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CES DAY II EOD

Need: Tablet PC > preferably the Motion Computing LS800 for size
Need: Cross-trainers > these hikers are killing my feet
Need: HTC Universal > right away, lack of avtive PDA has made me disorganized

Took a limo ride to a private briefing
Walked a lot, feet still hurt

High-def TVs
Saw the 102" Plasma and 82" LCD TVs at the Samsung booth. These behemoths need to be seen to believe: the dimension will blow you away. Actually in speaking with Howard Sobel of Wugnet, he had an inspired idea that was just totally brilliant. I had looked at it purely for integration purposes into the palaces (14,000-28,000 sq ft) of clients, but his idea is something else. (Can't tell you at this time!) Truly inspired!

PNY
Met with PNY at a private briefing at the Mirage; actually had no choice since they had a limo pick me up. Informed me about the forthcoming 8GB (yes, 8GB!) USB key with an MSRP of $200 USD. No kaka, folks! $200! This translates to a street price of $150-$175! For 8 Gigs!. Gentlemen, say hello to speedy computing with Vista.

Using the SuperFetch functionality in Vista will extend your system's memory to the USB key. And with 8GB, can you say fly? Even if only the cache is on the key, 8 Gigs is still 8GB!

This eases a lot of pain for those with systems that do not allow memory increases beyond 1GB.

Next-gen optical drives
Saw both the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray booths: another post, however, I will let you know that I am squarely in the HD-DVD camp unless something catastrophic happens. All because of Sony!

Helo Moto
Motorola had quite a few mobile devices and i got to play with some of them, especially the Moto Q, the PEBL, and the RAZR V3x. Liked them and that is that! Hate the UI immensely! Fell in love with the in-ear Bluetooth headset; gotta have one of those when it ships.

Lots of mobile devices there.

Also, who says Microsoft does not have a good buzz about Vista?

You should have seen the crowd at the Microsoft Paviliom; totally SRO.

The mob at the Vista/Microsoft Communites booth was scary sometimes. Scary good!

Yes, it is an IT crowd,but you could feel the love.

Windows Vista Community Lounge

We repaired to the Windows Vista Community Lounge ar the Mariners Convention rooms at the Mandalay Bay.

Nice, as usual.

But then, what do you expect?

Microsoft is a (mostly) developer-facing company and they know their stuff.

There we did another meet-and-greet with other community members and played with the systems set up there.

Xbox 360 was prominent, and Michael Reyes (Michael-HWG) tried his hand at it with some other members.

Ira and his family were there; also Sandi from Down Under; Dana Cline, etc, etc.

2006 CES Day II

Actually the 1st day of the CES exhibits on the show floor.

Memo to self: next laptop must be a tablet!

Trip this: walk a mile to the MGM Grand to catch the 'Monorail, Monorail, Monorail'; Monorail to LVCC; left my badge at home, so walk around to the back of the LVCC to get a new badge; then go to a mtg with Brian & Rebecca from FFWD>>64

Meetings with several vendors.


FFWD>>64
I was invited by FFWD>>64, to star in their production, What Do You Know About 64bit Computing?, a tentative title.

Seeing the coincidence with our soon to be live site, www.64bitVista.com, I gladly accepted.

Despite some wardrobe problems, I did not want to be a primadonna, I made my debut.

And immediately flubbed it.

I just hope Jim, Brian, and Rebecca are kind with their editing.

Wonders Never Cease!

John comes into my office as I work on my 2006 CES report and announces, "I peepeed in my pull-ups."

A few weeks from turning 3, he is in the late stages og potty training but sometimes misses when he is engrossed in a movie or playing.

Give me a minute, I say, and when I get up, I see him racing past my office on the way to his room.

Hey, lets go change your pull-ups.

He said, "I did it already!"

??What??

He had gone into his bathroom, and replaced his pull-ups.

By himself!!!

I'm impressed!

CES Day I EOD

Very eventful day!

From the missed flight to the 1 -mile walk between terminals at LAX to the serpentine, meandering taxi line at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. (No kidding, it took 55 minutes from exiting the door at the airport to getting into a cab!)

