Robin Williams, John Tollett, and I in the DriveSavers lounge. I bought Robin's book "The Non-Designer's Design & Type Books"; I need to make my business cards look like more than a tiny resume.

Naturally, the lounge had drinks, snacks, and exhibits like this.

Wanna listen to your iPod where you used to be, uh, indisposed? Now you can, with iToilet! (Actually, the iCarta iPod Dock and Toilet paper dispenser.) A friend just send me an iChat and said I should add a scratch-and-sniff icon to this blog entry, but I don't know the HTML code for that.

My little trip into one of the pods.

The picture speaks for itself. (Except that those silver rectangles on a string are MacBook Airs.)

Lynda of lynda.com...

And Daria of MTV?

Thursday night and we just got back from a great seafood buffet dinner and party at Fisherman's Wharf, sponsored by the Apple Consultants Network, which included Crucial, DriveSavers, Peachpit Press, VMWare, and others.

Outstanding Corel Painter expert, artist, and instructor (and long-time pal) Jeremy Sutton and his sweetheart Peggy showed up. He offered a tour of his San Francisco studio tomorrow, and a visit to Peggy's current exhibit of oil paintings. We'll also get to meet track star Michael Johnson, world's fastest human. Jeremy is doing a portrait for him.

Years ago, Jeremy came to Santa Fe to give a Painter presentation to the Santa Fe Mac User Group. Minutes before the presentation started, the computer died and Jeremy thrilled the audience with a swing dance and break dancing demonstration (yeah, he's an expert dancer too). It was a favorite meeting that most members still talk about.

Jeremy Sutton and Peggy

The party also featured magician Ash K, The Pretty Good.

Another exhausting but exciting day on the show floor. The energy this year by the attendees is great. Everybody I've asked is saying that this show has been as good as Macworlds back in their heyday. Everybody seems smiling and happy - for a Mac Geek like myself, this is livin'.

I finally got a chance to walk around the floor today between press appointments. Whether you're in the South Hall or the West, it's sometimes shoulder to shoulder. For instance, here's a shot of the crowds at the Iomega booth:

Heck, it's even crowded outside the Moscone Center.

The Apple booth, of course, is always hopping.

People are usually lined up two or three deep to get a chance at playing with the new MacBook Air. If you've only seen it through the website or keynote, you're still missing the sense of just how compact this notebook really is. I used to have a 12" PowerBook, and it now seems bloated by comparison. Although the lack of a replaceable battery, FireWire ports and other missing features have some people moaning, if you need a small portable for doing normal business tasks, this laptop will be great. My wife has already let me know that I'll be buying her one.

Wayne

Myvu video googles. "Ooo, shake it, Fergie, whom I am loving for your body, not your music!"

I tried both Myvu and Cinemizer video goggles (added 1/18/08: and ezVision x4) at VGA resolution (skip QVGA models). The picture was fair to good, but I want a better picture and a cheaper price. If you want these, I urge you to try before you buy. These goggles could be especially useful when we need to Clockwork Orange the more stubborn Vista users.

http://www.myvu.com

http://www.zeiss.com/cinemizer

http://www.ezgear.com/ez/Video.html

Did you ever wonder where Peachpit Press got its name. Robin has been associated with them for nearly twenty years, and she has the scoop on that.

When Robin was first introduced to the young fledgling publishing company, owned at the time by Ted Nace, they had published three books, one of them being Ted's own book about Ventura Publisher (they laid out the Ventura book on a plank placed over the bathtub). At the time, Ted and his college roommates were living and working in a peach colored house in Berkeley that was such a dump it was considered a "pit." Thus the name "Peachpit."

So now you know.

Sitting in the DriveSavers Hospitality Suite, I mentioned to Scott Gaidano, President and founder, that I like his logo, a white nautical life preserver against a red background. He says "Yeah, we were sitting around in a hot tub trying to come up with a name for a company, and there was a life preserver hanging on the side of the tub. We wanted to run a small, two-color ad in MacWeek, and the only choice they offered for a second color was red."

Recently a marketing company wanted to throw out the logo and start over on the image. Scott says "No the logo stays, but you go if you bring it up again. 300 of the Fortune 500 companies already know that logo."

Robin chats with Scott Gaidano in the DriveSavers Hospitality booth.