No, I'm not there. I'm right here at SVR Central.
Insty, however, is reporting (along with others) from CES. This brings back memories.
I went to CES once, back in 1987, with a band of hacker types. It was huge, and flashy, and ever so Vegas.
I don't get along with Vegas. I have an alarmingly low tolerance for fakeness, and fakeness is what Vegas is all about. Even back then, it quickly gave me a headache.
The show itself was... well... not my cup of tea. I like high-tech gadgets, within reason, but I want to know what's under the hood, and that's not what CES is about. There wasn't much for me to do but wander around, occasionally say, "Ooh! Shiny!", and flirt with the booth bunnies. I don't think I even gathered as much as one bag of literature.
I like the little industry-niche trade shows a lot better. The products on display are more likely to include things I can use, there's more emphasis on function and less on shininess, and sometimes the cute booth bunny will turn out to be the lead engineer on the product, and eminently prepared to answer technical questions about it.
There was this about Vegas, though: I managed to freak out some people by walking into a casino coffee shop at 6:30 AM, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, all dressed up, and looking for breakfast. Just what the ordinary denizens needed to see, in their fatigued state. (I think the LED bow tie might have added to the disorienting effect.)
Comments