Product making

In the past few months I have been admiring the importance of product making, yes I don't like to refer to it as product management because it makes little sense to manage a product even when adding new features to an existing product.

It's one thing to have an idea for a product and to have the capability to implement it but it's a totally different ballgame to "make" a product. I have found that it's more so in the case of a business to consumer idea compared to a business to business idea. Even though I have mostly worked on b2c projects all these years I could only understand it better when a few of us tried to put together an implementation for a b2c idea recently. I used to think that being able to implement what we want is the key and as long as we can do that quickly we should be good. I think it's still true however there's something more challenging in addition to that - having a complete vision of the exact usage sequence of the product. Knowing what needs to happen from step 0 to step n precisely, can drive one crazy.

For developers it's easy to know this from the architecture/development perspective - things like what should happen on the device, what should happen on the cloud etc. But it's not easy from the business/consumer perspective. It's amazing how many times we can go back on a flow and come up with some other option - this essentially means we don't know exactly what we want to build!

Hence I have a new found respect for product making. I am thinking that it must feel like heaven to know what precisely needs to be done in order to make a product that the users would die to use :)

Growing inequality

is one of the first few things that comes to my mind whenever I visit Bangalore and someone asks how I find it. I thought it wasn't so bad in places like Udupi and Mangalore I visited recently. With Bangalore I feel the gap between the rich and the poor is widening with every visit. While there are people who can afford to spend crazy amounts of money and live a very luxurious life, there are people who is finding is harder and harder to keep up with the ever growing costs. Sure it's a competitive world and all that however it's not hard to see how the income/wage disparity is leading to unequal distribution of wealth. This inequality is ever growing as only the rich gets more and more opportunities to grow while the poor struggle to make ends meet. I am not sure where this will lead us. Sigh.

Riding in Bangalore

It's amazing how forgiving people (drivers, riders, pedestrians) are and how accommodating they are, at least most of them. I have a better understanding of why it works - everyone gives you that space to make some reasonable move (it can as well be an unreasonable move sometimes) in order to be on the road and continue moving. I started off thinking that I should do more defensive riding to stay safe. I soon realized that it was not so hard to trust people, rather it was more challenging to be as forgiving as them and to be able to provide the same space to them. I am getting used to stopping frequently and riding very slowly even when I have a fairly long stretch of almost empty road :)

NASA's Astronaut Training Experience (ATX) at the Kennedy Space Center

It's one of the unique things we did in 2011 holidays. Thanks to Preeth who found out about this program and made reservations for the three of us well in advance, we didn't miss it when we were in Florida/Miami for the Christmas holidays :)

So this is a half-day program where the participant is first made to undergo different training activities followed by a space mission simulation! We get to train like astronauts and to carry out a space mission like astronauts :)

The good thing about it was that it wasn't elementary and they assumed that we would know a bit about computers and simulators and started off with training on the simulation programs -we were told what programs to load and the commands to execute in those programs.

The most important ones were programs for docking up with the international space station and to land the space shuttle.

Docking up with the space station involved looking at different camera feeds and moving the joystick to position the space shuttle and while also entering the commands given by the instructor.

And landing the shuttle involved taking manual control, maneuvering the shuttle according to the desired path (adhering to the given altitude, speed), deploying the landing gear and landing the shuttle on the runway and deploying the chute on touchdown. We were made to try the landing sequence multiple number of times and the instructor noted down the speed, altitude and how well the shuttle was landed. I managed to land it correctly only once (and it was not at all a good landing) and I crashed on the runway once and crashed into the river next to the runway another time. Vinay was the best among us in landing (thanks to his PS3 gaming skills) and he was considered for the commander role along with two others who did good. Based on how close the altitudes and speeds were to a perfect landing they would choose a commander and it was not one of us.

Following this we were given a tour of the space shuttle simulator we would use for our mission later in the day. We then trained on the Multi-axis trainer that randomly spins and twirls its occupant in multiple directions, through 360 deg, for one complete minute. The astronauts were also supposed to interpret their motions and compensate the motions with nitrogen boosts to control the tumbling, in the actual simulator. This was one hell of an experience and the good thing about it is that it won't make us nauseous as our stomach stay centered all the time.

