So Seybold just keeps on rolling along this week, but as far as Apple-related trade shows are concerned, it's one of the only ones to escape the effects of the recent terrorist attacks. Just over a week ago, Apple announced that, due to concerns for the safety of its staff and its customers, it was canceling the Apple Expo, which was slated to begin today in Paris. (Despite the meatspace cancellation, the show's organizers have made a valiant attempt to launch an "online expo" in its stead.) Steve's insistence that there would be "no new hardware products" in Paris couldn't have been more prescient.

And the conference upheaval doesn't end there; Apple has just issued a press release to state that QuickTime Live! 2001, originally scheduled to open on October 8th, just isn't going to happen-- at least, not yet. While the Apple Expo was canceled outright, QTLive! is simply being postponed. Presumably this is because the possibility of impending U.S. military action makes the prospect of safe travel to France sketchy for an unknown length of time, whereas the greatest threat to human safety in Beverly Hills (the site of QTLive!) is when that jerk Steve Sanders spikes Brandon's punch, he winds up drinking like a fish, drives drunk, crashes his car, and gets arrested before Dylan drags him to an AA meeting. At least, so we gather from our extensive research of the area.

Why the rescheduling? As you probably guessed, and as confirmed by Phil Schiller, "many QuickTime developers and customers asked [Apple] to reschedule QuickTime Live to a less stressful time." Apple, always happy to help, obligingly moved the event to next February 10-14. There are just two potential snags with that new date, however. The first is that "QuickTime Live! 2001" is now going to take place in 2002, which may cause the heads of some of the more numerically uptight people out there to catch fire from the inside. Moreover, simply renaming the event with the proper year means that there will be two "QuickTime Live! 2002" conferences next year, which is hardly better. Frankly, we don't see any solution to a problem of this magnitude. Clearly we're all doomed.

However, assuming that Apple is somehow immune to the debilitating effects that such a heinous date inconsistency can inflict on a logical mind, there's another iffy thing about Apple's replacement dates. In rescheduling QTLive! to a "less stressful time," the company has, perhaps unwittingly, stuck the show right on top of Valentine's Day-- which, as many people will attest, is not exactly a stress-free time to be away from the loved ones at a tech conference. (We're anticipating a lot of upset significant others.) Granted, the stress level of being AWOL during a smoochy Hallmark holiday pales in comparison to that of the aftermath of planes crashing into buildings, but what doesn't? All we're saying is that if Apple really wanted to keep its customers relaxed, it would have rescheduled the show for, say, mid-January. In the Bahamas.