Excuses

I’ve been out of town at the Gartner ITExpo. In Orlando. Yes, I saw Mickey. Megan spent Saturday at a book expo. Reading list now contains the new Get Your War On, a sociology book called “Sex in the South,” and a style guide for metrosexuals.

My impressions: Orlando is a vast wasteland. I don’t pretend to understand the economics of expos, but I think that, for the people who attend the talks and sessions, there’s a good reason to be there. Some people worked their way through the Novell booth to collect four stickers and get a prize, then seemed to actually be interested in what I had to say once I began saying it. “Oh, I had no idea you could do that with Linux. And here I was just looking for a free umbrella or baseball cap.” Trade show booths still seem to me like a gigantic display of excess capital that could have better been spent on advertising, cold-calling, or new software development. But I guess that’s why I’m a technical writer, not a CEO.

I feel bad for not posting, because it has become apparent to me that I have an actual readership now, outside people I know personally. Not like I’m in the a-list or anything, but I feel like I let people down when I fail to post for three or four days running.