Live from PDC 2008 (well, sort of): Day –1

10/25/2008 11:02 AM - I'm somewhere over the middle of the country as I write this, heading to LA on AA Flight 25. 4:45 am came painfully quickly, but that was expected. A few words about the technology I'm bringing along this time. Two laptops (a mid-2008 Apple MacBook and a 15-inch HP Pavillion something-something-something, both running Vista). Multiple portable media players because they take up almost no space in my bag at all and, what the heck, I do have a bunch of them: 3 iPod touches, 1 Zune 80, 1 Zune 16. My iPhone 3G, which is hopefully not losing battery life because I just thought about it. The Kindle with today's newspapers. Two USB-based WD Passport drives (320 GB, 250 GB) with various backups, documents, movies, and other files. Bose noise-cancelling headphones because planes are dangerously loud and I already have more tinnitus than I care for. A digital camera. In packed luggage ($15 for the first bag; thanks American Airlines) I have various power cords, charging cables, and that Microsoft Lifecam Show Web cam, which I'm really liking.

Oddly, today is the least busy day of the trip. I'm going to try and finish an article I've been working on but can't publish until early next week (sorry, can't discuss it yet) thanks to the lucky acquisition of an exit row seat (with the only empty seat on the plane next to me too). But I'm most looking forward to seeing some friends today, including Raf, Bryant, and a bunch of Microsoft folks; Ward, Lucas and we'll see who else. There's a little get-together happening tonight. Should be interesting. I don't get out of the house much, it seems, but when I do it's usually to travel across the country. Weird.

Back to work...

10/25/2008 2:19 PM - OK, all checked in now and signing on at the hotel for the first time. Long, Rafael, and Bryant are here as well; we just had lunch over at the Bonaventure. LA is hotter than usual and it looks like it's going to be like that all week.

Time for a nap. And then tonight's party. More later...

10/25/2008 2:30 PM – A few iPhone photos of LA…

10/26/2008 10:09 PM – We’re back from the Standard, which was cool. I’ll post some pics tomorrow, but Long Zheng sent along this picture of me enjoying an oyster at the event…

Good stuff. :) See you tomorrow…