CES 2010 rundown - final.

I wasn't actually going to post anything else about CES - I personally thought the whole thing was a dismal failure. I mean, I heard there were a hundred e-book reader companies there. Which, I can believe. E-book readers aren't exactly this years technology. So, I just can't get all excited about them. Yet, they were everywhere.

However, I've read many reviews out of CES which has resulted in a great deal of shock from me. It's like I was at a totally different show than these people. Sure, I've gone four years in a row - so I have a different perspective. I've gone on day 1 twice, day three and day four.

These reviews seem to indicate the show was wildly successful. While your appetite for technology can be suggestive, I will tell you what I am using as my barometer for success. Cab lines.

When we arrived at the airport we walked to the cab line, and got straight into a cab without waiting. That has never happened. Las Vegas has mad skills in moving people out of the airport. Still, that was a very unusual sign.

Similarly, when we got in the cab line to go back to the airport... we got through it in 30 minutes. We have never been able to wait that line out before. In previous years, people would get so frantic about missing their flights - they'd walk the line asking people to chip in on any transportation.

Last year we shared a cab with a guy. One year we chipped in on a limo. I'm telling you. People would become so frantic, that limos were lined up in the cab area. And, people would pay, just to get to the airport.

This year, no one was doing that. As a matter of a fact, there was a guy behind us in line who was going cataleptic on having to wait the line. Finally I said to him, why don't you just share a cab with someone and get out of here sooner? He finally shut up, and just stayed in line.

I was loving the line. I'd never seen anything like it. Also, the cabbies were obviously agitated. A marked difference even over last year.

The only reason I decided to post this anyway is - the marketing hype did a really good job on CES. If I wouldn't have gone, I might have thought "things were much better than I expected". I already knew attendance was estimated to be down 25%. They'd closed two exhibition halls.

With the news cycle on "everything is getting better" I often have a hard time telling if things are in fact getting better. I mean.. I don't think they are. But, everyone saying it is - just gets to you. Maybe things are getting better you think.

You have to wonder what is up when they were demo'ing rabbitears. Old timey, 1960's rabbit ears. And blow dryers. I'm not even kidding.

CES 2010 rundown - Part3.

Not really a rundown. Just one of the better displays. Which had me wishing I'd brought a super wide angle lens. I'd ditched it this year because I didn't want to carry it all day. The displays are usually too busy to make a wide angle lens very useful.

If you get the shot without the people for perspective, the image starts to become super disorienting. The room was mirrored, so you get the reflection of the people on the roof. Here's the alternate image with less perspective.

CES 2010 rundown - Part2.

Man. I can't believe it's gonna go down this way. Next up on the evisceration list?

Robotics.

I could have gotten a better picture of this product called the I-Fairy, but some part of me marveled at the sadness of a guy interviewing what was basically an animatronic puppet. They are using the term "robot" so loosely - it's laughable. It didn't respond to conversation. It had canned audio. It didn't respond to movement. It had canned movement. You know the product can't be that good when I can't even find a youtube video for it. If you want to check out their site be my guest. Here.

And, when you consider the millions of dollars of research that has been placed into the this sector - they should never have spent the money to fly to the US. Especially when robots like the Roboware E3 from previous shows were starting to come so close to what I can see consumers buying. Video here. I blogged about the machine here in 2008. The problem has always been price, market penetration, and functionality.

None of the guys from any of the robotics conferences I've ever been at, were at CES this year. None of them. People who have been working on this stuff for at least 7 years. Probably longer. But I've been tracking them that long. Not even the Microsoft Robotics Studio was there.

Although Mr S. told me they were still hawking that ridiculous robotic seal from 2004. I blogged about it here.

The whole thing was horribly depressing. The field actually seems to be regressing rather than just stopping and taking a break. Really, really childish amateurish types of products. These are things I would have expected to see at RoboDevelopment 1.

Sure you say - they must be for kids. Right? These items wouldn't have held a three year olds interest for more than a few minutes. I didn't even take pictures. Maybe if I become motivated I'll hunt down what other people covered from the show.

