If you're far from the madding crowd at CES and wishing you weren't, you can ease the pain in one of three ways: 1) Hop on a plane and join us (you'll probably have to fly standby at this point; 2) Read CNET's coverage; or 3) indulge in some schadenfreude.
Las Vegas' biggest trade show of the year makes Disneyland look like a day at the spa. Say you got dropped off by a cab at the back of South Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center (henceforth, LVCC), and say your badge is at the CNET booth at the front of South Hall. What would you do? Logically, either walk through the hall or around the hall.
Without a badge, walking through was not an option for me this morning, so I asked for directions to walk around the building. The friendly badge police told me that I could pick up a shuttle (just to get to the other side of the same building). I asked if I could walk. They conferred and decided that walking was too dangerous. I said I would try walking anyway and asked for directions to get around the loading docks. They politely declined.
Seriously. They wouldn't let me walk around the building.
I decided to try anyway since the shuttle line rivaled the line at the McCarran Airport taxi stand, and the friendly security folks at the docks let me in. Sure, I had to drag my suitcase the quarter-mile length of the building (see photo), but at least I got some quality alone time.