CES

The Consumer Electronics Show, the greatest gathering of technological novelties being produced, was definitely a highlight for our trip to Las Vegas.

Getting in turned out to be a bit of a debacle, as I stupidly forgot my ID at the house. Turns out the CES organizers think their conference to be so very important that you are only allowed in if you have two forms of identification proving that you are in the consumer electronics industry.

Of course, no one wanted to go all the way back to the house to get my ID. Two bank issued credit/debit cards were not enough to confirm my identity, but luckily my Facebook account was. I suppose this method only works if you are enough of a hassle since we pretty much kept nagging until they let me in. I don't recommend using Facebook for entrance next year, chances are that they won't be so forgiving.

Once we managed to get in, we found ourselves in a wonderland of techie geekdom with vendors pimping any and every kind of gadget that you can imagine. It was absolutely fantastic. We didn't get anywhere near seeing the whole exhibition, but we found a lot to get excited about.

Some of our favorite exhibits included:

• Electronic cigarettes made of a metal cylinder with a nicotine atomizer producing no second hand smoke! Each atomizer gets you 115 drags, and with three levels of nicotine concentration, you can either slowly cut down or keep feeding the habit. With each replacement cartridge at only 30 cents, what smoker wouldn’t be crazy about this?
• Telepresence robot with a built-in laser.
• Phones with built-in projectors.
• Wii-like tennis game with real rackets (so much better than a wii remote!).
• Super tiny notebooks.
• Automated rain gutter cleaning robot.

We didn’t spend as much time at CES as we would have liked, and we missed a lot that we wanted to see. I would have loved to play this mind control game that allows you to control the movement of a ball with your concentration. You put on a headband which measures your brainwaves, and the greater your mental activity the faster a fan under the ball spins, allowing you to move the ball through an obstacle course - check out the video. If you went to CES, tell us what your favorite things were, or even if you didn't go (maybe you didn't have two forms of ID), tell us about your favorite things!