Hans Odenthal, Sioux's “People Manager,” on their massive orange couch

One thing I love about my job is that I get invited to talk in places I haven’t been before. In December, I went to Shanghai to give a keynote at the china-cpp conference. A couple of weeks ago I was in the Netherlands giving a three day hands-on course with C++0x (well, part of C++0x, anyway—we used GCC 4.5) and a big evening session, part of my host’s “Hot or Not” series.

This trip was all about the orange. Continue reading →

About a month ago I was invited to give a keynote at the China C++ Conference, and after some hemming and hawing due to the short notice, I decided to accept.  It’s not every day that someone offers to pay your way to China; I might as well see it, I figured.

The place is happenin’, seriously. Shanghai is a huge, beautiful city. Some people have lots of money, and the city center glitters with light and impressive buildings. If anyone wonders why there’s talk about China being an economic powerhouse, here’s your answer: I drove past a Maserati dealership on the way to the hotel. On the other hand, I saw guys in ragged clothes hauling loads of wood, or bricks, like oxen, and every category of bicycle and scooter with dump-truck-sized payloads. I ran past someone’s broken-down house with their chickens roaming the sidewalk outside.