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Comdex

Linux at Spring Comdex 74

Posted by Hemos from the interesting-reports dept.
SEWilco has comprehensive report from the Spring Comdex show in Chicago. Good listing - show was smaller, but I think there was still some good exhibits put on there. Click thru to read more- you can also read the final report that Newsforge has.

"At Spring Comdex in Chicago, Linux was scattered around the exhibit floor in addition to the cluster under the Linux pennant. There were quite a few embedded and handheld Linux items in addition to the expected Linux software booths.

  • Identifiable small Linux things:
  • The Agenda PDA had high visibility.
  • In the Korean booths, HNT was showing several tiny Linux machines in their Exilien line, using Linuette from MIZI. I won't call these multimedia devices a PDA.
  • Hacker & Packers had Linux inside their web pad design.
  • Up front, Century Software was showing their embeddable Linux on some Compaq iPaq handhelds, although their WebMedia (not yet on their web page) is aimed at larger appliance-sized devices.
  • Milletech was showing a WinCE or Linux webpad prototype.
  • Tuxia was tucked in the NEC area with their settop/webpad/thin client software.
  • Lineo featured tiny boxes, although their line ranges up to high-capacity clusters.

  • The assorted Linux items that caught my eye:
  • Appgen was showing their personal-to-Fortune range of accounting applications.
  • ACCPAC has some of their accounting modules on RedHat.
  • FreeDesk.com was showing their collection of web/Java based services and applications.
  • Equinox was showing the Linux label due to Linux support for their multiport serial/modem line.
  • Linux support in the distributed machine control system *this, which is generalizing proprietary industrial control equipment.
  • Starnet X-Win32 helps an unstable desktop access your stable server windows.
  • neTRAVERSE was running MS-Windows 95/98 apps within Linux.
  • A GeekCruises.com brochure for a Fall Linux Lunacy cruise was floating about.

In addition to Linux Magazine, Linux Journal, and Embedded Linux Journal, Pen Computing magazine chose to feature the Agenda on their cover.

The overall Comdex exhibit area seemed smaller than two years ago, with Waste Expo taking the south hall this year. But maybe the way the space between the three buildings was arranged was deceptive."
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Linux at Spring Comdex More

Linux at Spring Comdex

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  • Another summary. . . . (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    There's another decent recap of the show [luni.org] care of a poster on the LUNI [luni.org] list.

    BTW, was Micro$haft really not there, or were they off in their own wing (I hit the show yesterday)?

  • Re:Linux is still trendy? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    No, no!

    It's Extreme Programming this week.

  • most popular booth (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I think it should be noted that the most popular booth(that was normal size, and didn't have a pair of blond babes) was the one from www.xgaming.com(1-866-XGAMING) with there 3d glasses that you use with a normal monitor. People were standing 8 deep just to try for 5 seconds...and while I was trying them on 3 people around me bought them. All I can say is I want a pair, just don't have the $100 they wanted for them.
    systemaster
    PS yes it sounds like i work for them, no i don't, the glasses are just F#$% cool, just TRY them.

  • Spring Comdex is a bust (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If you have attended Spring Comdex - Chicago in the past, you will realize the show has significantly shrunk in size and number of exhibitors. This year was the worst yet with many key technology companies not bothering to exhibit. This was the first year Microsoft had no presence at the show. Making the yearly 6 hour drive from Minneapolis to Chicago used to be well worth it for the Comdex show, but I don't think I will be attending next year.

    I can think of a few reasons for the decline:

    1. They let anyone in. Exhibitors are there to show off their products to other businesses and potential customers. The last few years I see alot of people in jeans walking around collecting free tshirts and mouse pads. It's not worth the expense for companies to exhibit to people that are just looking for "free trinkets"

    2. Lets face it, the weather in Chicago in early April is not great. Spring doesn't really get to the midwest until mid-May.

    3. The idea of the overall computer show is outdated. I think companies are more likely to exhibit at shows that more specificly target the areas of technology they represent.

