Talks

Below are many of the talks & presentations given at Birmingham Perl Monger Technical Meetings. All slides are the copyright of their respective authors and no part should be reproduced without the express permission of the author. To request copyright permission please email webmaster@birmingham.pm.org.

Links To Talks

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Author Title Abstract
Barbie Web Link How To Be A CPAN Tester (YAPC::NA 2008) Based on the 2007 version, this talk looks more at the community of CPAN Testing than the actual tools used. With the wiki containing so much information now, this talk gives a much better overview of the CPAN Testers experience.
Barbie Web Link How To Be A CPAN Tester (YAPC::NA 2007)

This was the presentation given in Houston in 2007, as a introduction to CPAN Testers and the toolchain. Originally it was planned that David Golden and Barbie would present, but unfortunately David Golden had to cancel his attendance.

Barbie Unknown File Type Testing With Perl

On CPAN, the Perl code repository, there are over 100 testing distributions, many looking at a distinct aspect of testing. This talk takes a selection of the most valuable testing distributions and highlights how to get the best out of your test suite. Code examples of test suites and demostrations of running test suites included.
Barbie Unknown File Type Testing With Selenium An quick introduction and explanation as to what Selenium is about, how it works and why it's useful. The talk includes a short run through of the installation required and a live demo featuring a basic example of the application working.

A revised version from the one seen in 2007, with updated content.
Brian McCauley OO Impress Document USENET Gems (UKUUG Spring 2008)

Yet another look at the USENET Gems, undated slightly for UKUUG 2008 Spring Conference.
Brian McCauley OO Impress Document Perl Regular Expressions (UKUUG Spring 2008)

A talk about regular expressions given at the UKUUG 2008 Spring Conference.
Brian McCauley OO Impress Document Usenet Gems (YAPC::Europe::2007) Gems are small items of high value and/or great beauty typically found in a mass of worthless material. Usenet is the original global distributed discussion group network. Usenet, mailing lists and other online forums are a major part of the Perl social scene, providing an extensive free resource of expert (and not so expert) advice on a range of technical issues in and around Perl. This talk explores briefly some of the rules and pitfalls of social interaction in a technical discussion forum and then looks at some "Gems" where often seemingly simple questions have revealed surprising and/or fascinating things about Perl.

This is a repeat of the talk I gave in Belfast with the slieds clened up. Due to animation the slides only work in the open office format.
Barbie Unknown File Type Preparing For CPAN This talks joins two previous shorter talks, and looks at what is needed to package a distribution ready for CPAN, what to package, considerations before packing, and some common pitfalls you might encounter. This talk was written for YAPC::NA::2007.
Brian McCauley OO Impress Document Recursive Iterator - A Brainstorm Perhaps not so much aimed at the beginner, as what I really want is the audience to brainstorm about the best API for a module given its basic semantics.
Barbie Unknown File Type Selenium - An Introduction to Web Testing

An quick introduction and explanation as to what Selenium is about, how it works and why it's useful. The talk includes a short run through of the installation required and a live demo featuring a basic example of the application working.
Rob and Simon PDF Document Fosdem, Beer, Curry and Pwnage