This was followed by training on close to zero gravity or micro-gravity wall. I liked this one the best as it felt like I could climb up and down the wall with almost zero effort! I just had to try to reach down to go down and could use one of my finger to hold on to the higher bar to move up. I could also let go of both my hands and just stay there mid air! It was a neat experience :)

After all the training we started with the space mission simulation. I got to be the pilot for the mission, yay! Vinay was a mission specialist, where he had to maneuver the robotic arm to dock the shuttle with the international space station and deliver a payload to them and Preeth was our boss, the flight director managing us from the Mission control room!

Each one of us were given scripts with our actions and words highlighted, as a pilot my job was mainly to help fly the space craft and acknowledge any emergency alarms and attend to them immediately (the crew from mission control would help us troubleshoot the emergency situations) and finally deploy the landing gear at the correct time for landing and deploying the parachute on touchdown. Our commander was awesome and he landed the shuttle just as it had to be and we were all congratulated by the Space center staff on a very successful mission! Oh yes, and I also got to say the famous "Guys, it was a pleasure flying with you all" to my fellow astronauts on the shuttle :)

We then met a NASA astronaut, Jon McBride. He shared with us his experiences as an astronaut and we got to ask him many questions. One of the highlights was that he used to be a fighter pilot before NASA and he flew those combat aircraft more than 200 times! We also had a graduation ceremony mock-up where we were handed out our certificates, signed by Jon. At the end of it all we seemed like three happy kids who had just gotten to play with very fancy new toys for half a day along with other enthusiastic people!

Why I think I like Google+ better

Initial thoughts:

The fundamental difference -I can add who I want to my circle and they need not have me in theirs. I don't have to approve any friend requests like Facebook; this to me is a game changer! It saves everyone's time and people need not speculate on how well they know the other person to call her/him a friend before sending a friend request.

Does this pose a problem if anyone can add anyone to their circles? Not really. Because if I add someone and they don't add me, it will become a case of me following that person (only her/his public posts, Twitter-like). And she/he won't see any of my posts as I am not in her/his circles? Which means I can share what I want with who I want, they can choose to see it or ignore it.

To me it looks like the whole concept of socializing made nice and easy yet not compromising on the control the users would always like to have.

This is just the initial thought, need to see what other things they will add to it (apps and stuff), lot of details that needs to be understood and pondered on etc. but I do think that it's a great step towards making what is so hip today (Facebook) irrelevant ;)

Today a dear friend of mine got a small design I created inked on his shoulder! And it made me so very happy :) He had told me that he was thinking getting a tattoo a while ago. He wanted a Trishula (three-spear) and had asked me to design one. Now he is a guy with a strong mind and a gentle heart. So I tried a few concepts like the third eye in the middle spear of the Trishula, a Trishula like a flower bud, and a Trishula with its spears on fire etc. There was one where I had an Om and the Trishula as the Chandra bindu (moon and dot) of the Om. And I also had one where the Trishula was made of the special characters we use in coding, this one was my favorite because he is one of the best C++ programmers I have come across :) He seemed to like the Om one and the one with code characters and we had to decide on one. So I ended up combining the two designs and he seemed to like the final one and he said he would get it done sometime soon. But today when he said he actually got it done, I was so thrilled. Many thanks to him! I realized how wonderful it feels to know that a friend chose to have my creation permanently inked.

I never thought

in the wildest of my dreams that I would be in a lineup outside an NHL team store, on a weekday, waiting in rain for the store to open, in an attempt to buy the team jersey.

But there I was, in front of the Vancouver Canucks team store today at around 9:45am. The store was to open at 10:00am and I had a meeting at 11:00am. I finished one of the meetings at 9:00am and started from office, grabbed a quick breakfast on the way and reached the store to see a line-up with people with umbrellas! I stood there, waiting for the store to open and hoping to find a jersey of size "small" for Vinay. It's anyway very hard to find that size but we were told there would be new stock coming in today and hence the hope. The guy in front of me told me that the store would open at 12:00 today and I asked him if it was true in a such a shocking/dramatic tone that he apologized immediately and said he was only joking. The store then opened and I found out that there were no small jerseys available after all. The new ones that came in were already sold out as they first make them available to the ticket holders in the stadium during the game (which happened yesterday). Sigh. So I had no choice but to return disappointed, thinking how else I could source a jersey before the next game etc.

