I got here crazy early, but it seems worth it. The word from the staff is that “if you’re right here, you will be in the hall”. There is a lot of good energy here and everyone is very friendly.
It appears that we will be waiting inside the lab area for about an hour. Then we will make our way in for breakfast. Then I guess the auditorium to build up the hype for the event at 10am.
So I finally got use of the hotel ‘internet’. I think it’s a 20 year old modem and the wireless is at best flaky.
It’s roughly 5:37am SF time right now and I’m about to head on over to Moscone West and stand in line with the rest of the Apple faithful. I hope it’s not too cold and that the 10am keynote will be worth it.
I’ll post more when I get to the better internet at the conference.
I have made my way over to Moscone West, the site of the big event. My enthusiasm is rivaled only by the size of the apple on the side of the convention center.
I went in and registered.
The guy said that we’ve been telling people to line up at 5am. I said for what? He said the Keynote. I said what? He’s like ‘people are already lining up now’. Apparently, it’s first come, first seating and a lot of people don’t want to be in the overflow rooms or miss it at all. Perhaps it’s a bonus of my crappy hotel and the eastern time zone that I will get up crazy early and join in the festivities.
Also got this cool T-shirt and a black computer bag. Bag is nice, but it’s no Tumi.
Flight time took longer than normal. My guess is that they were trying to save gas by flying slowly. After all, if a flight is supposed to take 5 and 1/2 hours, what’s the big deal if it takes another hour, right? Anyway, after waiting for my luggage, I took an overpriced cab ride to the hotel.
The Touchstone hotel. Let’s just say that you get what you pay for. In this case, you get a lot less. I’m not sure where they got the pictures that I saw on the previous web page, but (to quote Michael Douglas from Falling Down), this place is nothing like the picture. I’ve attached shots of the Bed, the Bathroom and The View.
Let’s just say that the view makes me think a crime is going to happen at any time.
I didn’t include a shot of the TV because other TVs would be embarrassed by association. I’m hoping that the trip will work out better than my initial impression.
I took some shots around there and it seems like there is good shopping to be had.