A quick guide to what happened at FOSDEM in Feb 07, highlighting a talk that featured metasploit. (screenshot) Talk presented by Rob Shields and Simon Lewis.
Barbie Unknown File Type Graphing With Perl An introduction to some graph/chart modules in Perl, with examples of the different flavours of line graphs, bar charts and pie charts you can create.
Richard Dawe PDF Document Extended attributes on files Extended attributes on files; mostly about Linux, but allude to other systems' support; talk briefly about upcoming File::ExtAttr module. (lightning talk)
Richard Dawe PDF Document Web 2.0 at LPW A summary of the coolest talks from the recent London Perl Workshop. (lightning talk)
Jon Allen Web Link Photo Tools Perl scripts for managing a digital photo library. (lightning talk)
Brian McCauley Web Link History of a FAQ One of the most frequently asked questions and what's wrong with frequently given answers. (lightning talk)
Brian McCauley Unknown File Type substr() as subroutine argument A seemingly simple newbie question that opens a whole can of worms. (lightning talk)
Brian McCauley Unknown File Type When does (pre|post)increment happen? Evaluation order edge-cases explained. (lightning talk)
Barbie Web Link Smoking The Stats An update on the CPAN Testing Stats. (lightning talk)
Barbie Web Link So Damn Kludgy A Software Development Kit for Perl is long over due. This talk explains why. (lightning talk)
Barbie Unknown File Type Development Coverage An introduction to Devel::Cover.
Steve Purkis Power Point Document High-Availability & DBI + MySQL (Power Point) Implementing high-availability MySQL database connections with the DBI in a production environment.
Barbie Unknown File Type The Great White North Adventures of a Rush fan in Toronto! ... or tales from YAPC::NA::2005
Barbie Unknown File Type Project: yacsmoke (YAPC::Europe::2005) What is CPAN Testing, how to use 'yacsmoke' and how to become a tester.
Barbie Unknown File Type Preparing For CPAN (YAPC::NA::2005, YAPC::Europe::2005) Common mistakes found during CPAN testing.
Barbie Unknown File Type "Wyt ti'n medru siarad Saesneg?" and why you need a phrasebook (YAPC::NA::2005, YAPC::Europe::2005) An introduction to phrasebook design patterns and the Data::Phrasebook distribution.
Barbie Unknown File Type Striving For Perfection (version 3) (LPW) What is CPAN Testing and how it benefits you.
Barbie Unknown File Type From Module To Distribution A brief look at how to create a distribution, what to include, what to automate and how to release it.
Brian McCauley Unknown File Type Games::Fluxx - A Work in Progress Brian has been writing a Fluxx games engine. Here he talks about the design and coding that has been done so far.
Brian McCauley Web Link Even More Usenet Gems The third installment of Brian's regular featurette.
Barbie Unknown File Type Boys & The Black Stuff A talk about conferences.
Brian McCauley PDF Document Usenet Gems (pdf) (yapc2004) A condensed version of Brian's previous tech talks.
[OpenOffice version]
Brian McCauley Web Link History Of A FAQ (yapc2004) Brian's lightning talk.
Barbie Unknown File Type The Perl Auctioneer (yapc2004) Accessing eBay from Perl.
Barbie Unknown File Type Book Searching with Perl An introduction to WWW::Scaper::ISBN and how to write a ISBN scraper driver.
Barbie Web Link Striving For Perfection SBLUG talk - a look at what CPAN testing is all about
Barbie Web Link An Introduction to Perl SBLUG talk - a quick look at the past, present and future of Perl
Brian McCauley Web Link More USENET Gems More classic questions from the USENET archives.
Paul Whitehead Power Point Document Overview of Digital Image Processing A brief overview of the field of Digital Image Processing [requires a PowerPoint reader]
Jon Brookes Web Link Graphing Data with GD::Graph A talk about GD::Graph & CGI::Application::GDGraph::lines.
Brian McCauley Unknown File Type USENET Gems A talk about some classic questions posted on USENET.
Barbie Unknown File Type Extended Testing A short talk about 4 useful testing modules.
Barbie Unknown File Type Some Perl Special Variables A short talk about some of the useful Perl special variables.
Barbie Unknown File Type Striving For Perfection A short talk about CPAN Testing and how it makes life better.
Barbie Unknown File Type Cool File & Directory Modules A look at some of the cool modules that handle file I/O in Perl.
Barbie Unknown File Type A Continental Perl Adventure A look at the tutorials and talks from the YAPC::Europe::2003 conference in Paris.
Steve Pitchford Web Link A Quick Guide To XSL-FO A Lightning Talk on what XSL-FO is and what it can do.
Barbie Unknown File Type Calendar::List An introduction to a new module.
Barbie Unknown File Type Validating Parameters A look at some CPAN modules that can do CGI parameter validation.
Barbie Unknown File Type Class::Phrasebook A simple look at how Class::Phrasebook can help you.
Barbie Unknown File Type An Introduction To Regular Expressions A basic talk about how to create simple regular expressions.
Barbie Unknown File Type The Perl Auctioneer My initial experiences of accessing online auctions & LWP.
Barbie Unknown File Type An Introduction to NMS A quick look at the what, why and where of the NMS project.
Barbie Unknown File Type YAPC::Europe::Munich::2002 A run though of the tutorials and talks of this year's YAPC::Europe conference in Munich.
Barbie Unknown File Type Devel::Debug An explanation of the proposed Devel::Debug module. [to be deleted]