Rapid Development with Python, Django, and Google App Engine Guido van Rossum (Google) Learn how to create great web applications quickly on Google App Engine using the Django web framework and the Python language. Google App Engine lets you host complete, scalable web applications written in Python with minimal fuss. This tutorial assumes basic familiarity with Python but definitely no advanced Python knowlege; Django experience is optional. You will learn how to use the Django web framework with the datastore API provided by Google App Engine, and how to get the most mileage out of the combination. You will also see how to use Django best practices like unit testing when developing for Google App Engine.

Providing the complexity of web applications that can be developed with Django and Google App Engine, the need for Desktops remains present but we can question the need for virtual solutions in common applications such as Virtual Bridges.

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Ruby Sig: How To Design A Domain Specific Language
Google engEDU
1 hr 3 min – Oct 5, 2006

Google Tech Talks
October 5, 2006

David Pollak has been developing commercial software for 28 years. He founded Athena Design and wrote Mesa, the first real-time spreadsheet. David wrote Integer, the first online, collaborative spreadsheet. Since 2000, David has been developing domain specific languages for security and general web development.

ABSTRACT
David will describe a framework for developing DSLs which includes:

* Identifying the constituents in a development project;
* Determining the costs and benefits of a DSL for a particular constituency vs. hand-coding functionality for that constituency based on interviews and specs;
* Identifying the ‘thought leader’ in a given constituency and interviewing him or her to determine the semantics of the domain;
* Determining syntax of the DSL;
* Mocking up the DSL and ‘test driving’ it with the thought leader;
* Finding appropriate integration points for the DSL into the application;
* Defining the process by with the Domain Experts will update code in the DSL (e.g., they have a web page where they can change tax calculation rules vs. they make a change to particular Ruby files as part of a development/staging/production cycle.); and
* Iterate over the semantics, syntax, and process to fully integrate Domain Experts into the development process. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, What’s That? A Map Hack
Google engEDU
51 min – May 8, 2007

Google Tech Talks
May 8, 2007

ABSTRACT

Designed to answer the question "What am I looking at?" when standing on a hilltop or pulled over at a scenic overlook, HeyWhatsThat.com has garnered reviews like "Just when I thought I was in danger of becoming a jaded customer of the mass mapping space, here’s a site that effortlessly returns me to a state of slack-jawed wonder" (OgleEarth). In addition to peak detection and identification, it offers viewshed computations, elevation contours, elevation profiles, and integration with Google Maps and Google Earth. This talk — given by Michael Kosowsky, designer and proprieter of HeyWhatsThat.com — will focus on what it is and how it got to be that way.

http://www.heywhatsthat.com/

http://www.heywhatsthat.com/faq.html

Speaker: Michael Kosowsky

Michael Kosowsky has more than 25 years of experience in software development, on platforms ranging from embedded microprocessors to supercomputers. Currently sole proprietor of the HeyWhatsThat.com web site, previous roles include founder and CTO of Great Point Design, where he developed its desktop photo application and web service; founder and CTO of Momentum, Inc., where he led the development and patenting of a portable client-server communications technology; and software engineer for The Jackson Laboratory and DNA Sciences, where he implemented systems for visualizing and sharing genomic data. Read the rest of this entry »

How can we better understand customers?
Google engEDU
50 min – Jul 18, 2006

Google TechTalks
July 18, 2006

Ely Dahan

At MIT’s Sloan School of Business, Ely Dahan taught high tech marketing and new product development. He now develops new models and methods for developing products at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business. Dahan has developed internet-based market research methods, mathematical models of parallel and sequential prototyping, the economics of cost reduction, and strategies for mass customization. Prior to entering academia, he was national product manager for W.R. Grace and NEC until 1984, when he founded a computer networking company in Maryland, serving as CEO until the firm was acquired in 1993. He is the recipient, along with his coauthors, of the INFORMS John D.C. Little Award, the American Marketing Association EXPLOR Award, the INFORMS Frank M. Bass Outstanding Dissertation Award (based on Olivier Toubia’s PhD thesis), and the Journal of Product Innovation Managment Hustad Award. Dahan earned his PhD in the Operations & IT program at Stanford Business School, where he was a Department of Energy Fellow, an AACSB Doctoral Fellow, and a recipient of the Jaedicke Prize for scholarly achievement. He attended Princeton University, then received a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from MIT in 1978 and an MBA from Harvard in 1980. Read the rest of this entry »

Away with Applications: The Death of the Desktop
Google engEDU
1 hr 27 min – May 4, 2007

Google Tech Talks
May 4, 2007

ABSTRACT

The computer desktop metaphor is ubiquitous, but how much work do we get done there? None! Time is entirely wasted navigating or shuffling content to the application in which we can finally work. What lessons can we learn from designing interfaces without the desktop and without applications? Is it even possible? And how does this apply to the Web? Currently, Web applications are often more usable than their desktop-based counterparts because each one does one thing and does it well. Desktop applications used to be the same way, but over time — as applications grew to support the the users in the long tail — each became a complex portmanteau of all possible features. If we are not careful, our Web apps will suffer the same conglomerated fate. Mashups and services help to solve the problem on the development end by freeing functionality from any particular application. But, there is currently no way to offer that wealth of possible functionality to users in a scalable way. Would it be nice to embed a dynamic map into your Gmail message? Sure. A Flickr slideshow? Sure. But for Google to offer those in addition to the hundreds of other possible options, would clutter the interface beyond usability. What’s needed is a universal method of accessing functionality: a way of harnessing the power of services without the need for application developers to explicitly support them. I’ll be demonstrating such a method.

The talk demonstrates that a ZUI plus a universal method of accessing functionality spells the death of the application-centric computing model and the desktop-design paradigms. Read the rest of this entry »