Fun at Macworld

This year I managed to hit my first ever Macworld. Thanks to Hadley Stern I found myself in San Francisco for the soiree that ever ac fan worth their salt has to be at. My plan was multi pronged: first take in the ambiance, secondly try to write some decent stuff for Hadley (my Macintosh enthusiam hd been waning of late) and, most importantly perhaps, meet some of the people I had developed online friendships with over the past few years.

Waiting for the keynote I saw Tim walking by and filming the line. The first time I almost yelped “Tim” out loud but decided I didn’t want to ruin his filming so I shut up.

The rest of the day was taken up by the keynote and looking for Guy Serle. I figured that finding Guy Serle would be like finding a light house. Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case. I looked the rest of Tuesday but never saw Tim, Guy, Nemo or David E. I think I saw David C but I couldn’t be sure.

I got the vibe from Macworld and the vibe was: Mac users like Apple and Mac vendors like selling stuff to Mac users. I headed back to the Hotel (Ramada Plaza) and fired up the iChat looking for Tim (Guy won’t give me his info). No luck. I was starting to get frustrated, all this way and not to meet Tim (whom I’ve had a lot of chats with) or Nemo (who kinda got me started on the review thing) or Guy (who, face it, just seems cool) or David E (that guy can write).

Being nearly exhausted from being on up since three AM I didn’t stay on iChat long and soon passed out. Wednesday I was sitting in the press room, it is opulent with free food, massages and a string quartet gently playing in the background, when I looked up from my computer to see Tim.

I was a bit relieved. I met Guy, Nemo and Tim and had a picture taken. Guy was actually a bit taller than I imagined and a lot stouter. Usually when you think of tall people you kind of think of dwarfs in reverse. Tall people are long, with thin arms and spindly legs, like a regular sized person put through a dough stretcher. Guy wasn’t like that, Guy was like a huge monster human capable of biting the head off a goat with one chomp. As one of the “little people” I’ve got to say Guy was pretty cool, and not just cool for a super giant, Guy was cool in the way that if you were stuck with him for a day it wouldn’t be a bad thing cause you can tell Guy has some interesting stories. Plus, if you ran into trouble or a wrestling match or something, Guy could rip the freakin arms off your tormentor without much effort.

Tim has a weird, though expected, air about him. In person his shoulders are wider than you’d expect but his sense of humor is the same. He is snarky, semi profane, cynical and earnest all at the same time. That is a trick not many people can pull off on ten kinds of psychoactive drugs but something Tim can do completely sober.

Bakari hated me instantly and refused to sit at the same table, preferring instead to sit against the wall. Larry Grinnell was very interesting, I saw him schlepping around with Tim and Guy but Larry seems to be one of those people who laughs at everyone else. Not in a condescending manner, just because he has seen it all before. To be honest I got the feeling that the entire world was a joke being played solely for Larry’s benefit. Larry doesn’t “interact” so much as he “observes.”

It was an interesting show, more so for the people I met than what I saw (if I left a name or two off well I’ve been rambling too much already, Nemo was really his personality comes through on his posts). I’m pretty sure no future Macworld can live up to the one I attended but I think I’ll give it a try next year just to make sure.