My Fulbright Year in Taiwan

The big computer trade show Computex opened in Taipei today. I managed to get admission to the show, based on my status as an academic. In contrast to academic conferences, admission to the show was free for me.

The show itself was like being in the computer section of a Best Buy store, times one thousand. I saw a lot of cool emerging technology, like 3D computer monitors, color e-ink readers, touchscreens of every size and shape, tiny video cameras that you can stick to your fridge and record video notes for your kids, and about a thousand different kind of computer mouse. Completely absent from the show were optical drives (not even a Blu-Ray).

And booth babes were everywhere. Ah, the booth babes. For those of you who don’t know what a booth babe is, it’s a young attractive lady dressed to the nines, whose sole purpose is to attract your eyeballs to the booth. While Chinese booth babes aren’t as buxom as they are in the States, the same effect is achieved.

The highlight of my visit came in the morning. I saw a huge group of press near a booth, so I figured there was either some bigwig from the technology world, or a local politician. It turned out to be the latter. The President of the Republic of China, Ma Ying-jiu 馬英九, made a brief appearance at the show. He walked right past where I was standing. Seeing him in person again was even more cool than seeing all the electronic gizmos!