On the ACM SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles 1999.
I thought I knew the pace of innovation but now I am blown away by the diversity of technology that is being born. As the details of how things are done are ever changing, so the level of processing power is accelerating. The expertise that is expanding in the area of computational fluid dynamics, optics, and AI/AL is likewise amazing.
I like to see such diversity. It gives me comfort to know that this is an evolving area and is captivating to others as well. New and, ever cheaper, data capture tools are being sold with an incredibly rich selection of manipulation tools. The software has evolved. New languages, new architecture, things we only imagined 10 years ago are now happening. There is even 3-D animation with intelligence, with numerous ways of tying into the data taking it into all corners of possibility.
I believe in the future. To me the challenge is to see ways I could get involved, being mindful of market/technical evolution and staying with the main flow as opposed to specializing. I have learned that it is not good to stay in any specialty for too long. I think that in computing, if it is tied to a specific implementation of some idea, it can only last a year or two before you are overtaken.