Despite my rather modest traffic, I'm now at #276 in the Ecosystem rankings, up from my usual 550-600 range. Of course, I'm not altogether sure how these are determined—as I understand it they involve actual hits, links, and the quadratic equation.

Meanwhile, my friends from Siggraph are expecting me to provide more convention coverage from my party-hopping tonight. I'm thinking a little sleep first would be terrific, since I have to get up early in the morning to leave some donations on the front porch for Vietnam Veterans of America.

Here's the short story: Party 1 at the Hyatt, Party 2 at Ciudad. Some spirited discussion among computer graphics people on whether it's better to go into industry (as 3 out of 4 of my friends did), or to pursue an academic career (that's one of us, plus another friend who's an academic in another field—note that I say "us," though I've never written a computer program that actually got run on a machine, not ever).

And by far the grooviest thing: there are now plenty of young women who are studying computer graphics. Things aren't as they were 20 or even 10 years ago, when most of the women present were there through an interest in art, and had little or no handle on the technical angles of how to make the pretty pictures happen. There's a whole new crop of whip-smart computer science students who are tackling the complex problems this field represents right now, and a decent number are from my side of the sex fence.

I sat with one of the more talented young women studying at Georgia Tech, and realized that at least one of my friends--and possibly another acquaintance of his--was intensely interested in what she had to say. I tried to tell myself it was because of her mental acuity, but who knows?--she was a stunning and poised young lady.

A good night, all in all. Details later.

Posted by: Attila at 03:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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