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Stack OverflowWhat are the best Google Tech Talks?
[+111] [27] Nathaniel Flath
[2009-05-28 22:19:48]
[ google video tech ]
[ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/923486]

What are the most interesting programming-related Google Tech Talks?

(2) Should be community wiki. Bit vague too. - cletus
(6) Wouldn't that depend on your interests? - Vinko Vrsalovic
(2) Please make this community-wiki if you don't want it closed quickly... - Seb
Probably change the question and replace 'the best' with 'interesting' or stuff like that otherwise they'll close the question - stefanB
Made it a community wiki. - Nathaniel Flath
This is absolutely useful to me and a lot of other people - please don't close it. It's programming related. - Paul Betts
(6) Do we need a function to vote against close, rather than waiting for a close and voting to re-open? - Martin Beckett
Related resource: 'Top 10 Google Tech Talks', abeautifulwww.com/2007/02/17/top-10-google-tech-talks - Jonik
(1) @mgb - YES ! That would also avoid all the yoyo topics (getting closed and opened all the time) - ldigas
@annalear I honestly mean no disrespect. I would like to offer an opinion. Closing a question that the community so clearly finds useful because of "site policies" implicitly invalidates the site policies. Any policy that affects the closing of valuable content is a detriment and should be reviewed, modified, improved, or eliminated. This is like giving a parking ticket to a guy who stops to help someone who was in an accident, technically legal but terribly wrong. If you want to close a post like this one, you're only hurting SO. - kasdega
@kasdega This policy has been talked about a lot and in general, questions that are building a list of everyone's favourite things are not what Stack Overflow is about. Note that this question was closed in response to a flag by a community member and the question is still accessible to viewers. However, it does not meet the guidelines for good subjective questions. If you disagree further, feel free to bring this up on [meta]. Thanks! - Anna Lear
[+73] [2009-05-28 23:43:38] seb

Not really technical, but very inspiring:

The Graphing Calculator Story [1]

It's midnight. I've been working sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. I'm not being paid. In fact, my project was canceled six months ago, so I'm evading security, sneaking into Apple Computer's main offices in the heart of Silicon Valley, doing clandestine volunteer work for an eight-billion-dollar corporation. For more info visit: http://www.pacifict.com/Story

[1] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567

(10) ....wow. Just...wow. - Andrew Coleson
(2) Yeah, I always love hearing about this story. - Matthew Flaschen
(2) That's just an amazing story. - Steve Rowe
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[+30] [2009-05-28 23:14:40] cwash

According to Youtube:

According to me:

[1] http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=GoogleTechTalks#g/u
[2] http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=GoogleTechTalks#g/u
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAb7hSCtvGw
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEhu57pih5w

+1 For "How To Design A Good API and Why it Matters". Learning to write (and properly document) a C# API taught me a lot about writing good code. Here are my 3 rules of APIs: "The more you hide, the less you have to document" (in detail for the software users manual; "The more power you give, the more it'll be abused" (don't give users access to anything more than you have to or you won't be able to extend the spec later): "Don't pollute the autocomplete". If you hit ctrl-space and see anything more than you expect the API to accomplish (ie internals, helpers, etc), you're doing it wrong. - Evan Plaice
Josh Bloch is one of my favorites to listen to. My entire department of java developers loved the Google IO talk he did with Jeremy Manson: google.com/events/io/2011/sessions/… - kasdega
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[+29] [2009-05-28 22:25:53] duffymo

If you can only see one, it ought to be Linus Torvalds talking about Git [1].

