Q42 is developing a personalized learning platform for high school students, utilizing iPads and various technologies like Google App Engine and HTML5 for efficient educational tools. The initiative includes providing students with personal devices, enriching content, and enhancing learning experiences through interactive features. Key challenges mentioned include optimization of delivery systems and the performance of the platform's infrastructure.

1. Damn are getting
the new generation students
iPads in high school
iText, Google App Engine, iPads, Html5
kars@q42.nl

2. q42.nl
Agenda
• About Q42
• The Case
• Demo 1
• Technical Architecture
• Demo 2
• Next
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3. q42.nl
Q42
Software Engineers
&
Interaction Engineers
(40+)
wanting to
make the user kick ass!

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Q42 Office

5. The Case
q42.nl
Schooltas:
Let students learn more efficient
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personal device: a device for every student
in a classroom
at home
traveling
teacher
digiboards
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6. Numbers
q42.nl
2011 Version 1.0, 1.1, 1.2
2012 Version 2.0, 2.1, ...
2000 daily users, 26 pilot schools
20.000+ personal notes
target audience: 900.000 students in High Schools
1.000’s books (for now)
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Tech stack
• Play framework 1.2.4
• Google App Engine
• iText
• iOS native + Html5 clients
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Demo
• Demotime
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Technical Stuff
• Platform
• Datamodel
• Setup
• Learnings
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10. Platform
q42.nl
Books: PDF’s
Enrichments: a lot
GAE Platform
iPad delivery (DRM)
Html 5 delivery (rendering) (tablets, laptop)
... (rest)
1.
Encryption
3.
CDN
Delivery
2.
Rendering
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4.
FT search
...

11. Data
q42.nl
Split
Book
Task
Queue’s
Bundle
Backends
iText
encryption jobs
Encrypted Book
iText
Rendering jobs
Downloads
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GAE
• We deploy every day.
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GAE & iText
• Backends & Taskqueue’s
• BlobStore
• iText encryption tasks
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GAE & iText
• Learnings
• encryption is fast
• in-memory: we need RAM
• BlobStore unreliable and slow
• CDN delivery: oh yeah
• TaskQueue’s to the rescue
• B8’s dynamically (4.8Ghz, 1Gb ram); :)
• Backends: max 10Gb RAM in total
• Play Framework: slow bootup (10 .. 15 s)
• Objectify Play Framework Module: don’t. Use Siena
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Demo
• Demotime
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Next
• PDF fulltext search
• Interactive Document Format
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17. GAE
q42.nl
• Focus on what you want to do
• Code.
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18. GAE
q42.nl
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Taskqueue’s
Backends
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Bigtable
Admin
Deploys
Traffic Splitting
Scale up & down
FT logfiles
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Image Server & CDN
Cost
Global latency
BlobStore, GStore?

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Tech startingpoints
• http://www.playframework.org
• http://code.google.com/appengine
• @q42 / q42.nl
• @schooltasapp
• schooltas.net
• @karsveling
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