JEFF LAITY

Today was the first day that the show opened. The doors opens and a teeming mass of people entered the hall.

…but none of them came to our booth. I guess this shouldn’t have been a surprise – Apple has the slickest video effects you’ve ever seen on giant screens right next door, so I would probably check them out first too. After an hour or three, people started coming by our booth. I did a bunch of demos on all of our stuff. There were guys who are video editors, Hollywood studio greybeards, all sorts of odd folks with odder feature requests.

Oh, the cable company was OK with our borrowing a cable without asking during setup. Apparently this happens all the time to them.

We always try to stagger lunch schedules so that the booth is covered. When my turn came around – about 1:30 – I picked up the pizza (it was either that or a hamburger that was sitting in a pan of brown water) and got in line. 25 minutes later, I made it to the cash register, paid for my then-empty pizza box and threw it away. Then I walked back to the booth and got back to work.

Dinner was at the swanky Roy’s seafood, paid for by Mix Magazine. Our waitress was from South Jersey about 15 minutes from where I grew up. I knew this from the third word out of her mouth. Tomorrow night, they’re threatening the big drunken dinner with the head of the company, and another may follow Wednesday. I will try to continue the blog, since it might get interesting after a night of sake and harrassment.