    4. I've heard that the union labor at McCormick is very corrupt. Evidently the exhibitors have to bribe the union help just to get their booths set up and wired for power. It's not worth the hassle for alot of companies to pay off the union workers.

  • Ick (or why I stopped going to Comdex) (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05, 2001 @06:13AM (#313424)
    The first year I went to Comdex, I was quite impressed with both sides of the story (MS and Open Source). While the linux and *BSD sides were woefully underepresented, I thought those that were there (WalnutCreek, RedHat, Linux Journal) did a good job of providing information to curious onlookers as well as those with a clue. People actually had the time and desire to talk about where we were and where we were going...

    That was the first year (about 4 years ago)

    Fast forward a couple of years.

    Now there's a seperate Windows Pavillion and the "everyone else" pavillion. Now the linux booths are packed to the gills with people scrambling for the latest full color glossy sales brochure or, good god, a free yo-yo? Add this to the intrinsic value of a clueless sales rep and you have a veritable orgy of dorks looking for the latest mindless crap and sales pitch instead of a serious presentation of new products and technology.

    Where the hell is the technical value of that?
  • I thought COMDEX was lame. I wouldn't suggest anyone under the age of 21 attending. And really the only reason I can see for attending if you are 21 or older is to drive the Mercedes (they had free test drives).

    You mean the Red Hat folks weren't buying rounds?
    --

  • Lucent's stock price pretty soon? :-)
  • i love linux confrences.... WOO GOO!!!

  • Why vim? (Score:1)

    by Vic ( 6867 )

    What license is it published under? I can't seem to find any mention of licensing on their website.

    Excellent editor though. :-)

    -Vic
  • starts his own cult, MicroSoftentology

    That's an enjoyable thought :) Someday when they're consigned to the lunatic fringe and screen actors, rabidly persecuting copyright violations, unflattering news groups and unauthorized auctions of BG-o'meters. Cost of training to become a level III operating XP user: $15,000.
  • as I don't see how talking about COMDEX in a topic on COMDEX is off topic.

  • Comdex just ain't what it used to be. (Score:5)

    by Mike McCune ( 18136 ) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @07:09AM (#313431) Homepage
    The Chicago Tribune has been running articles all week on the decline of Spring Comdex. An article Wednesday (which they have already taken down from there Web site) gives some interesting numbers:

    1) A 12% drop in attendance.
    2) 350 vendors as opposed to 500 last year.
    3) The show space is now in one hall instead of two.

    I went there Tuesday afternoon and I also notice the big vendors such as Red Hat, IBM and Microsoft were absent. There was also a distinct lack of goodies. A lot of brochures and magazines but no T-Shirts (except for American Express) and other fun gadgets. I didn't think much of it until I saw the people leaving the "Waste Expo" across the hall with several back of t-shirts, hats, yo-yos, foam rubber balls and other goodies.

    One thing the article doesn't mention is that most of the function of Comdex is now available on the web. Most companies put brochures and product information online so there is little need to get these are show.

    In spite of the cancellation of the "Linux Business Expo", there was still some good things going on in the Linux field. Caldera had a free training booth; There were several companies making application for Linux based PDAs including a pretty good version of "Doom II" for the iPaq.

    The guys at "The Linux Show" manage to scrape up enough money to play "Red Planet" at "Dave and Busters" that night. For those who haven't played it, "Red Planet" is similar to the pod races in "The Phantom Menace". You score points by making the most laps in the 10 minutes. I hadn't played this game since the last Comdex, so it took a while to get the hang of it. I finished near the bottom in the first few games but caught on quick and finished the last game (at about midnight) in first place.

    In between matches, I talked with several current and former members of the FSF. I surprised me that on of the current problems is the licensing of documentation. The current licenses of the Linux Documentation Project is making it difficult to publish books based on LPD material.

