Last night's keynote address wasn't a complete waste of time, but if I'd skipped it I wouldn't have missed much. The highlight for most of the attendees was the presence of Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays Chloe, the tech girl, on "24." But I don't watch "24," so I wasn't too excited. She had some really bad scripted interactions with Microsoft VPs and with a few guys she pulled out of the audience, and I just felt bad for her. Whatever she was getting paid wasn't enough. It was like watching a mismatched pair of presenters at an award show reading cheesy jokes to each other, except it went on and on and on. Microsoft also showed a four-park parody of "24" called "4," featuring a guy named "Jack Power" and cameos from Microsoft bigwigs (no Bill Gates, unfortunately). By 9 PM I'd had enough and I left. I ended up meeting some friends at a restaurant and missing the premiere of "Entourage," but when I got back to the hotel I noticed that the hotel's TV lineup doesn't include HBO. I guess I'll catch Entourage when I get back to NYC.
This morning I had another roundabout ride to the convention center on the shuttle bus. This time, the bus circled the entire center before pulling up to the door. On Friday morning, when everyone coming here will have their luggage with them, I'll have to leave my hotel at 7 AM just so I can get here on time.
The crowd here looks just like the people who came to Brainshare: geeks, geeks, and more geeks, of all ages and sizes. That includes me, of course. I'm wearing one of my Novell shirts today, and it didn't take long for someone to make a joke about it. I don't care. I don't mind being "That Guy" for one day.
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