Notes from the road

This entry is a long one. Since this date and time is the first I’ve been online since leaving for the conference I just decided to put up all the posts I’ve written so far all up at once. So, everything that follows for today includes posts for yesterday and today in chronological order. They are dated and time stamped individually for your convienence.

A piece of crap

03.09 10:13am
Last weekend I finally broke down and purchased a rolling computer case. (Maybe I’ve already mentioned that here but it’s key to this story.) Yesterday I took it for a test run to the office and back and decided that I really liked it. Not exactly the right pockets in some places but I was able to quickly adjust. So today I took it with me on my trip to DC. I’m sitting at my gate and I’m now carrying my rolling computer case. I got through security, put all my stuff back into my pockets, put the laptop back into the case, set it on the floor, pulled out the telescoping handle, and one of the two bars, came apart. It looks like I have all the pieces but they do not snap back together. $135 for this damn thing (Eddie Bauer, so it’s supposed to be a good bag,) and I’ve now got to carry it for the next four days. (Unless there just happens to be a store I can exchange it at near my hotel in downtown DC. Yeah, that’ll happen.) Luckily I have the shoulder strap but I loaded this thing for bear since I didn’t have to carry it. I hope that the rest of this trip goes better than how it’s started.

And so it begins…

03.10 7:36am

Well, the high-speed connection in the room Is $9.95/day so but the time I settled in my room last night at 8pm I decided it wasn’t worth the cost. I would have been happy to dial in to the BCR AOL account but it seems that I left my phone cord in the old laptop bag. Scratch that idea. So, no connection at the moment I figures I can write all the entries and then upload them this evening.

Flying into DC for the first time since 9.11 was a little bit interesting. It seems that no one is allowed to get up out of their seats for the last 30 minutes of the flight. Now I understand why this rule exists but why treat the capital any different from anywhere else. Yes, I understand that DC is “special” but why just not institute that rule for all flights?

I landed on time at 5pm and had a dinner scheduled for 5:30. These “dine-arounds” were put together by different hosts around a multitude of topics each night at different local restaurants. Since I got into town so late I was considering not going to this one but I figured I had to eat anyway so I got into the hotel, dumped my stuff in my room and hoofed it the mile to the restaurant, getting there at 6.30, only an our late. Turns out that only one other person showed up and after an our waiting for anyone else to show up had finally ordered. The two of us had a great Indian dinner and wonderful conversation. The big surprise was that this dinner’s host, who also happened to be the organizer of the conference, never showed. I’m hoping to corner him at some point during the conference to ask what happened.

Anyway, I’m registered and waiting for the morning keynote at 9. I’ve left the power cord for the laptop in my room so let’s see how long this battery actually lasts. (Of course, I don’t want to just leave the machine on so the biggest drain on the battery will be turning it on and off whenever I need it.)

Hmmm… Maybe I should take this opportunity to work on the CSS & forms chapter. (Especially since I think my editor is manning the Neal-Schuman booth and will defninitely ask me how the book is coming along.)

Web design book update

03.10 11:22am
I just found out that my editor from Neal-Schuman is not at the conference. Oh well, I Still got 10 new pages written this morning before the keynote. Now I’m only One day behind.

“Didn’t you have a tablet?”

03.10 1:40pm
I decided to try out the Windows Journal program on the tables and took notes by pen throughtout the first session. (I’ll defnitely be doing that for the rest of the conference. It’s really convienent and no tapping of the keyboard or worrying about mistypes. Oh, and I found a outlet that I could sit next too so the battery worries, at least for today, aren’t an issue.) When the session was over I switched back to the regular laptop/keyboard to I could get some more done on the book. (I’m so glad I for the version with a full keyboard.) THe next thing I know I’ve got someone sitting next to me asking “Didn’t you have a tablet.” One spin of the screen and the tablet was back. At that point I’d drawn a crowd and spent the whole 15 minute break talking about my laptop. And after the next session. And just a miniute ago before this upcoming session. At this point I might as well be a conference presenter. (Hmmm, an idea for next year’s conference?)

