Gear and loathing in Las Vegas
(Pictured left to right: Marc Perton, Paul Miller, James Ransom-Wiley, Evan Blass,
Peter Rojas, Ryan Block, Barb Dybwad, Kevin Tofel, Randall Bennett)
You may (or may not) be as sick of CES 2006 as any of us, but like it or not the time came and went for us to wrap it up, pack it in, and head on home to our respective Engadget bedrooms offices, yet again. While some of us are still on the road, and though the Engadget crew certainly didn't take it any easier this year than in CES 2005, this last Sunday was admittedly a little bittersweet as we all piled in the Engadget Limo (aka the Engadget church bus, a 10-person Econoline) one last time. Everybody here had a great time going crazy on the latest and greatest while trying not to look too hung-over / disappointed by gambling losses / sleep-deprived in front of all the kind PR and media relations people -- but namely we hope we helped make some sense of the complete chaos that is the Consumer Electronics Show (and we'll continue to trickle out non-news coverage throughout the week as we're clearing up space on our hard drives and flash disks). Perhaps most importantly, however, we hope that when you looked for coverage of CES 2006 you came to Engadget, and that when CES 2007 hits you'll do the same.
Team Engadget 2006 CES stats:
Number of posts: 334
Number of lost gadgets: 7
Number of laptop-coffee spills: 1
Number of bags lost: 1
Number of WiFi networks traversed: 11
Average hours slept nightly: 5.6
Number of casinos visited: 9
Amount of money lost gambling: $200
Average number of laptops per person: 1.3
Average number of cellphones per person: 1.5
Pounds of shwag thrown away: ~74
Clearance (in inches) between the Engadget limo and the ceiling at the Venetian parking garage: 0
Number of times someone played "Let's Get Retarded": unquantifiable
The cast:
Dear Leader
Peter Rojas
Chairman of the Borg
Jason Calacanis
Number one... with a bullet
Ryan Block
Sunkissed
Barb Dybwad
Chippendale
Evan Blass
Joyrider
James Ransom-Wiley
The Dark Horse
Kevin Tofel
Deep Thoughts
Marc Perton
Fancy Stuff
Paul Boutin
Handsome Crawlmaster
Paul Miller
Wide Load
Randall Bennett
Cash Money
Steven Friedman
and finally...
Solid Gold
Shawn Gold
The backup team:
Alex Rudloff, Brian Alvey, Don Melanson, Gavin Hall, Mike Propst, Thomas Ricker, the staff at AOL hosting.
Marc, Paul Boutin, Kevin, Evan, Barb, and Paul Miller at work in the warroom, um, warlobby.
Metaphoto: snapping a shot in the Engadget limo...
... this would be that very picture. Why Marc, what deep thoughts you must have!
We got lucky, that night we had 1.5-inches clearance. The following night? Not so lucky.
The Handsome Crawlmaster eats a man's meal.
Something real interesting going on up in there?
Randall tries the EyeBud on for size.
Ryan rocks some 3D goggles that don't quite affix to one's head.
We knew there was something charming about that Hello Kitty: publicly hailing Satan.
This was about as close as Ryan and Peter could come to being the blown-away guy.
See you in 2007! It's been real!
