From: Julie Silverman
Date: 11/18/98
Time: 11:47:07 AM
Remote Name: 207.218.188.137
So far the parties thrown by the various vendors have been pretty decent. Food, drink, entertainment and most importantly cool product demos.
Sunday night Microsoft hosted a reception following Bill Gates keynote. It was almost the same as last year, Bill showed up and was promptly mobbed. Of notable difference is that Steve Ballmer President of Microsoft was there too and was hanging out by the buffet table - and nobody bothered him. Intereresting. Pictures forthcoming.
Monday night Conexant had Dennis Miller and the B-52's. No camera allowed. Bogus. Dennis Miller say the F-word a lot, doesn't he? :)
Next was the Microsoft SQL server launch at the Bellagio with the "Big Bad Voodoo Daddies". SQL 7.0 really rocks too. I saw some great demos on how companies like bookseller Barnes & Nobel are using it to power their online order system. Geeky stuff.
Tuesday's main event was the Microsoft Office 2000 party at the Harley Davidson cafe. This one was so good, it deserves it's own posting. Details to come.
Next was a private reception and mini exhibitor event at the Alexis Park Hotel. Didn't pay much attention to the party, this is where I saw some of the coolest most promising technology. First, there was a company that makes internal UPS's. It's a PCI card that you pop right into your computer, it will power everything on your system for up to 18 minutes in the event of a power outage.
Next there was a company that makes wireless networking equipment. How does that work? Lets say you have an Internet connection, or a few networked PC's in your home or office. You want to connect your laptop or other PC's without needing to run more tangled cable. You add a "base station" (a small device that plugs into your PC, hub or router) and then get the wireless card for your laptop. Now you can roam for up to 150 feet from the base station - it's just like using a 900mhz cordless phone! Here's the nifty part, it supports speeds up to 1.6mps - which is faster than T-1 and more than enough network bandwidth for the average small lan user.
Finally, wrapped up the night with at the iomega (zip drive dudes) party at the beach. Entertainment was the "Royal Crown Revue" (swing band). iomega also has some awesome new technology that will turn your zip drive into a music CD player. You can now buy music on the Internet and make your own albums. This one is going to take off.
Tonight, I'm heading over to the Microsoft sponsored 'Geek-fest' (yes, that's really the name) to be held at Quark's Bar in the Hilton Star Trek exhibit. I wonder if I will see any geeks?