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December 26, 2007
CES - Less than two weeks and counting
Bright and early (too early) on January 5, I fly out to Las Vegas for nearly four days of fun and excitement out at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Saturday is "CES Unveiled," the official table-top exhibit before-the-show event put on by conference organizers. Last year the food was bad and the exhibitors weren't showing anything exciting, holding back on the goodies until Sunday and Monday.
Sunday morning, bright and early, there's "Cherry Pickers" aka the Marty Winston show. Last year, Marty opened his event with a scantily clad girl who brought him a scotch and a cigar at 9 AM in the morning. There's always a couple of interesting gizmos at Marty's dog-and-pony shows; this year I might actually get a Medis fuel cell to take home from the gig.
Sunday evening is "Digital Experience," one of two tabletop evening events for the press. Eating standing up is not a treat.
Monday is full of meetings, with Ericsson, Microsoft, Motorola, On2, Nuance, and a bunch of others on the list. In the evening, there's ShowStoppers, the second eat-while-standing tabletop press event. The ShowStoppers people have always been friendly and without pretense.
Tuesday is more meetings, between the Sands and the LVCC. There's a Sprint WiMAX vendor panel event that should be interesting and revealing.
Posted by dmohney at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2007
My mini-Social Networking Boomlet
Over the past two weeks, I've received a flood of Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Spock bits/invites...
I'm still sorting through them all and trying to figure out what I use for "work" and what I use for "social" networking.
I'm not going to hesitate to LinkedIn (Link in?) with anyone I worked with during the Clone Wars, er, the DIGEX days. [Key phrase: "worked with"].
I'm not connecting with any random recruiter who is shotgun mailing me out of the blue. Some people are equating quantity with quality. Forget that.
Unfortunately (ARE YOU SOCIAL NETWORKING PEOPLE LISTENING), I don't have a way to label people to my internal/personal preferences between true friends, former colleagues, and current business relationships. Until the tools get better, I'm putting a group of people "on hold" because I don't think the current crop of business relationships wants to network/link in with my buds from the Clone Wars...but I want to be able to look at my friends from the Clone Wars and business relationships with one tool.
*sigh* I suppose I could create two different personas/profiles...
Posted by dmohney at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2007
If you die, who updates your LinkedIn profile?
Sounds morbid, doesn't it? But it's a serious question.
One of my companions out of the CloneWars, er, the early Internet days died suddenly on December 23, 2005. Two years after his passing, his LinkedIn profile is still active, still alive.
I'm not sure if there's a proper protocol for this sort of thing; be interesting to turn this over to Ms. Manners and see if her head started steaming a little. Do you note that the person has passed away? Who makes the notification or request? Do you leave it to the family or what? Does LinkedIn need a fax of a death certificate?
I don't want to push the matter, but leaving him "hanging" up in the Net as still living -- while potentially true -- at the same time smacks of the inadequacy of keeping information up to date on line.
I don't want to remove him as a "Friend" from my LinkedIn profile because I prefer to think of him as a friend (whatever THAT definition is in the era of Facebook and Jeff's 10,000 friends...). But I would like to see some sort of "note" on LinkedIn that indicates his status.
No easy answers on this one.
Posted by dmohney at 11:53 PM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2007
Why I am going to CES
The Consumer Electronics Show has become a nasty habit over the past few years. Having spent too much time in Vegas during the dot.com days, I end up back in Lost Wages at least two or three times a year, between CES, DEFCON, and some-other-event-to-be-named-in-later.
Like it or not, CES pulls so many companies selling so many things that there's overlap between the CES big universe and the various VON-ish things I cover. There are at least (so far) two VON-exhibiting companies that will be at CES that have asked for meetings and I expect to spend some quality time with at least one or two carriers while I'm out there.
So, I am (reluctantly, but necessarily) going out to CES to make the rounds of vendors selling IP communications solutions while always on the look out for new and cool things.
Posted by dmohney at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
Plane Fares to Vegas/CES down now - Figures
Yes, that $400ish United ticket from Dulles to Vegas during CES has dropped down to around $300. Oh yes, now there are PLENTY of $300-range tickets, where as a couple of weeks ago the cheapest fare was $400 and the average fare was in the $600s....
Will United show me any love at all because I booked my ticket early for an extra $100? I kinda doubt it. I'm already going to have to get up way too early on a chilly Saturday morning to get on the "cheapest" flight. About the only advantage in going so early is there's some slack time available in case of a weather disruption somewhere in the outbound leg.
That and if I'm lucky I get out there early enough for a late brunch...
Posted by dmohney at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)