I talked to one vendor - whom I'm not going to even name. They really seemed like the nicest people in the world, and I really liked them. They were demo'ing an elder robot that carried things around. Basically a rolling box. I'm telling you right now, I'm not even here to mock them. I just felt bad about their product. I wanted to tell them they were wasting their money doing on what they were doing. They were out of their league.

They were trying to recreate the wheel. But, who am I to tell them anything, anyway? No one.

I just can't even tell you how many products have come and gone. Some with promise, but didn't catch for whatever reason.

These people. So nice. But, really, really out of their league. It was depressing.

I think that is all I have on this subject. Yet, it's one subject that stings the most. For years I've believed we are right on the cusp of something great. Now I wonder if we aren't in the death rattle. For a while at least. Mostly due to the insane complexities of consumer adoption and functionality. But, also due to the recession. Robotics is just something which is a vast money pit. That doesn't exist right now.

But again. Who am I? Maybe I'm wrong.

CES 2010 rundown - Part 1.

Wow.

What to say about this years consumer electronics show. I've been trying to formulate my words every since I got on the plane. I want to be bitchy and say this is my last year. I doubt that will be true. I've been orbiting CES for half my life. I've only gotten to go the last 4, but I've spent the rest of my career wishing I could go.

As much as this year sucked - I know there must have been periods of equal suckage and things will eventually get better. I just got lucky enough to go in some exceptional years.

This years CES is more notable for what wasn't there - than what was.

Less techy.
Less slutty. Normally the AVN (adult video nominees) are interspersed with all the techies. Think what you want about them - they make the place more interesting. It is Vegas after all.
Less smokey.
Less people.
Less booth babes.

And, most disappointingly. No bad ass cars.

Some may think it weird to go to a consumer electronics show to see cars. But these are the kinds of cars you would never see anywhere else. Take for example this Scythe Concept Car from last year.

Replaced instead by team Greenpeace and friends. I don't know how on earth these people got in. But then, the show this year was less about the actual concept of consumer electronics, and more about..."as seen on TV". As I will show you later.

You didn't think I was going to gush about the electronics when it wasn't deserved. Did you? Well, there are a million people covering 3D. Go look at their blogs. I covered that last year.





The thing that is so supremely frustrating about this whole thing is - it feels like and exact repeat from last years Maker Faire. You can read about it here.

I haven't even completely figured out how to completely articulate it yet. But it's so maddening. The green movement hijacks something that is so amazingly innovative and special and creative and says "you can't have that. You are evil and bad for wanting it." And because they are complete assholes, they smother it completely to death.

So honestly. There were probably 20 cars there total. Some were plug ins. I guess there was a Lambo and a Ferrari. But that isn't what you go to CES to see.

Why would I pay to go to Vegas to see that shit anyway? This is what greeted me in the San Fransisco airport parking lot when I got home. Two Tesla roadsters. One I didn't even take a picture of because I didn't know there was going to be a theme. And a Ferrari.





I took this shot so you could see the one Tesla and the Ferrari were parked in direct sight two rows apart.



Having said all that - I'm still glad I went. No one could have convinced me how bad the product cycle was going to be for the year. Really, really bleak. But, if you want a cell phone cover. You are going to be all set!

What is greenpeace doing at CES? Srsly. All hope is lost.

Holy crap. Toshiba Cell TVS are amazing. Rez 3840X2160p.

We turn exactly one corner and what do we find? An ereader in a fish tank. Pictures to follow later.

Mr S. says - all Im seeing is the same ereaders with different button configs. All they need to do is make them waterproof.

To Mr. S. I say - what I see is the worls telling me _I got nuthin.

This about the saddest show ever. And what is the fascination with submerging things?

If anyone is counting on tech to save the world. It isnt happening.

Robot maid. Roomba competitor. No photos allowed_ no documentation. Non working prototype. Are they kidding?

Stuck on a bus with another group who talks every second. Not that I cant get my fill of coke fill condom conversations. I think thy are AVN.

Oh noes Yo.

Vegas is hurting. I think I just had a shiver run down my spine.