That's when it hit me, I had never thought that I would one day be following NHL or Hockey like this. I still don't do it as religiously as Vinay does but the facts that I have watched almost all the games in the playoffs, have not missed any crucial ones and have celebrated the goals like a happy fan were enough to wonder how I caught this hockey madness. Here goes the rationalization 1. Vinay is such a sports freak, that it's almost impossible to stay away from them. 2. Hockey is celebrated in Canada or at least in Vancouver; the city, people, media are all so much into it, it's only fair to get into it and fly a Canucks flag from your car. 3. It's fast! that's a great reason for me to start falling in love with it :)

Helsinki as I saw it

I have to start with this -

I have always had trouble in placing my carry on bag in the overhead bin, thanks to my height and strength! So most of the time I have travelled alone it's some guy who helps me put it up but this time in the Frankfurt to Helsinki flight when I lifted my bag as if I needed no help (I do this every time :D) and after it was evident that I needed help, I saw a lady get up and say "I'll get that" and she put the bag up there and smiled beautifully and took her seat. I thanked her with a big grin and my joy knew no bounds.

Then it was not difficult to notice that in Helsinki women were less hesitant than men. It also looked like most of the jobs that needed interaction with people frequently were taken by women. Later my colleague put it rightly that in Finland women socialized more than the men.

Next the weather -

Almost all the days I was in Helsinki it was bright and sunny. It was cold, yes, the lowest temperature was around -32 deg Celsius but it never was gloomy. The fresh snow and the brilliant sun was a perfect combination to brighten the mood. And there was Sauna to beat the cold anyway.

And then the people -

I have always thought these Finns are wonderful people, based on my interaction with a whole bunch of them at work and of course because I was a big fan of Kimi before I interacted with any Finns. A trip to Helsinki only confirmed that, they are simply nice and honest. Maybe the Finns in Helsinki are rawer. That's probably why I saw a guy cycling at -7 deg Celsius (and it was dark already) or why a taxi driver knew so much about Nokia, mobile platforms, Meego, Apple and the ecosystem they created etc. or why it looked safe for people to walk around the bus loop at 2:00 am in the night or why an elderly man tapped on my shoulder and asked if I was okay when I was sitting on a couch in a mall (I was all tired and jetlagged).

And then there were my friends from Bangalore, it was great to meet up with them and spend time talking like there was no tomorrow. And as a cherry on top I had the pleasure of sharing my trip with this gentleman from Vancouver who I call an-unusual-Finn as he can talk more than me!

And their art -

Like the people their art was also raw, honest, straight and some were brutal too, specially the contemporary art in Kaisma (Sara's Ekstrom's Limbus was on exhibit there). Ateneum had the Illusions of reality with the theme of paintings being the realities of a modern society and everyday lives of people.

And finally the roads -

It was so hard to walk on those slippery roads, it demanded my full attention. It almost felt like they were saying this - Stop running towards something all the time, do some justice to me, look at me, be with me, walk with care! And I did appreciate those roads in more ways than I imagined :)

Noomi Rapace

What other title could I give? She's on my mind since I watched the awaited movie last night -The girl who played with fire. When I watched the The girl with the dragon tattoo in April, I loved the characterization of Lisabeth Salander, it boosted my feminist ego. It was very gripping even with the flaws in the plot. What interested me most is -in the days where we hardly see any movie that takes time to define its female characters the movie did a great job in defining Lisabeth's role so strongly. Though it's the author of the series that defined the character I think the movie did so much justice to the original character and I was convinced that no one could have played it better than Noomi Rapace.

So then I watch this sequel last night, I liked the movie and all that but again what intrigued me the most is Noomi's acting, she was so fantastic and perfect. If I had watched these movies when I was a teenager I would wish I could be like Lisabeth Salander. Now I wish I could act like Noomi Rapace!

Dance

Is one of my favorite art-forms. It never fails to fascinate me, it gives this unique feeling of being free. I myself haven't taken any dance classes except for a few casual tango/jive classes that Vinay and I took long ago. Thanks to my friend Bindu who is an amazing Bharatanatyam dancer, because of her I think I am involved in dance more than I thought I would have :) I admire their eye movements, their grace and I start to think that I can feel what they feel, some of them consider it so divine and I can sense that from their performance. And I seem to have this special attraction towards Kathak when it comes to the steps and costume. I just love it when their skirts flare out beautifully during the spins and I can only think of that when I imagine a painting to depict the feel of a dance! It's almost like the ultimate depiction of freedom :)

Here are two small abstracts I made to start with, in the memory of the immense pleasure dance has given me. I dedicate them to Bindu :) I am sure I can't stop at these, I think I will be studying more and working more on the theme dance!

