Saturday, March 6, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Make Contact with Google at SIGCSE 2010

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 06:42 PM PST

Google Open Source Blog: Make Contact with Google at SIGCSE 2010

Next week several Googlers will be attending and presenting at the 41st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2010). From March 10-13, Leslie Hawthorn and Cat Allman from the Open Source Programs Office will be in Milwaukee, WI, USA to talk about Google's open source student programs, Google Summer of Code™ and the Google Highly Open Participation Contest. Check out Google's vendor session on Friday to hear more from Leslie and Cat. Leslie will also be speaking at a roundtable and panel discussion with Hal Abelson from the Google App Inventor team at the Humanitarian FOSS Symposium on Wednesday.

If you are interested in learning more about Google's activities in computer science education, make sure to attend some of the talks we have scheduled or drop by the Google booth!

By Ellen Ko, Open Source Team
URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/03/make-contact-with-google-at-sigcse-2010.html

[G] Join Jeremy Piven’s “Video Volunteers” Entourage for Global Development

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 06:42 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Join Jeremy Piven's "Video Volunteers" Entourage for Global Development

Jeremy Piven is best known as the sharp-tongued Ari Gold on HBO's Entourage, but today he's taking a break from berating Vince and the boys to give the YouTube community a glimpse of his softer side by signing on as a Video Volunteers curator.

This month, YouTube, Piven and the ONE Campaign are asking you to make videos supporting a nonprofit working on an issue related to global development, such as extreme poverty, access to clean water and sanitation, and preventing disease. With International Women's Day on March 8 and World Water Day on March 22, it's an ideal time to tackle some of the problems crippling citizens in developing nations. Piven agrees:



Once you've created a video for a nonprofit of your choice dealing with global development, submit it to the gadget at www.youtube.com/videovolunteers. Remember: the video has to be about an organization, not just an issue. Piven and the ONE Campaign will pick their top three videos to go on the YouTube homepage at the end of the month.
Happy filming!

Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits & Activism Manager, recently watched "Spread the Word to End the Word."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/RZkNtujtFTU/join-jeremy-pivens-video-volunteers.html

[G] A new way to edit places on Google Maps

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 02:50 PM PST

Google LatLong: A new way to edit places on Google Maps


Back in 2008, we started opening Google Maps up to user edits. With the launch of Place Pages in September, we decided it'd be a lot easier if editing had its own page too. Today, we're pleased to announce a new, easier way to edit places on Google Maps.
If you find something incorrect or missing on the Place Page for a business -- maybe they have a new website or moved to a bigger location down the block -- just click "Edit this place":


You'll then access a single, dedicated page where you can edit the business listing details about that place.

If you happen to stumble across a problem that you don't know how to fix, no worries. You can always report a problem directly to Google instead of attempting to edit it yourself. Just look for the Report a problem link in the "more" menu and tell us what's wrong, then we'll take on the job of tracking down the right information. Also, if you're the owner of the business, you can click the "Business owner?" link to supply additional information and see your dashboard.

We realize that you know your own neighborhood best, so we hope this makes it simpler and more streamlined for you to pass that local knowledge along to all your fellow Google Maps searchers.

Posted by Steve Kirkham, Associate Product Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-way-to-edit-places-on-google-maps.html

[G] Is YouTube Buggin'? Check Out Our Current Site Issues Page

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 01:32 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Is YouTube Buggin'? Check Out Our Current Site Issues Page



Ever encounter an issue on YouTube and wonder whether you're the only
one experiencing it? There are two places you can go to find out more
about the situation:



1. If you see your issue on the Current Site Issues page, it means that the bug has been reported to YouTube and that our engineers are working on a fix.









2. We also suggest taking a look at the Popular Discussions section of the Help Forum. The team frequently posts bug acknowledgments, new feature information and useful Help Center articles here.













If you don't see your problem reported in either place, you can always visit the Help Forum and chat with other users to find out if they're experiencing a similar issue or know a work-around for the situation.



The User Support Team recently watched "The Famous Chicken Danceoff."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/eEGeVOb2wN8/is-youtube-buggin-check-out-our-current.html

[G] Google Analytics API Case Study: Dolby Laboratories automates analytics reporting with Shufflepoint

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 01:32 PM PST

Google Analytics Blog: Google Analytics API Case Study: Dolby Laboratories automates analytics reporting with Shufflepoint

We're really excited to see how companies can grow their businesses around the Google Analytics API. Today, we're publishing a case study that illustrates how Shufflepoint, Inc. has used the Google Analytics API to build an innovative product offering which has helped Dolby Laboratories become more productive.

