Before I left for this “adventure” (as my parents put it), I made sure to change my Facebook status to “Lauren will be in Vegas for CES. Who else is going??” A good friend of mine commented:

“Half the WORLD goes to CES.”

Actually a very small percentage of the world goes to CES – only 150,000 out of the 6.7 billion humans there are on this planet. So, he was in fact, very wrong. However, if half of the world did go, which half would you be with?

Another friend commented:

“I don’t like zoos.”

There may be about 150,000 people at a large zoo in a city, on any given day. So in that respect I’ll concede.

But zoos are stinky, dirty, and ugly looking. I’ll let you decide for yourself, but judging by the picture of the Venetian to the right, I’d say if this is a zoo, it’s a zoo for the animals with Black Cards!

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO Keynote

Bill Gates has spoken at CES for the past 14 years, but 2009 called for a fresh outlook.  Considering, however, that having Microsoft open CES is a solid tradition, they didn’t stray too far away from the cradle. (strikingly representative of the world’s overall dependency on Microsoft!)  Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, will present tonight at 6:30pm PT.  Ballmer is known for continuing the legacy of Gates by building the current competitive culture of the corporation.

A very interesting research project would be to survey  the world’s PC users and ask them how many (regardless of if they actually will) want to make the terrifying Windows-to-Apple switch? Myself being one of them, I am sure the results would not favor Mister Softee. My point being… It’s an impactful year for Microsoft to show how innovative and user-friendly they really are, especially because of the economy. In fact, as I sit here, a dorky reporter asks a clueless girl:

Dorky Reporter: “So we are trying to discover what people here think Ballmer’s new product will be. What do you think?”

Girl: “uhhhh… I don’t really know anything about it.”

What do you think it will be? C’mon, no answer can be worse than the one I just had to painfully sit through.

Tune back in tonight in the am or tomorrow morning for CES coverage!