Last night my latest quartet of eBay auctions ended in a barrage of sniper fire; this morning the retail behemoth that is Krazee Dealz has added Fukuoka, Japan to his list of sales territories!

Mr. Limbaugh goes on to praise Apple's new "Jaguire" OS (aww...) but can't resist referring to the Apple CEO as a "Clinton-loving democrat". Ouch!

I spent a couple more minutes poking around the right-wing website, but got scared when I came across the no-such-thing-as-global-warming t-shirt.

Booking my Aeroplan rewards vacation was a two hour, nail-biting affair. I decided to go as far as my 100K points would take me, even though I've been told that visiting Sydney is like being in Toronto on the other side of the world. No matter -- at least my dollars are worth more!

I took advantage of my one allowed stopover to book an extra two days in Hawaii. Then the trouble started. The departure dates were fine, but it looked like I would stuck in Australia much longer than I wanted to stay. The helpful Aeroplanneuse (working at the Montreal office) tried everything: Sydney to Vancouver, Sydney to San Francisco, Sydney to Los Angeles, then Sydney to Auckland to Vancouver, Auckland to San Fran and so on. Just as a flight home was found, my cordless phone went dead!

I waited a few minutes for a return call to ring through on my cell, then frantically called back, only to be put on hold for ten minutes before connecting to another agent in Toronto, who of course had no idea who I'd been previously talking to. We managed to rebuild my itinerary up to my return, then the line inexplicably dropped again!

I called a third time, and after another ten minutes connected to someone in the Vancouver office. First thing I did was verify that she had my correct phone number on file; she didn't, which explains why I didn't get any calls back from the other reps. Then we rebuilt my itinerary again (this time with flight numbers), but the only way I could get home was from Sydney to Honolulu, then to Los Angeles, then to Phoenix, then T.O. Worst part is, I have to fly economy class from L.A. to Phoenix. So get ready, United Airlines Flight #6931, on August 26th someone's gonna be cranky!

Selling the iPod to Windows users is a no-brainer, but a bigger victory would have been scored with a Windows version of iTunes. Apple's commitment to Bluetooth is promising, but I question their positioning of the iPod as a quasi-PDA -- what good is having a calendar on the thing if you can't make changes to it in the field? The re-branding of iTools as a paid service is certainly unfortunate, and I couldn't help but snicker every time Steve said "Jaguire".

But the best thing about the keynote for me was that for the first time I could watch all of it without the stream freezing up on me. Now that's progress!

The user interface is but one of the things I'm digging about my new Treo. Another is browsing the wireless Internet on a nice, big screen (relative to most cell phones) in full colour (relative to most cell phones). If only there was more to browse! I sent an email to the folks at FilmCan, asking for their wireless address. Turns out I'm not allowed to have it, because they've stupidly made a deals to provide their content only through strategic partners. This type of thinking is going to kill the mobile Internet before it ever gets off the ground. Imagine for a moment, if you could only read the New York Times through an AOL connection, or The Globe & Mail if you were a Sympatico customer?

A mobile site ain't all that hard to do, for chrissakes; in fact, I bet I could do one up myself with software I already have. If you want me to prove it, send me an email with a description of your wireless device; If I get enough bites I'll get to work!

All those cable, server and storage companies were as dull as ever, but they at least fulfill a basic need for the IT people that buy them. For the casual show-goer (and free pass-scammer) like myself, exhibitors like eBay Canada and Palm promised to be much more interesting, that is until you actually sat down for one of their lame presentations!

Let's start with eBay "University": Either the people at eBay think we're all fucking retarded, or the people who use eBay are indeed fucking retarded. For twenty minutes some asshole plodded through a PowerPoint filled with loads of useful information. For example, did you know you could either browse or search for an item on eBay? Omigod, what an age we live in! Thankfully, the guy could barely get through his list of other wank-bits, as some crazy woman kept interrupting to demand additional ballots for her chance to win a free eBay toilet paper caddy, or similarly worthless swag.

Over at the Palm booth, the presenter tried to keep interest up by handing out T-shirts for attendees with specific Palm models. After asking to see an original Pilot or Pilot Pro, he pointed out that one overly-enthusiastic Palm user was actually holding up an m100 model. Then came a call for a Palm V, followed shortly after by: "actually, sir, that's an m100". Then a call for an m500, and a "once again sir, that's an m100". I was praying for the presenter to go postal and bludgeon the guy to death with his own handheld, but it didn't happen.

Fido's booth was particularly weak, trying to entice new subscribers with the cheapest-looking Nokia covers I've ever seen. At least I got the opportunity to chat with a fellow actor, who's shilling for the dog on the side. But the folks over at Zero Gravity definitely had it goin' on, being the only Canadian resellers of unlocked Treos, and promising to offer circuit-switched data, at least until Handspring releases a GPRS patch.

On the subject of GPRS, I got a good laugh from Digital Mobile Solutions, one of Fido's strategic partners, or some bullshit like that. I told him he was crazy for thinking anyone with Rogers Hi-Speed or Sympatico HSE would fork over another $40/month for an unlimited GPRS access plan. His reply: "A full-time GPRS connection can replace Rogers or Sympatico." I made him prove it, challenging him to download 3 MB of QuickTime video from this site using a Bluetooth to GPRS connection. Five minutes later the page hadn't even loaded, never mind the video, and a crowd of people led by yours truly moved on.

Okay, enough gadget talk. As a public service for my main man Al Howell, I hereby command you to watch The Sin City pilot Friday night at 7PM Eastern on CBC, then tell 'em how much you liked it afterwards. In his infinite wisdom, George Anthony & co. have apparently decided that television programming is best left to common folk like you and me... Otherwise somebody at "Canada's Own" would have to have an opinion, or heaven forbid, make an actual decision...

I'll be checking out some other toys at COMDEX today, then heading up to cottage country tomorrow. Last night was my only chance to do any Fringing. My advice? If you can only see one thing, this is the thing to see!

That's way more hits than my first-ever listing on eBay has been getting. I thought I could have some fun by creating a new online persona there, so I changed my handle from "andrewcurrie" to "krazee_dealz" and wrote some copy worthy of a thirteen year-old gearhead.

But then, after all that hard work, eBay decides to list my regular email address with the item! It makes sense for security and all, but come on, what's the fun of pretending to be a moron if you can't do it anonymously?!