Advertising vs. entertainment

03.10 1:45pm
In this morning’s neynot speech, Clifford Lynch mentioned something about how much entertainment was “sponsored.” This immediately reminded me of a blog entry that I wanted to write Sunday night but had forgotten about. In Sunday’s episode of Alias, about 10 minutes into the show Sidney and Vaughn are chasing after someone in a parking garage and she yells “The F-150” pointing to a truch they quickly commendeer to chase after the bad guys. Not five minutes later, the car chase through the parking garage over, the opening credits run and then the first commercial appears. That commercial, and one commercial in every other set for the duration of the show, is for “the new Ford F-150.” Come on folks. I’ve heard of product placement but this steps over some sort of line in my opinion. Have them drive an F-150, fine, that’s placement. Have them announce they’re driving an F-150, that’s the sponsor deciding the content of the show. I can’t believe that the show’s writers put those words into Sidney’s mouth without anyinput from the folks at Ford.

Wireless found, but not useable

03.10 3:04pm
Sitting her working on the book, waiting for the next session I suddenly get the message many have been waiting for: “wireless connection found.” Woo hoo! Well, I was able to connect to “Chris Home Network” but it’s peer-to-peer. No outgoing conenctions. Oh well, it was a few minutes of excitement anyway.

Conferences are dangerous

03.10 3:11pm
I’ve already got three more ideas on what I could present on next year. Better start planning soon. I’m already booked through December of this year. I’m sure someone will be booking me for March 2005 any day now.

Web design book update

03.10 4:10pm
Five more pages done. That puts me caught up through yesterday. One more session the off to dinner then one more session (the annual fun fest on “dead technologies.”) Those three events will put me down for the count so I’m done with this project for the day. However, if I can pull off 15 pages on breaks today one hopes that I can repeat the performance tomorrow. (Hey, that would even put me a day ahead of schedule.)

Conference fun

03.10 9:31pm
I’m back in my room and it’s been an interesting evening. Here’s the scoop.

Earlier today I figured out that I didn’t pack the power plug to recharge my PDA. Walking to dinner I turned it on to check on the battery level to find the startup screen. The damn thing had done a hard reboot and everything, including my calendar for this conference and directions to the dinners was gone. Not a big deal overall but remember, this is the NEW PDA. The one that I just excahnged the old one for two-something weeks ago. I’m starting to think that when I exchange this one (yes, this one goes on Saturday when I get home) I’m going with a different brand or at least a different model. Anyone have any suggestions?

After the last session of the afternoon I doublechecked the location of the dinner I was attending. And, since this particular “topic” dinner didn’t have a “host” and since I was the first on the list, the reservation had been made under my name. Luckily I didn’t have to do much as everyone seemed to converse well with each other and had no need for me to do anything as the “host”. I was the one who talked the waiter into diing the checks for the 13 of us into three and even though that took a bit of schmoosing, it wasn’t that much work.

On my way to the last seesion of the night, (I’ll get to that in a minute,) I was stopped in the hall by D. Scott Brandt, the “host” who didn’t show last night. He apologized profusely. I told him that I was impressed he recognized me without my nametag. He admitted later that he rembered my name but had to look me up on Google for the face.

The last (and only) evening session was titled “Dead and Emerging Technologies.” This is an annual pannel discussion that, although on a serious topic, almost anything goes when it comes to what the speakers say. Irreverant is the best way to put it and the laughs hardly stop for the whole hour and a half. At one point, one of the pannelists is declaring that library cards are dead or should be shortly. At that point she brings up her next PowerPoint slide and says “except for this guy.” I look up and there’s my name along with images from my library card collection. She had no idea I was in the crowd and when she says my name I oblige with “I’m right here.” My guess is that when she was looking up “library cards” in Google she found the site. She’s promised to send me a copy of her presentation.

After that person’s presentation Scott mentioned that I was one of the other people he’d seen with a laptop floating around the conference. (Referring back to something he talked about in his intro. One of the pannelists then spoke up and corrected “Michael has a Tablet.” She’s the one who asked me about it after the first session.

Last but not least, I’m now sitting in my hotel room waiting for a tech support call. I tried to connect to the high-speed connection in my room to read my e-mail and post all these items but it doesn’t want to work. I have a connection but my browser’s telling me that it can’t find any sites. Sounds like a DNS problem. (Hmmm, that sounds familiar.) I call texh support and after the front line guy had me tru to go to cnn.com he decided that this problem warrented an “escalation” to a real tech support person. Go figure.

Tried a reboot and I’m in…