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…

Discuss this Article 14

Anthony Cook
on Oct 25, 2008
Woooo! It starts! I wanna know everything Paul....from the colour of Ozzie's pants......ok maybe not that but everything geeky :D
dovella
on Oct 25, 2008
Go Paul Go!!
wdowell
on Oct 25, 2008
hi Paul. There's something about this PDC that's got me super excited. Perhaps its your great podcast or your website, but you had better not let me down ;-). if you've got stuff to write up for next week, could you -at least- give us a feel about the importance of this pdc? thanks!
da-chief
on Oct 25, 2008
Oohhhh Loookeeeeey.... L.A... Ohhhhhh Ahhhhhhh The "REAL" people, I know it because they said so on TV..... Paul if you see Brittany Spears follow her will you?? You will get 40 Points on your X-Box 360 account.. I say all this in jest as I am from the "LEFT" Coast and Just could not stand the errr.. ahh.. People there anymore.. So I moved to Chicago... HAH! Can't wait for some news Paul!!
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 25, 2008
38 hours 35 minutes until the first keynote...
beachbum501
on Oct 25, 2008
Good stuff, Paul. You have the best coverage of Microsoft stuff. Keep up the good work. I'll be checking back daily for some updates.
yert
on Oct 25, 2008
I have to say the #1 thing I like about the iPhone is the camera... not the quality, but the GPS tagging that goes into the Exif data of every photo. Have you thought about linking these photos to Windows Live Maps?
sttevo
on Oct 25, 2008
Wow have a great time Paul. Those photos are suprisinly decent for an iPhone! Really looking forward to seeing the coverage of what MS have to show this week.
escully
on Oct 25, 2008
Hi Paul, Thanks for providing this info over the next few days, I am depending on you to remove the BS andgives us the cold hard facts
Delmont
on Oct 26, 2008
Paul, Can you tell me more about the web cam and how you choose that model? I have a 7 year old Logitech web cam that I have to kind of trick Vista into running. Thanks.
lotsamystuff
on Oct 26, 2008
"Those photos are suprisinly [sic] decent for an iPhone!" Most cameras--even chintzy ones like the iPhone's afterthought--will perform reasonably well with enough light. It's in low-light or mixed-light situations (i.e., mixed temperatures) that the iPhone camera's shortcomings are painfully obvious. Let's be fair, though...most cellphone cameras are crap. They're the modern equivalent of a Polaroid. There's a whole generation taking crap photos instead of pulling out even a decent point-and-shoot digital and getting something that's worthy of opening the shutter.
shark47
on Oct 26, 2008
I finally get this "all stars" live blogging session that you're taking part in, Paul. I didn't see how this was going to be different from, say, Engadget or Gizmodo live blogging an Apple event. According to Long Zheng: "How it’s going to work is that we’re all going to be contributing to a single Coveritlive liveblog so you’ll be able to read all of us live from this and everyone else’s blog. What I think will make it unique and worthwhile will be the all different opinions/commentary each of us provide, assuming we’re all as interesting and knowledgeable as we make ourselves appear. Or you can also watch in anticipation of a trainwreck." And finally, USC beat Arizona 17-10 last night. There's one of the reasons I don't like LA.
MikeNL
on Oct 26, 2008
I'm very exited about what PDC holds this year. I'm sure you'll do a good job at reporting at whatever is relevant. M.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Oct 26, 2008
Delmont, Paul hasn't done his review of the new Lifecam yet but he's got a paragraph and pictures up at http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/lifecam_show_photos.asp

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