Spring Comdex '97 the show!

jonmck.com

Spring Comdex '97
jonmck Renting a Car
The Steak and Ale
Spring/Comdex '97 the show
The Atlanta Braves Game
Planet Hollywood - Atlanta
WaffleHouse(AwfulHouse)
MT's Car
After Atlanta

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|		 Just getting the rented car, I left eMpTy in the dust I headed for the Georgia World Congress Center. Using a MapQuest Map I made in Denver, I drove from the Motel to the Convention Center turn for turn without a hitch. The convention center had a parking garage that made parking a cinch, unlike Las Vegas. It's located right under the picture to the right. It took 5 minutes tops from seeing the entrance to the convention center to getting my badge holder at the sign-in desk. Usually I would have taken care of all this on Sunday, but we had a problem with getting transportation.

Heading into the show I was very impressed by the convention center. Although it was very confusing at first, it handled the crowds extremely well. It is no wonder why Atlanta hosted the Summer Olympics.

Well here I am at Comdex, MT is getting his badge made up, but we are on our own. from here on out. Heading down into the floor I quickly noticed that this convention center was much different from Las Vegas. I traveled down three escalators before I got to the entrance of the west hall.

On the way down I notice some pretty major players having their names plastered all over. To no surprise Microsoft, Lotus, and Hewlett Packard ran the show.

At this point the show doesn't impress me at all(and never really does). All of the major players have nothing really new to offer and are pretty low key on their presentation to attendees. For example, Corel Corp. at Fall/Comdex handed out about 30 copies of CorelDraw! 7.0 daily. At Spring/Comdex I didn't see anything. How am I supposed to get excited about a product when the exhibitors aren't?

Looking around for something fascinating I notice Play Inc. and their Trinity demo. If you haven't seen this demo, you need to! This is a product that integrates with your PC to create real time digitally processed video. Translation: this is the closest thing to the Holodeck I've seen in real life. Using Chromakey technology it will map a three dimentional world around you. Your reflection appears on water, in milk, on shiny objects...you name it. It's hard to believe until you see it person.

About the only thing new at Microsoft was IE 4.0(which is old news), and Microsoft Site Server. The later of which most people reading this page are not interested in. So I'll just post some pics of the booth and let you be the judge.

Pictured next to its big brother this tiny laptop packs almost more power than most computers I'm around on a daily basis. Weighing in at 1.85 pounds the Liberetto offers more portability than any portable I know. It has a P75 and is loaded with Win95. Has a 772MB hard disk, 16MB of EDO DRAM and a 6.1" TFT active matrix screen. All I can say is Cool!

Complete Comdex pics (very large)


The hidden parking garage of the Georgia World Congress Center

comdex sign-in desk
The sign-in desk for Spring Comdex


The first of three escalaters to reach the floor


The Trinity demo always amazes me


Toshiba Liberetto