What a weird experience. Everything here--even the InteropNet (formerly eNet) folks--is quite calm. No emergencies. No one going crazy (except for Jim, but we'll get back to that later). Just stuff happening at a pretty leisurely pace.

We got here yesterday to start setting up the Labs. My flight was delayed, so Jan and Joel did the vast majority of the work. Once again they have me wondering what my value is in the equation, but I'll do what I can... We had power, tables (the tops had to be redone), and gear. Joel came up with the idea of zip-tying the power stips just under the table tops, so we don't have to fish around for power on the floor. That gives us a bunch of extra room for storage under the tables, too (our tables are three counters wide, giving us a center (empty storage) and two sides (non-empties and other needed stuff).

The NAP stuff rotted in the crates, so Carig and Kevin are wrestling with it. Last I heard, they were blowing away the changes that an unnamed vendor made earlier today by restoring a backup from Hot Stage. It doesn't help that Microsoft decided that they couldn't afford to have any of their NAP engineers here. It's only a third of our demonstration...

Meanwhile, at InteropLabs CORE, Stradtman is doing an excellent job following in the footsteps of TEFKAS (the engineer formerly known as Swanson, for those of you who have forgotten), by hanging off a 15' ladder by his toenails while stringing cables into the green room. Of course, I was the one standing on a chair to help. No, it wasn't a wheeled chair, Chris. He did give the safety speech, though. In fact, as I type this, he did step up onto a wheeled chair. I made him get off and use a non-wheeled chair. I have to stop to make sure he doesn't get stupid, again...