From 9428b8a8dc5c9d8553d4d8a2f5a2005764a85147 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kyle Spaans <kspaans@uwaterloo.ca>
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:00:22 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Tim Brecht Talk: linux

---
 events.xml | 46 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 45 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/events.xml b/events.xml
index e3b0556..79905ba 100644
--- a/events.xml
+++ b/events.xml
@@ -49,6 +49,50 @@
 		More details to follow!
 	</abstract>
 </eventitem>
+<eventitem date="2011-07-04" time="1:30 PM" room="MC 5158" title="Our Troubles with Linux and Why You Should Care">
+	<short>
+		<p>
+		A joint work between Professors Tim Brecht, Ashif Harji, and
+		Peter Buhr, this talk describes experiences using the Linux
+		kernel as a platform for conducting performance evaluations.
+		</p>
+	</short>
+	<abstract>
+		<p>
+		Linux provides researchers with a full-fledged operating system that is
+		widely used and open source. However, due to its complexity and rapid
+		development, care should be exercised when using Linux for performance
+		experiments, especially in systems research. The size and continual
+		evolution of the Linux code-base makes it difficult to understand, and
+		as a result, decipher and explain the reasons for performance
+		improvements. In addition, the rapid kernel development cycle means
+		that experimental results can be viewed as out of date, or meaningless,
+		very quickly. We demonstrate that this viewpoint is incorrect because
+		kernel changes can and have introduced both bugs and performance
+		degradations.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		This talk describes some of our experiences using the Linux kernel as a
+		platform for conducting performance evaluations and some performance
+		regressions we have found. Our results show, these performance
+		regressions can be serious (e.g., repeating identical experiments
+		results in large variability in results) and long lived despite having
+		a large negative impact on performance (one problem appears to have
+		existed for more than 3 years). Based on these experiences, we argue
+		that it is often reasonable to use an older kernel version,
+		experimental results need careful analysis to explain why a change in
+		performance occurs, and publishing papers that validate prior research
+		is essential.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		This is joint work with Ashif Harji and Peter Buhr.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		This talk will be about 20-25 minutes long with lots of time for
+		questions and discussion afterwards.
+		</p>
+	</abstract>
+</eventitem>
 <eventitem date="2011-06-24" time="7 PM" room="Comfy Lounge" title="Code Party 2">
 	<short>
 		<p>
@@ -99,7 +143,7 @@
 		</p>
 	</abstract>
 </eventitem>
-<eventitem date="2011-06-09" time="4:30 PM" room="MC 2054" 
+<eventitem date="2011-06-09" time="4:30 PM" room="MC 2054"
 	title="General Purpose Computing on Graphics Cards">
 	<short>
 		In the first of our member talks for the term, Katie Hyatt will give a