    Below is another link in the Chicago Tribune that discusses the decline of Spring Comdex.

    http://www.chicago.tribune.com/business/columnis ts /rose/article/0,1122,ART-50958,00.html

  • Sounds like it was alot more interesting than the Comdex here in Vancouver BC. Every year Comdex comes to town and every year it sucks more and more, with less interesting exhibitors and less of them. I always go hoping it will "be better this year", but it never is. This year took it took us 20 minutes to check out the whole floor. Good thing we had free passes (everyone does... "a $50 value!")
  • ...I also try to keep my comments to my own article on topic...
  • Unfortunately, the mistakes were all in the text from the editor. The editor needs editors.
  • Except that the show also gives exhibitors a chance to be noticed by people who then point out the product to others. Just like those mentioned in this article succeeded.
  • SEWilco wishes to disclaim responsibility for the phrasing which was prepended to his carefully polished report.

  • You mean thats not the reason? (Score:3)

    by powerlord ( 28156 ) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @07:28AM (#313437) Journal
    Hmmmm

    The last expo I went to was the Linux World Expo in NYC.

    I figured the reason to go was to miss work and try to accumulate as much free vendor stuff as you could (I think I had 6 t-shirts at the end of the day). You mean that wasn't the reason?

    Actually, I also picked up some great info, talked to a number of representatives about thier Linux based firewalls, noticed some interesting work that Corel is doing in the Client management space (as well as a number of other people... and if you want Linux to succeed in the desktop space, the first place it needs to go is at the office, and tools to help manage all those desktops will help that happen).

    Of course I also picked up a copy of Mandrake 7.2 so I didn't need to download it.

    Now, a few months later, I'm still using the mandrake CD, I've picked up one of those Linux Firewalls, and I just got a few other pieces of software/hardware.

    Now, about Comdex.
    Windows/MS killed Comdex.
    That aside, you'll always have an "orgy of dorks" looking for shit. The job of the vendor is to sell their product, if this includes "toys" to get our attentions, great. If not, they better have a product that will make us go "HMMMM". A lot of us notice when a company is all hype, or some substance. We just like playing to the carnival like atmosphere these things seem to have developed into now.
  • I can't say anything about why RedHat wasn't there, but Microsoft and IBM are in Baltimore at ISPCon right now :)
    Yeah, both of them have the money to be at both, but with Comdex sucking wind some, I'm not suprised they took the trade show.
  • I mentioned that.
    The simple fact of the matter is that they appear to have chosen a convention that might actually generate sales for them (like it has for my company and we still have today to get through).
    Yes, they have the money. But why spend a mil or 2 on a convetion that is likely to net you -nothing- in return, especially when there's another con going on that will have reprfesentatives from companies that your new products are specifically targetting?
    Get real.
  • Sure, it's acknowledged this year, but this year's Comdex is a ghost town compared to last year's. Exhibitors from last year's massive event who didn't show this year include FreeBSD, Penguin Computing, VA, Linux Mall, TurboLinux, SuSE, a whole pile of smaller Freenix app vendors, and, ironically, Microsoft.
    Very disappointing. Based on what we saw last year, my GF, my dad, and myself had allocated the whole day for the show, and ended up leaving at noon (it opened at 10am) to go shopping in Chicago.

  • Even Microsoft? Oh.....My......God.....! :-)
  • I went last year, and saw a lot of well known Linux companies, but not Redhat or VA Linux? Why would they skip out on a show like this, while all their competition was there, as well as BSD-based competition.

    siri

  • ....but ain't it sad that I am more interested in the Lamborghini than the hot blondes? [ Caution - mid life crisis approaching! ]

    SuperID
    Free Database Hosting [freesql.org]
  • Brad Kuhn told me and some guys I was with that if we changed the name of our Linux users' group from "Calvin [calvin.edu] Linux Users' Group" to "Calvin GNU/Linux Users' Group" that RMS would come speak at our school for airfare. I didn't realize the extent of their anal retentiveness until now...
  • US stock quotes are quoted in fractions as they are traded on the NSE (well some of them, but all other US exchanges follow the NSE lead). They used to be quoted to the 1/4 then the 1/8 and a few years back moved to the 1/16. The are moving to a decimal system (like Europe and possibly Japan) in the next few years. Hmm all that corporate business training wasn't a total waste!
  • Time for Requiem.
  • They probably couldn't afford the airfare to Chicago.
  • BOO to the free stuff at comdex this year. The best part of any conference is the gimmes, right?