ShufflePoint uses the the API to provide enterprise integration tools, and they've developed a SQL-like query language for Google Analytics. Dolby Laboratories uses GAQL and other ShufflePoint tools to simplify their web analytics workflow, one that incorporates spreadsheets with complex rollups, filters, and intermediate table calculations as well as annotated presentations.

The Challenge:

"Our [analysis] process gives us a lot of flexibility between analysis and presentation," explains Dolby's web analyst. "But, manually consolidating site data into the spreadsheets was time and labor intensive." To streamline the process, the team at Dolby turned to tools from ShufflePoint.


The Results:

"With GAQL and Excel Web Queries, we solved our immediate need for our reports to be updated dynamically" said Dolby. "Our team's learning and decision making process has really sped up since engaging Shufflepoint. They improved our custom reports, which we used to do manually within Google Analytics, by combining it with the automation and flexibility of using Google Analytics' Data API."

A New Business Opportunity

"ShufflePoint has its roots in Excel and PowerPoint, and our capabilities here are a true differentiator in the marketplace," says Chris Harrington, CTO at ShufflePoint. "It's great to take something like the Google Analytics API and develop unique solutions that hit a home run for clients like Dolby. The Google Analytics Data API has opened up new possibilities for us -- there are so many kinds of value-adds that you can create for companies out there. It's a new business opportunity.

Read the whole story in our client case study site.

Here are some screenshots of the Shufflepoint product using the API.













We continue to be impressed by the new solutions developers are bringing to market by leveraging the Google Analytics Platform. If you have developed a useful new tool or integration on top of Google Analytics, drop us an email at analytics-api@google.com. If it's innovative and useful we'll highlight it to our readers on this blog.

Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics API Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-analytics-api-case-study-dolby.html

[G] Google Docs welcomes DocVerse

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 12:21 PM PST

Official Google Docs Blog: Google Docs welcomes DocVerse

(Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog)

The future of productivity applications is in the cloud. We've always believed the web is the best platform for creating and sharing information, and Google Docs has already helped millions of people become more productive. But we recognize that many people are still accustomed to desktop software. So as we continue to improve Google Docs and Google Sites as rich collaboration tools, we're also making it easier for people to transition to the cloud, and interoperate with desktop applications like Microsoft Office.
​
For example, we recently made it possible to use Google Docs to store and share any type of file that you have on your computer, not just the ones you create online. Today we're excited to announce another step towards seamless interoperability: we have acquired DocVerse.

DocVerse is a small, nimble team of talented developers who share our vision, and they've enabled true collaboration right within Microsoft Office. With DocVerse, people can begin to experience some of the benefits of web-based collaboration using the traditional Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint desktop applications.

A huge "welcome" to the DocVerse team and their customers! Current DocVerse users can keep using the product as usual, though we've suspended new sign-ups until we're ready to share what's next. Stay tuned!

Posted by: Jonathan Rochelle, Group Product Manager
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-docs-welcomes-docverse.html

[G] Low-Impact Operating System Tracing

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 12:21 PM PST

Google Open Source Blog: Low-Impact Operating System Tracing

The Google Open Source Team has the privilege of funding some really great projects in the Open Source space. Mathieu Desnoyers, a student at Ecole Polytechnique, recently defended his Ph.D. thesis, which we helped to fund. The topic of his thesis was "Low-Impact Operating System Tracing."

The open source projects he created as part of his work were two-fold: Linux Trace Toolkit Next Generation (LTTng), a LGPLv2.1/GPLv2 tracer for the Linux kernel; and Userspace RCU library (liburcu), a highly-scalable user-space synchronization library, distributed under the LGPLv2.1 license.

Mathieu was kind enough to send us this summary of his research:


Computer systems, both at the hardware and software-levels, are becoming increasingly complex. Tracing is the key to solving some or all of this increasing complexity. In the case of Linux, used in a large range of applications, from small embedded devices to high-end servers, the size of the operating system kernels are increasing, libraries are being added, and major redesign of existing software is required to benefit from multi-core architectures. As a result, the software development industry and individual developers are facing problems whose resolution requires an understanding of the interaction between applications and all components of an operating system.

In my thesis, I propose the LTTng (Linux Trace Toolkit next generation) tracer as an answer to the industry and open source community tracing needs. The low-intrusiveness of the tracer is a key aspect of its usefulness because we need to be able to reproduce problems occurring in normal conditions. In some cases, users leave tracers active at all times in production, which makes the tracer overhead definitely critical. Our approach involves the design of synchronization primitives that meet the low-impact requirements. The linearly scalable and wait-free RCU (Read-Copy Update) synchronization mechanism used by the LTTng tracer fulfills these requirements with respect to data read. A custom-made buffer synchronization scheme is proposed to extract tracing data while preserving linear scalability and wait-free characteristics.

