Reprinted from TidBITS#960/13-Jan-09 with permission.
Copyright (C) 2009, TidBITS. All rights reserved.
http://www.tidbits.com/

Fun Stuff at Macworld 2009
--------------------------
  by TidBITS Staff <editors@tidbits.com>
  article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10001>

  It's impossible to convey just how much fun can be had at Macworld
  Expo, but darn it, we're going to try, with these brief snapshots of
  clever events, cool demos, and neat people.


**Most Pervasive Tchotchke** -- The giveaways seemed pretty sparse at
  Macworld Expo this year, but one freebie stood head and shoulders
  above the rest, literally. Peachpit Press was giving away free bunny
  ears to promote the Visual QuickStart Guide bunny logo. Wearers
  could win iPhones and iTunes gift certificates. Although it was a
  clever idea, even Peachpit's staff were amazed at how popular the
  fuzzy pink ears turned out to be. They gave away over 700 pairs of
  ears in the first few hours of the show, and ran out of a subsequent
  300 pairs the next day. You could see bunny ears not only on the
  show floor, but in restaurants surrounding Moscone. Interestingly,
  Peachpit chose not to put their name on the ears, thus forcing
  everyone who wanted a pair to ask where they'd come from. [JLC]

<http://www.peachpit.com/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-01/bunny_ears.jpg>


**Best Audience Participation** -- DriveSavers, the folks who can
  disassemble crashed drives and often extract their vital data, had a
  nifty demonstration where they drafted a passer-by to act as a "disk
  doctor." I was walking by and the DriveSavers booth staffer had
  equipped what appeared to be a regular attendee as a clean room
  technician, and used the Socratic method to elicit responses as he
  helped the "doctor" disassemble a sealed drive mechanism. A
  microphone and speakers allowed observers to hear what dust spinning
  on a drive does to the read/write heads as the specks bang into
  them. Remember, we love what the DriveSavers folks do, but they'll
  be the first to encourage you to back up instead, since their
  services aren't cheap. [GF]

<http://www.drivesavers.com/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-01/drivesavers.jpg>


**Best CHOCK LOCK** -- The 100-foot-tall Craig Hockenberry, who
  strides the floor of Macworld Expo like a colossus, is a very funny
  man, as well as one of the principals of Iconfactory, most recently
  known for the desktop and iPhone/iPod touch versions of Twitterrific
  and Frenzic. Hockenberry, seen here crushing Bare Bones founder Rich
  Siegel (himself 99 feet tall) into the show floor, has spread a
  hilarious meme via Twitter about the CHOCK LOCK, a morphable
  description of practically any behavior. [GF]

<http://iconfactory.com/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-01/chockenberry.jpg>
<http://twitter.com/chockenberry>


**Largest Digital Project** -- Artist Bert Monroy described his latest
  project to me at the Peachpit Press party: It's a 25-foot-long
  photo-realistic mural he's creating in Photoshop that's so large and
  complicated he expects to spend another two and a half years working
  on the project - and has already stretched the limits of Adobe's
  Creative Suite products to the breaking point. Monroy's source file
  is over 11.5 GB flattened, and his next steps will quadruple the
  current file size. [GF]

<http://www.bertmonroy.com/fineart/text/fineart_damen.htm>