Google Earth™ is Google’s satellite imagery-based mapping product that combines global coverage of imagery with new navigational features including integrated Google search capabilities. It is based on technology from Keyhole, a company acquired by Google in October 2004. Google Earth is a broadband mapping tool that enables users to fly from space to street level views to find geographic information, and to explore places around the world.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

This paper will discuss the difficulties and methods involved in debugging the Linux kernel on huge clusters. Intermittent errors that occur once every few years are hard to debug and become a real problem when running across thousands of machines simultaneously. The more we scale clusters, the more reliability becomes critical. Many of the normal debugging luxuries like a serial console or physical access are unavailable. Instead, we need a new strategy for addressing thorny intermittent race conditions. This paper presents the case for a new set of tools that are critical to solve these problems and also very useful in a broader context. It then presents the design for one such tool created from a hybrid of a Google internal tool and the open source LTTng project. Real world case studies are included.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

Google’s announcement that it will include in its search database the full text of books from five of the world’s leading research libraries has provoked newspaper editorials, public debates, and two lawsuits. Some of this attention can be attributed to public fascination with any move taken by Google, one of the most successful companies in the digital economy. The sheer scale of the project and its possible benefits for research have also captured the public imagination. Finally, the controversy over copyright issues has been fueled by Google’s willingness to pursue this ambitious effort not with standing the opposition of the publishing industry and organizations representing authors.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

The paper presents a new approach to source code exploration, which is the result of integrating the Google Desktop Search (GDS) engine into the Eclipse development environment. The resulting search engine, named Google Eclipse Search (GES), provides improved searching in Eclipse software projects.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

Google Chrome is out, brand new and shiny, and with its launch a new set of standards for all web browsers is implemented for both end users and developers. At this moment the Internet is flooded with details and info on Google’s newest and hottest application designed to link the user to the pool of information on the web. Unlike successful browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera and even Internet Explorer, Google’s approach in building Chrome differs in that the app is built from scratch without giving in to formalities (that is why, at first use, most users will waste time looking for the menu bar). The program seems as if all the features were added as soon as the tester needed them. None of its features are unnecessary or redundant in terms of access.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

YouTube, Podcasting, Blogs, Wikis and RSS are buzz words currently associated with the term Web 2.0 and represent a shifting pedagogical paradigm for the use of a new set of tools within education. The implication here is a possible shift from the basic archetypical vehicles used for (e)learning today (lecture notes, printed material, PowerPoint, websites, animation) towards a ubiquitous user-centric, user-content generated and user- guided experience. It is not sufficient to use online learning and teaching technologies simply for the delivery of content to students. A new “Learning Ecology” is present where these Web 2.0 technologies can be explored for collaborative and (co)creative purposes as well as for the critical assessment, evaluation and personalization of information.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

Web 2.0, not the Semantic Web, has become the face of “the next generation Web” among the tech-literate set, and even among many in the various research communities involved in the Web. Perceptions in these communities of what the Semantic Web is (and who is involved in it) are often misinformed if not misguided. In this paper we identify opportunities for Semantic Web activities to connect with the Web 2.0 community; we explore why this connection is of significant benefit to both groups, and identify how these connections open valuable research opportunities “in the real” for the Semantic Web effort.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

During the past decade, a gap has appeared between higher education and the rest of the digital world. While academia has moved a great deal of content and activity into course management systems, the World Wide Web has developed a new architecture, usually dubbed “Web 2.0.” Around this time computer gaming has grown into a vital, global industry. Course management system(s) (CMS) have supported a very different world of computer­mediated communication, and nearly a decade of institutional and individual practice has deepened the difference. We argue that CMS are going to make some efforts to cross that chasm in the near future, but the overall gap is likely to persist.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments