In years past I have attended numerous and varied trade shows. Some of those shows have been small intimate affairs and some have been huge like Comdex in its heyday. Many of these shows have had one thing in common — a keynote speech by Microsoft Chairman and all around head-honcho Bill Gates. Now, I came to realize that keynote speeches were long on marketing and short of substantive where is the industry going, but the keynote address at the 2007 Consumer Electronics show was particularly hard to swallow.

Cute people using their wonderful electronic gadgets to take pictures, talk, text-message, listen to music, and play games was so sickening sweet that my inner-cynic just had to blurt out, Give me a freaking break! Whatever good information can be gleaned from the Bill Gates address is overshadowed and drowned out by the opening sequence.

The entire presentation is available on YouTube, so if you have a stronger stomach for such things, perhaps you could let me know if anything important was actually presented.