Tikkabik

I flew to San Francisco today for Macworld Expo. The show doesn't officially start until Monday (although some would argue that it *really* doesn't start until Tuesday, when Steve Jobs delivers his keynote), but we always get in a weekend early to acclimate, meet and talk with people.

The trip out was mostly uneventful -- out of the motel by 4:30, a relatively painless check-in -- and in a serendipitous moment, standing in line to have my bag screened I bumped into a fellow I worked with more than half a decade ago when I was managing the computer systems of a design firm. The plane were late leaving the gate, however, and late getting to the gate when we landed in Chicago -- so I had to run to make it to my connecting flight (the doors had already closed by the time I got to the gate). Fortunately all went well and my baggage and I made it to San Francisco without incident. I met some interesting people on the plane, including some Mac user group members who I'm sure I'll bump into again, since they're staying at the same hotel.

I have to say that I'm really looking forward to the show now that I'm here. First of all, the company's come through with outstanding accommodations -- I'm staying at a downtown hotel I'm familiar with, that has high-speed Internet access in a very comfortable room. Secondly, everyone I've talked to seems upbeat, curious and happy to be here as well. That's a big change from last year, when everyone was biting their nails to see if they (and buy extension, the industry) would survive the year.

I think part of that is that Apple's had a very exciting year, between the G5 and the iTunes Music Store and the continued domination of the iPod in the digital music player space. A lot of people have high expectations about what Apple plans to reveal next week. Rumors have ranged from a "mini-iPod" to an update to the long-languished AppleWorks suite to some sort of set-top appliance to iLife application updates. Some of these rumors are pretty out there, and some seem grounded in some sort of reality. It's always very difficult to differentiate signal and noise, however, especially this close to the show, so I'm keeping an open mind and I'm hoping that it'll all be good, whatever "it" is.

On a personal note, I'm also upbeat because for once -- no Eeyore-like braying from me, at least for now. I managed to organize myself well enough before I left that I'm not worrying about anything on the home front. It's a great peace of mind to have when I'm in a situation where I really need to focus my attention on work. I often arrive for these events frazzled and depressed/discouraged, so it's a good change of pace.

San Francisco seems to have changed little since the last time I was here, at least the part of the city that I've seen (which accounts for about six downtown city blocks, all told). I'm delighted to discover that the Sanrio store that was formerly off of Market a few blocks from my hotel has moved to a posh mall that's within spitting distance from my hotel, which bodes well for souvenirs for both my wife and daughter. The big Virgin record store will also yield a couple of goodies that Bonnie requested which have been hard to find in our relatively remote neck of the woods.

More later.

And no, I don't have the satellite coordinates (if there are any) for the Macworld keynote simulcast.