General

I see on Twitter that almost everyone came home from Macworld Expo with some kind of cold/flu/plague, as I usually do every year. This time I didn’t get sick because I prepared. I started taking this stuff twice a day for the week leading up to Macworld, every day while I was there, and I’m still taking it every day.

I’m now in Microsoft’s Bloggers Lounge, which by far has the worst internet connection here. Their wifi is almost as bad as my hotel and it took several tries before I was able to connect.

I’m taking advantage of the fast WiFi in Moscone South before the show starts to upload my pictures from the first two days.

Here are a few galleries:

• Macworld Expo Day 1
• Apple Universe Live
• Macworld Expo Day 2

I also posted a video of a portion of the Apple Universe live recording here.

I’m now standing in line around the exhibit hall waiting to go
upstairs. We were told several times to RESPECT THE ESCALATORS.

Sent from my iPhone

I’m now standing in line for the keynote near the corner of 5th &
Howard. Daniel should be here around 7. He has a superpass so we’ll
have to coordinate our seating arrangements and keynote coverage.

Sent from my iPhone

I’ve set up posting via email both here and at MacMegasite. Since
there’s usually no wifi during the keynote, I’ll attempt to post from
my iPhone as long as there is cellphone reception.

Sent from my iPhone

Microsoft has patented a frustration-detection help system that would monitor your computer use and biometrics to figure out when you were frustrated. It could then offer to pair you up with someone else doing exactly the same thing who might be able to help you out.

Remember the Royal PF110 digital picture viewer I blogged about last night?

I sent the following email to their customer support:

I was given a PF110 as a present, but the software that came with it is PC
only and it doesn’t mention Mac compatibility. I use a Mac, although I can
run Windows under Vmware. However, the CD that came with it is a mini-CD
that can’t be used in my MacBook Pro’s slot- loaded drive. Is there a way to
download the full software for it (which I could probably run under VMware)?
All I could find is a Vista upgrade.

Here’s the reply I got, most likely automated:

REFERENCE NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Please use this ticket number in any correspondence with us.
SUBJECT: FW: Message from Royal Consumer Information Products, Inc. Website. – PF110

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

We regret the inconvenience caused to you. Our software will not work with mac computer. Please follow the link to download the patch file for windows vista.

http://www.royal.com/drivers_manuals.htm

In case this email does not fully answer your question, or you would like to contact us for any reason, simply reply to this email. You can also get immediate assistance by calling our Customer Service Department at: 1-800-272-6229.

Sincerely,

Sandy
Customer Service Department
Royal Consumer Information Products, Inc.

I did manage to get the software on my Mac. My old Dell Inspiron laptop does have a use – its CD ROM drive will take a mini CD, so I was able to copy the CD contents to my file server and then install it on my Mac. It does work under Parallels and the device is recognized when I connected it to the virtual machine. The software is extremely clunky & ugly, though.