McCarran Wireless

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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 Aviator

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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

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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...