C++0x talk
I just attended a talk by Bjarne Stroustrup, who is the inventor of C++, about the next version of the standard which will probably be C++09.
There are 30 new language features and there are some new libraries, apparently not as many as Mr. Stroustrup had hoped for. He was rooting for more libraries since they do not require new compilers. He’s expecting new compilers supporting the 30 new language features in 2-3 years.
Some of the more interesting features are:
* initializer_list’s
* concept’s - to help check template declarations before actual template instantiation time for better error reporting.
* template aliases - the using keyword.
* auto variables - their types are automatically deduced from the initializer.
* a new for-loop syntax - for (const auto x& : v) - walks through every element of v, where v is a container with a begin and end method.
* static_assert
* nullptr - a keyword for a null pointer constant
Garbage collection was left for another revision along with other more intense-debate-inducing features. Mr Stroustrup hopes to start writing a fourth edition of his C++ Standards book early next year, and thinks it will take him 2 years to finish it. So it will be out by the time C++09 compilers will be out.
Gridmarker.com
Monday I met with the creator of gridmarker.com, Michael Mayfield, who is also in NYC, actually very close to me in the upper west side. There are currently two services for 3D bookmarking in SecondLife, Gridmarker and Sloog with gridmarker having much more capabilities for the time-being.
Michael seems very community-oriented and built gridmarker on top of open-source scuttle, so gridmarker will also be open-sourced soon. We talked about expanding the capabilities of gridmarker and moreover integrating it with unype so that 3D bookmarks can come from more sources.
Apparently there are some road blocks to achieve this for now, since SecondLife operates with two coordinate systems (global and local - for sim’s that can be moved around). Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth and similar mirror worlds obviously have a single coordinate system, which makes it easy to integrate them into a single database.
Gridmarker seems very interesting and I’ll be waiting for new exciting updates from Mike.
If you can make it here…
When I had first arrived in New York from Silicon Valley in 1999, I was very surprised to find a very enthusiastic virtual-worlds interest group, however small it was.
My friend Andrew Gerngross and I started TheNextWeb Inc., wrote a business plan that borrowed heavily from SnowCrash much like the business plans of today, and went around showing our demos to VC’s and investors in New York until the stock market couldn’t take it anymore and crashed in March 2000. For a long while after that, you could hear the crickets chirping when you mentioned Hiro Protagonist.
Over the years, the picture remained the same. California, no, Silicon Valley (no, Palo Alto) was the place to be if you wanted to engage in any metaversal activity.
But these days, New York is easily balancing the west coast in terms of metaverse buzz. Here’s a rundown of who’s who of the New York metaverse circles currently:
UpNext
An interactive yellow-book/3D model of New York City in your browser. Java. Very impressive current google-maps like functionality.
SpaceTime
3D tabbed web browsing.
MetaCrasher
3D connected worlds using Ogoglio.
Electric Sheep Company
Second Life builders.
AreaCode
DodgeBall founders/Google defectors, making large-scale real-world games exported from virtual worlds
Tone23
An excellent intelligent multi-user music application now in Second Life.
MTV’s Virtual Lower East Side
A 3D music community, one of MTV’s several hoorays into virtual worlds. Also check out MTV’s latest “One Avatar, One World” initiative.
Graham Software
3D web browsing.
Cruxy
Power tools for digital content creators, including the Cruxy player for Second Life.
Perceptive Pixel
Not exactly virtual worlds, but very cool multi-touch geo-spatial applications.
And, well, Unype - Multi-user Google Earth.
I would also like to mention DayLife as another very technically strong company, especially their latest “Universe” visualization experiments.
With the excellent monthly tech meetup’s, the community is fusing and gaining more and more momentum each passing day. (please let me know if this list is missing some companies/ murat at holoscape dot com )