Vancouver is full of people and excitement these days, thanks to the winter Olympics 2010. The city is all decorated etc. but what makes it more special is the people - it's always nice to be amidst a crowd of people from various places, more so when they are excited. Spent the whole day yesterday going to different parts of the city and checking out the stalls, the Olympic village, the Olympic flame etc. It was warm and raining most of the tome, it's probably the warmest city to host the winter Olympics. It was nice to see the artists playing music, performing magic etc. on the roads of downtown and the volunteers who very kind and also the locals/volunteers wearing the ASK ME tags :) Another thing that needs a mention is the Olympic store that was overcrowded with people buying loads of things! It was one heck of an experience of excitement, now look forward to the watching the hockey game this evening.

I am sure all of Kimi's fans would be as heartbroken as me after hearing the news that he won't be racing in F1 next year. Usually people like the sport F1 and then they have their favourite drivers etc. but it was the other way around for me. I used to follow F1 because most/all of my friends were following it and I fell in love with the sport after I fell in love with the driver, Kimi. It is his raw talent to race faster than anyone else that attracted me, always setting those fastest laps, pushing the machine so hard and breaking it many a times, making it a point to win the Belgian grand prix even when he had problems with the car most of the season :) And his "not giving a damn to anyone or anything" attitude that attracted me to him, a simple man with no layers as his manager put it once. I am undecided as to what F1 without Kimi would mean to me.

I saw this today and could think of nothing other than Kimi's decision to not race in F1 next year.

Kimi you will be missed at F1, I wore a Mclaren top when I watched you race in Malaysia 2006 and I wore a Ferrari shirt when I watched you race in Montreal 2008, I think I should start reading about rallying and WRC now. Go Kimi!

Watched MJ's This is it yesterday. Very impressed and fascinated with his grace. I don't know if everyone sees what I saw, it maybe completely my perspective. For the entire duration I was fascinated by the perfect order that I was seeing in every single movement of his hands, legs, body. I am saying this because those videos were shot during the rehearsals, a show is different. There was absolutely no movement that was out of place, and I couldn't see that order in any of the dancers that danced with him. Of course I am not disrespecting those dancers, I know they were a set of talented dancers selected by MJ himself but I am talking about the 'perfect order all the time', I couldn't see that in anyone. It should be because it's his style and it comes naturally to him. But I must say I was amazed and inspired to a very great extent than my expectations. The memory of his long graceful hands will remain forever.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you look at this picture?

I was beaming with joy when Vinay looked at the restaurant and said "They painted the restaurant red because it's a complementary colour of green!" during our Banff trip. I know I have a long way to go before everyone around me recognise the colours and their effect, especially when I have these dear friends who claim they are "not artistic" or "colour blind"!

So here it is, the painting where I was experimenting the other two complementary pairs: green-red and yellow-violet. I went to the market in search of flowers to paint as my subject but the moment I looked at the watermelon (small one) I wanted to paint it. Since it was green I bought a bunch of tomatoes as my other subject. After trying out with a few compositions, settled down on this one where I decided to have the subjects placed an a table (which was going to be yellow-violet :)).

It was fun painting this one and I was trying out different brush strokes instead of just making it smooth. In the next class one of my classmates and James (my teacher) pointed out that I might have used Divisionism and a bit of Pointillism in my work. I didn't know what those techniques were, found out about them later. It's interesting that it (divisionism) is based on the science that optical mixing of colors happen and it is not necessary to mix the colors physically all the time.

When I told about this to Chinnu he was telling me how art is supposed to be intuitive and all that but it definitely helps in knowing the science behind it as it makes it faster and it won't take away any creativity or intuitiveness from us.

In the last class James was telling us about the use of Geometry in paintings, which again is arguable that it's not intuitive. Maybe not all the painters used/use it consciously but it is true that images look more pleasing to the eyes when they are proportionate so I think knowing about it only makes it easier and makes us more confident to use it.

The other paintings that I made in the class are uploaded here.

In the last class we were taught about complementary colors, two colors across from each other on a color wheel through the center of the wheel. In the modern color wheel they would be magenta-green, blue-orange and yellow-violet. The complementary colors increase the visual intensity of each other when placed in close proximity. This theory of complementary was formulated in 1850 or so and was used extensively by the impressionists (Monet etc). James showed us Van Gogh's paintings before he moved to Paris and the ones after he moved and started using the complementary colors. In one of the letters he wrote to his brother, Van Gogh had mentioned that he was experimenting the usage of three pairs of complementary colors in the same painting.