    American Express gave you a lousy cup or cd wallet if you signed up for their ultra-high-rate Blue card.

    Sun gave you a year-old tshirt (happy 5th anniversary to java or some crap copyright 2000)

    One vendor, who's product I can't even remember gave you a light up bouncy ball if you let him swipe your card to add you to his spam list.

    Everyone else was only giving away garbage (cd business cards, flyers, product brochures, etc)... and a few were giving away demo versions of their software.

    Speaking of demos... they kids who's product rival'd VMware said that if you own a copy of VMware (retail) they will give you a FREE FULL VERSION of their software if you COPY YOUR VMWARE cd and mail it to them. Sounds kinda weird huh?

    Overall spring comdex was CRAPPY for loot this year. The one in vegas always offers better loot, I'll post again after that one.
    ____________________
    Remember, not all /. users hate Windows or think Microsoft is out to get them!
  • ....but ain't it sad that I am more interested in the Lamborghini than the hot blondes?
    Not really, once you have the Lamborghini getting the hot blondes is easy.

    Note: the reverse is not true.

  • Please. I think both Microsoft and IBM are big enough to be able to support two expos at one time, don't you?

    ================

  • Don't worry too much...

    Me: "Tell me you're giving that away."
    Blonde: "We're not giving that away."

    ================

  • I drive from Fargo (yeah, North Dakota) every year, which is an 11 hour (legal) drive (9 for us), and I still think it was worth it. Here's why:

    • You can't deny that Comdex will let you see technology that's out of the domain of the stuff you deal with at work everyday. Learn about stuff that you may not be exposed to otherwise.
    • Even for the stuff you know about already, you get this chance to talk to a real-live human being from the company, and ask them specifics or argue with them about product strengths/weaknesses.
    • It's good to hang out with other IT professionals at random from way outside your local area and/or profession. It keeps your vision up on the industry abroad. On the shuttle back to the hotel, I had a great conversation about enterprise networking with some guy from Atlanta. We talked about private WAP networks (which, I beleive, don't actually exist :), enterprise WANs (like, to Singapore), and idiot clients (like those who neglect to mention field offices in Singapore).
    • Even tho there aren't as many this year, you still get sweet Tshirts and other promotional items that are often only available at Comdex. (I'm happily enjoying my "techdrive@COMDEX" hat from Mercedes.)

    ================

  • People @ auto repair shops (and other places where keyboards get dirty) have been using them for ages. I'd say check just about any comp accesory catalog.

    ================

  • Did anyone else see the people who had green-colored linux servers that people could "just plug in, and it worked"?

    They were the ones next to the big blow-up penguin chairs.

    What company is that? I'm a bit skeptical about their system, and the guy refused to answer my questions... As soon as I asked him about security, he shyed away. (As in, blew me off.)

    I forgot to take note of the name.

    ================

  • ATM [atmltd.co.uk] had a rather cool CCTV security system that's Linux based.
  • It's not too late. Exhibits are open 10:00-16:00 today.
    --
  • If I understand correctly, the FSF guy felt that the license kinda made it seem like it wasn't entirely your choice to donate or not, and that it was sort of coercive, that YOU REALLY SHOULD DONATE.

    I don't see it that way, but hey, it wouldn't be the first time I've disagreed w/RMS etc.

    And he certainly didn't say anything about public domain.
    --

  • 4. I've heard that the union labor at McCormick is very corrupt. Evidently the exhibitors have to bribe the union help just to get their booths set up and wired for power. It's not worth the hassle for alot of companies to pay off the union workers.

    Corruption? In Chicago? I am shocked, SHOCKED SIR!, to hear such allegations!

