At the baggage carousel. Yes, some people still check their luggage. I had no idea either.

Roadies from the convenience store while waiting in the Mirage lobby. Everyone else had finished theirs on the cab ride. *cough* lightweight *cough*

Our first room had a view of the strip. I tried to take a picture but was extremely nervous that my iPhone was going to take a 21 story ride.

But finally, success.

Sin City at the Venetian. This is up some stairs from the casino floor in some kind of mall. It’s like a lunch counter, but it’s a bar. It worked for us.

The Venetian blackjack tables were not kind to me, so back up to Sin City where at least I know where my losses are going.

See that line drawing of John Lennon on the side of the bus. I wanted to tell you the history of it, but busses don’t have colophons so I wasn’t able to find it. I had a client in my KPMG days that was a apparel maker outside of St. Louis. They licensed that drawing to sell on apparel. I once owned a t-shirt with that image on it. How and why I got a t-shirt from my client is another story.

People dress in costumes and you can take your picture with them for money. We saw quite a few of these…I don’t know what to call them…hobos? When the Spongebob lady took her costume off, we all about died of fright. Not too many people look better with a big square sponge obfuscating most of their body, but she was the exception.

Fremont Street, which I think people call “downtown”. Downtown has cheap beer and low minimums at the tables. Not cheaper beer, like cheaper than the strip, but cheap beer as in $2 Coronas. The cocktail waitress are all pushing 60 and underneath that pancake is a tired woman with no pension. A little said, don’t you think? We took over a blackjack table at the Golden Nugget and one at “D” (formerly Fitzgerald’s). It’s a lot more fun when the whole table is people you know. Michele learned how to play blackjack while Brian stepped away. When he came back, the stack of chips was actually bigger.

The bath fan in our first room started leaking water. Then it started pouring water. I gave them an opportunity to fix it, which they totally botched. Then I gave them an opportunity to avoid seeing me at the front counter, which they hurriedly accepted. The gave us a new room; pool view as you can see. They also gave us $100 food and beverage credit for our trouble. We couldn’t use it. Seriously, even with the prices at the Mirage, they didn’t have enough bars and restaurants open for us to use the whole credit. It’s Vegas and bars are closing at midnight?

It was a good trip. I’m entirely too old for that much beer and that little sleep. I played craps for the first time in about 10 years and won. There’s nothing better than a hot roller at a craps table. Katy was standing next to me and I was explaining the game. Every time this guy rolled I got paid (playing pass, odds, six and eight, and a few hard ways). She thought it must be the easiest game ever – and that’s how they get you.

On the last night we had dinner at the Strip House – upstairs at Planet Hollywood. It’s a pretty nice restaurant. I’m a little surprised they let me in wearing a tshirt and a ball cap, but that’s Vegas. I don’t have any pictures, but I had a 6oz filet and 1/2 of a 2lb lobster tail with steamed asparagus and potatoes Romanoff. It was the absolute best dinner I can ever remember having. That may be because I have a bad memory, but it was a damn good meal and everyone was sick of me talking about it.

• My main desktop at home
• My laptop at home
• My laptop at work
• My home theater PC
• My iPhone
• My iPad
• Nancy’s laptop
• Other people at work’s computers
• Any place with the internet

One of the main advantages for me is that I have access to certain files wherever I am. I can be working in Dayton and have access to files on my home computer. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s damn useful when you need it. I was at First National Bank and I needed to know an exact figure. I thought I was going to have come back another day, but remembered that I had a document in my Dropbox folder with the information. I fired up the Dropbox app and got what I needed.

Recently I signed up for the beta test of their newest software. It automatically puts any photos from my iPhone, iPad, or camera into a special Dropbox folder. I can make anything in that folder or subfolders public – like a slideshow – if I want. For instance, I can right click on my SouthBend folder and choose Copy Public Gallery Link and get this. This is the easiest and best photo sharing software around.

Speaking of photo sharing, anything that goes into my Dropbox folder is automatically shared with my home theater PC. That PC shows photos when it’s idle, like a screen saver. I don’t have to do anything, just sync my iPhone and my Vegas photos are already in the rotation.

I made Nancy get an account and it’s how she and I share files across computers. We have different accounts, but you can share folders with other Dropbox users.

You should try Dropbox if you don’t use it already. If you do and you use this link, they will give me more free space. Oh, did I mention it’s free up to 2GB? I know this sounds like shameless promotion. It’s not. I don’t care if you click that link or go straight to dropbox.com and cut me out. It’s a great service and well worth your time to try.

The soldering went well with one exception. I made a real mess of one of the solder joints and my wicking skills aren’t there yet.

It didn’t take any real skill to build this kit, just following instructions. However, following instructions that are only 95% correct added just enough challenge. I’d say the two most important qualities a person should have to build this kit are patience and tiny fingers. Those 2.5mm hex nuts did not work well with my generally chubby digits.

Here are two breathtaking videos of my latest creation.

The surface is the back of Christmas wrapping paper. The track is electrical tape cut to half width. Full width electrical tape was too wide and the Sharpie was not black enough.

Next up is the Sparkfun Inventor’s Kit for Arduino. My goal is to build something with that in less than 13 months.

Jessica the cat loved the organic cat food. And I love getting free stuff even if it’s not for me.

And I built a home theater PC. After I read this post at Coding Horror, I decided to do it for myself. It was far easier to do than I imagined. I installed Windows Media Center on the PC, which allows me to use the PC as a DVR – recording any TV signal that I can receive into the computer. And with a 1TB hard drive, I can record a hell of lot more high definition golf coverage than I could on the tiny 80GB DVR I was renting from Cox.

