Going to California

My employer is sending me out to Los Angeles next week to attend HITEC, a trade show for the hospitality industry. I'll be setting up a wifi hotspot in our booth and be there to field questions regarding our full-blown hospitality solution. I'm flying out Sunday afternoon and taking the redeye home Thursday night.

Since I'm setting up only a hotspot, all I'm planning to unbox are an IP3 Netaccess box, and a Netgear WAP. We normally use SMC WAPs, but due to the issues I've previously discussed here, I'm using a Netgear ME103 802.11b box.

The sales group is supplying two laptops which will be in our booth and connected to the hotspot. Since it'll be me who gets to fix them if something goes tits up, I spent some time this morning burning some CDs:

• My PC Toolkit, containing a variety of Win32 apps and utilities
• A System Rescue CD
• A Knoppix 3.9 CD

I also backed up to CD all the show-related docs I may need, along with documentation and firmware for the IP3 and Netgear. Finally, I plan to bring an XP Pro disc and a few blank CD-Rs with me, just in case.

Aside from the network hardware, I also packed several Ethernet patch cords, a surge suppressor, and a Netgear FVS318 router in the box which will I'll ship out tomorrow. Coming with me in my luggage will be my Gerber Multiplier and Victorinox Cyber Tool 41. (Dumbass bullshit TSA rules that I have to stow these in luggage. Only four years ago and they would've been with me in my carried-on laptop bag.)

I'll be working the booth for about 2.5 hours each day, so I'll have some time to kill. Time to look up what's to do in L.A. if you're not into the celebrity scene. I figure I'll check out the Labrea Tar Pits, since when I was a kid I wanted to be a paleontologist, and I may as well check out Fry's while I'm out there.