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8

(13) It's enjoyable, but not necessarily helpful in understanding anything about git. - guns
Linus makes that clear - it's not a tutorial. - duffymo
(21) Linus is good and all, but he just spends 50 minutes complaining. Not really helpful for me. - jskulski
(4) True - he's pretty harsh on Subversion. But he does make clear his motivations and how Git is different from the SCM systems we're all used to. - duffymo
After seeing the other topics, I don't think I'm correct anymore. I think I'd rather see some of the others, especially the ones cited by Rene. 8) - duffymo
(8) I'm a Linux user but I don't like Linus Torvalds - victor hugo
there are much better talks, imho - elmarco
I tried watching it, but couldn't complete because of the arrogance shown by the speaker. - Deepak Singh Rawat
(2) Linus is just having fun, he's joking - Anto
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[+25] [2009-05-28 23:30:21] justinhj

XKCD visits google [1]

Joshua Bloch talks about good API design and why it is important [2]

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAb7hSCtvGw

+1 from me - the xkcd talk is great if you read the comic. - cwash
Randall Munroe's talk really is quite entertaining, even if you're not a hardcore fan of the comic. And thanks for pointing out the Josh Bloch talk! - Jonik
OMG, I wouldn't ever think such tech talk existed!! Thanks for the XKCD I'm going to see it right now - OscarRyz
(1) Josh Bloch is one of my favorites to listen to. My entire department of java developers loved the Google IO talk he did with Jeremy Manson: google.com/events/io/2011/sessions/… - kasdega
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[+20] [2009-05-28 22:41:49] Rene Saarsoo

I have found some quite interesting ones on Artifical Intelligence (something most of us aren't dealing with every day):

Or if you're into JavaScript, then:

Or if you're into usability, then:

But of course, because we're at StackOverflow, the ultimately correct answer is:

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%5Fm97%5FkL4ox0
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyzOUbkUf3M
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LKDImgRfrg
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yDS1eGfuWQ
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVUKc989ztc&feature=channel%5Fpage
[6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpOxbesRNBc
[7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWHfY%5FlvKIQ

Do you want to split these into 3 posts so each can be voted on? - Martin Beckett
If you feel so, then you are free to do it, I'm neither pro nor against it :) But it's a community wiki... - Rene Saarsoo
+1 for Learning from StackOverflow.com ;) - Vijay
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[+11] [2009-05-29 19:05:04] Adam Rosenfield

Dtrace [1]. Great speaker, really interesting software product.

[1] http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&oi=video%5Fresult&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D-8002801113289007228&ei=pDEgSvrFMtCJtgf0w4yvBg&usg=AFQjCNFiSpxlfsmfakmD0JIDDg%5FfXB61VA&sig2=zKfZ3dQzKJ3bZIGJKG20ng

I'm hoping Oracle does a better job of bring awareness of Dtrace to the community. - Brian
+1 - first 5-10 minute rant is exactly how I feel about software. Thanks for the recommendation - cwash
This guy really is a great speaker - Pete Hodgson
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[+10] [2009-08-01 01:43:43] Gary Willoughby

Douglas Crockford presents JavaScript: The Good Parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook

I learned a lot from this tech talk.


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[+10] [2009-07-22 08:45:51] pufferfish

Definitely " Winning the DARPA Grand Challenge [1]"

...a reminder of how cool Computer Science can be.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDqzyd7fDRc

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[+9] [2009-05-28 23:20:31] lispmachine

Interesting one:

For Python developers:

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBVQYNfckhQ
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E%5FkZDvwofHY
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui-mSFuUZmQ

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[+8] [2009-05-28 22:29:46] Klas Mellbourn

Ken Schwaber is always interesting and his presentation of Scrum [1] is great for Scrum newbies

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyNPeTn8fpo&feature=channel%5Fpage

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[+7] [2009-05-29 19:26:08] Mike Akers

Linus's talk about Git is good for learning what Git isn't but this talk [1] by Randal Schwartz is much more useful for learning what Git is....

