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CES 2005 Day 1 - Walking The Show Floor

TheTechLounge writes "Our second day in Vegas for CES, and our first day on the actual show floor was pretty much what I expected: mountains of new gadgets, people in suits staring at your name tag and scantily clad models trying not to get angry as they are repeatedly photographed. We started our excursion on opening day in the upper levels of the South Hall. Big name companies like ATI, nVidia, AMD, Logitech, and HP were showcasing anything and everything they could fit into their floor space."

28 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Nice screens matrix by moz25 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The screens on the first page look nifty. It would be even cooler if they joined better (i.e. no thick dark bars).

    1. Re:Nice screens matrix by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 5, Informative

      Projectors are far better for arraying in terms of joining, but there are still some issues, such as barrel distortion. A straight line projected through a lens will end up curved, particularly at the borders.

      I'm curious what it takes to make a no-edge-molding LCD display, such that the edge of the image is the edge of the panel for near-seemless joining.

    2. Re:Nice screens matrix by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3, Informative

      What's the maximum resolution you can get with a projector?

      Courtesy of Projector Central, the current max is:

      JVC DLA-QX1G $ 225,000 187.4 lb weight 2048x1536 7000 lumens

      Of course, you can get a 1920x1080 projector for an eight of that, or a 1400x1050:

      JVC DLA-SX21SU $ 11,995 13.0 lbs 1400x1050 1500 lumens

      There are various projects that support monitor arrays, some of them require multiple computers though.

  2. Only pictures most here are interested in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
  3. Babes by hey · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'll have you the trouble...here are the babes

    1. Re:Babes by MouseR · · Score: 2

      As we can juge by the entire set of photos, not only that one, it seems CES on all all about empty mod cases. Nothing much else.

    2. Re:Babes by DarkHelmet · · Score: 4, Funny
      I wonder if these shows become large and mainstream enough that they'll start having "Booth men" in order to attract the Female / Gay man crowd.

      *sigh*

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  4. Shuttle by Nightreaver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The new shuttles are what my eyes are out for. Their design has become top notch and you can now purchase systems with AMD64... I'm just waiting for the money.

  5. Re:Phantom by tabacco · · Score: 4, Informative

    The phantom was at E3 2004 as well, with a massive booth. I even covered it briefly here

  6. Graphics cards? by BabyJaysus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Any word on motherboards for AMD Athlon 64 (esp. socket 939) with PCI-express, or even dual--PCI-express slots for SLI?

    1. Re:Graphics cards? by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 2, Informative
      Any word on motherboards for AMD Athlon 64 (esp. socket 939) with PCI-express, or even dual--PCI-express slots for SLI?

      In the article, it says the new units from Shuttle support PCI-E, and Nightreaver says they support AMD64.

  7. Re:Hmm. by jmcmunn · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Seriously, did they think they were hired for their hard work and moral values? Ummm...no I think they were probably told outright that they would be eye candy for the masses of geeks there wandering around. And is that so bad? If you've got the assets, you'd be a fool not to use them right? Personally, I don't think a woman/man is degraded by modeling her/his body professionally.

    Now maybe the moral problem comes in when you get paid by people stuffing dollar bills down your underwear...but who am I to decide what peoples' morals are? :-)

  8. Scantily Clad Models by kaedemichi255 · · Score: 5, Funny

    FYI, if you really wanted to see hot women this weekend in Vegas, there's also a Adult Film Convention taking place at the same time. Dunno where it is, but just follow all the flocking male crowds ;)

    1. Re:Scantily Clad Models by gclef · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ahhh...vegas cons...the only place where the phrase "check out that rack!" can have more than one meaning.

  9. follow all the flocking male crowds by way2trivial · · Score: 4, Funny
    thanks for the advice,

    I ended up in the gay filmmakers pavilion

    --
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  10. Re:Phantom by FiReaNGeL · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Didn't see that! From the article you linked to :
    According to Infinium Labs' pricing scheme, hardware will be given away free to any user who agrees to a two-year contract for their basic service at $29.95 per month or for $200 without a contract. Subscribers get a stock of basic games with the hardware, plus added games each month. But don't misunderstand me, you won't be getting UT2004 for free with this console; According to an Infinium rep you'll be paying full retail price for hot new games. [...] Games are stored on a local hard drive, and may be bumped off to make room in a TiVo-like fashion if you download lots of big games. We were assured though that you'd be able to re-download the games onto the Phantom at no extra cost as many times as you want. There is no way to trasfer the games to a PC for play. Conversely, there is no way to load your existing PC game library onto the Phantom.

    According to the Infinium rep I spoke to, the Phantom runs Windows XP Embedded with an AMD processor and NVIDIA GPU. In other words, a pretty normal PC, so it seems odd that they would disallow playing current PC titles. I even asked if there was any modification made to the downloaded games to allow them to work on the console, and was told that no, the Phantom runs the exact same version of the game you'd go buy in a store. Weird.
    It seems that the reviewer was... unimpressed at the least. After reading that, I can't figure why I would be paying 30$x24 (720$ for 2 years) for crappy games and soon-to-be-obsolete hardware. And these prices are from last year, and before the (costly and useless) lawsuit versus HardOCP. I'll buy myself a PC, thanks.
  11. Money Money Money by Dogtanian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now maybe the moral problem comes in when you get paid by people stuffing dollar bills down your underwear...but who am I to decide what peoples' morals are?

