Ben Drawbaugh

This was my third CES and although I love gadgets — HDTVs in particular — the best part of all three shows for me was the people I met. While I’m not going to list every Engadget Editor who went, or every press relations person I met for the first time, — despite working with them for years — I’d like to list a few. I talk to Steve Kim (pictured above on the left) every week on the podcast and this is the first time we met, and as I expected, we got along great. Jeremy Toeman with the cool new gadget from Bug Labs was also great, despite the fact that he believe everyone wants to watch crappy video on their computer. I marveled at watching Darren Murph perform his blogging magic in person (200 posts in 10 days, wow!). Unfortunately I didn’t get meet everyone I wanted, at one point I was in the same room as Mari Silbey and we didn’t even know it. And of course I got to hang with some old friends that I only get to see once a year like; Ryan, Zatz; Richard (pictured above on the right) and Tyler (pictured below playing me in the AVP challenge) — as well as so many more that I won’t list. It never ceases to amaze me how well I get along with all these people and they’re the ones that make the trip as much fun as it is. Thanks.

Every once in a while there is a Engadget comment that just cracks me up, so from now on I’m going to post them here.

“Ben Drawbaugh is an interesting specimen – a Blu-ray fanboy and a
Microsoft fanboy.

Engadget is owned by Time-Warner so Ben is a Blu-ray fanboy.
However, he owns an XBox 360 and many of the ads on Engadget are
Microsoft-centric, so he is a Microsoft fanboy.

So the best way for him to appease both sides of his fanboy nature is
to promote Blu-ray and to bash the PS3.

Remember, the PS3 is connected to the Internet so once any standard
becomes the norm, you can expect Sony to upgrade the firmware to
support it. Ignore Mr. Drawbaugh’s Microsoft fanboy comments.”

Just for the record, I don’t own a 360 anymore, hate Microsoft and if Time Warner told me what to do, I’d quit.

The government has the hardest job in the world; to try to please everyone, all the time. I know at my job the biggest challenges are usually political and not technical, I can’t even imagine not having the technical part to keep me sane. Regardless, this is what they do in Washington for a living, and once again we have to wonder who’s interests they have in mind. I know I don’t feel like the PRO IP law is Pro Ben Drawbaugh. I dont’ have a problem paying for content, but I do have a problem with people telling me what I can do with that content — aside from personal monetary gain that is. I believe most will pay for content when it is available when and how they want it.

I’m a little more optimistic than my friend Jeremy, I believe that this bill doesn’t have a chance to make it. But then again, I never thought they’d pass the DMCA either. Either way, congress is only one part of our government and even if it makes it through, there is no way it has a chance in both of the other two branches.

Even though this is my person blog, I usually don’t get that personal. Honestly, I’d rather talk tech then about my life. But every once in a while there is something worth mentioning, and I’m very excited to brag about my wife starting her own company. She’s been a recruiter (aka headhunter) for over six years and not only does she love it, but she’s really good at it. So starting a few months ago, her and one of her colleagues started The Madison Group, Inc. They specialize in three areas: Architecture, Engineering, and Construction; Information Technology; and Accounting. They are based in Tampa FL, but have clients and work with candidates all over. They also do some work with re-location, but someone has to be really good for a company to foot the bill. As you can tell I’m really proud of her and everyone who knows us, will tell you that she’s the successful one in the relationship. Now click through and give her new site some traffic and maybe she can help you get a job!

The Madison Group, Inc