Off to CeBIT.

[moltovir]

Ah yes, the eternal feud between the Belgians and those weird up-northers. I accepted the absolute superiority of the Belgians a long, long time ago and haven't interfered in the pathetic clash since then.


Cogito, ergo Belgio.

[ik911]

Originally Posted by moltovir

Cogito, ergo Belgio.

LoL http://gamebanshee.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif

Why don't you consider changing your nationality? You seem to be educated.

[Xandax]

Well - back.
Tired, tired and much more tired ... and work in a few hours .... *sigh* gonna be a hard week, but was so much fun to walk around and see.
I can't remember last time I walked so much - and the trip to Muncher Halle for food and drinks... well beer ... saturday was much fun (except for my head on sundays).

Not many free goodies, unfortunally. But you do get a small glimpse of the (possible) future of technology of the next couple of years.

[Georgi]

Originally Posted by Xandax

Not many free goodies, unfortunally. But you do get a small glimpse of the (possible) future of technology of the next couple of years.

But what good is that if you don't get loads of free stuff?

[C Elegans]

Originally Posted by Xandax

Not many free goodies, unfortunally. But you do get a small glimpse of the (possible) future of technology of the next couple of years.

Silur didn't get many electronical gadgets this time, either He only got some cute stuff like a very fancy alarm clock This is because on Asia, it's viewed as "low" to give technical gadgets to people higher up in the hierarchy, bosses and CEO:s and such are given artistic objects instead. So Silur came home with Chinese paintings and handmade bookmarks

[CM]

So how did it go? Anything of interest us low-tech people should watch out for and buy?

[Xandax]

Originally Posted by CM

So how did it go? Anything of interest us low-tech people should watch out for and buy?

Well - if I were to conclude (and I am) on what I saw, then it is becomming less and less about "new hardware" so to speak.
Hardware is so fast these days that it is really only us Geeks that are interested in the extra 0.4 gHz CPU, and 64bit or faster RAM and what not.

What is the trend nowadays seems to be that the technology is undergoing esthetical changes. Computers are moving into the living room and integrating itself with everything.
Especially visible by the DVD/RW players for television with access to program them over the Internet and FTP access to their harddrives etc.
Also labtops are getting thinner and more designed while hardware specs are less in focus.
Samsung also showed off their new 102" plasma television and 82" LCD television (uhh - nice ) and some nice new computer monitors with 8ms repsonse and high contrast.

One thing - however - I did notice about hardware was the number of 1066 FSB motherboards.

Also - a lot is happening on cellphones with the integration of several megapixels camerars into the phone, but I don't really care about that area, so I didn't look that intensly. Also the handheld devices are getting smaller and better looking, but again at the expense (or less focus) on hardware specs. (Saw a minute 1gb memory card... that was interesting)

So generally speaking - the "common folk" conclusion would be that technology is becoming "common" and less geeky.

But then there are all the stands which haven't really got generel interest, but are more work-related and buisness-specific.

But CeBIT is huuuuge and one quickly gets filled with impressions, so it can be difficult to seperate the experiences from each other.

Edit: I didn't take many pictures cause I don't own my own digital camera and I've not leeched all the pictures the others took, but these two are the best I did take. (Sorry about the size, but I'm to lazy to resize )
102" Plasma (size:1.83MB - jpeg)
Thin Labtop, unbelivable that there is internal DVD drive in it. (size:1.36MB - jpeg)

I'll post more pictures once I sort my way through my co-workers pictures (some 300MB pictures were taken and 200MB movies)

[Silur]

This year was pretty much a "babe" year... there is a negative correlation between the existence of products and the existence of more or less beautiful women in more or less revealing clothing.

The 3G cell phones were all a disappointment; The SE k600i was ugly in real life, the interface was excruciatingly slow and even though it was quite small, the design made it unwieldy. The Samsung phone was very light, but still quite large - actually made it feel a bit like an empty shell. I guess I'll have to wait yet another generation before taking the step to 3G.

I didn't spend much time in the PC hardware areas, but from what I saw there is not much new there. Especially lacking were the weird Taiwanese or Korean gadgets. Via showed the same Nano-Itx board as last year, but "promised" it would get launched before next CeBit... seeing is believing.

The Cell consortium had "decided" not to show the Cell cpu at CeBit. Rumours have it that IBM and most others gladly would have discussed and showed it, but that one of the other members put the lid on it. Who that member was they wouldn't tell me, but the same member also did not show the PSP... IBM did show a rather fascinating re-writeable nano-punchcard technology that could put 10Gb on a 6 mm (1/4 inch) square. It might be available in stores some 4-5 years from now.

Microsoft and a bunch of others were making a lot of noise about DRM (Digital Rights Management) - assisted of course by an armada of "babes" - and would try to drown you with market fluff as soon as you start asking too many questions about how DRM could possibly work on anything that has to be decrypted before it is listened to or viewed - in effect the DRM system itself provides the means necessary for breaking it (see DVD Jon for reference. Edit: Speak of the devil.). On the other hand, "flawed by design" has never stopped M$ from making money of something.

IP telephony (my current field) attracted a lot more interest than last year, but the products haven't changed much. The religious protocol fanatics are still very much fighting for dominance even though there really is no conflict - MGCP church is loosing heavily to the SIP church, while the old H.323 church is sneaking up behind both of them (the meaning of the acronyms is largely irrelevant). Kind of reminds you of real world politics...

I hope next year will be better. Computex in Taipei is generally more fun, but it costs a fortune to get there.