We learnt to mix a pair of complementary colors (plus white) in varying proportions to form a Dyad. We were supposed to make an abstract painting using this complementary blend only. Here is the picture of what I made using the blue-orange complementary pair. When I was working on this one Vinay pointed out that the Indian cricket team's new jersey designed by Nike uses the same complementary pair :)

Started my painting classes at the Emily Carr University of Art & Design, with the instructor James Lindfield. I have taken up a course Fundamentals of Oil Paintings under their Continuing Studies Program for the adults. I loved the Granville Island from the day I went there the first time, it is a haven for the arts, you find different festivals, live performances, street buskers over there. This university is on the Granville Island and so I was all excited about taking up the course. I waited for the online registration to open as there were only 16 slots, and managed to register on time.

So I had my first class on Sunday. Well, we were supposed to have our first class on the last Sunday but we didn't as our instructor forgot about the class as he was busy working at his studio :) I like the instructor and all that and I now find it hard to not think about painting, the class, what paintings we students did, what the instructor told for each one of us and what not, when I am at work :(

Above image is a picture of the painting I did in my first class, I chose a candle holder as the object to paint. We have assignments too! The course has eight classes, and I am expecting to learn most, if not all, of the oil painting techniques by the end of it.

:(

In 2007 (Dec), I thanked people who planted the trees in Jayanagar in one of my posts. And in 2008 (Nov-Dec), I hear that these trees are going to be felled to make way for the Metro. But I always thought it won't happen because no one can actually think of cutting those trees on the Nanda road, they make a distinguished part of Bangalore.

No, I am not against development/progress. But to me, felling trees on the Nanda road (and Lalbagh) to make way for the Metro is like demolishing a part of Taj Mahal to make way for the Metro! Because those trees are part of our heritage just like how Taj Mahal is. I never thought it would be difficult for anyone to accept this, I thought Hasiru Usiru was doing a great job and we should be able to save those trees. Anitha, Boda and Chilli have been working a great deal for this cause with Hasiru Usiru.

From what I hear from them about the protests/progress, I realize that people don't care about these trees at all! :( Here are the updates from them, extremely disheartening.


From:Anitha
Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: Map fundaes

They came around 5:30 when it started raining and chopped off one tree. As they saw people approaching to question them, they ran away! They even left the cut tree in the Lalbagh premises.

Some of the eye witnesses lodged a police complaint and the guy there said they will give protection for one night. So a constable was stationed at that place in Lalbagh so hopefully no more trees were cut last night.

----------------------------------------


From: Sridhar
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 10:42 AM
Subject: Bad day yesterday ...

The Mothers of Bangalore (Sanmathi) wanted to raise awareness in the Jayanagar 4th Block area. So, they held a protest there yesterday. I was supposed to go along with them to try getting information about people who might support our cause. The whole evening turned out to be a big messy affair!

Things were going fine with the mothers singing songs on Bangalore and asking the people of Bangalore to arise to the illegality of the Metro, about how they weren't against the Metro, but wanted it to be built in a legal manner, with least damage to the environment as possible. Then these two guys start shouting at us for being anti-Metro. So this is the exchange I am involved with.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
Me: We are not opposing the Metro. But we want it to go underground.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
Me: We are not opposing the Metro. But we want it to go underground.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
Me: We are not opposing the Metro. But we want it to go underground.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
Me: We are not opposing the Metro. But we want it to go underground.
...
...
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: What's the harm if 4 trees go?! If we need progress, we need to sacrifice some things.
[NOTE: All this is being shouted at me, and I am trying to be as calm as I can under the circumstances.]
Me: When there is an alternative solution possible which will not only help the trees, but also make the Metro more useful, why should we go with the current alignment?
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: There are trees being cut in front of hotels, bars. Why don't you protest there?
Me: Come, let's go right now and protest those as well.

Obviously doesn't come.

...
...
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: It's our right for a Metro. Because of your selfishness, we can't lose the Metro. Delhi has it. Hyderabad has it. We also want it.
Me: Delhi, inside the city, has Metro underground.
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: Metro is a dream for us. Metro is a 100 year old dream. How can you oppose it!
...
...
Metro-fanatic 1 & 2: All you people opposing are not Kannadigas. You are not from Bangalore.

At which point, another person in the crowd told me to not waste time talking to these people, and come out of the crowd. I did.

The women were still singing the songs. When these people go up to them, pointing fingers, flailing arms at them. Accusing them of people who will not remain in Bangalore.
Metro-fanatic 1: You people will go off to foreign. We want our Metro.
[NOTE: That guy was wearing a San Francisco T-shirt.]
...
...
And a minor slip from one of the women. She wants to ask the people of Jayanagar to be unapathetic, and arise. She says, "Kannadigas are lazy. We need to get up and fight this!"

