If the Game Developer's Conference is the Mecca for all those
who write video games, then surely John Carmack is like the
prophets. Founder of id Software and creator of incredibly long
lived and just plain good games, John is arguably the most
brilliant programmer of our time. For years the IDGA
(International Game Developers Association) has been trying to
get John to come speak. This year they pushed the right buttons
(they convinced his wife it was a good idea) and the king of
game programming, himself, descended upon GDC.  The focus of the
keynote was on the difficulties with bleeding edge game engine
development. Obviously this isn't something most of us face on a
day to day basis, but knowing what John Carmack thinks about
game development is almost like looking into the future of
computing. Either through amazing foresight or incredible
influence, John Carmack has well understood the direction
computer hardware would take throughout the past few years.  To
illustrate just how far computing has come, J