This year's Computer Electronics Show has more exhibits than COMDEX, but less than half the attendance. It's also scattered all over Las Vegas, at hotels as well as the Convention Center and Sands Expo, so it's nearly impossible for one person to see it all. I always try, of course.

There's also a CES Government Conference, at which FEMA made presentations. I didn't bother going. FEMA replaced the old Civil Defense organizations that were actually able to respond to local emergencies, and without strong regional organization including volunteers we're stuck with a national bureaucracy. That didn't work in New Orleans, and it's not likely to work anywhere. A central bureaucracy can't build effective regional organizations and doesn't like working with volunteers anyway. In any event, I saw no point in spending time listening to bureaucrats. In fairness, I should say that Alfred Hermida of BBCnews.com went to the CES Government Conference, and thinks he has a good story; look it up at http://bbcnews.com/technology.

I got to Las Vegas two days before the show floor opened, and the press room was already crowded, as was the official Press Reception. The CES people have got smart. It used to be just a reception, then they began having exhibitors sponsor it and show their wares, but it was crowded with not very good food. This year it worked. The room was big, the food was good, and there was enough room to see the products on display. It wasn't up to the standards of Show Stoppers, but then few peep shows are.

There were about 50 exhibitors, and the room, though larger than previous years, was too small for the number of press attendees, so it wasn't possible to do justice to all the exhibits. One stood out, Ableplanet which makes high-tech devices such as cell phones and enhanced spectrum earphones to make life easier for the hearing impaired. I've been "hard of hearing" since 1950, but all the gadgets recommended for me simply raise the volume, which doesn't really help since my hearing losses are selective: High volume across the spectrum just sounds too loud to me. The Ableplanet technology increases intelligibility, apparent loudness, and sound intensity without increasing volume; you have to try it to appreciate the difference. More on this another time, but if you know anyone with profound hearing loss, you might make them aware of Ableplanet.

Jo Waldron, "Disabled American for the Nation" by appointment of President Reagan in 1987, demonstrates Ableplanet products at the "official" CES Press event. Jo, deaf from birth, is a cofounder of Ableplanet.

I am not sure how the exhibitors invited to the "official" CES Press Event are selected. All the products were sound enough,, but few were outstanding. With the exception of Ableplanet, all the really noticeable products at the official Press Event were in other off-floor shows, and I'll get to them later.

Peep Shows

It's worth a moment to explain what I mean by "peep shows." When Sheldon Adelson started up the Computer Dealers Exposition (COMDEX), he took pains to keep control of rivals. Sheldon had no intention of drawing a crowd for other people to exploit. He wasn't entirely successful, and back in the 1980s there arose Silicon Northwest, which was a cross between a big press party and a small show floor. Silicon Northwest featured northwestern products--clams, oysters, beers, and wines--and exhibitors located in the Northwest, including Intel and at least once Microsoft. Some of those companies had COMDEX booths and some did not.

After Silicon Northwest broke the ice, other limited invitation press events followed. One of the most elegant was Show Stoppers. There were Digital Focus, Mobile Focus, and others. Eventually Silicon Northwest was sold, the Focus shows consolidated into PepCom, and Show Stoppers and PepCom are now the major evening "peep shows". They're held on different nights, and there is some overlap in the products exhibited. In each case the format is the same: table after table of exhibitors, with lots of really excellent food, and too few empty tables so that you pretty well have to eat standing up. Given the cost of ballroom space I suppose there's no remedy to that.

PepCom is on Wednesday night. Thursday will be Show Stoppers. By going to these it is possible to cover the whole CES show without ever going on the show floor--or at least make it look as if you have done the entire show. Of course most of the peep shows feature companies who have paid about $5000 to have a table, so the the only actual selection of products is the pocketbook and good sense of the exhibitor. Some exhibitors don't have good sense, and it's hard to see why they think getting press attention will be good for their products. For the most part, though, you get to see the latest and greatest for all but the very largest exhibitors, in a setting where it is possible to converse with the exhibitors without crowds of spectators.

