Topic for seminar

[casper]

hi again

i m looking for a topic

to give in as a seminar

would like few suggestion

from u ll

[Buffy]

Well it would probably help to have a clue as to what you're looking for, but I'll guess its computer related. Here are a few random ones:

 

"Cacheing strategies for server operating systems"

"Implementation of data structures in relational databases"

"User interface approaches for data warehousing applications"

"Web browser versus Three-tier/Thin-Client architectures: Design versus Run-Time Efficiency"

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[casper]

ya

i m looking for computer related topics

[coldhead]

Here's one.

Introduction to Ruby & Ruby on Rails.

http://www.rubyonrails.com/

[C1ay]

Here's a good computer to give a seminar on. I cut my computing teeth on one of these :hihi:

[alexander]

A seminar on Open Source will be awesome, raise people's wareness of just how wide-spread it is: in the movie business (movies like last samurai, Fast and Firious, Shrek, Scooby Doo series), server applications (like most of the net) and soon to come hand-held device platrform (discussed a few threads below) you can go on endlessly and still say very little, seems like a perfect seminar topic.

Also, Python, Bind, Sendmail, Ldap, Samba, PHP, Home Networking, Honeypots, Firewalls, OpenBSD, VOIP, Emerging wireless technology, bluetooth and many more topics which i cant name at the moment because i gotta go....

[Buffy]

A seminar on Open Source will be awesome, raise people's wareness of just how wide-spread it is: in the movie business (movies like last samurai, Fast and Firious, Shrek, Scooby Doo series)...

Great counter example though alex! Those movies may have had a small component of "open source" infrastructure, but the animation software--let alone the movies themselves!--are not open source! Try to tell Pixar that since The Incredibles was built on Linux with a GPL that they have to let you copy it over the internet for free? Or that they have to give away their proprietary animation software? I don't think so....

 

"If all software is free, we will all have no software."

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[alexander]

Those movies may have had a small component of "open source"

How small is 1700 PCs running Linux for the Last Samiurai? What about the entire Shrek movie? Still thinking small Buffy?

 

Buffy as I have noted in the Firefox thread, open source != free as in free beer, there are countless books on free software by all kinds of writers, including Linus and Stallman, all note that very fact.

 

As to the thread, in that seminar you could also touch the Open Source software development model, as large parts of it were just incorporated into the IBM's previous model, mention hackers, actually watch the first few episodes of Go-Open which is a free and open source and free to download show, especially the interview with Stallman in the first one, I'd recommend it for you too Buffy, its quite interesting even for people like me, Nemo and Irish, and whoever else operated from under open-source OSes only...

[CraigD]

How’s this for a tagline: “It’s way past 2001. Where the hell is my talking, artificially intelligent computer?”

 

From my perspective of 30 years as a writer of almost exclusively procedural computer code, the most compelling and perplexing question concerning computer technology is why there has been hardly any increase in the sophistication of software and software development tools. The diffusion of computers into nearly every segment of society has dramatically exceeded nearly all expectations. The decreasing in size and cost and the increase in practical storage capacity and processing speed, while less unexpected, is nonetheless awe-inspiring. Yet most of the most fundamentally sophisticated and innovative programming techniques reached maturity in the 1980s or earlier.

 

I’ve had decades to ponder and discuss this, mostly with other Info Tech folk. By the mid 1990s, I was pretty confident in that the reason the predictions of such famous futurists as Arthur C. Clarke have proven so wrong, is that they failed to consider the dominating role that modern marketplace economics would play in computer technology. While the sophistication of today’s computers may pale in comparison to the HAL 9000 of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the significance of technology giants like Microsoft was nearly unimagined in 1967. These powerful corporations are not primarily interested in increasing the sophistication of computers, but rather in creating and controlling wealth. They have succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.

 

When, in 1985, I interviewed for my first full-time job as a programmer, my future employer asked me how long I expected to work in that role.

 

“10 to 15 years,” I answered.

 

“Why,” she asked.

