Tuesday October 26, 2004

Casino Internet access Last time I was picking up an drink in the Horizon's Starbucks I overheard a conversation in which the teller told another patron that they had free wireless Internet access. So far I hadn't seen any wireless Internet access in a casino. It would have been very useful if the GN Starbucks had access during the WSOP this year. I had guessed that the maybe the NGC made it difficult to provide such a service? Or maybe I was unlucky in the establishments I had canvased.

Anyways I went back to check out the claim this evening. Sure enought I picked up not one but two networks. One was open and the other appeared to be the casino's security network⁰. But alas, the service wasn't free. Upon trying to surf I learned that some company named "Hot Spot Kiosks"¹ wanted some money for access. 2 hours was a blistering $4.95 with a day at $9.95 not to far behind² (thats how much most hotel rooms charge for wired access which is available for the 24 hours you are in the room). A week was $29.95 and a month was $49.95.

⁰Yea, broadcasting its SSID. Makes you wonder if they secure their applications.

¹I thought T-Mobile had an exclusive with Starbucks?

²Of course then the typical drink at Starbucks isn't priced to shave margins too thin. ( Oct 26 2004, 09:12:02 PM PDT ) Permalink

Megadeth I havn't been to a speed metal (or whatever its called these days) show in some time. So I grabbed Dave's latest CD and checked out Megadeth at the Reno Hilton. Besides being overly enamored by the fact that a seat in the poker room was less then 50 yards away from my seat in the theatre I really enjoyed the show. The opener (earshout?) was boring. They seemed to be preping for some 80s big arena show after having skipped being even close to interesting but Dave and current hirees were great. Compared to shows I remember from the mid 90s the energy of the show was high but not quite as edgy. Thats possible because this was the first stop on their tour. Several times during the show all the members of the band disappeared off stage for what seemed like a quick conferece. But all in all very enjoyable. I was suprised that Dave didn't get on his horse about election issues eventhough he came close several times.

Security at venues like this never seem to get it. They attempted to apply very silly techniques for controlling the crowd. Don't they ever do research? ( Oct 26 2004, 12:17:50 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

applying game theory to campaign strategy This article is a really neat description of how game theory can be used to find an optimal usage of campaign resources. Its pretty readable even if math is a little scary to you! ( Oct 26 2004, 12:06:47 PM PDT ) Permalink