Our cab drivery was super surly. He kept asking how busy the terminal was. He said that New Years was the slowest they ever had, and that only 5 hotels were booked solid this year. He also said that US air is cutting about half their flights and are pulling out of Vegas. People were protesting this morning.

Yikes.

Not starting out well.

So, I'm om a plane with 95% men. Where do I get stuck? In front of a clutch of women who talk incessantly the whole time. They don't shut up for one second the whole way.

They didn't even have anything interesting to say. Yet they talked and talked like schoolgirls on a sleepover.

Soon, Kiddies.

So, I guess that whole 3D thing is going to take.

People weren't really paying attention to the trend that much last year at 2009 CES when I got all these pictures. (scroll down) Look. Not even that many people were crowded around the 3D displays!

I probably won't cover it too much. Since that is what everyone else is covering. Plus, the shots aren't going to get that much more interesting. I have my sights set on something else anyway.

Even though 3D is just becoming mainstream - it feels a little 2009. Oh yes. I did just say that.

I imagine there will be a flood of posts here for the next couple of days. Just sayin.

I swear - I want to punch the guy in the neck who dreamed up "the swipe" phone gesture. So.. over.. the ...swipe.

I can't even describe how jittery of a flyer I am. Yet every time I fly - the air world goes crazy. Hate it.

P.S. All the posts with no titles are from my phone.

People are weird.

I'm going to re-use this photo from this blog post. Because I can - and you will be happy about it.

I hope to have some interesting content for you this month. I know this blog has been sucking. You just go through dry periods. It's just the way it is. I do my best to find interesting stuff. Sometimes life isn't all that interesting.

On Thursday I'm at the consumer electronics show. And I'll be obsessing on how to get 3d images. Which I won't be able to do. Even though the show is much smaller this year - I'm still going.

Today was sunny and I thought I'd be able to come from behind and catch up with the stuff I wanted to get done this week. That was not the way of the universe.

On the way to breakfast the car started making alert sounds and we had to take it to have it seen. I've sucked on my maintenance because both of the cars makers have gone bankrupt and that just really sucks. The oil was low. We could have just added some, but it needed to be changed desperately. Which I could have done earlier. But hey - quit hassling me. I have issues right now.

Anyway.

While Mr S. was filling out the paperwork - the guy who would presumably be changing the oil commented on Mr S. being left handed. Oh, I'd love to be left handed - he said. Which resulted in Mr S. and I both doing this hesitation thing we do when we aren't sure how to resolve something someone has said to us.

It was just such an odd thing to say. He went on though. Oh, you... know... he did.

When I was young I was left handed - he said. Then the teachers forced me to stop. They said I wasn't normal and I had to write like all the other kids. He was apparently super bitter about it. Almost hostile you'd say, because he talked about it the whole time.

We were minimally responsive. Because it was 11:30, and remember the whole breakfast thing? The day wasn't starting out well. I finally asked him why he didn't just try to become ambidextrous.

You see - when I was a kid I'd tried to become ambidextrous many times. We had a family friend who had passed out for a couple of days with his arm wedged between the bed frame and the wall. Don't' ask. Anyway. He lost the arm. He spent a lot of time in therapy with other people. One of whom has been mauled by a bear. It left a big impact on me. So trying to use both hands didn't seem like a big deal.

Yet this guy seemed so affected and it was slightly interesting. He was an adult after all. Yet not that old of a guy. Maybe 25.

Finally after we were allowed to escape - Mr S. and I commented about how odd the whole thing was. Neither of us thought they still forced kids to be right handed when they weren't. In his moms generation that happened all the time. But not now.

And, he must see left handed people all the time. Does he have that conversation with all of them?

The rest of the day hasn't gotten much better. We did get stuff done, but they were all unplanned breakages.

You can go back to your business now.

Coming to a generation near you.

Sometimes with depression - the harder you fight it, the longer it takes to get rid of it. Yet if you give up completely, you're in a whole other ball of shit. The trick is to find that fine line. So, this week I've given into all of my destructive vices. Eating breakfast all week. Out.

Sleeping into 11. Or close to it, on many days. All those things I'd planned to do the Christmas week? Out.