By measuring the LTTng impact, I demonstrate that it is possible to create a tracer that satisfy all the following characteristics: low latency, deterministic real-time impact (wait-free), small impact on operating system throughput and linear scalability with the number of cores. Experiments on various architectures show that this tracer is portable.

I propose a general model for superscalar multi-core systems with weakly-ordered memory accesses to perform formal verification of the RCU correctness and wait-free guarantees by model-checking. The LTTng
buffering scheme is also formally verified for safety and progress. Formal verification demonstrates that these algorithms allow reentrancy from multiple execution contexts, ranging from standard thread to non-maskable interrupts handlers, allowing a wide instrumentation coverage of the operating system.


Many thanks to Mathieu for sending us this report. You can download the full dissertation for more details.

By Carol Smith, Open Source Team
URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/03/low-impact-operating-system-tracing.html

[G] Google Docs welcomes DocVerse

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 11:08 AM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Google Docs welcomes DocVerse

​The future of productivity applications is in the cloud. We've always believed the web is the best platform for creating and sharing information, and Google Docs has already helped millions of people become more productive. But we recognize that many people are still accustomed to desktop software. So as we continue to improve Google Docs and Google Sites as rich collaboration tools, we're also making it easier for people to transition to the cloud, and interoperate with desktop applications like Microsoft Office.
​
For example, we recently made it possible to use Google Docs to store and share any type of file that you have on your computer, not just the ones you create online. Today we're excited to announce another step towards seamless interoperability: we have acquired DocVerse.

DocVerse is a small, nimble team of talented developers who share our vision, and they've enabled true collaboration right within Microsoft Office. With DocVerse, people can begin to experience some of the benefits of web-based collaboration using the traditional Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint desktop applications.

A huge "welcome" to the DocVerse team and their customers! Current DocVerse users can keep using the product as usual, though we've suspended new sign-ups until we're ready to share what's next. Stay tuned!

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Group Product Manager, Google Apps team
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-docs-welcomes-docverse.html

[G] Working on a more collaborative writing process with Apps Edu

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 08:42 AM PST

Official Google Docs Blog: ​Working on a more collaborative writing process with Apps Edu

Cross posted on the Google Enterprise Blog

​While feedback and revision are crucial steps to successful writing, it's not always easy to do in practice. Keeping track of revisions, deciphering edits, and arranging reviews can keep us from repeating this editing cycle more often.

The collaborative nature of Google Apps can help evolve the writing process with easy sharing and anytime, anywhere collaboration. Add in built-in reference tools, autosave and revision history, and ready-made templates, and Google Docs – part of the Google Apps suite – becomes a powerful platform for writing.

We've developed our first Google Apps Topic Review to highlight some of these features and stories from teachers in the classroom, and we shared and revised this paper using the same principles of collaboration.

If you're attending this year's ASCD conference (held from March 6-8 in San Antonio, Texas) we'll be featuring presentations from Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps Education Edition customers, and Google Apps Education team members about other ways Google Apps can help in the classroom. View our teaching theater schedule and stop by to visit us in Booth #626.

For more information about how to start using Google Apps Education Edition at your school, visit www.google.com/a/edu.

Posted by: ​​Dana Nguyen, Google Apps Education team
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/03/working-on-more-collaborative-writing.html

[G] Working on a more collaborative writing process with Google Apps Edu

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 08:42 AM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Working on a more collaborative writing process with Google Apps Edu

While feedback and revision are crucial steps to successful writing, it's not always easy to do in practice. Keeping track of revisions, deciphering edits, and arranging reviews can keep us from repeating this editing cycle more often.

The collaborative nature of Google Apps can help evolve the writing process with easy sharing and anytime, anywhere collaboration. Add in built-in reference tools, autosave and revision history, and ready-made templates, and Google Docs – part of the Google Apps suite – becomes a powerful platform for writing.

We've developed our first Google Apps Topic Review to highlight some of these features and stories from teachers in the classroom, and we shared and revised this paper using the same principles of collaboration.

If you're attending this year's ASCD Conference (held from March 6-8 in San Antonio, Texas) we invite you to hear presentations from Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps Education Edition customers, and Google Apps Education team members about other ways Google Apps can help in the classroom. View our teaching theater schedule and stop by to visit us in Booth #626.

For more information about how to start using Google Apps Education Edition at your school, visit www.google.com/a/edu

Posted by Dana Nguyen, Google Apps Education team
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/03/working-on-more-collaborative-writing.html
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