Here are some others I liked:

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhZ9BXQgc4&feature=channel%5Fpage
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NqLljaHc80&feature=channel%5Fpage
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjpmc8ZIxM&feature=channel%5Fpage
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8zj5lBpFTY&feature=channel%5Fpage
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFr2pv2bXXc&feature=channel%5Fpage
[6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giAMt8Tj-84&feature=channel%5Fpage
[7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPq%5F8ULpRg&feature=channel%5Fpage
[8] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeRaLPupGks&feature=channel%5Fpage
[9] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FX4zco0ziY&feature=channel%5Fpage
[10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyNPeTn8fpo&feature=channel%5Fpage

+1 for DARPA Grand Challange. - Rene Saarsoo
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[+4] [2009-05-29 19:33:08] Mat Nadrofsky

I've recently enjoyed James Bach's Google lecture on Becoming a Software Testing Expert [1]

[1] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6852841264192883219

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[+4] [2009-08-11 20:02:22] stiank81

Not a technical one, but Why More is Less [1] by Barry Schwartz is one of my true favourites. Useful for anyone - including programmers.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMV4PIEIKY4

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[+4] [2009-05-29 00:42:41] Nathaniel Flath

Some of my favorites:

C++ Stylistics [1]

Java Closures [2]

Java Memory Model [3]

Aspect Oriented Programming Languages [4]

EDIT: Not a Google talk, but I just saw the following and it was amazing:

Everything is Miscellaneous [5]

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh8W4ZglOlw&feature=channel
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zVizaCOhME&feature=related
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FX4zco0ziY&feature=channel
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq7wpLI0hco&feature=related
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0xJrEGNFmc

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[+3] [2009-05-29 03:15:40] David Plumpton

Should Google go Nuclear? [1]

[1] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606

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[+3] [2009-05-29 21:38:05] community_owned

Faith, Evolution, and Programming Languages [1] was good.

[1] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4167170843018186532

After few slidefulls of formulas I didn't understand a thing any more. - Rene Saarsoo
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[+3] [2009-07-31 03:53:46] jpartogi

Yukihiro Matsumoto talking about Ruby 1.9 [1]

That is so cool, considering Google uses Python. At the end of the talk Guido also had a discussion with Matz about programming language design.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEkJvvGEtB4

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[+2] [2009-08-01 01:27:25] jpartogi

Alex Martelli talks about Design pattern in Python [1].

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vJJlVBVTFg

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[+2] [2009-09-26 00:12:30] Martin Beckett

Winning the DARPA challenge [1] - designing an autonomous car to drive across the desert. Interesting technical content and a very good speaker.

Plus it's interesting whatever language you use.

[1] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8594517128412883394

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[+1] [2011-03-28 21:55:15] Vaibhav Bajpai

"All Questions Answered" by Donald Knuth [1] - March 24, 2011

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLBvCB2kr4Q&feature=feedu

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[+1] [2011-06-06 14:05:42] p2pnode

Talks a bit about Google search engine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syKY8CrHkck


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[+1] [2009-08-22 09:50:04] jpartogi

DjangoCon 2008 KeyNote by CalHenderson [1]. It really good and hilarious. Cal brought the presentation really well.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Fr65PFqfk

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[+1] [2009-09-25 23:03:44] Pascal Thivent

Competing On The Basis Of Speed [1] by Mary Poppendieck. Great talk.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U%5FHgMduuE5s

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[+1] [2009-09-25 23:05:42] Pascal Thivent

The role of leadership in software development [1] by Mary Poppendieck.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypEMdjslEOI

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[+1] [2009-09-25 23:06:13] Peter Mortensen

Signals, Truth, & Design [1] by Judith Donath. 55 min 55 secs.

It is related to:

  1. Designing user interfaces, especially on the web.

  2. Hyping new programming languages and other technologies.

  3. Explaining some behaviors in the workplace.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOCoFa8qxjY

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[0] [2010-05-04 11:12:09] Michał Pękała

I find Merlin Mann's Inbox Zero great.
http://inboxzero.com/video/

It's about not going insane with e-mail overload.


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[0] [2011-02-13 22:11:37] Vaibhav Bajpai

A New Way to Look at Networking, Van Jacobson, 2006 [1]

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqGEMQveoqg

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