By Wednesday I'd declared I hadn't gotten shit done. And, I was okay with it.

Friday gave me a really productive day. And I was really thinking I'd gotten this thing licked. But then it was sunny. My mood has pretty much risen and fallen with the weather. Today I'm back sideways. But I'm playing catch up to get something done. So we decided to catch some of the sales. By force really. I didn't want to be there.

I thought I was home free. I could just get my stuff done without affect. Then it came. When I was checking out.

The checker - I'm planning to get healthy this year.

Me - I make a nervous pause, I've spent the whole week making sure my heart would explode.

The person in front of me - Oh I plan to get healthy too!

Me - Well, here's to hoping it will last more than a couple of months.

I am not big on resolutions. I'm one of those "I'm going to try the best I can" types of people. If I did better than yesterday. Awesome. If not - I'll try again tomorrow. As a matter of a fact - I resolve to be no better than I am today. I am a fallible person, and I'm okay with that.

There. See.

If I am in fact better. It's all gravy. Anyway.

The checker again - I have to be healthy. I'm poor now. I can't afford to go to Nations or Starbucks.

This of course left me speechless. I was just about getting ready to tell her I thought resolutions were bullshit. Clearly, I misjudged were the conversation was going. I hadn't really felt like talking anyway, so I just let her go on and on.

Still - it's a weird testament to the next year. People you don't even know feel comfortable telling just about anyone they are now poor. Knowing that just about everyone will be accepting. They resolve the deprivation by taking up an acceptable form of deprivation. "Getting healthy".

Me. I'll get back on track soon. When I'm ready. Honestly, I think that would take less time if more people felt more uncomfortable telling me about their subtle suffering.

Sure. All of us have had to alter their worlds in ways. Though the depth is truly hard to adjust to sometimes.

It's going to start that way - is it....

My plan for this week was to be super zen. I know. What kind of new age bullshit is that anyway?

Mr S. and I were in the middle of a perfectly good game of Lego Star Wars, when the power grinds to a halt. My UPS starts screaming. I figure the power for the whole house had gone down. But - it was just that unit.

Within the hour we are down at Fry's looking for a replacement. And, maybe an upgrade. When the power goes down - the ones we have give you about 5 minutes. Enough time to shut everything down in an orderly way.

We opted for a unit that gives you more than an hour of power. We normally get APC units, but we chose the competitor from Cyberpower. It had a nifty LCD display.

After getting it installed, we decided we like it more. APC needs to understand that we are happy an alarm sounds when the power goes out. But, you don't need to be able to hear it from the sidewalk in front. I swear to you - in any normal house you can hear the alert beeping. They don't need to make it sound like my house is burning down when I've simply lost power. And I swear to you - you can hear the APC alarms from the street. It's ridiculous.

This set off a cascade of sorts. We figured we'd swap the new Power Supply backup for one of the older ones running the computers. My machine had an accidental hard boot - it decided to act up. And, my warranty just ran out 2 months ago. Not wanting to give Alienware any money for tech support, because my machine has been a constant pain in the ass and I'm still super bitter about them, we finally got it fixed by replacing the CPU battery.

I don't know why is failed just them. Whatever. At least I'm back up. I'm sure this means the new year will be smooth sailing. (eye roll)

Soon.

You've seen it all before. If you've been reading long enough that is. I have to drop out to get my battered psyche back in shape. One of the spots I hit the ditch is around this time of year. I'm getting there.

I don't know what will hit my fancy this week. Maybe nothing. Maybe something. I don't really know. But, I have to feel better by the first of the year. Then, I just have to suck it up. January is a busy month. Starting out with the Consumer Electronics show. I don't know why the t3rr0r1sts have to screw with crap before I fly.

Sure it's only Vegas - but I was just getting to a point where I didn't have to think up creative ways to keep my camera lens's clean. Now - lens cleaning solution is out.

Whatever.

Christmas is.

Deadbeats to the right of me. Vampires to the left.

I've been struggling to figure out what I wanted to post recently. I don't really want to be a whiney little bitch at this time of year. But really, what would this blog be if I wasn't a whiney little bitch? Hmm?

