good ideas here at O’Reilly, so jump in and share your thoughts.

Let’s start the year with a round of applause for the toolmakers who made a difference in 2006, and the tools that will surprise us in 2007.