theora dev - Mar 2007 - RFC: I would like to contribute with SoC

[Resending since I sent my first mail before subscribing and I think
it didn't went through. I apologize if you got this twice.]

Hello everyone,

I would like to participate as a student in google Summer of Code and
I was very excited to discover that Xiph is one of the mentoring
organizations, because I am a big fan of both Vorbis and Theora.

So I would love to contribute to a Xiph.org project and I'm writing an
application (the deadline is Monday). I read all the ideas
from:

   http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/Summer_of_Code

And there are several ideas that caught my imagination:
   * "Optimize Theora encoding/decoding speed", because I know the
MMX and SSE instruction sets, so I feel I can contribute here;
   * "Subtitle Definition", because I think this can be useful to a
lot of users (I currently use external .srt files with my Ogg Theora
videos);
   * "Intel to AT&T x86 assembly translation": I know both
assembly dialects.

And I have an additional proposal: adding two or three pass support
for Vorbis and Theora encoding. The rationale is that I did a lot of
testing and I found that, after one or two tests to determine the
"compressibility" of the source, it's possible to predict with
pretty
good accuracy the final size of a video or sound stream for a given
quality. So with a two pass encoding it should be possible to obtain
the best of both worlds: the full quality from a VBR encoding and at
the same time satisfy the people that want, e.g., a 700 MB rip of a
DVD. Comments?

But in the end I find almost all the ideas listed in your page very
interesting and challenging (in a good way ;-)). I think I am a good
programmer and I know C, x86 assembly (including x86_64), Python, C++
and Java.

So my question is: what are the ideas where my contribution (if
accepted) can be more useful? And, vice versa, what are the ideas that
I should give less priority because, e.g., you already have a lot of
students willing to work on them?

Since (again, if accepted) I will be getting paid, I'm not afraid of
doing hard work and searching and studying documentation for things
that I need to know. And, if everything goes well, I would love to
keep contributing even after SoC.

Thanks in advance for any suggestion.

-- 
Lino Mastrodomenico
E-mail: l.mastrodomenico@gmail.com

Hi Lino,

I would suggest you apply to each of the projects you find
interesting, and write explicitly about your relevant experience and
motivation for each. Time is tight, and we'll want to choose the best
person for each project. That means both having the skills, and
convincing us that you'll finish the project. Chatting on #theora is
also a good way to do that ;-)

cheers,

Conrad.

On 26/03/07, Lino Mastrodomenico <l.mastrodomenico@gmail.com>
wrote:
> [Resending since I sent my first mail before subscribing and I think
> it didn't went through. I apologize if you got this twice.]
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I would like to participate as a student in google Summer of Code and
> I was very excited to discover that Xiph is one of the mentoring
> organizations, because I am a big fan of both Vorbis and Theora.
>
> So I would love to contribute to a Xiph.org project and I'm writing an
> application (the deadline is Monday). I read all the ideas
> from:
>
>    http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/Summer_of_Code
>
> And there are several ideas that caught my imagination:
>    * "Optimize Theora encoding/decoding speed", because I know
the
> MMX and SSE instruction sets, so I feel I can contribute here;
>    * "Subtitle Definition", because I think this can be useful to
a
> lot of users (I currently use external .srt files with my Ogg Theora
> videos);
>    * "Intel to AT&T x86 assembly translation": I know both
assembly dialects.
>
> And I have an additional proposal: adding two or three pass support
> for Vorbis and Theora encoding. The rationale is that I did a lot of
> testing and I found that, after one or two tests to determine the
> "compressibility" of the source, it's possible to predict
with pretty
> good accuracy the final size of a video or sound stream for a given
> quality. So with a two pass encoding it should be possible to obtain
> the best of both worlds: the full quality from a VBR encoding and at
> the same time satisfy the people that want, e.g., a 700 MB rip of a
> DVD. Comments?
>
> But in the end I find almost all the ideas listed in your page very
> interesting and challenging (in a good way ;-)). I think I am a good
> programmer and I know C, x86 assembly (including x86_64), Python, C++
> and Java.
>
> So my question is: what are the ideas where my contribution (if
> accepted) can be more useful? And, vice versa, what are the ideas that
> I should give less priority because, e.g., you already have a lot of
> students willing to work on them?
>
> Since (again, if accepted) I will be getting paid, I'm not afraid of
> doing hard work and searching and studying documentation for things
> that I need to know. And, if everything goes well, I would love to
> keep contributing even after SoC.
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestion.
>
> --
> Lino Mastrodomenico
> E-mail: l.mastrodomenico@gmail.com
> _______________________________________________
> theora-dev mailing list
> theora-dev@xiph.org
> http://lists.xiph.org/mailman/listinfo/theora-dev
>
>