As I may have mentioned a few thousand times, I am a Starbucks-card-carrying fan of what's new, what's next, what's twinkling in some myopic geek's eye. (Note: this mantra does not apply to my actual clothing, unless the uber-stylish Shuffle can be considered apparel.)

So imagine my blood pressure now that the official countdown to CES has begun. Yes, the annual overstuffed smorgasbord of the brand-spanking-new is less than ten days away. All over Las Vegas, cabbies and cocktail waitresses are shuddering in anticipation of geek-style tips and customers in bad T-shirts lugging 40-lb schwag bags. The 40th Consumer Electronics Show --or as it is now rather grandly known -- International CES -- opens on January 8, 2007. 150,000+ attendees are expected, including a growing number of international visitors, along with a parade of bigwigs from Bill Gates to Michael Dell, Disney's Bob Iger and CBS Les Moonves.

I am wondering how it will compare to last year's EEMU (Entertainment-Electronics Mash-Up), starring among others, Sir Howard Stringer of Sony and most of the cast of the DaVinci Code, that is, Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, Dan Brown and Brian Grazer. As tends to be the way with these shindigs, Tom Hanks and his odd hairdo pretty much upstaged Sir Howard's eloquence about the Sony Reader, the PlayStation Portable and HD expertise.

Stay tuned.

Well, it's almost a new year so I guess it's a good time to start a new Daily Bee. Somehow in the switch from old Blogger to Blogger beta, a big batch of posts vanished mysteriously. It's my own damn fault. It's not like I haven't been a beta tester for a zillion years. I know the consequences and still I can't resist. I am perpetually hooked on the next thing. New is my nirvana.

So welcome to the new Daily Bee. Enjoy the buzz.