I gave the first of my talk at Macworld Expo Wednesday — my Best of Mac OS X hint for the Users Conference attendees . The way was full ( so much so that I actually gave the talking twice in a rowing , so thank you to all who attended ) . I mistrust the attendance was unattackable because , unlike Steve Jobs Tuesday , I actually was going to be talk about OS X !

This yr , for the first meter , I brought two laptops , as some of the tips I was demonstrating would demand logout and login action mechanism . Using a provided A / B switchbox , it ’s a simple task to flip from Keynote slides to the demonstration unit of measurement and back . However , fall in that this was the first time I ’ve used such a setup , I was extra paranoid about work sure I packed everything back in Portland — two magnate adapters , all the monitor adapter to plug into the projectors , needful USB cablegram for cameras , and so forth . Upon come , I unpacked everything and was proud of to discover I ’d forgotten nothing .

Today , when leaving the hotel for my presentation , I packed everything into my big luggable shoulder bag , and trekked the two and a half blocks down to Moscone . I made it to the room around 10:35 a.m. for an 11:00 a.m. starting signal ; more than enough sentence for setup . I open my bag , pulled out the two Macs , their business leader cords , my camera , USB cable , and the proctor adapters . Well , everything except that last fleck . Those , it call on out , were perch well back in the hotel room .

Yep , that ’s right . I was in the way , 20 minutes before my talk started , and I had no way to colligate either Mac to the presentation arrangement . I thought about halt in the speakers ’ waiting area and involve to borrow a match , but my apparatus include both a 12 - column inch PowerBook and a MacBook Pro , which apply unlike adapters . The odds of receive both in the verbaliser ’ waiting room were low .

So I did the only lucid affair : made sure someone was ascertain my stuff , and take off like the proverbial cricket bat out of a really warm place , point to the hotel . Although only a brace of blocks , since I had no time to start out with , it seemed to take constantly . So did waiting for the elevator . Twice . The whole time , I could n’t get Jeopardy’s“30 second countdown”theme out of my head ! eventually , adapter in hand , I extend to the lobby and reversed the sprint .

Meanwhile , back at the conference … the person in flush of the solar day ’s sessions is madly leaving voicemails on my earpiece : “ Rob , um , it ’s like , six minutes until your school term starts . Your room is packed . Where are you ! ? ” gratefully , I did n’t have my phone with me , as taking the time to do it would ’ve probably made me late .

Ignoring the traffic jurisprudence and most of the rules of coarse common sense , I managed to make it back into the room with about four moment to give up . Amazingly , everything worked on the first connection , and both sessions went , I consider , very well .

The moral of the tale ? Always be educate . But if you ’re not prepared , verify you ’re stay close enough to recuperate from aforesaid level of unpreparedness !