 

“Because in 10 to 15 years, I don’t believe anybody will be working as a computer programmer. Computers will program themselves.”

 

This opinion raised some eyebrows, but was not considered particularly incredible. It is perhaps the least accurate prediction I’ve ever made.

 

“Where’s my talking, artificially intelligent computer?” has at least a couple of compelling corollary questions:

 

“Do you want the present trend in the progress of computer technology to continue as it is, or do you want talking, artificially intelligent computers?”

 

&

 

“How can this trend to be changed to give me the TAIC I want?”

[Buffy]

How small is 1700 PCs running Linux for the Last Samiurai? What about the entire Shrek movie? Still thinking small Buffy?

My step-brother works at disney animation, and yes, they've got racks upon racks of linux boxes there, but let me tell you, the money is tied up in the proprietary animation software that has cost more to develop than all the hardware many times over! They're glad the OS was free, but they would have not even blinked at the additional cost of putting Solaris on Suns if that's what they needed.... :)

 

Buffy as I have noted in the Firefox thread, open source != free as in free beer...

Oh I agree: it doesn't have to, but most folks want to go to the usual GPL language which sez: "if you derive from this, you're required to give away your derivative work too.", which is all very proletarian, but no one makes much money! When you start to think through some of the other paradigms that are just now starting to be talked about, you have to wonder where the manpower will come from in these schemes that for all intents and purposes say: "this is my code. You can contribute to it, but you can't sell it unless you give me a huge cut and you have to let me do whatever I want with what you contribute and its no longer yours."

As to the thread, in that seminar you could also touch the Open Source software development model, as large parts of it were just incorporated into the IBM's previous model...

Back on topic: the development coordination in this sort of situation is FACINATING! Note of course that the most successful, like Linux, Mozilla and OpenBSD all have centralized clearinghouses, while much of the stuff that happens without "core" teams (or is just not "fundamental" enough to have critical mass to draw "free development time"), just languishes. I dispair when looking at the great potential projects sitting there on sourceforge.net that, well, just *sit* there... There are both economic as well as managerial issues that could be talked about ad infinitum...

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[coldhead]

the most compelling and perplexing question concerning computer technology is why there has been hardly any increase in the sophistication of software and software development tools.

 

See my earlier post.

[CraigD]

Here's one.

Introduction to Ruby & Ruby on Rails.

http://www.rubyonrails.com/

Ruby is beautiful! Thank you for pointing me to it. I look forward to getting to know it better in the coming weeks.

 

In an attempt to reciprocate, let me present my personal favorite “joy and less code” language, M (AKA MUMPS, ANSI X-11.1-1995, Cache). Although there’re several open source implementations of M available, I recommend this free, unlimited-use single-user version of a commercial implementation. This one will run quietly on your desktop or a server on your network, and can be accessed by any telnet terminal emulator (a simple one slightly nicer than the one that come with Windows comes bundled with the download).

• Ruby is public domain via Yukihiro Matsumoto’s GPL, ca. 1995. M is public domain because it was developed by Octo Barnett and friends under a US federal grant in the ca. 1970.
  
• Ruby is interpreted and terminal-based, commonly in an interactive, “direct” mode. So is M.
  
• Ruby is intrinsically weakly (no true multiple inheritance) object-oriented. M is not even weakly OO, despite some implementer’s tacked-on extensions.
  
• Ruby’s arithmetic is arbitrary-precision. M’s is limited (typically 16-18 decimal digits). If you like to use M to mess with big numbers, you’ll need to write or acquire and use better math functions.
  
• Ruby’s pretty terse. M, which supports and encourages abbreviation of its keywords, is more terse. It’s arguably nearly as terse as a procedural language can be. Example:

  # recursive factoral function in Ruby
  def fact(n)
   if n == 0
     1
   else
     n * fact(n-1)
   end
  end
  
  ; recursive factoral function in M
  fact(n) q:n=0 1 q $$fact(n-1)
  

  
  

• Named functions/subroutines in Ruby must be defined. M programs can modify themselves dynamically (though one is to be cautioned that this can lead pretty far down the rabbit hole!)
  

