Vegas - Day 1

We woke up this morning hungry and decided to try out a Vegas buffet right way. One of the best in town is at the Paris hotel which is right across the street so we made the hike over there with 30 minutes before the breakfast buffet switched to the lunch buffet. (and $10 more per person) Unfortunately, the line took longer than anticipated and we got pushed into the lunch buffet. Arrggg! The buffet food was ok. I think our experience was spoiled by recently going to Salty's - the best buffet in Seattle.

Anyways, stuffed and a little discouraged, we went over to one of those 1/2 price ticket stands just to see what was available and ended up buying tickets to see Cirque du Solei - Mystere. Pretty great way to buy tickets if you are flexible. We chose the late showing so we used up the rest of the day just walking around checking out the different hotels. The show was well worth the wait. The acrobats are amazing!! This show was the first one in Vegas so we are thinking about seeing another one before we leave. We'd really like to see "O" but tickets are $150 each and since it is the most popular show on the strip, they rarely get tickets at the 1/2 price ticket stands.

Anyways we are tired and our feet our sore so off to bed. Side note... we have to move the clocks forward on hour tonight losing an hour on our vacation...?? Boy that was poor planning. !

Vegas Arrival

We arrived in Vegas last night right on time with a pretty uneventful flight. Southwest is serving these crackers which taste pretty good and have a funny name. After landing, we jumped on a shuttle (surprisingly easy to do) and checked in at our hotel. Unfortunately, they didn't have any rooms that faced the Bellagio fountains since we checked in so late, but nevertheless our room is still incredible!! This hotel is so great because it is all non-smoking and was just built less than a year ago. Even though it was 11 pm, we decided to go out and see what was happening on the strip. We saw the Bellagio fountains which were very cool and then walked along the street. As you would expect the streets are filled with people at 11:30 at night who are very loud and obnoxious but we got used to it. By far, the funniest thing we have seen are these souvenier drink guitars that are served by the Hard Rock cafe. It is a full sized guitar that has a straw coming out of it. I can't imagine how much it might cost but it sure was funny to see people walking around drinking from their guitars.

Anyways, we are heading off this morning to go stuff ourselves at the buffet in the Paris hotel. I'm hoping to post at least once a day so keep checking back in if you want to follow! Viva Las Vegas!!

Google Birthday Calendar

I'm really liking how Google seems to be building tools that better organize contact information. The latest one that I recently discovered was the ability to show the birthdays of all your Google contacts in your Google calendar.
Kinda cool.

The option is within the Google calendar settings -> Calendars tab -> "Browse Interesting Calendars..." link

Sounders Wedding

Well I was kinda leaving my blog alone for awhile because I didn't think anybody was reading it anyways, but I seem to be getting SOME feedback from people about not posting anything in awhile, so here is an update.

Wedding:
Jennifer and I are busy trying to get everything planned out for the wedding. I'll jump on the realization bandwagon like everybody else and say that wedding planning is a lot of work! It is coming along nicely but I do miss my free time. Currently we are working on getting the details regarding the actual ceremony worked out and next on the list is finding a ring. (Although Jennifer won't let me get a Tattoo ring, I'm thinking Platinum is almost as permanent)

Seattle Sounders:
Gotta love Seattle's new major league soccer team. They have 3 shutouts and are generally kicking some butt at every game. Fans are crazy and it has become a whole lot of fun to attend the games. Now if I can just get Jennifer to change the wedding colors to Sounders colors...

That is pretty much my life besides work right now. Of course, I always have another computer tip for anybody / nobody that cares. Here you go:

Wake your computer with the Escape key:
A lot of people are used to pushing the space bar when trying to wake their computer or clicking the mouse. You might not want to do that for one main reason: Space bar can be used to click OK on confirmation dialogs. With the screensaver on, you have no idea what you are selecting "OK" to. This can be a problem if:

• A program deleted a file and was asking you to confirm
• A virus tried to access a restricted setting and windows was prompting you to confirm
• Text is selected on the screen and any keyboard key will replace the text.
  

Although none of these things are very likely, it doesnt take much work either to get in the habit of hitting Escape instead of any other key.

Anyways, thats the latest.

How to disable that annoying PC speaker beep

I've had the pleasant experience more than once where I'm sitting in a meeting quietly using my computer (with my sound muted) and there will be a windows warning that pops up causing a "Beep" sound on my computer. The sound doesn't come from my speakers, but from the speaker on the motherboard itself.
Definitely annoying and I wonder why Microsoft didn't disable this sound as well when you hit mute, but here is how you do it:

1. Right-click on "Computer" or "My Computer" from the start menu and select "Manage"
2. From the left bar, find the "Device Manager" node and select it.
3. From the top menu bar, select "View" and then "Show hidden devices". This will cause a new node named "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" to be displayed in the main area.
4. Expand the new node "Non-Plug and Play Drivers"
5. Right-click on the node named "Beep" and select "Properties"
6. Select the "Driver" tab and change the Startup Type to be "Disabled"
7. Click OK.
   

Mint.com

Loving this new website mint.com. Mint.com is an online application that manages your various accounts. (mortgage, checking, credit cards) It is a lot like the old Microsoft Money application but has a few key distinctions which makes it better if you ask me:

• Adding new accounts is easy
• Not as many options as MS Money but makes it easier to use. (if you ask me, money does a good job of providing an option for everything.... problem is that makes things overly complicated and confusing)
• Always online.

Here are the reason's why I love mint.com

• "Transaction's" view which shows transactions across all the accounts you have.
  
• Each transaction is automatically categorized. (I always hated categorizing everything in MS money just so I could see what I have been spending in each area) MS money does this but it isnt quite as dynamic as mint.com is.
  
• A focus on money categorizations rather than accounts. If you think about it, who cares about the accounts you have? What you really care about is: Where is my cash? Where are my investments? Where are my debts?

Of course, the downside is you have to trust Mint.com with all of your account info and passwords. Overall a really slick and well thought out application. As far as usability of website and design goes it definitely is up there with some of the newer and better website designs I've seen.

Live Mesh

I'm really impressed with Microsoft's new "cloud computing" initiative. For those of you not in the biz, cloud computing basically means storing / processing information from the web instead of from your local computer.

The new service www.mesh.com has some really cool stuff which you can checkout on their website. The one I am really impressed with is the folder sharing. You can now have a folder on your desktop that is synchronized with a folder on mesh.com. Furthermore, this folder can be synchronized with any other machine on your mesh and shared to other users of mesh. Why is that cool? Here is what I like:

• Synchronize chat log folders so my log history is the same on every machine.
• Synchronize personal projects that I am working on so I can work on them everywhere.
• Easily share my files / pictures with my friends.
• Easily manage remote computers.
  

Additionally, it also gives me peace of mind knowing that I have a backup in case my hard drive dies.

What really makes this software great is that the folder's you share show up like any other folder on windows.


P.S. Works for Mac too!