Teenage boys darted from one hall to the next, picking up freebies: umbrellas, CDs and gimme hats. A maintenance worker snagged Lotus Notes and headed for the Microsoft Pavillion to see what he might find. But Microsoft was already buttoned up tight.

Loud pulsing rock from the tops of the pavillions announced the wrap parties getting underway. Private security guards appeared, taking up their stations in the forest of equipment. Everywhere, champagne was popping and cases of beer were being cracked as exhausted exhibitors, ties askew, munched cookies and fruit and tossed back cold ones to celebrate the end of the biggest show to date -- early estimate: 640,000. Empties lined up on the counters where monitors were arrayed minutes earlier.

As the sun goes down, the digital society gives way to old-fashioned commerce. "They made us give them our shirts!" reports one of the young women manning the TIME booth. "They what?" "The maintenance men! They said they could not take away our trash unless we gave them the TIME Digital shirts we were wearing!" So they went inside and changed their clothes. This is beginning to sound like Chicago, except it is more efficient.

The vast show emptied so fast in the waning light that there was not even a line at the taxi stand where usually at this time, up to 300 people would be queued up.

"So now you all go home?" asked a driver. "This is good. I will go to the airport now." Somewhere on the grounds, top-ranking freight-handlers were preparing for the traditional post-CeBIT equipment sale. "My brother got a very good computer last year," said one Hanover resident. "Cheap."

-- Janice Castro