To meeting old friends and making new ones: Aaron Coldiron, Jed Rose, Josh Levine, Michael Reyes (Michael-HWG), Howard Sobel, Steve Hughes (fyiguy), Larry Richman (phileysmiley), Ira Wilsker, Terri Stratton, Barb, Sandi, Mauricio Freitas, DaveBee, etc., etc.

I will be posting a list of friends at the end of this event, this is just a partial list; I'm so brain tired right now.

The refreshments were great as usual, and everyone was friendly.

However, I must confess that the thing I see and feel right now from the Microsoft team is their passion about Vista and their work.

It is catching, and they seem truly pleased with what they're doing and want to rope you in.

And rightfully so!

The work is good, is secure, it looks very reliable, even in the CTP builds, and has something in it for everyone.

More than that, they ARE listening.

This is a great departure form the recent past, circa release of XP.

This time there is PASSION!

And I like it.

Looking forward to mañana, with renewed vigor.

Miss Wifey, John, & Trevor.

CES Keynote by Bill G.

As usual, Bill Gates had everyone enthralled.

His vision for the future of computing, Information At Your Fingertips, has not changed, and he is both infectious and unwavering in his conviction.

And his passion about this conviction clearly shows.

No description of the event does as much justice as either a transcript or the video.

Mini-Lab II

Vista Media Center

The Vista Media Center sports a totally new UI which greatly enhances the total User Experience.

For the first time, Media Center will allow the use of the CableCard, eliminating the need for a set-top box and/or associated hardware, such as an IR blaster.

The content presentation layer is also vastly improved, with dynamic thumbnailing, and a cleaner presentation of contents.

Search?

Well Search Me!

Search and indexing is several orders of magnitude better than 'Emerald' with built-in metadata support.

In all, improved!

Mini-Lab 1

Windows Vista

Windows Vista uses Server 2003 as its jump-off point.

You heard right; Server 2003, not XP Pro. A server OS!

What benefit does this provide?

Well, security and user management.

As we all know, a server OS is inherently more secure than a client OS.

Furthermore, this OS is more secure by default than any other OS ever released by Microsoft.

It also uses several schemes to enforce security, such as Least User Access, UAP, etc.

(Most of these are discussed in my October and December newsletters)

On the surface, most of the changes to Vista seem cosmetic until you get an earful, and see for yourself, how much work went into the eye-candy.

And it is a lot of work.

It is a tribute to the Vista team that the transition is virtually seamless.

Windows Community Mini-Lab

As an invitee of the Windows Featured Communities, specifically The Hive, I am also registered for a Mini-Lab on Microsoft Windows Vista, Vista Media Center, Internet Explorer 7, and Live.com.

This event is being held at the Bellagio, and some of the content is under a strict NDA.

I will keep ypu informed about the public information.

The bus is downstairs.

The List

This event would not have been possible without the following:


Microsoft:
Aaron Coldiron - Microsoft
Jed Rose - Microsoft
Josh Levine - Microsoft
Robert Scoble
All other Microserfs

The Hive:
Michael Reyes - HardwareGeeks.com
Terri Stratton - TheTabletPC.net
Ira Wilsker - Host, My Computer Show on KVLI & KEBQ
Dana Cline - MediaCenterStuff.com
Sandi - IE-Vista.com (Sandi from Down Under)
Mauricio Freitsam - GeekZone.co.nz
Steven Hughes - Boston Pocket PC
Howard Sobel - Wugnet
Larry Richman - Pro-Networks
DaveBee - Melbourne PCUG
Robert McLaws - LonghornBlogs.com
Steve Sinchak - Tweaks.com
Steve Bink - Bink.nu
Ryan Hoffmann - Bink.nu
Joel Diamond - Wugnet
Ash Nallawalla - Australia PCUG
Barb Bowman - blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
Netanel Jacobson - Maxthon


Who else slips my memory?

Props to all.

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for AbsoluteVista.com®

CES Day IV

Final Day!

Rolled out of the rack, got ready, and packed my bags.

Cab'bed over to the LVCC for a final look-see.

Started out at the South Hall, walked around, then made for the Central Hall. Went automatically to the Windows Community booth, saw fyiguy and freitasm. Said our bye-byes and I went on my merry way.

Made it to the south edge of the North Hall before my feet called it.