My original plan was to run the cable into the computer and just use the computer as a higher capacity DVR. The cable signal needs to be decoded so I still needed a cable box. I couldn’t run the cable directly to the computer and getting from the cable box to the computer wasn’t easy and wasn’t worth it. I looked at CableCards thinking that I could rent one and install it in the computer, but it turns out that’s not what CableCards are. They’re meant to be installed in televisions that accept CableCards, not PCs.

Instead of cable, I bought a $40 digital antenna from Radio Shack. That runs directly into the two tuners on my Hauppauge digital tuner card that I have install in the PC. Of course my channels are limited to whatever I can get over the air: NBC, CBS, ABC, CW, Fox, and PBS. For the past year, we’ve had cable and the antenna. I could switch the inputs, like I would when I switched from cable to a DVD player, and I could watch either Cox or my HTPC.

Prior to building the HTPC, I had a DVR, a DVD player, and a Wii (for Netflix streaming) hooked into the A/V receiver. The HTPC has a Blu-Ray player, so the DVD player was moved to a different TV. Netflix runs right through Windows Media Center, so the Wii was moved to the bedroom TV and that cable box was returned. Now that the DVR is gone, the only thing hooked up to the A/V receiver is the HTPC. I could go directly to the TV, but the AVR gives me surround sound, so it stays.

All of this equipment lives in my basement. When the AVR was first installed, HDMI cables long enough to connect it to my TV either didn’t exist or were prohibitively expensive, so I installed component cables. Now you can get a 75 foot HDMI cable for $100 so I replaced my component cables with HDMI. I did that last July when it was 1000 degrees in my attic – not fun. Yes, I have to go up a wall into the attic then down to the TV. If my TV wasn’t directly over a fireplace, I could use a much shorter cable. I’m considering moving all that stuff up to the laundry room so I can use short cables and so I don’t have to go downstairs to put in a DVD, but it’s working fine for now.

The remote control that ships with the Hauppauge tuner card turned out to be a massive piece of crap. When it died, we went a different route. We bought the HippoRemote iPhone app to control Windows Media Center, Firefox, and just about anything else we want. It uses VNC (like Remote Desktop) over Wifi to control the computer. As long as one of our phones or the iPad is handy, we have a remote.

When we’re not watching something, Windows Media Center scrolls through photos from our photo library.

Here’s what Windows Media Center look like.

What are we missing? Well, for all it’s flaws Cox Cable is pretty damn reliable. We rarely ever had to reboot the cable box and there was nothing else running on it that would interfere, like Windows Update. And then there’s content. Now that football season is over, losing ESPN and the BTN isn’t such a big deal. But come September I may be singing a different tune (or signing up for cable again). Comedy Central, TBS, TNT, and the Golf Channel will also be missed. Are they worth $80 per month? Time will tell. We didn’t have HBO or any other premium channels, so nothing lost there.

If the end result is that we watch less TV, that’s probably not such a bad thing. For now, we’ll have to live with over-the-air, Netflix, Hulu, and everything else that the internet has to offer. I think we’ll manage to find something to watch.

Excel Power Analyst Bootcamp Omaha

Microsoft MVPs Dick Kusleika (Daily Dose of Excel) and Mike Alexander (DataPig) are joining together to bring you our acclaimed Power Analyst Boot Camp!

This two-day boot camp is designed for Excel Power Analysts who are looking to more effectively build and manage better data reporting mechanisms. During this workshop, you’ll be introduced to a wide array of tips and techniques that will muscle up your skills in Data Crunching, Reporting, and Automation.

Register early to get a $150 per seat discount. Only $700 for two days of awesome training.

Here’s some of what you get:

• Gain efficiencies with powerful data crunching and spreadsheet auditing tips
• Go beyond basic analysis with advanced PivotTables techniques
• Create powerful dashboards with interactive data modeling methods
• Integrate Excel with external data sources (SQL Server, Access, Sharepoint)
• Introduce powerful new BI capabilities with PowerPivot for Excel 2010
• Implement macro-charged reporting with VBA

Also, if you didn’t know, Omaha is my home town. That doesn’t just mean that I’ll be more rested during the training, it also means the class will fill up fast as I pressure my colleagues, friends, and family to attend. Don’t wait to sign up. Register here.

This morning I received a gift. At the end of this morning’s AIM Institute Speaker Series presentation, I correctly “guessed” the number of resumes posted on careerlink.com in its 20 year history. Since I read that it was 8 million in the brochure I got an hour earlier, it wasn’t much of a guess.

On the table at the front of the room were four remaining presents. There were five presents, but someone else already guessed the answer to the first question and chose one. Of the original five presents, two we’ll call large, two medium, and one small. In fact they were all small, so the terms are relative. I’ll tell you about the large ones in a moment, but the small one was the size of a large paperback.

The first guy chose one of the large ones, opened it, and revealed a Kindle Fire. When it was my turn to choose, I was faced with a dilemma. A dilemma that normally would have been solved with some basic present opening rules. But there was a twist in that I know what one of the four presents was. Had I not known, and had I followed my own rules, I would have selected the smallest box. However I was virtually certain the other large box was a Kindle Fire and ‘large’ and ‘small’ are truly relative here. Do I go for the Fire or take my chances?

I took the Fire. The box was taped shut and there were fingerprints on the screen. Refurb? I may never know what I passed up.