Normally this is the time of year I can think "wow, it's been a tough year, but I can wipe the slate clean and start all over". This year though, I just have no optimism. None. It's been brewing for a while. A couple of things tipped me over.

Last week I was in my front yard and my old neighbor creeped up on me. Before I even saw him coming he was parked right behind me and wanting to chat. Normally this guy is pretty fun, but honestly I wasn't in the mood to talk. I don't remember how the conversation got around to it, but we started talking about the housing market.

I think it began with him telling me one of his friends just bought a house. I inquired if he'd gotten some of that sweet, sweet, government money. That is how my neighbor bought his current house. He recounted a story about one of his other friends "who saw the housing market before the crash, and made a deal with his bank". The conversation went a little like this:

Me - I'm pretty skeptical about people saying they saw the housing market crash.

Him - Oh, my friend did and made a deal with the bank to walk away from his house.

Me - So, was it a short sale.

Him - No. The bank just let him walk away.

Me - So, he defaulted?

Him - No, the bank just let him slide.

Me - your telling me - the bank just said "oh, no problem - you don't owe us that money"?

This sent him into some backpedaling. But, what really annoyed me was the way he recounted the story. Almost with glee that his friend had screwed the bank. Now, make no mistake. There is no one I hate more on the planet right now then the banks, but that is slowly being replaced by people who think its fun to screw the banks.

I honestly don't know which one disgusts me more. Truth be told I've been holy shocked by how many people in my circle are completely disconnected between "people screwing the banks" and the state of our economy. I keep thinking eventually it will hurt them and they will "get it". But, why would they? They will just find a way to screw over whomever and wind up completely fine in the end.

Rewind to about a month ago, when I was talking to a childhood friend. For some reason I always get an update on these two girls we went to school with. One I was friends with for a few years, the other one has just been her friend for all this time. She was telling me about how her friend has been living in her foreclosed house rent free for about 9 months, and they finally got kicked out. The girl moved into a rental - on the same block.

This stuck me as fascinating. If my home had been taken away from me - you can bet I would live in another neighborhood due to embarrassment. Believe me. All of your neighbors know everything about you. Not this girl. Living right on the same block. Not a bit of shame.

The other mutual childhood friend was doing the same thing. Living in her foreclosed house. I don't know for how long. Because I was shocked, honestly. In large part because this was the girls second foreclosure. And, the very reason I had been careful in regards to housing. For all that matters.

When she and I were friends - she'd bought a new house. Immediately started remodeling it. Which, did I mention was new? Brand new. Tore out windows. Then she and her husband had difficulties and lost the house. I vowed to be super careful because of her! Now she was doing exactly the same thing. A first time mistake I can look past. Now I was made to feel that these people "just do this".

Next up?

I never used to see people using food stamps. I will admit right up front that I am highly conflicted in regards to this topic. Food stamps helped my family when I was growing up for a time. However, almost every single time I shop now - there are people in line using food stamps. WIC to be precise. You know how I know this? They hold up the fing line like you can't believe. I've vowed to completely get out of the line if someone with a WIC check is in line.

I actually know a lot of about WIC now because of how long they hold up the line. WIC has very specific rules that the checkers need to follow. If they buy something not approved they need a checker to get the right item. They also can't pay for all the items they buy with one check. So they have to ring a few things up, send the check through. Rinse lather repeat.

When I first starting seeing this months back I had a talk with myself to be tolerant about it. People are struggling I said. However, there are so many people using it - I've turned kind of bitter. And even more surprising to me - is my reaction to the fact they are minorities.

I have never ever in the past had a problem with the immigrants. The Bay Area great because of its diverse culture. Mr S. and I have actually gotten into quite a few squabbles about Mexican immigration. I would be considered quite liberal on the subject. I don't know why they won't just give them work visas like very other country gets. Yet, I'm standing in line watching these people (who weren't even Mexican actually), and feeling like they are stealing money right out of my pocket.

Call it racist if you like. I don't care. I'm being honest. Yet, I'm shocked by my reaction all at the same time.

