Hotel: 6:00 am

While waiting for the Macworld Expo Warm-up rally, it was a refreshing sight to see so many other Macintosh users present. All morning, Adam (our web master) and myself have been exploring the many areas of the Moscone center. This place is huge!

The day, however, started on an ominous note: no hot water in the hotel! Let me tell you, there is nothing, NOTHING that will wake you up faster than a nice, cold shower. Of course, Adam did get hot water half way into his own shower, but not me. Ah well, live and learn.

The morning news programs here in San Francisco were full of Macworld Expo news. Some programs simply made an announcement of the event, while others actually had people at the Moscone center covering the event, live. Combine seeing a news event showing a bunch of Mac related information, and the cold shower, and it was hard to stay tired this morning.

Warm-up Rally

Moscone Center: 8:00 am

David Pogue from Macworld magazine took the stage at around 9:10 a.m., and woke the crowd up. Comedy and showmanship are strong in David's blood, and he let it show during his time on stage. He had a great list of quotes from older Tech columns in which the "press" were predicting (Or, in some cases, announcing) the death of Apple. He finished with a magic rope trick, which I was really impressed with.

Steve Snell from Beatnik software came up next to talk about music and the like. A former Apple employee, Steve talked about this one of this expos main focus, Music. Announcing a workshop with Thomas "she blinded me with magic" Dolby Robertson, he was a very good speaker.

Next up, Bob LeVitus came up on stage and talked for a while, with a lot of audience participation. He asked the audience what we thought Steve Job's Keynote would be about. He then went through a Report Card on Apple, in which he graded the company on many different topics, from products released in 1999 to Customer support.

Andy (whose last name I did not catch) came up on stage to talk about Final Cut Pro. Andy is a product manager on Final Cut Pro at Apple, and loved to say "kicked butt" quite often. He was very exited about Final Cut Pro, and all the things you can do with the program.

Coming on stage next was Sandee Cohen to bring some estrogen to the stage. After bemoaning the loss of ADB ports on the Mac, she went on to talk about many of the upcoming conferences at the show. Sandy has a great sense of humor, and she put song titles to the upcoming conferences.

In closing, Andy Ihnatko (One of my favorite writers) came on stage. Andy is a Mac Super-Star, and he really showed us why. The crowd exploded in applause when he came onstage! He talked about his love/hate relationship with Apple, showed off his Newton, and generously showered the crowd with the Flu virus. Thanks, Andy!

Tomorrow morning will be the Steve Job's Keynote, and of course we will be there. Afterwards we plan on attending the meet and greet hosted by Shawn King, walk around the show some, get some free products and tell you all about them, and generally have a good time.

Tonight, Adam and I are off to have dinner with good friends Beth Lock (Babes in Boyland fame) and Karen (Kap), chat host on World Without Borders. Should be a good time!