Got a cab, went to the hotel, picked up my stuff and off to the airport.

Thanks once again to The Hive, the Microsoft Windows Communities program, Aaron Coldiron, Josh Levine, Jed Rose, Brian Fish (FFWD>>64), and all who made this my best CES ever; as prior events have been a solo affair for me.

Wish everyone a safe trip back home.

And, as usual, every thing that happens in Las Vegas, Stays in Las Vegas.

Flight is called. See ya.

Peace Out!

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for AbsoluteVista.com®

The Windows Community Dinner

Location: Private room at the restaurant rm at Mandalay Bay
Time: 7.30p
RSVP: Double-secret invite only, complete with classified handshake.
Menu: Special, event-only menu!



That is Page 1, informing us that the dinner menu was developed especially for us. Can you get the feeling that we're starting to feel (even) more special?



Howz that? Some meal, eh?

As delicioso as the meal was, the camaraderie and conversations during the meal - and what a meal - was, believe me, a lot more exciting.

Totally enjoyble end to the day, and for some Hive members, end to the week.

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for AbsoluteVista.com®

Star Trek Experience


Chilled at the Star Trek Experience with Michael-HWG, Sandi -from Down Under, and Danacline.

Had lunch at Quark's Bar.

Nice spending it with people who knew who Seven of 9, Tertiary Adjunct of UniMatrix Zero-1 is.

Pretty niiiice.

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for AbsoluteVista.com®

Windows Vista Lounge

Aaron, Jed, and Josh have arranged for a more in-depth briefing for us on the Media Center functionality in Vista.

Location: A VITO*-only hospitality lounge purposely erected on the front lawn of the LVCC, usually only accessible to corporate executives, rainmakers, etc.
RSVP: Exclusive, invite-only.
Time: The lunch hour of noon to 1.00pm.
Fiji water, our own Barista to fix the coffees, sumptuous digs.

Microsoft has a new segmentation of the functions of Windows Vista around themes that resonate: if I remember correctly, three of them are Memories - for media created by users, MC Video (forget what the official moniker for this is) for Media Center TV funtions, and Music. Three distinct areas were set up for the briefings, with each area showing off both a desktop viewing area - the two-foot experience, and an enlarged viewing area for the ten-foot experience.

Check this out:
Memories: the default photo cataloguing function in Vista is going to be more powerful than ever, and in this, I include all current 3rd-party software. Not only is indexing totally integrated into this, but the ability to insert metadata information into these photos lets users archieve greater control and help their creativity. Demoed: Vista, Kodak WiFi digital camera.

Video: CableCard. Not using an IR blaster/dongle to control channels and being able to use the Media Center guide to program channels is a definite plus - the cable from Comcast plugged directly into the computer. With the newly announced JV with DirectTV, even satellite programming will be accessed directly from the Media Center remote.

Music: Vista really shines here! You can slice and dice your music many more ways then a Ginsu® knife. Too many options to list here, but be rest assured, ITMS must be feeling the heat Vista is bringin'. More on this is my CES newsletter


VITO: Very Important Top Officer of a corporation, usually C-level execs.

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for AbsoluteVista.com®

CES Day III

More of the same.

Memo to self: Mix in a salad with meals, and convert the treadmill from ornamental to operational

I have to man the Windows Communities booth from 10.00 am to 11.00 am so I have to fly. Unlike yesterday, there is traffic all over the town. So, guess what? I have to trudge over to the MGM Grand to catch the Monorail, Monorail, Monorail.


Windows Communities Booth at the Microsoft Pavilion.

Can you say packed?

I am getting the same tingling feeling I had leading to the Windows 95 intro. And boy, is it a good feeling or what?

I must have spoken to 15 people directly over the 90 minutes I was there with other members helping out with talking to the mass of prople all around me. A whole lot of IT pros wanting to learn about Vista. This is niiiice!

Yesterday, Microsoft refreshed the primary Windows Vista site located at www.microsoft.com/windowsvista.

The site rocks, with lots of relevant info, scenarios, and links to the various sites in the Windows ecosystem, and the crowd is already aware! Wow!

The mindshare Vista currently has, even before a public beta can only bode well for Microsoft, and us, as well.

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for AbsoluteVista.com®