Tradition!

Whether it's Macworld Expo, ice storms, or car buying, I weave the threads of the past and future together, just for you.

• Macworld in the olden days
  
• Ice emergency of 2007!
  
• New Prius, old Saturn, car salesman runaround
  
• Macworld reconsidered: not much to see, TuneStudio, social hour, Mac Podcaster Meetup
  
• iPhone reality sets in
  
• iPhone accessibility speculation
  
• Music to send e-mail and audio comments by

Link-O-Rama: Other World Computing's ModBook, Podcast Morons, Belkin TuneStudio, Mac Podcaster Meetup part 1, part 2, Mac OS Ken, ScobleShow, Conan's iPhone commercial, iListen, Mostly News

This Week's Music: "Ice Storm", by Boo Boo Davis, on the Podsafe Music Network

Lounging with the bloggers

This is a rare blog entry for me. I don't usually make extensive text posts, but I'm without recording equipment at the moment (it gets heavy) and I'm right in the middle of the Macworld show floor. In fact, I'm sitting in the Microsoft Bloggers' Lounge. There, I've plugged my hosts, which is only fair, since I'm drinking their Diet Dr. Pepper and using their Internet connection.

Interestingly, and accidentally, too, Microsoft is the company that's offered me the most food at this show. I attended an MS press event last night and filled up on pot stickers and other delicacies, and now I'm swilling that rarest of commodities in San Francisco, my beloved Diet DP.

The Bloggers' Lunge is a mid-sized booth on the show floor, with big squashy chairs and couches, and tables with iMacs. There's a guy up front who asks you to sign in, and the place really isn't very crowded. No waiting for the iMacs. I can't say that's true in the press room, interestingly enough. Nor can I get so much as a glass of water in the press room, so this is the place to be.

Does it sound to you as if I'm totally gone on the freebies, expecting and exploiting the opportunity to flash my press pass? You'd be surprised. I do not have the schmoozing and scamming power (I got in trouble for using that word last night) of many of my colleagues. They come home with leather bags, iPod cases made from endangered species (OK, not really), and boxes of software. I usually score some party invites a few t-shirts, and a combination yo yo/pocket knife. I am a bad freebie filcher.

The show floor feels busy today, but not impassable. Only in the narrow aisles on the ends have I found myself sidestepping multiple large men with rolling bags, and groups of gawkers speaking in languages I do not understand. Here in "big booth" land, you can breathe, and you can hear the sounds of breaking glass part of some demo) mixed with the drone of hired guns trying to sell photo managment software, printers, and iPod docks.

Apple Keynote Wrap-Up

Hear my conversation with fellow Mac geek Deb Shadovitz, recorded just an hour after Steve Jobs' Macworld Expo keynote. We talk iPhone, Ap∑pleTV, and keynote kraziness.`

Flying My Geek Flag: iPod Recording Reviews

• Recording with the iPod
  
• Please Pickle me; please Digg me
  
• Extracurricular podcasting
  
• Macworld Expo activities
  
• Product Review: Griffin iTalk Pro and Belkin TuneTalk: zip file containing eight short audio clips (19.5 MB)
  
• Contact info by Mignon from Absolute Science
  

This episode was recorded with the Griffin iTalk Pro and an iPod nano, in WAV format. Slight edits were made, and the Trypod ID and contact info were spliced into the WAV file. Finally, the show was compressed to MP3 format. I did no post-production or processing.

Link-O-Rama: Please Pickle me, Digg the show, World Bridges Podcasting Year in Review page and audio, Pickle Tales, Mac Podcaster's Meetup/MacMingle, MacEfficiency, Macworld User Group Lounge lineup, Griffin iTalk Pro, Belkin TuneTalk, Absolute Science