Selectivity

If it's selection you want, the place to be is Marty Winston's Cherry Picks held the day before the show floor opens. Martin Winston's Newstips is a general PR sheet that's usually worth reading, and Cherry Picks is one of my essential events. Cherry Picks features vendors--61 this year--who each get one minute to present each product chosen. This year we saw 76 products total. After the presentations there's lunch and general networking. Each company prepares a one-page spec sheet for the event. It's not a press kit, it's a single sheet, with two questions: "Who cares?" And "why bother?" Unlike the other peep shows, Winston picks his products by inviting submissions from every exhibitor. That's 20,000 products. He the goes through to winnow the number down to the truly interesting and innovative. He was trying for an even hundred, but this year he found only 76 worth featuring.

It took about two and a half hours total including lunch and chats with the exhibitors, and that may have been the best time I'll spend at CES. Of the 76 products shown I have 30 or so I think are worth writing about, and I'm sitting next to Larry Magid of CBS, who found at least 25 he likes. That's a pretty good return on investing a couple of hours with lunch thrown in.

<3>Cherry Picks

Clearly I haven't space to discuss 76 products. More important, I write about what I use and can recommend, not what I've seen in a one minute demo. Mostly I go to this show to find stuff that I won't be wasting my time reviewing.

A few stand out as way cool.

Hands down the best product was one I also saw at the official Press show: Celestron Sky Scout. Priced at just under $400, it's about the size and weight of a camcorder.

Celestron Sky Scout wins "Best of Cherry Picks". It previously was selected "Best of Innovations" by the CES technical staff. Sky Scout names stars once you focus on them.

You find a star, focus on it, and press a button. Sky Scout knows what time it is, where you are, and where you are aiming: it names the planet or star or other object. Sky Scout knows about 6000 planets and stars, and has a USB port so it can be updated if something new, like a Nova, or a comet, should appear. I haven't used one yet, but everyone who has assures me I am going to love mine, which I ought to have in a couple of weeks. More after I play with it, but this looks way cool.

The RaySat receiver stands out, but in a different way. It's a car-top receiver antenna that allows real-time reception of satellite video, TV, or Internet in a vehicle in motion. At $7000 it may be a bit pricey as a way to amuse the kids on a long trip, but there are obvious commercial and government uses for something like this. The RaySat uses two-axis movement of three antenna elements, so its price isn't governed by Moore's Law; I can't predict when it will be affordable by the rest of us.

Another product demonstrated was 3D Goggles that let you see High Definition TV in three dimensions. For a mad moment I had a mental picture of using those goggles to project a movie brought in by the RaySat. Watch Steve McQueen and live the experience.... (Note to lawyers: It's a joke. Don't try this even if you are a trained professional.)

The RaySat In-Motion Internet and Live TV receiver antenna.

There were literally dozens of other interesting devices, gadgets, products, and gilhickies. There were indestructible laptop cases from Otter (jump up and down on it; the laptop won't notice). There was the Atiz BookDrive, a book scanner: put a book in the coffin, turn it on, and it scans 200 pages an hour in color, all unattended, carefully turning the pages without harming the book. I'm only glad that this one is far too expensive for casual pirates. Gibson Guitars has a new Les Paul model with "over 1000 extra components behind the jack plate" and new technology to split out the output from different pickups on the guitar so that they can be fed into a mixer and each treated differently before reblending: a full orchestra on one guitar if you know what you're doing. Steadicam Merlin that will stabilize any camcorder and turns into a shoulder mount as well. Leica's new 8-mega-pixel pocket camera.

All this, and it's only noon Wednesday. Tonight I have the PepCom show. Then there will be two days of Pat Meir-Johnson's Lunch at Piero's, another sponsored show, which features odd ball stuff as well as a lot of small and innovative companies. Pat has been around a long time, and tries to choose good products, so this will be interesting. And of course Piero's is the best Italian restaurant in town short of Caesar's.

Thursday night is Show Stoppers. All that without even a look at the show floor, or going to the keynotes. There's over a hundred acres of exhibits I need to walk past.

It's going to be a full week.

Jerry Pournelle, Ph.D., is a science fiction writer and BYTE.com's senior contributing editor. Contact him at jerryp@jerrypournelle.com or visit www.jerrypournelle.com. Reader letters can be found at Jerry's letters page.

For more of Jerry's columns, visit Byte.com's Chaos Manor Index page.

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