    It's always been my impression that the "terribly unhelpful union folks tied down by arcane regulations that require a union man to plug into an electrical socket" was de rigeur at these convention places. I know it was when I went along to a show in Baltimore at my last company.

    But still... corruption? Here?
    --

  • Comdex report (Score:5)

    by andy@petdance.com ( 114827 ) <andy@petdance.com> on Thursday April 05, 2001 @06:12AM (#313459) Homepage
    • The magician working the Sun booth was great. Forcing a card into the deck is nothin', but stapling it to another card was pretty cool.
    • Bought a GNU Make book from the FSF folks, just to help 'em out. Got lectured (by Bradley Kuhn, I believe) on why Vim [vim.org] is inadequately free.
    • Was pleased to see some old-school trade show action goin' on: Two hot blondes in front of a Lamborghini. Of course, I have no idea what the company was.
    • Recruiting like crazy. Booths from upstate NY, Florida, Singapor and Irvine, CA urging us to move to their part of the world. Headhunters abounded.
    • Tchotchkes were definitely smaller this year. The coolest was a flashing superball, but that was about it.
    • I REALLY wanted to swap badges with someone and go check out the Waste Age show [industryclick.com] across the hall, but the coworker I went with wasn't interested. Still, I got some great trade rags: Journal of Solid Waste Management; The Hauler; etc.

    --
  • All the stuff I got sent about Comdex was that it was all about .NET
  • What the hell is 1/16 of a dollar?
    --
  • you mean 6 1/4 cents?
    --

  • Linux is still trendy? (Score:3)

    by SpanishInquisition ( 127269 ) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @05:59AM (#313463) Homepage Journal
    I tought it had been replaced by XML.
    --
  • Granted, I didn't get out there this year, but last year I went bright eyed and bushy tailed to gather swag. Boy, I sure was wrong. There were hardly any venders handing out stuff. The exceptions were SuSE (hat) LinuxFund (T shirt) RackSpace (T shirt) and alot of stickers and cds.

    bah... Got better stuff from the Local Lug.
  • True dat. posters too
  • Well, duh! Of course there's a drop in attendance....if my mutal fund is any example there should have been a 60% drop!

    Look outside, let me know if you see any .COMs in the gutter....and kick them for me.
  • That would be 6.25 cents.
  • Unlike some years ago where the 'Linux freaks' were seen slinking around, talking to each other in mumbles and not taken seriously by anyone in authority.

    Today there are more than two or three vendors and people are realizing that Linux of all flavors is here to stay.

    Now, when the *BSD groups get together and put up their own wing, it will be a vertible choice cornicopia and the user will come out ahead no matter what happens.

    Competition building better systems and users having choice, what a concept.

    DanH
    Cav Pilot's Reference Page [cavalrypilot.com]
  • Throughout the event there is this horrible cutout woman holding signs that direct visitors to certain areas.

    If any of you happen to come across one with a missing head.... umm.... well I *think* the best way to remove the head is bend and rip. Forget using a knife, it takes too long to cut through.

    I thought COMDEX was lame. I wouldn't suggest anyone under the age of 21 attending. And really the only reason I can see for attending if you are 21 or older is to drive the Mercedes (they had free test drives).
  • The old days weren't too good either!

    Comdex -- even Fall Comdex -- is and has always been a waste of time. Having a booth is mostly an exercise in showing other companies 'we are important too'.

    Personally, the only thing of value are the closed parties and hearing some trivia such as how much it costs to make something (floppy disk = $.03 + machine & moderate labor in the late 80s).

    Q. Does Micrographics still host a chili cookoff? That was always a good one.

    The last time I went to Comdex, I was the resident geek at a vendor's booth (PC DOS/Windows software). All I rember is that PICK software had the best booth bunnies...much an improvement over the previous year of booring but useful product demos. "Open" ment propriatory Unix at the time, and not a Gnu in site.

    If there are any good times, it's now (or maybe 6-12 months ago).

