Month: January 2010

Public Service Announcement: Stand The Hell Back From The Airport Baggage Carousel, Thanks

If you fly more than once a decade, you’ll doubtless have seen the above scenario (photographed at the Calgary airport on my way back from my CES 2010 disaster trip). People line up to get their baggage at the carousel, but rather than everyone standing back a couple of feet so more people can see their bag coming, 99.9% of people cram right up to the rail, often leaning in to see what’s coming – completely blocking the view for everyone else. What ends up happening of course is that you see your bag as it passes right in front of you, and you loudly exclaim “Excuse me!” as you lunge for your bag before it goes by. When I was at the Las Vegas airport, an elderly gentlemen and I were standing a few feet back while everyone else crammed and scurried in front of us. He exclaimed “When I was in kindergarten I learned to take my turn – what’s wrong with these people?”. Preach it old man!

People, it’s just common sense: stand back a bit and only step forward to grab your bag when you see it coming. Thank you – this ends the public service announcement.

Is Social Networking Becoming Less Social?

During my hellish CES experience, I noticed something interesting: the point in time when I was hoping for some encouragement from my F&F (friends and followers), I didn’t get any. Being sick sucks, but being violently ill in a hotel room all by yourself sucks even worse. I felt quite alone and could have used some encouraging words to help get me through the day. I posted a message on Twitter about how sick I was, and I thought it also went to Facebook but didn’t. I was a bit surprised then when only one person sent me any words of encouragement – and this person happened to be someone I know only via Twitter. I imagine I would have gotten more of a response if TweetDeck had posted my message to Facebook – it didn’t make it due to a password glitch – but it still amazes me that with 530 followers on Twitter only one felt like wishing me well. Is there so much noise in the social networking space that being social with others is no longer part of the equation?

CES 2010: The Worst CES Experience I’ve Ever Had

CES: it’s the geek Mecca. This year, for me, it was a train-wrecka (har har!). Join me on my journey of unpacking the frustrations and tribulations of a CES I’d rather forget. I need some catharsis from the five days I spent in Vegas, so this is more for me than you, but perhaps you’ll find it entertaining in a “driving past a car wreck” sort of way.

When I went to CES 2009, I posted quite a few videos of what I saw there. Producing those videos in 1080p h.264 on my Dell XPS M1330 took a long time, so on December 9th I placed an order for a pimped-out Core i7-based Dell Studio 17. Plenty of time before CES, right? Wrong. Despite calling in a favour with a contact I have in Dell’s CTO office, as of December 30th I still didn’t have the laptop – the estimated ship date was January 8th, three days after I left for CES. Switching to plan “B”, I went out and purchased an HP dv7, a $2000 Core i7-based laptop with a 17.3″ screen and a weight of seven pounds. I was planning on bringing this beast of a laptop with me to CES to leave in my hotel room for video production, and I’d carry a netbook me me for day to day CES reporting. Then I started to hear about the security restrictions after the December 25th “underwear bomber” was foiled, and my already rocky start to CES prep got worse. Continue reading CES 2010: The Worst CES Experience I’ve Ever Had

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year everyone! I can’t believe it’s 2010…growing up, that date seemed like “the space-age future” – you know, complete with flying cars and whatnot. It’s amazing that the year is now 2010…the start of a new decade, a decade in which my life has changed for the better because now I’m a father. 2009 was a rough year for many people in the world, but I’m thankful for the blessings that were given to me in 2009: a healthy son, the continuation of a wonderful and strong marriage, a great writing contract with Microsoft, amazing volunteers that help me do a job I enjoy tremendously, and amazing friends and family. I couldn’t ask for anything more. May 2010 be a year full of blessings, prosperity, and good health for you and those that you love!