CES Day ... uh... what day is this? Three? I need some coffee.

I've only been to handful of trade shows, but at all of them there's been a group of obscure companies that line the periphery of the show floor: tucked away in shadowy corners, hidden near the employee lounge, setup where the dust has accumulated into convention center tumbleweeds. They sit there in their little squares of the floor. Leaning against the cubicle-quality walls are product description presentations that any 7th grader would be proud of. A lot of times they're startups from far off countries, selling obscure components for hacking together your own... whatever. But just as often, you get a really choice piece of silliness. Some egomaniac's brainchild, birthed by just a little too much money in the savings account. All this setup is for my crazy, doomed-to-failure startup pick of the show: The iLamp. No, it's not the last-gen iMacs. I'm talking about actual lamp/iPod dock combinations. With little speakers! Runners up were Logitek (with a K, because there'll be plausible denial when the C&D comes); and Lyme PC, where every demos was broken. Okay, on to actual CES coverage...

First, for Bill in Mead, I found you a decent DVR. Check out Moneual Labs. I can't speak to the reliability, but it seemed like a good product. Still, I'm maintaining my recommendation to just wait until something outstanding comes along. Also, next time he comes to your in your sleep, give Mr. Rogers my regards.

I went back and sat in the Repose chair (the E2500) that I fell in love with yesterday (because my feet are killing me). Turns out it has a massaging function, which promptly violated me, slipped off silently in the night and didn't leave a note. Either I'm not tall enough for the buttocks massage feature, or they need to do some serious reevaluation on that function. I never want to be touched like that again. Especially not by a machine. On a crowded convention floor. Whew.

Burning some time, I took a pass around the In-Vehicle technology section, where each booth had a rented Italian car, rented spokes-girl in a tiny outfit, and a stack of amps and subs up above my head. Two things did catch my eye: The Escort 9500i is an upgraded version of the Escort 8500 radar detector, using GPS to remember locations for speed traps and false alarms. (Mike, wasn't that your idea about a year ago?) It doesn't have the Nav features of the Uniden unit I saw yesterday, but I'm willing to bet it's a much better Radar detector, and this is exactly the functionality I've been after. The other neat thing was the 1960 Eldorado that FLIR Systems had on display. I'm not too excited about their night vision technology, but I want to have that car's babies. FLIR is based in Portland, so I might just drop in and visit it sometime. I took a picture, but my Pocket PC bit the big one. I'll get it uploaded when I'm home.

One more mention on the UMPC front is the OQO 02 - it has most of the pieces I'm after in an ultra-mobile: EVDO, HDMI, 64gb SSD, touch screen, Windows Vista. The slide-out keyboard is too small for real typing and too big for comfy thumb typing and the pricetag is outrageous. Sticking with my Asus pick.

When I get home I'll put together a sum up and narrate all the pictures I've forgetten that I took (including a druken trip through the Atomic Testing Museum).