Open Source Speaker Series: Practical MythTV
Google engEDU
57 min – Aug 16, 2007

Google Tech Talks
August 16, 2007

ABSTRACT

MythTV is a powerful open source personal video recorder. It records television off the air, plays downloaded media files, DVDs, and audio files. It also includes a web browser, RSS reader, weather applet, and much more. During this talk Michael will introduce MythTV, show off the frontend interface, MythWeb, talk about the current challenges with guide data in the United States, and discuss some of the upcoming features. Michael is a coauthor of "Practical MythTV", which was published in April 2007.

Michael Still is currently a Site Reliability Engineer at Google. Before that, he was a senior software engineer at TOWER Software in Australia. For many years he has been using his spare time to work on open source projects of various forms. This includes a book on ImageMagick in 2005, and a book on MythTV in 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

New generation of math software from Maplesoft
Google engEDU
52 min – Sep 11, 2007

Google Tech Talks
September 11, 2007

ABSTRACT

The name Maple is synonymous with doing complex math on computers. Best known for its symbolic or algebraic computation abilities, Maple is one of the most important tools for the modern applied mathematician and scientist. Many of you are likely familiar with Maple from college but you’ve probably not kept up to date with latest developments. This presentation will present some of the latest product developments from Maplesoft. Topics include

- developments in high performance numerical computation
- recent advances in symbolic computing
- new Maple libraries including graph theory, statistics, optimization, polynomial operations, and more
- parallel and grid computing
- knowledge capture for mathematical documents
- the Maple programming language and application development
- overview of new add-on products including global optimization, and modeling and simulation

The presenter will be Mohamed Bendame, a senior engineer from Maplesoft. The presentations will include an open Q&A session. Read the rest of this entry »

Using Fit: An Open-Source Testing Framework
Google engEDU
54 min – Feb 9, 2006

Google TechTalks
February 9, 2006

Rick Mugridge

Rick Mugridge is the lead author of the first book on storytests: "Fit for Developing Software". He has developed and is evolving FitLibrary to better support storytest driven development. He is a leading thinker and inventor in this area, and consults and coaches internationally in storytesting, executable specifications, and agile software development.

ABSTRACT
We raise four software development issues and show how Fit can be used to address them. The issues are as follows: (1) How can we improve test coverage on a legacy system without discouraging its evolution? (2) Now that we have a successful product with a great UI, how do we provide program access, such as through SOAP? (3) How can QA be involved earlier and more effectively? (4) How can product managers better utilise their expertise?

Each of these issues can be addressed with Fit storytests. Storytests satisfy the demands of both requirements and quality assurance, in an amalgam that initially looks weird and counter-intuitive. Storytests are concrete examples that express important things about the business domain and about the system. They are matched and generalised in the code, using the same "ubiquitous language". Week by week, as thinking and understanding grow and change, the storytests grow and change. And so the code evolves. Read the rest of this entry »

PhotoTechEDU Day 12: High Dynamic Range Image Capture
Google engEDU
1 hr – Apr 11, 2007

Google Tech Talks
April 11, 2007

ABSTRACT

Although digital imaging has been around for nearly 40 years, the past decade has seen the nearly complete replacement of analog film by digital sensors, most of which capture only a tenth the dynamic range of the black and white film Ansel Adams worked with 80 years ago. Using multiple exposure techniques (or advanced sensors), it is in fact possible to turn this around and capture ten times the range of film, equalling or surpassing the capacity of human vision. Greg will introduce some of the concepts and present a few details of HDR imaging in the context of digital photography, and demonstrate interactive software he has developed to assist in the merging of bracketed exposures.
# useful properties of light and image formation
# theory and techniques of photographic optics and image capture
# theory of colorimetry and techniques of color reproduction
# where and how photography is being used in Google products and projects
# what tools exist inside Google for photographic image storage, processing, etc.
# and lots more… Read the rest of this entry »

BGP at 18: Lessons In Protocol Design
Google engEDU
57 min – Apr 17, 2007

Google Tech Talks
April 17, 2007

ABSTRACT

18th anniversary of BGP. In this talk we examine the evolution of BGP over these 18 years, and look at the lessons we could learn from this.

Dr. Yakov Rekhter joined Juniper Networks in Dec 2000, where he is a Distinguished Engineer. Prior to joining Juniper, Yakov worked at Cisco Systems, where he was a Cisco Fellow. Prior to joining Cisco in 1995, he worked at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.

Yakov Rekhter was one of the leading architects and a major software developer of the NSFNET Backbone Phase II. He co-designed the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). He was also one of the lead designers of Tag Switching, BGP/MPLS based VPNs, and MPLS Traffic Engineering. Among his most recent activities is the work on Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS). His other contributions to contemporary Internet technology include: Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) and IP address allocation for private Internets.

He is the author or co-author of over 40 IETF RFCs, and numerous papers and articles on TCP/IP and the Internet. His recent books include: "MPLS: Technology and Applications" (Morgan Kauffman, 2000) and "Switching in IP Networks: IP Switching, Tag Switching and Related Technologies" (Morgan Kauffman, 1998). Read the rest of this entry »