I’ve never been to CES but I have been to enough trade shows to know what a pain in the ass they are for both the attendees and booth operators. You scum around all day feigning interest in Company D’s products with the hope that you’ll get an invite to their party that evening. At the party, it’s a sales puke sausage fest with hired local talent to entertain you into more interest in Company D’s products. The end result – you’re creating a quantity 1000 purchase order for a product that nobody probably needs but that you now have QTY 1000 reasons for them to buy. It’s an ugly circle that surrounds CES and other trade shows and ultimately, it’s about consumption.
That’s why it was nice to read Matt Honan’s post on Gizmodo about his take on CES 2012. Here’s a portion:
I try to remember all the products I’ve talked about that I won’t even bother to cover—and that nobody’s going to buy. There were some Bluetooth speakers. Or maybe they were WiFi. But there was definitely a helmet cam. And a waterproof phone. And a tablet and an ultrabook and an OLED TV. There was ennui [weariness] upon ennui [lack of interest] upon ennui [boredom] set in this amazing temple to technology.An executive in a really nice suit from an up-and-coming display company tells me they plan to ship a half a million units this year. I try to figure out how much that is in kilograms of rare earth metals, but I can’t.
The full article is a great read and accurately reports the effect of trade shows like CES. It’s all about the “want” in consumption and not about the need of it.
Jubbling gambled and lost and let this one slip through; the nation of Zimbawe has banned the import and sale of used knickers/underwear. Spearheading this effort was Tendai Biti, Finance Minister for the Movement of Democratic Change, who said:
The whole Buy Nothing New is not an original idea but it sure is simple and brilliant. 
The day finally arrived – after 7 years delivering a little holiday magic, we decided to retire our sparse but well-loved Potted Living Christmas Tree to give it a chance to recover. I dropped the ball this summer and didn’t water Potted Living Christmas Tree the 4 weeks we had sun. It’s now on life-support and has lost more than half of its pine needles due to missed waterings. Bringing it inside would probably be the last straw. My kids will miss the potted tree but the wife, not so much. Only being able to keep the Potted Living Christmas Tree inside for 2 weeks wasn’t enough (my next wife won’t mind) so she was also against getting a living replacement. Plastic tree? Isn’t that the anti-Jubbling? It doesn’t have to be.
At the front of the store, looking like the fraternity rejects in 
Want to get the sticker and wax off that apple or cucumber at the same time? You may be able to in the near future thanks to 
Blank us on ......