Demonstrators demo at DEMO 09

In Tuesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers watch the DEMO 09 conference. Not to mention what not to wear...

Frank "+++ATH" Hayes knows what time it is:

It's springtime in the desert -- specifically, Palm Desert, Cal. -- and it's time for the DEMO 09 conference, where companies large and small get six minutes each to show their new IT products and services ... blasted into the audience in three marathon sessions over two days.

For those who've never been to a DEMO conference, it's a seemingly endless series of those six-minute pitches. This isn't as grueling as it might sound; even though many of the presentations aren't of interest to corporate IT, they're almost all entertaining.

Eric Lundquist is also there, liveblogging:

Ontier ... next gen email that uses voice, video and complex diagrams to communicate...
Transformyx ... web-based crisis communication...
Qwabbit ... Scan incoming emails and easily moves them to Outlook address book...
CC.Betty ... Takes all contents of an email and collates the information...
Document Depository ... the boring, but important task of document management...
Always Innovating ... Open source netbook on sterioids ... screen pulls off to become a one pound tablet.
...
Venture Capital in a post recession panel ... This is the worst venture funding environment anyone has seen.

Matt Marshall breaks out the carbon:

Ever get fed up with tracking threads in your email inbox? Google’s Gmail was early to track conversation threads, but if you’re like me, it’s confusing, or at the least bothersome: You have to open the threads and scan through them all each time.
...
Cc:Betty ... offers a single view of an entire conversation, and an overview of any files, places, images or videos included in the exchange. And you don’t have to wade through conversations opening emails ... Its beauty is simplicity. The only thing you have to do is cc your emails to Betty, and they’re collected automatically by its eponymous virtual assistant.

Zoli Erdos is reminded of something else:

It’s hard not to see the resemblance between cc:Betty and her deceased sister, (I Want) Sandy. Sandy was an online virtual assistant, who passed away (OK, her creator got hired by Twitter) last November, amidst major user uproar.

cc:Betty is a … yes, you guessed right, online virtual assistant ... Will she have a longer life than her sister?  Remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, James Kendrick spies cool hardware:

I have long lamented the demise of the hybrid Tablet PC.  The old HP tc1100 was a real workhorse for me, and having a detachable slate screen made for the most flexible mobile computing solution yet.  There is so much to be said for having a keyboard, yet being able to remove it.
...
Always Innovating is set to launch a Linux-based netbook that has a detachable keyboard that looks fabulous. The Touch Book has a small screen (8.9-inch) that detaches from the keyboard for mobile slate use. This beauty is reported to run with a TI OMAP3 processor (600 MHz) based on ARM technology and is capable of running Windows CE and Android too ...The real story is the price — $300 for the slate alone and $400 for the whole kit.

Adrian Covert plays with it:

Spearheaded by Gregoire Gentil, the man behind the Zonbu Desktop and Laptop, the Touch Book is his latest project, and a promising one at that. Gentil says the Touch Book's hardware and software are fully open source and ready for modifications.
...
The chipset fits on a motherboard about the size of an index card, and is heavily optimized to get the best performance out of the hardware. Part of this involves stacking the RAM directly on top of the processor in a package on package configuration. The lid of the touchbook also pops off, so you have easy access to the hardware and it's two internal USB ports you can use for dongles you dont want hanging off the side of the tablet.

And finally...

• Tie Color Fail

Buffer overflow:

• Doc Searls: Get ready for "fourth party" services
• Greg Kumparak: Watchmen MMO coming for the iPhone, looks kind of lame
• Kristin Shoemaker: Revival of an Oldie but Goodie: Kiosk's Possible Return?
• Sam Johnston: Netbooks, Notebooks and Cloud Computing
• F-Secure: Phishing Sites are Compromised and Re-compromised
• Confessions of an Aca/Fan: Can African-Americans Find Their Voice in Cyberspace?
• Henry Blodget: EBay Upgraded To Hold! (EBAY)
• Deal architect: The incredibly fragmenting enterprise application software market

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Iran leeches Obama's helo. plans, peer2peer
• Windows 7 RC on its way
• Microsoft "recalculating route" of Linux patents
• ...more

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• SJVN: Need a new tech job? Learn Linux
• Michael Horowitz: People keep saying good things about Avira's AntiVir
• Douglas Schweitzer: Welcome back Safari!
• Preston Gralla: Google versus Microsoft: Battle of the monopolists
• Mark Everett Hall: Compliance raids in the cloud
• Seth Weintraub: iPhone and Safari are dominating smartphone web usage
• Shark Tank: No, the other left
• Seth H. Weintraub: Google goes Twittering
• Shark Bait: Psychic file
• ...more

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 23 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.