    By the way, in such cases, stick to dollar bills and higher; I paid them in pennies and assorted small change once, and for some reason they did *not* like that at all.

    I don't know why; it's not like I'm stingey. There must have been at *least* $9.50 worth in there.

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    "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  12. Re:Hmm. by SilentChris · · Score: 2, Funny

    "And is that so bad? If you've got the assets, you'd be a fool not to use them right?"

    True. To paraphrase George Carlin, I have big, powerful hands. I use these to strangle people regularly. I mean, if you got the assets (like big powerful hands), you'd be a fool not to use them right?

  13. The Phantom by retro128 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was at CES all day on Saturday, and lo and behold, what was in the nVidia booth? Well apparently Infinium Labs had a rep showing off the Phantom console there. I thought that was very interesting considering the fact that it won this year's Wired Vaporware Award.

    So needless to say, a friend of mine and I started grilling the poor guy. Naturally the first thing we wanted to know was how much the subcription fee was. His answer: "I am a hardware guy". Ok, fine, so now we wanted to know if the game content was exclusive or if it was just (under)glorified PC. He said that the Phantom would run anything a PC would and is directly loaded over the 'Net. So basically that left us with the impression that the Phantom was basically a PC in a fancy box pre-packaged with a Steam-like delivery system. I starting asking about the guts, and found out that they are farming out the board design to BIOStar, but I didn't get any word on what the BIOS would be like. That is, if it was encrypted Xbox style or pretty left alone. However, the indication I got was that it would be pretty well locked down. I also asked how the system would handle a hard disk crash, and he said the hard disk could be replaced and the content would automatically load itself back on the drive. I commented "so it takes you what, a day and half to get to your stuff loaded again", to which he replied, "Well, how often does your hard disk crash?", to which I shot back "Well, if it's a Maxtor, once every two weeks."

    Then he wanted to know what kind of hard disk I would recommend to put into it. I said Seagate and he seemed to agree with me. So if Seagate ends up in the Phantom, it's because of me! :)

    --
    -R
  14. The one on the left... by igorthefiend · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... clearly wants to defect to Apple.

  15. Re:Hmm. by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously, did they think they were hired for their hard work and moral values?

    A friend of mine was a booth babe, once. She was fine with showing off her assets to sell products or posing for photos. However, she wasn't prepared for just how immature grown men can be at a technical conference. Most of them had the mental maturity of a 13 year old boy stuck in a 30-year old man's body.

    Makes me embarrased for my gender...

  16. Models are not promotions people by Magickcat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The article poster is confusing "models" with "promotions" people.

    A model walks on a catwalk or is seen in a fashion magazine, wheras a "promotions person" wears does the type of job you're mentioning. Models have a fashion type of look and this is normally their professional career while it lasts, wheras promotions people are expected to be a sort of good looking sales person and can look any sort of look. Generally people who can't get into fashion end up doing depressing and explotitive jobs like promotion work. A model wouldn't be seen dead doing this type of work.

    Additionally, if they were modelling clothes, they wouldn't mind being photographed. The fact is however that promotions girls are just tits and ass.

    --

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    1. Re:Models are not promotions people by garvon · · Score: 2, Funny

      >"The fact is however that promotions girls are just tits and ass."
      You say that like it is a bad thing!

    2. Re:Models are not promotions people by Sloppy · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Additionally, if they were modelling clothes, they wouldn't mind being photographed. The fact is however that promotions girls are just tits and ass.
      Saw a job advert for meat, decided to apply for the job as meat, got hired as meat, worked as meat .. then get angry when treated like meat. Go figure.
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    3. Re:Models are not promotions people by SandmanWAIX · · Score: 2, Funny

      The fact is however that promotions girls are just tits and ass.

      God bless them.

  17. Models and Promotions *look* different by Dogtanian · · Score: 4, Funny

    BTW, a large proportion of real models are *not* the stereotypical 'eyes popping out, tongue drooling' well-endowed types that men like; if anything, most of them have small to medium breasts and seem to be chosen for symmetry of facial features and flawlessness of complexion.

    To put it bluntly, big tits might sell to men, but they aren't necessarily what designers are looking for to show off their work.

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  18. Re:Hmm. by SandSpider · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Makes me embarrased for my gender...

    That's just because you haven't seen any women with the male booth babes, er, hunks. Whatever. Then you could be embarrassed for all of humanity, or your country, or whatever you prefer.

    --
    There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
  19. Re:Hmm. by Anubis350 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    you might want to read this article on gc.com about boothbabe mentality (from E3 2004), quite an interesting (and in some cases humorous) read. Its a unique article that I remembered reading a whileback and looked it up because of your post. Of course you know a former boothbabe so the insight in the article is prolly not new to you,

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