  • did anyone see the rubber bendy keyboard thing ( it was pink) at the "Reboard Card" booth (PC Dead -> Reborn Card -> PC Alive) I thought this was really cool, where can i get one of those keyboards?
  • are we thinking of the same thing, i am talking about an actual keyboard made of rubber that ou can bend up and fold in half. I did find a link to a similar product. http://www.edv-sos.at/tastat_e.htm
  • Stock quotes have been in fraction form for as long as I can remember. NYSE and NASDAQ were both supossed to switch to decimal format recently (within the past 6 months), but it looks like they still haven't done it.

  • Well, times are tough, and conferences cost money. Point one. Both to attend and to stage.

    Point two: we just had fall comdex in vegas like six months ago. Has technology changed enough in six months that people/companies can justify attending both? I'm not a comdex person so if they focus on two different things, my apologies. I spoke to a number of people who went to fall comdex...lets face it, they just went cause it was in vegas. Who the hell wants to go to Chicago? I wonder what attendance would be like if spring comdex was held in Panama City or Tampa and just happend to conincide around spring break.....

  • I'm moving there in a few weeks...!

    . . .

  • And daemon horns from the FreeBSD folks...

    . . .

  • The report was good, by the way. I am thankful for the information as I don't have enough time or money to go myself. I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that content prepared for millions to read should at least have one revision from editors.
  • Actually, that's a good point about Comdex. The trade shows are rapidly loosing their value because they focus on appealing to a mass-market, when MS pretty much has clinched the mass market with its monopoly. All that's left for most vendors is some niche markets, which aren't the subject of Comdex or the big trade shows.

    In fact, my company is now refocusing its sales efforts into user groups rather than trade shows. They basically found that the trade shows were expensive and produced little if any sales. The user groups, however, being focused and with more clueful people, are much more productive.

    If you're a linux company out there, don't waste money on the trade shows. Stick with user groups and conferences.

  • The first line should read, with bold alterations:

    SEWilco has a comprehensive report from the Spring Comdex show in Chicago. A good listing - the show was smaller, but I think there were still some good exhibits put on there. Click through to read more.

    Slashdot writers really need to work on their grammar, and need to have an editorial review process in place.

  • until just a few years ago, Spring Comdex was held in Atlanta. They say it outgrew Atlanta, others say the IT Pros from up nawth didn't like coming down south, occasionally scheduling conflicts would push it in to June when it really started getting hot.. I went to it pretty much from 1983 to the last one here which I think was in 97 or 98. My best memories were in the 80's when you could get all sorts of SWAG. You think there was SWAG in the past few years? You ain't seen nothing like the 80's. In '91 Billg had a huge first birthday party for Windows 3, free open bar between CNN Center and the Omni, then a concert by Chicago (ugh, get it??) in the Omni. There was the Win95 Beta Testers party in '95. A jazz concert by Phillipe Kahn in the early 90's (still have a CD). There were other grand excesses over the years. Was able to talk to Jack Tramiel just after he took over Atari in when? 86?? Get snubbed by the late Phil Katz. Got a Dr. Dobbs' original logo Tshirt. Elephant Memory tshirt. PC Tech Journal yo-yo that I still have. Ah, them's were the days...
  • And I intend to get a lot older... ;-)
  • I'm sorry, you were cleared to OTIII, but there's a new clearance level OTIII2K, the old OTIII is being discontinued at the end of the year.

    You can try to pass an audit for OTIII2k one time, at a huge fee, and if you fail there are six new courses for you to pass.

  • Among those notably absent from this years Spring Comdex:

    Red Hat
    Microsoft
    Novell
    Oracle
    DEC (Although there was a lot of Compaq)
    Lucent
    HP

    And of course, Slashdot. :-)


  • The fraction is left over from the use of the gold standard when a Spanish gold coin was the base line reference for the markets. There were no cents, only fractions of the coin.