M-f 1 & 2 latch on to this. And that's the end. :(

They tell us that we have 10 minutes to vacate the place, else we will be beaten up.

Anitha is waiting at Lalbagh where another tree was cut in the afternoon. As I leave from 4th block, she tells me that the DCP, ACP have given us assurance that no more tree-felling will happen until the 9th (when there will be another protest - probably the most important/final one).

-- edited to remove a line --

In the afternoon at Lalbagh, I am talking to the contractor in-charge of cutting the trees. He asks me where I was when trees were being cut at Vijaynagar, K R Road, etc. I tell him that when it happened on Seshadri Road, we were there. With a proud smirk, he says, "I was there at Seshadri Road". Resisted an urge to slap him.

End of the day, that's the story. Logic of most people - "You didn't protest before, why are you protesting before? Just let it go!" It doesn't strike them that it is this attitude that will result in more encroachments, more autocracy from the rogue BMRCL. Right now the station at Lalbagh doesn't have a parking lot, auto stand, bus stop, etc. They've ONLY taken 0.1% of Lalbagh. Few years down the line, I can visualise them saying this, "We have 0.1% already. What's another 1%? Besides, we need parking lots. We can't have roads jammed!"

Of course, it's progress. Development.

Excellent. Long live mindless infrastructure development.

Only good thing. Another day where I didn't beat up somebody.

I can't even imagine what Boda must be going through. In his place, I would have probably snapped a long time back.

----------------------------------------


From:Sridhar
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 3:23 AM
Subject: Re: Bad day yesterday ...

They had come with 4 police lorries, 5 jeeps, etc. Women police as well. Spoke to the DCP/ACP who had promised us protection just yesterday. His words, "Orders from higher up. Can't do anything."

I saw the cutting of 4 trees. They are in such a hurry to finish up. Most of the trees are landing on the asbestos walls they've put up.

All trees will be cut today for sure. And the saddest part, the land transfer to BMRCL hasn't even been done yet. Long live the Metro!

There are more protests planned (check http://hasiruusiru.org), these should make a difference, please spread the word.

I was excited to hear that Dr. Stroustrup was going to be talking on C++0x in Vancouver. A bunch of us that registered for the talk got official invites from the Simon Fraser university as our company has an university relations group that work closely with the universities.

So there we were, at the SFU on the 30th of April to take part in Dr. Stroustrup's talk. Dr. Stroupstrup talked about the new ISO standard for C++ that he has been working on and that he intends to get done by 2009, it's called C++0x (zero-x as the year is unknown until the standard is out).

I was expecting some major additions if not changes, however didn't see a lot of new stuff or radically different advances. Well, the reason maybe obvious that millions of people already use C++ and anything newly introduced shouldn't break the existing code and because whatever is done should kind of fit into the existing tool chains.

Here is what I could gather
1. Improvements to aid programming with systems that work closely with hardware, to support concurrency -new components, threads and thread pools added.
2. Increase type safety (strict enum type checks etc)
3. Initializer lists (std::initializer_list) to aid initializing pretty much everywhere - vectors, class members, function arguments something like below

void f(int, std::initializer_list, int)
so -> f(1, {2,3,4}, 5);

4. easier and safer use of templates
5. And a lot of smaller things like static_asserts, simplifying for loop syntax etc.

There were a few lighter moments in the talk that I must say I enjoyed :) He said a lot of people keep saying that C++ is not used much but it is a blatant lie. He also said we are not talking about the medium sized, medium reliable, medium performance applications written by mediocre programmers for windows!

There was also a slide listing what (who) all use C++ -Mar's Rover, Google's file system, Microsoft's every product, Photoshop, Cell phones, Gaming, Graphics, Compilers, Chip design etc.
A detailed list of applications that use C++ on his website -http://research.att.com/~bs/applications.html

It felt good to listen to him speak about something he created (that I have been using to write code) and is passionately working on it, the authority with which he speaks makes it nicer :)

Finished painting Karthik's 'Together' picture just before leaving for Bangalore so that I could give it to him. And tried taking pictures of the painting, never got the colors or the composition right :(





















Here is a close up of one portion of the painting. The colors are still not good, the original painting is more grayish but the cameras seem to make it more blueish.




















Finally a good one, this one was taken by Karthik himself :)