McCarran Wireless

McCarran Airport in Las Vegas recently started offering free wi-fi. That's great and all, but they've got it so locked down you can't do much with it. I can't connect to any instant messaging servers and I can't get my e-mail via secure IMAP from work. I was eventually able to get the e-mail by tunneling through our VPN, but still no solution for the instant messaging. I've still got an hour until my flight leaves, and while web access is better than nothing, denying e-mail and IM traffic is absurd. Update: It's also slooow as molasses. I've got pretty good signal strength, but am getting completely erratic connections. They put this in for the CES show that started today, and as far as I'm concerned, it's a failure.

The Dam Tour

My friend Jeremy and I are off to Hoover Dam today to take the dam tour with the dam guide. It's rainy here in Vegas, but we'll be inside, so it's a good day to do it.

The Aviator

We caught a matinee of The Aviator yesterday here in Vegas. It's a great film, and even though it's three hours long, I never got bored. As much as it pains me to say it, Leonardo DiCaprio does a great job as Howard Hughes, but Cate Blanchett really stole the film as Katherine Hepburn, in my opinion. The aircraft in the film all looked great, even though I knew they were computer generated, it was hard to tell. This is definitely an Oscar contender, as are DiCaprio and Blanchett, in my book. If you're not a geek, don't worry, this isn't an "airplane" movie, it's more of a personal drama about Hughes. The aviation in the movie is more of the backdrop against which the story of his life is told, though there were people clapping in the theatre once the Spruce Goose took flight. Personally, I liked the showdown with Senator Brewster (Alan Alda) even more.

If you want to read Roger Ebert's review, it's here.

DVR for Dad

I helped my dad hook up a Dish 508 DVR system last night. It was an old one of mine that I didn't need since I left Dish for our local cable company this fall. I liked satellite TV, but they can't deliver local channels in High-Def yet, and I really wanted that. I had no idea what model numbers his Dish and switch were, and i was relieved to find that it just worked. He even points at the same satellites here as I did in Iowa, so after swapping out the boxes, all we had to do was call Dish and have them activate the new unit, reboot the box once, and we were in business. Now I just have to teach him how to use it. My dad is one of those people who actually reads instruction manuals, and I have no idea where the one for my 508 went, as I never read it...

In the Southwest

I arrived into Las Vegas last night, via Allegiant Air. It was the first time I'd flown that low-cost carrier, as they started offering flights from Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Sioux Falls and Madison to Vegas this year. I'd fly them again. The planes were new and clean, all the seats were leather, and there was a lot more leg room than on my Lufthansa flight to Europe. If you're going to/from Vegas, check their site for pricing, as they don't seem to show up on Orbitz/Expedia/Travelocity. Their web site design rather sucks, but the price was right. I woke up before everyone else this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find that MSN has a local dial-up number for Sandy Valley, the small town outside of Las Vegas where my parents' house is. I knew AOL had put in a local number here last year, but I use MSN when I travel, and I didn't feel like waking up mom and dad to get their password for their AOL account. The phone lines out here in the sticks only will let me connect at 28.8, but at least I don't have to pay long distance any more...