[coldhead]

I've put my hand up to do Introduction to Ruby & Ruby on Rails for the Brisbane Mysql Meetup Group on the 6th Aug next month.

 

Most members are in a local Php group & are die-hard phpheads.

 

Even without Rails, Ruby and ActiveRecord is a killer combination.

 

I'm doing it because it’s my duty, and also I like seeing experienced web developers jaws drop in astonishment.

[alexander]

I've put my hand up to do Introduction to Ruby & Ruby on Rails for the Brisbane Mysql Meetup Group on the 6th Aug next month.

 

Most members are in a local Php group & are die-hard phpheads.

 

Even without Rails, Ruby and ActiveRecord is a killer combination.

 

I'm doing it because it’s my duty, and also I like seeing experienced web developers jaws drop in astonishment.

you are kidding right? Ruby is a cool language and all, but you are better off doing a presentation on Lisp to the die hard web developers then on Ruby. How well do you know PHP to judge how powerful it is in comparison to Ruby, PHP was pronounced the best programming language of 2003, its Object model is crazy good, yet its still as powerful procedural language as PHP4 was, its so intertwined with the database that speeds of return on queries are faster than any language i have tried to date, especially with sqlite, it inherrits perl regular expression engine and many of its string manipulation functions, also completely open-source engine, so unless you can make my eyes pop, chances that those web developers guys eyes will pop, is kinda slim there...

I still think that you should do the presentation on Python then Ruby, or if you really want to blow them away do Lisp, the craziest language to date, you write code that makes code that makes code that makes code, it is the AI language for that very reason, I'd give that a look before you go any further with your topic...

 

I dispair when looking at the great potential projects sitting there on sourceforge.net that, well, just *sit* there... There are both economic as well as managerial issues that could be talked about ad infinitum...

not every project can be completed, and as you said money, time and so on are major drawbacks, i know by myself, but sometime someone will go, hey that's cool, lets do something with this...

[coldhead]

you are kidding right? Ruby is a cool language and all, but you are better off doing a presentation on Lisp to the die hard web developers then on Ruby. How well do you know PHP to judge how powerful it is in comparison to Ruby, PHP was pronounced the best programming language of 2003, its Object model is crazy good, yet its still as powerful procedural language as PHP4 was, its so intertwined with the database that speeds of return on queries are faster than any language i have tried to date, especially with sqlite, it inherrits perl regular expression engine and many of its string manipulation functions, also completely open-source engine, so unless you can make my eyes pop, chances that those web developers guys eyes will pop, is kinda slim there...

I still think that you should do the presentation on Python then Ruby, or if you really want to blow them away do Lisp, the craziest language to date, you write code that makes code that makes code that makes code, it is the AI language for that very reason, I'd give that a look before you go any further with your topic...

 

 

not every project can be completed, and as you said money, time and so on are major drawbacks, i know by myself, but sometime someone will go, hey that's cool, lets do something with this...

 

Well mate,

I've only had quick looks at php & python as far as web dev. goes, being more of a 4gl (powerbuilder) developer in another life.

Niether of the aforementioned lang.'s grabbed my attention.

ruby did. I admit I am biased in my preferred language , as most people that write code are and my preferred language is, you guessed, Ruby.

It was designed to be object oriented from the ground up. The author of ruby, Matz, looked at the scripting languages available didn't like what he saw and thought 'stuff it I'll write my own', (thanks again Matz,) so he did. 10 years later we have a mature open source language that I like.

It is all part of my cunning plan to plant the seed of ruby into the minds of these commited Mysql developers/users in Brisbane and later, maybe, just maybe, they well need the services of someone that has proven knowledge in this new tool.

 

Who would they think of?

 

If all goes well with the ruby presentation, maybe I'll do a lisp or M or Python one next month.

 

Only kidding.

[alexander]

If you put it that way, ok, as long as you give a presentation on Lisp and Python eventually...

[GAHD]

How about http://www.python.org, there's something worth a seminar.