Congratz to Zatz

I posted a few weeks ago about the Netgear CES blogger contest, and wanted to congratulate Dave Zatz for being selected as their winner.  Dave’s a good guy and a great blogger, especially in the digital entertainment arena.

I think it’s a creative move by a company that is in a challenging place regarding communications, disclosure, and community in general.  The networking industry in general is a rough, commodity-oriented business, and opening the company up to the power of the voice of the consumer is probably a daunting measure. Hopefully it’ll have the outcomes Netgear is looking for.

Anyhow, I’m getting ready for CES myself – way too many invites, way too little time.  Robert Scoble has a fun post on his ideal floor-walking-mates for the show (I put Bill Gates up on my personal list).  I’ll get some thoughts up on the show in the week leading up to it.  I just can’t wait to not having to get up at 3am (or earlier) or setting up a booth or a suite this year.  Now there’s nothing about CES that’s relaxing, but this is most certainly a refreshing year for me.

Finally, Dave played the “blogger tag game” that seems to be going around, in which I am to name 5 things you don’t know about me, then ‘tag’ 5 other bloggers…

1. I went to high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I actually transferred schools as a senior.  Yup, I was miserable and unpopular.
2. I was a winner of the Atari “Gauntlet II Secret Room” game, and won a t-shirt for my mad skills.
3. I’ve been a member of a “balloon pulling team” at the Macy*s Thanksgiving Day parade.  We had Ronald McDonald, and made it the whole way with no shrinkage.
4. I saw Poltergeist as a young kid and was so terrified I had nightmares and barely slept for weeks afterwards.  Still hate long hallways and occasionally do a double-take when eating leftover rice. 
5. My favorite game of all time is Boggle, and will play anytime, anywhere.

I hereby tag: Sean Alexander, Michael Gartenberg, David Cohn, Jason Dunn, and Shawn Morton.