THERE could be no better city in the world than Las Vegas for a heavy-weight conference and exhibition like Comdex.
Las Vegas exists in all its questionable glory without any reasonable, logical, or productive purpose.
Could there be a better venue for the hype-merchants of this hyper industry? Of course not all of Las Vegas is glitz and glamour.
For example, the modest lodgings I found myself in last week may have featured a shark pool, white tigers, and dolphin aquarium in the spartan lobby, but the volcano at the front of the hotel only erupted every 30 minutes.
Entertainment in Vegas tends to be fairly reserved, so you can imagine how audience numbers dwindled at the 1993 Topless Dancer World Championship at The Stardust when Microsoft's Bill Gates himself ''Unplugged'' for a single show (keynote) at the Aladdin.
It is clear from public outings like this that Bill Gates has just about more crowd-pulling power than Mecca.