Long time readers will recall a post headlined "Tent blogging" from my trip this summer, when of course I couldn't post without signal, but I could write in a tent, and hey, what a world, y'know? So now I'm convention center blogging, at Down 2 Earth, the consumer-focused green living show this weekend in Boston. And here, they have signal, and I can post immediately.

So how does it feel from your side of the transaction. So far, I mean?

The show seems to have been well received. There were small crowds last night for the Friday 5-10 p.m. portion, and today is much more robust — not Consumer Electronics Show nuttiness, or even New Orleans Jazz Fest overrun, but clear, broad interest in the subject.

The event has little of the trade-show cheesiness you can fairly well expect to find at these things, in part because of the show's stated intention not to let greenwashers into the show. I trust that this was done vigorously because I know the staffer who was working on it, and I have to say it was comforting, when coming up to a booth that might have seemed suspect, that someone had sincerely vetted the representations.

Among what's here:
* Second Rotation, which establishes (or assesses) market value of used electronics, and offers to pay for them. They they sell to a secondary market, or disassemble for parts and sell what has value.

* Boston Community Change, which has established sort of an ecosystem of commerce in which people who enroll both get a discount on their purchases and get to direct another amount to a designated charitable beneficiary. Companies that enroll get an expanded customer base. All the businesses, 170 so far, are in Boston, but 20 percent of the roughly 2,500 card holders are from outside the city. And 600 charities are gettting new revenue, and can enlist new cardholders to raise funds.

* Artists for Humanity, who are showing tables formed from rolled up magazines and rubber bands, and hardened by VOC-free resins. It's a taste I have quite acquired yet, but I like knowing that artists are at work trying to combine aesthetic and eco-conscious drives.

Somewhat less impressive, perhaps only to a teetotaler like me, was the vodka purveyor whose vodka is undoubtedly top notch, but its only green claim is that it designed its packaging to use less resources. That's better than not, and of course everything is relative, but to my thinking, that might qualify them to sit in the lobby.

Bill McKibben speaks in 10 minutes, and I have to go feed the meter beforehand. ... Yes, I drove, OK? But at least I brought the Prius.