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With its flashing lights and flashy night life, Las Vegas is a Mecca for weirdness. A little over a week ago, it was also a Mecca for computer geeks. While it’s true that gearheads don’t really engage in much of a night life, they can certainly relate to blinking lights. That might explain why nearly a quarter-million of them were able to do last week what even the Mafia has failed to do: They brought Vegas to its knees.

:The event that brought all these people together was Comdex; it’s the Woodstock of the digital age—except that it happens twice a year, costs about $300, and prohibits anyone younger than 18 from browsing the convention floor. For smaller companies with cutting-edge products, it can be a make-or-break moment. For conventioneers, it’s one long week of endless eye candy and a huge helping of promotional items.

As everyone knows, computers are prone to foul-ups, breakdowns, and complications—and the same could be said of Comdex. The phone service in Las Vegas, already strained by local usage, took a couple of regularly scheduled nose dives during the convention. And while you might think that mathematics-minded folks might do well at the blackjack tables, the Las Vegas gaming commission estimates that it took in about 50 percent more than average during the week.

Despite being billed as the world’s biggest computer convention, Comdex seemed to be packed with fewer computers than normal this year. Taking up much of that space were consumer appliances. Wireless communications company Uniden debuted a prototype of the Axis telephone, which comes in both wired and wireless versions. The slim, shapely unit comes with a keyboard and color screen for sending e-mail, keeping to-do lists, and receiving continuous news updates. Available next February, the Axis will cost no more than $399.

One look at the picture on the wall in Hitachi’s booth would have caused both artists and interior decorators to do a double take: The Japanese electronics giant has developed a computer monitor and television screen that can be hung like a painting. It’s called the Ovation, and it’s only 3 inches deep; despite being so slim, it can manage a 25-inch-wide picture. It’s not quite ready for prime time yet, but by the end of next year, you’ll be able to tack one to your wall for around $10,000.

For geeks interested in accessorizing, several companies, including Rockwell and VIA, offered some interesting products. Far and away the best of the bunch was Xybernaut’s Mobile Assistant II, a contoured gray fanny pack weighing in at just 2 pounds. Coupled with a bit of high-tech headgear that looks like a set of headphones attached to an optometrist’s scope, it can respond to voice commands and input tapped in via a couple of buttons on the waist pack. You too can compute in style for only $7,995.

All the neat new gadgets and toys kept the crowd at a fever pitch, despite some bad news that surfaced during this week of unadulterated electronic bliss. CompuServe, which debuted its Wow! online service for families just a few months ago, told conventioneers that the service is now a goner. Too starved for revenues to continue promoting Wow! and its regular service at the same time, the Ohio-based company decided it would chop off a leg so that it could save the body. It’s still not clear, though, whether the move will actually save CompuServe, as recent trends in the market seem to indicate that something is terribly wrong in Columbus.

Not that it caused any problems for other companies promoting their online wares: Central to the show this year, of course, was a laundry list of new products designed to use, receive, transmit, view, process, route, fold, spindle, and mutilate the Internet. Nearly every manufacturer had something ’Net-ready available, or at least in development. Sun Microsystems, touting its much heralded “network computer,” wowed the crowds with its Javastation. The relatively inexpensive computer (with prices as low as $900) is one of a stable of user-friendly new devices.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft—whose own network computer, the NetPC, still appears to be a pipe dream—demonstrated a new version of Windows called Windows CE. Basically a modified Windows 95, it allows a user to navigate the system by scribbling on a specially manufactured touchscreen. While it created plenty of advance sizzle, many users dubbed Windows CE a flop after noting that, unlike Apple Computer’s hand-held Newton model, it couldn’t recognize handwriting.

Speaking of the Newton, Apple showed a new commitment to the so-called “palmtop” market with its latest development. Both the eMate 300 and the Newton Messagepad 2000 made a splashy debut at Comdex. Priced at just under $1,000 each, both the items include e-mail software and much more in a box that packs the punch of a very fast RISC processor called the StrongARM.

Perhaps the most surprising development of the entire week was one that didn’t even occur in Las Vegas: The normally gun-shy Microsoft CEO Bill Gates made a rare public appearance on The Tonight Show. Gates, whose social skills are generally regarded to be somewhat less-than-average, had given a somewhat tepid keynote speech at Comdex earlier that week. We can assume that he didn’t wager any of his $18 billion fortune on the craps table.

Joel Moses can be reached via e-mail at joel@moses.com.