    The NYSE moved to dollars and cents back in October or November. Since this is the big board (read DJIA), most of the newer stocks aren't listed in cents. The NASDAQ is supposed to move over to dollars/cents in the next few months. Then you can see RedHat and VALinux traded in dollars and cents rather then fractions of a long gone gold coin.

  • Shave and a hair cut... two bits

    Two pence none the richer.

  • Re:Why vim? (Score:3)

    by leviramsey ( 248057 ) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @07:30AM (#313486) Journal
    What license is it published under? I can't seem to find any mention of licensing on their website.

    According to this page [rtr.com], Vim is public domain charity-ware. Bram Moolenaar, the creator of Vim, asks users who appreciate the software to contribute money to an orphange/hospital in Uganda.

    I believe that the FSF objects to the public domain feature of the license, as it's not copyleft.

    I agree with you: Vim is a great editor! It's a pity that my CS Department [umass.edu] is an Emacs zone...

  • That's Gatesian thinking...especially considering that XML is just metaform of sgml....
    Anyone see Leo last night? "See this! This is BASIC! You guys are stealing this!"
    It's not ZDTV anymore...you can't hate me for watching it.
  • The number of free t-shirts decreased from eight to two. VA's getting cheap. I may one day, Linus forbid, have to actually DO laundrey!
    Anyone else want to say, "Badges? Badges!? I don't need no stinking badges!"
    "You can keep them, and this pen will allow you to get autographs."
    "Ooh, autographs..."
    ...
    "There's no one here who's autograph I want."
    "I can do a good 'Benevolent Dictator' for ten dollars, or for five, I can write up 'Cox in the Code.' "
    "What can I get for a quarter?"
    " 'Remeber, it's GNU/Linux.' "
  • It's not much, but if asked for a business card and an order form, you could get a free mugs from the Storm reps. I think a purple squiggle is cute.
  • Except, instead of building, it's reducing.
    Binary builds out as 1 2 4 8...
    Stocks are fractionized in halves, 1 1/2 1/4 1/8
    This system doesn't merely estimate the half, but keeps very percise track as based on how the stock moves, or how fast it's bought or sold, in what size of volume, how quickly they are sold, and all that starts at the base of what the company is worth now with a projection of what it will be worth tomorrow, next week, next month, next quarter and next year.
    The percision of the numbers seem useless when you hear the base of "and the stock is currently worth sixty-five cents;" however, that's sixty-five cents a share, which was bought in block of, most commonly, five hundred, so a 3/8 point change on that stock actually comes out to $121.85. That's why the really large stocks can be tracked as high 1/128, and, back before Reagonomics, some two were marked at being tracked to the 512; though, I have even seen 1024 trracking during dot-com fever.
  • two pence
    I don't know why I didn't remember that, ah well.

    What? I'm going to get moded down while everyone's playing in the Red Hat section? Yeah, right...
  • asus has been shipping a pair of glasses like that (lcd shutter glasses) that work with directx games with their high end video cards for years.

    I was really psyched to get one and shelled out the extra $100 or so the package cost. But I didn't use them for more than a week or two, even then not very often. They weren't very effective and made my head hurt. Everyone else I've known that got glasses like that didn't end up using them regularly. Just FYI

  • This is a copy of my review of comdex from Tech.Observers.Net [observers.net] Thought it might be of use to some of you.

    Spring Comdex was great this year, while the overall show was slightly smaller than years past, GNU-Linux made a great appearance. With a new release by Agenda Computing of their Linux PDA As well as a booth by the Free Software Foundation Net BSD also made an appearance, with a rather informative booth. Caldera was putting on linux user classes.

    Biometrics and security were hot topics with finger print scanners, retina scanners, and voice print authentifacation were being displayed. Aladdin displayed their eTokens. Firewalls were in the mass, with 7 distributers bringing products.

    Among other tech interests were the Koolance systems. They had several displays of liquid cooling, including one system running submerged in some type of a liquid. X-Gaming also displayed lcd shuttter glasses which made a computer image appear 3dimenisonal.

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