Conference Day 1 - 1:02 pm: iPads, iPads, everywhere...

This is my eyePad. I think it will sell well. It comes with a pen, you provide the creativity.

Call me old school, but I'm not big on showing off my tech. I guess I prefer to quietly enjoy the knowledge that "my tech is bigger than yours" so to speak. That is to say, I don't need to advertise. Here at the conference, it seems like the big deal is the iPad and how much you can use it in order to get maximum exposure to those who don't have one. Am I jealous? Sort of. iPads are cool. I want one. Would I show it off? No. I would sit at home on my couch, much like Phil on Modern Family, and gently touch my iPad and tell it how much I love it. That being said, whipping your iPad out for everyone on God's green earth to see and touching, nay, stroking it, in public is pretentious to say the least.

Enough about everyone's iPad, though (I do want one, so LJ and Kris, if you're reading this.... I need one so that I can test all things web :). Two things I'm noticing at this conference. The split between men and women (by my rough estimation, which is absolutely unscientific and solely opinion-based, is maybe 60-40 (60% men and 40% women). This is a far cry from the "old" days of technology when men would outnumber the women at a 1:0 ratio. I think this is cool and I hope this trend continues.

Okay, so, I'm going to geek out for a minute. I attended Eric Meyer's presentation "HTML 5 vs. Flash, Webocalypse Now?" and was impressed with his thoughts, which I'll share when I present to everyone back home. One thing I will say. Flash is not dead, nor will it be in the near future. In fact, I think HTML and Flash will coexist uncomfortably for many years to come. I also think that developing toward HTML 5 and W3C standards should be the basis and Flash should be incorporated, but not solely relied upon to deliver our Web content. I will say that the following link is an interesting read, though: Steve Jobs on Flash. Flash may not be going to die anytime soon, but maybe Adobe needs to stop whining. Here's another good article to read, as well.




This is Eric Meyer making a point. You can tell he's making a point because... he's pointing.

So, Eric actually came up to me and asked if he could get a photo op with me. I was kind of embarrassed, but I obliged him. Then he sat by me in another session that I attended. I kind of felt like he was stalking me, but what he really wanted was my CSS expertise on a couple of issues he was having. (Does that sound believable enough?)

Well, that's enough for the moment. Going to enjoy some more conference stuff. Lunch was good, the expo hall is about half-filled to what it was 2 years ago (which is sad), but I'm looking forward to more learning and I love it that everyone I've spoken with really seems to appreciate that I'm from a university.

And yes, Gerry, I'll post some photos later on.