Why does any of this matter? I just don't feel any hope for next year. And truthfully, I've even started to feel like I was disconnected with the population. I thought a productive society would never stand for what is going on.

I think I misjudged them. I actually think more than half of the population agrees with socialism and that the government should take care of them.

The other day I was reading about how Maine couldn't afford to pave the roads. So they were putting down gravel. Whatever. What really set me off was one of the commenter's. They actually said. "Why do we need road paving. Why do we have to keep getting fancier and fancier."

I honestly could not believe it. Paved roads are now "fancy".

Truth in advertising.

Okay.

Who thought it was a good idea to put the slogan "so nice, you'll taste it twice" with these burritos that look like they have stomach contents inside?

Hey - maybe it's a warning rather than a sales pitch.

The scariest shit I've ever seen.

Well... not ever.

Sadly, I know people like this. I was talking a girlfriend last week, and the topic brushed into economics. She flat out told me - I depend on my dad to tell me all that stuff. That girl is practically 40 years old. Seriously.

Winter finally arrives in Cali.

Two days ago it was sunny and warm. Three days from now they claim it will be down to 26 degrees. Which is not normal. Usually we just brush into the freezing stage. I sprayed all that plant cover crap on the stuff I didn't want to get effed up this year - but, I think at 26 degrees, the plants won't be saved by that stuff. Now I need to make another plan.

Since we haven't had any rain since Oct, the leaves are somewhat still on the vineyards. I wasn't feeling well enough to really hunt down a great shot, but all this will be gone by Monday.

I have an idea about job creation.

How about not calling a jobs summit and making it abundantly clear you have absolutely no idea how, or what, creates jobs? It tends to make just about everyone jittery that we may never get out of this.

Oh wait. We will get out of this. Right?

Babies and economies. They never quite act like you think they will.

Yes. They still exist.

I'm still down with the unending cold. It just saps all my energy. I need to get rid of it so I can catch something new at CES.

Anyway, I know I haven't talked about the bunnies in a while. Sometimes when they are having problems, I just can't talk about stuff until I get through it. I'm generally that way with a lot of things.

Paisley had a big thing with her allergies this summer. It really flared out of control. The chin-gina medication wasn't helping anymore, and she was getting a lot of benadryl shots. We stuck her on 30 day round of antibiotics and it seems like she might have had a low level of infection under the skin surface. She's finally growing a little hair back.

Chin problems are really difficult with bunnies. They have to drink. And she's not even fat, but she had a skin fold problem.

I'm glad to not have to be devoting constant energy on that problem.

BAC Home Loans Servicing.

This is for searchable purposes.

Last month I was notified that my crapshack mortgage would be sold to BAC Home Loans. I wasn't crazy about the idea. I have perfect credit, but there are all sorts of reasons Bank of America might do this right now. It wasn't a big deal. I figured they were just splitting off their mortgages from the banking sector. Isolating the plague. No big deal. Until today.

I get a notice in the mail that looks like a collection notice. Also making it look like they were calling my loan fully due. Which immediately makes me super agitated. I've never been one day late. I have a fixed 30 year mortgage, and I've never requested a modification.

I immediately check my credit report. All is still perfect.

On a normal day - this notice would have been a non event. In this business environment - I'm panicked. Mr S., I say, - we have a contract. They can't cancel this out right? With all that has been going on, who can be 100% sure? There have been a ton of things that happened this year I would have never thought legally possible. Yet they are. So I'm still panicked.

BAC Home Loans makes it super hard to talk to an operator. When I do talk to one, she asks if my mortgage was sold from Countrywide. Which it wasn't. She goes on to explain that these letters were only meant to go out to Countrywide Customers, and was meant to inform customers that BAC can collect payments.

Which apparently they didn't, because I was from Bank of America. She tells me to just disregard the notice. Which I am not having at all. I don't trust them. She finally says she can send me something in the mail to confirm that my loan is completely fine. Only then I feel better.

Yet the whole thing is a perfect example of what is going on in the market right now. A crisis of confidence. From day to day the rules change, and I can't even trust my contract to be legal and valid.

It just sucks.