ALS has come and went. I think it was a good show for VA and for XFree86. It was sort of interesting to look at the XFree86 booth. They were showing three demos. One was Q3A running very fast on a modern workstation. Another was a demo showing a video being played back across two monitors. It showed Xv and Xinerama. In the back of the booth were some bouncing ovals and text. For those who looked carefully you'd see that it was doing transparency and antialiasing using the render extension.
Q3A attracted the most attention, but was not really new technology. The Xv and Xinerama demo was nice. The real technology with render extension. Anyone who looked at that demo really knew what they were looking at. The demo was boring to look at, but once you realize what you were seeing, the technology was very cool.
I'm still trying to finish off the 3dfx SLI/FSAA work. It's been a real hassle, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm really looking forward to finishing this off.
Beyond that I think I'm adapting to the management role OK. I know I can do a good job at it. I even think it'll be fun. My role is really as an engineering manager, because I have project managers to deal with the business and schedule issues. I do have a lot of mundane business issues to take care of because I've been neglecting them while trying to get the 3dfx stuff done.
I also realized another real benefit to me as a manager. I know a lot of people and I'm really good at talking to people and working out situations. I got involved with a silly issue between VA and a vendor. The deal should have been good for everyone involved, but due to poor communication there were real problems. I was able to step in, figure out what was going on, how it should be handled, call the appropriate people and get them talking. I think we're back to it being a good deal for everyone. It doesn't seem like that should be that hard, but obviously it is for some people.
I've got a lot of work in front of me. I need to continue to focus the energies of my incredibly talented group. I need to start chasing some new business opportunities. I've got an interesting project I'd like to prototype. I think we'll have some great work for my group. We'll be hiring more people. It'll be a fun year.