CES 2010: I'm not there and I'm glad.
I've never really been one of those people who needs to see the big new summer blockbuster on opening night. In fact, I prefer to wait a couple weeks for the crowd to die down and to let the movie reviews flood in before I bother. It's just less of a hassle overall, because who needs a hassle? I don't, that's who. And for the most part I take the same approach when it comes to technology. I don't need FIRST! bragging rights, in fact, I prefer that you deal with the alpha/beta/gamma/delta bugs and I'll jump on the bandwagon once I know the iWhatever.com is worth my time. There are exceptions of course, but in general I prefer the path of least hassle whenever possible. Besides, so many of you are willing to do the heavy lifting for me! Thanks!
So big to-dos like CES are kind of like a nightmare to me, because they're so scrambling and pushy and desperate and full of FIRST! type folks. Huge showroom floors with mood lighting and too much bass on the speakers, the rows and rows and rows of booths and all those awful matching polo shirts the company spokespeople wear, the nervous PR girls who all look exactly the same with their sensible/sexy attire, the COLORFULLY CLEVER BUSINESS CARDS! Last time I was at CES I got lost in row G4500thousandmillion and couldn't find an exit, not even kidding. All I wanted was to see the sun and I thought I was going to die in Vegas under a stack of plasmas and USB drives and smiley booth babes.
Also, the Vegas part.
This year, half of everyone I know is at CES and I'm comfortably not, but they're telling me everything I need to see/hear/ponder in real-time via Twitter and TWiT Live and relentless blog coverage and claustrophobia-inducing photos and what exactly am I missing? Nothing except the stuff not worth talking about, of which there is tons and tons, and sucks valuable time out of any CES schedule and makes everyone's feet hurt just a little more at the end of the day.
I know this sounds like sour apple stuff, like I secretly wish I were there and this is my way of trying to convince you that I'm not, but seriously... I'm not there and I'm glad. Now pardon me while I go back to manually refreshing my Twitter homepage every 37 seconds to make sure don't miss an update about how later this year I'm going to be watching the World Cup in 3-D in my own living room.
My god, when did I turn into Om Malik?
So big to-dos like CES are kind of like a nightmare to me, because they're so scrambling and pushy and desperate and full of FIRST! type folks. Huge showroom floors with mood lighting and too much bass on the speakers, the rows and rows and rows of booths and all those awful matching polo shirts the company spokespeople wear, the nervous PR girls who all look exactly the same with their sensible/sexy attire, the COLORFULLY CLEVER BUSINESS CARDS! Last time I was at CES I got lost in row G4500thousandmillion and couldn't find an exit, not even kidding. All I wanted was to see the sun and I thought I was going to die in Vegas under a stack of plasmas and USB drives and smiley booth babes.
Also, the Vegas part.
This year, half of everyone I know is at CES and I'm comfortably not, but they're telling me everything I need to see/hear/ponder in real-time via Twitter and TWiT Live and relentless blog coverage and claustrophobia-inducing photos and what exactly am I missing? Nothing except the stuff not worth talking about, of which there is tons and tons, and sucks valuable time out of any CES schedule and makes everyone's feet hurt just a little more at the end of the day.
I know this sounds like sour apple stuff, like I secretly wish I were there and this is my way of trying to convince you that I'm not, but seriously... I'm not there and I'm glad. Now pardon me while I go back to manually refreshing my Twitter homepage every 37 seconds to make sure don't miss an update about how later this year I'm going to be watching the World Cup in 3-D in my own living room.
My god, when did I turn into Om Malik?
