Tuesday, March 5, 2002

Back from Comdex -- 9:40 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Well, my long day is through. ~10 hours in a car is enough to do anybody in. I didn't make an update directly from Comdex since a) there is no easy way to do it with the browser I have--all on roaming no less, and b) there wasn't much to report. The Big Boys weren't there. No Intel, AMD, or NVIDIA. No Red Hat or other Linux reps. M$ only had its PocketPC division there. The only way to see anything from Handspring was to sign up for their Treo demonstration, which sadly I didn't do ahead of time.

Speaking of which, M$ had a promotion that every day of Comdex they would trade in someone's PalmOS device for a PocketPC one (or WinCE, as I still prefer to call it). I'd sooner be disemboweled than trade in my Visor. Of course, if they had offered, I would have asked how well their synchronization software works in Red Hat 7.2.

I saw quite a bit on the Blackberry PDA (or "wireless email solution" as they call it). It is basically a PDA with GSM/GPRS wireless capabilities. It is neither a PalmOS nor a PocketPC device. It uses Java for everything. I got to play with one a bit. Instead of using Graffiti or some pen-based method of input, it comes with a tiny thumb keyboard that I found too small to use well, despite the fact that I have small hands. I found myself longing for Graffiti.

Other random bits: the Cingular speaker was WAY too much. She said a lot of words without saying much of anything at all. Buzzword city. I picked up a copy of a magazine called CPU (Computer Power User) that contains columns by Anand Lal Shimpi (of AnandTech), Alex Ross (aka Sharky, formerly of Sharky Extreme), and Kyle Bennett (of HardOCP). Looks like it could be an interesting magazine.

I also got to see some wearable computer stuff. The applications they showed were mainly for military or law enforcement use. I still can't help but think what an unbelievable dork you would look like with this crazy headband with a mini-screen in front of your right eye. Not that that would stop some people. I was dying to ask what kind of Quake III framerate you could get on that.

All in all, I had a good time. Despite having to get up at an ungodly hour, I'd go again. But next time I would prefer if more of the Big Boys were there.

News for 03/05/2002

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