MACWORLD Expo - A Twisted Look At The Best And Worst Of The Expo

by , 12:45 PM EDT, July 21st, 2000

After hanging out in New York City for a few days, and finding myself saying, "You know, that is really fillintheblank," I figured I would post the First Annual New York City/MACWORLD Expo awards. So without further ado…

The Pot Calling The Kettle Black Award goes to all of those people that walked by and saw the Mac Observer staff members working and running the site from the show floor. At least 2 dozen people walked by and gave us the, "You are a GEEK" look. Folks, wake up! We are working. And you are wandering a computer show floor with an Iomega bag stuffed with plastic crap that you would be embarrased to give your kids as presents wearing your "Mac OS 6 Rules!" shirt. LOOK IN THE MIRROR. We are geeks getting paid to be at the show, and you are paying to get in. Think about it. </rant>

The best line of the week goes, hands down, to the Low End Mac’s Dan Knight. When wandering around the junk jewelry stands in Little Italy, Dan stopped, thought for a moment as if he wanted to buy something, and then said out loud, but to himself, "I wouldn’t even know what size toe ring my wife wears." And we would have been scared if you did, Dan.

The Jack Ass of the Week award was one of the tougher decisions. NOT. After careful consideration, I have to give that award to myself for getting staff members from both Mac Observer and Low End Mac deeply lost in Brooklyn at midnight. It was the fault of either the canolis from Ferrara’s, or the conflicted N train, or my own sheer idiocy. But, the story does have a happy ending; We made it back safely and were sufficiently tired to get a really great nights sleep. (Sorry for the poor attempt at positive spin.)

Best US$20 sandwich you will ever eat can be found at The Roxy deli in Times Square. Jaws dropped when seeing the price for a turkey and bacon sandwich, but dropped further when the waiter actually brought the food. Standing roughly 8" across, and probably 10" high, the sandwich lasted for about three meals. The Roxy Deli is the place to be for a really sublime lunch experience.

Best booth prop/hand out has to be the Critter paper clip holder from iRez. Shaped like their Critter USB web cam, the little sucker unfolds and sits there on the desk, kind of looking up at you going, "I’m messed up, aren’t I?" It certainly is, but that is a big part of its charm. Sure, other booths are giving away MO disks, and CDs with sample software, and even shirts. So what, dime a dozen goodies. I’ll take the Critter.

Best party was, EASILY, the Canon party. Models serving as cigar girls, a martini bar, good music, and a Who’s Who of the computer industry in attendance. If you ever get an invite to a party from Canon, go. Don’t walk, run.

With that said, the worst party was the iRez booth party. Other than getting a Critter (which almost kept them off this list), they had about 4 people per square foot crammed into their booth. Could not get any information, see their products, and most importantly couldn’t get to the food and beer. 150 will not fit in a 10’ x 10’ space. Sorry.

Best pizza was, of course, Rays. There are something like 200+ "Ray’s Pizza" stores in New York, each owned by somebody different, but all of them good. Don’t ever visit New York without trying a slice or four of Rays.

Best hidden feature of MACWORLD was nearly unlimited AirPort access. We would guess that there are 40 or so Base Stations hovering around the show floor. Some clever vendors password protected them, while other generous vendors did not. And for that we thank you. Mac Observer updates were done via PowerBooks, iBooks, and AirPort all week. This is a REALLY neat technology.

That’s it for now. We may add some more later, but it is important to realize that there is more going on than just the introduction of some new products. Be sure to enjoy yourself at the show if you ever get a chance to go.

MACWORLD