Archive for December, 2006
Heading home
I’m sitting in McCarron, the airport here in Las Vegas. They’ve got free Wi-Fi which is awesome.
So I’m heading home today after a week in Vegas. Actually won a small bit of money, enough to pay for the rental car we used all week. That’s cool, one less expense to worry about when the credit […]
Off to Sin City
Tomorrow I leave for Christmas in Vegas. Got the timeshare reserved for a full week in Sin City. And I’ve got a car this time, the first time ever that I’ve had a car.
Mostly the car is because Mom’s getting too old to walk. So I’ll be driving her (and any other relatives who show […]
Harrah’s going private
Harrah’s, which owns Caesar’s among numerous gambling properties, has agreed to a private buyout for $17 billion. Personally I think that’s a bad thing, Harrah’s already was a horrible new owner for the Caesar’s Indiana. It’s not nearly as well-run now as when it was independent, there’s obvious evidence of cost-cutting going on there. I’m […]
Don’t ever use TruGreen Chemlawn
I made the mistake last summer of signing up for TruGreen Chemlawn service. It’s a scam–not only does their service do little to improve the lawn, their billing practices are obscene.
At the beginning of the summer, they supposedly billed me for the entire summer’s application. So I sent in the check and everything was fine. […]
High speed Internet indeed
I’m really impressed with Insight Broadband’s recent speed upgrade. I’ve run a few bandwidth tests and the slowest number I’ve seen is 5 Mbps. Some tests are into the 7 Mbps range.
Not of course quite the 10 Mbps they tout to the press but that’s only a theoretical speed. Getting 50% of that theoretical limit is […]
Room available for CES
If you know anybody looking for a place to stay in Las Vegas during CES 2007, let me know. My Mom has a 2-bedroom unit reserved at The Carriage House arriving January 7, leaving January 11. The people who were supposed to use it have backed out so it’s available. She’d like $500 for it but it’s negotiable I’m […]
The joys of a programmable thermostat
Okay so I know these have been around a while but with yesterday’s replacement of my furnace I finally got a programmable thermostat. And yes I’m a nerd for saying this but I love having this much automated control over the temperature in my house.
The model I got was a Honeywell 8000, with a touch-screen. It’s […]
Getting a furnace replaced is noisy
The furnace was inspected a few weeks ago and there was a hairline fracture in the heat exchanger. Not an open crack but the fracture was enough to make me nervous. I have the carbon-monoxide detectors but still I’d hate to take a chance. Sure maybe global warming will eventually make it toasty enough here […]
One advantage of global warming
So apparently the Arctic ice cap is shrinking rapidly. Scientists estimate that this year the ice covers some 2 million square kilometers less than normal. We may be close to a tipping point–as the ice melts, it exposes more ocean which absorbs more solar radiation than ice does, which means more heat which means even […]
Barry Briggs leaving CNET this week?
One of my predictions may finally be right. When Neil Ashe was elevated to the CEO role at CNET I predicted that Barry Briggs would be looking to leave pretty quickly. He was the COO, second-in-command, and yet had been passed over for the CEO job. That must have felt like a slap in the […]