WHEN

May 4, 2006

WHAT

What is a toolsmith, and why is a more descriptive term than "build guy". "release engineer" or "configuration specialist"? Why is it a great idea to have a dedicated toolsmith in your company or project?

Where can you find good toolsmiths anyway? These are some of the questions we will discuss, so bring your own experiences of different software development environments.

WHEN

April 5,2006

WHAT

In this talk, Dr. Antonio Nucci, Chief Technology Officer at Narus Inc, will highlight the major shifts in the security market over the past few years, discuss the dynamics of the security threats and the emerging interest of Internet Service Providers to play a key role in this market. He will also introduce a new preventative technology based on Information Entropy, also known as Carrier-Class Defense-Shield, that will help large high-speed ISP to efficiently defend their network perimeters from the most invasive and deadly DDoS and Worms outbreaks.

WHEN

March 2,2006

WHAT

Software is a risky business. Most of the software projects fail because they miss deadlines, cannot stay in budget, or are unable to meet the requirements. Breakage of the code base cause delays and overspending that increases risks of project failure. Continuous integration helps reduce risks of such project failures.

In this talk we'll understand importance of a software build, introduce continuous integration and benefits it provides, discuss ways to avoid challenges associated with bringing it into a software organization and give tips on how to get most from this useful practice.

WHEN

January 25,2006

WHAT

Learn how to make a database-driven site complete with a web front-end and test framework in under 30 minutes. People can't stop talking about Ruby on Rails - a sophisticated development framework that allows you to develop scalable, web-based applications in a fraction of the time.

Come see what makes Ruby on Rails special. We'll discuss and demonstrate its features by developing a simple application during the talk.

WHEN

November 29,2005

WHAT

What are Root Cause Analysis, event correlation, data modeling and what they have in common? Review of various approaches of complex system diagnostics: rule-based systems vs codebooks - accuracy, performance, maintenance. Overview of the SMARTS technology foundation: using information modeling for diagnostic and root cause analysis. Using the SMARTS technology to implement end-to-end management across multiple technology silos.

WHEN

September 15,2005

WHAT

The biggest news in cryptography since the turn of the century is a series of attacks on decade-old standardized hash function, MD5 and SHA-1. Prior to the attacks, the hash functions were used indiscriminately in a gamut of schemes, protocols, and applications.

Some applications of hash functions are still cryptographically sound, some have to go; good alternatives to hash functions in some scenarios exist but are largely unknown to developers and protocol designers.

WHEN

August 25,2005

WHAT

Numerous new applications arising in finance, telecommunications, network management & security, sensor networks, RFID, military, etc. require an ability to process, filter, aggregate, and correlate large numbers of messages (from thousands to hundreds of thousands per second) with very low latency (from milliseconds to seconds). These so called data stream processing application cannot rely on traditional databases, as databases were never designed for these kinds of requirements. A new class of infrastructure, data stream processing engines, has been proposed to help solve this problem. In this talk we'll discuss some data streaming applications, why they cannot rely on traditional databases, the problems arising in processing data streams, and the different approaches to solving this problem, both from academia and from the industry.

WHEN

May 3,2005

WHAT

Dulance has developed an advanced shopping search solution. Based on crawling and Statistical Machine Learning algorithms, Dulance enables searching the entire web for products and deals, current and upcoming. Dulance’s “Search the Future” service allows shoppers to register their “wish-lists” and receive notifications, via RSS, when at least one merchant on the web lowers the price below a specified limit.

WHEN

February 24,2004

WHAT

This talk will start with an overview of a history of the "Great Digital TV Screen Control War". I will describe major industry movers, their strategies, victories and defeats. Then I will talk about EPG itself: major patents, innovative researches, and the most successful products. Couple nice demos will shown to illustrate it. At the end I will outline several possible scenarios of the market future development that will "connect" together Google TV, Microsoft MCEs, TV Guide, Tivo, cable and satellite giants, Mobile TV, and Playstation/Xbox.

WHEN

February 24,2004

WHAT

History of the security of the wireless LAN (WiFi, 802.11) contains more suspense than an average Hitchcock thriller: exposed weaknesses, bold claims, daring attacks, and a happy 802.11i ending. Presentation will concentrate on the causes behind the security flaws of the basic 802.11 standard, with an emphasis on "design of security features is better left to real professionals". Practical issues, like "how safe is it to have an 802.11 access point at my home / office?" will also be addressed. No background in cryptography is required.