Warning: squirrels.

Vegas bound

Well, I am off to Vegas to get married [the wedding is at 1:00 PM on Saturday, July 7th].  Check back next week for an update and maybe even a few pictures.

Bama bound!

Well, I am off to the deep south tomorrow to speak at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference, see my family, and chow down on some exceptional barbecue, chicken fingers, and mexican food.  If you are going to be in Birmingham any time this week, stop by the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center and say hi.

Chicago by night

Here's a cool website worth a quick visit: http://www.docbert.org/ChicagoByNight/

This is a zoomable, one gigapixel image of Chicago by night from a boat just offshore of the Shedd Aquarium in October 2006.  The cool thing is that you can click the image to drag it left and right [think Google Maps] and double-click to zoom in to an absurd degree [for example, the people in the Congress Hotel need to close their curtains, and you can easily make out the (somewhat blurry) Signature Room if you zoom in enough.]

Vegas trip report

Well, Christine and I spent the weekend in Las Vegas finalizing our plans for our July 7th wedding.  We had the misfortune of staying at the Best Western Mardi Gras Hotel and Casino [motto: "As seen on COPS"].  The place wasn't horrible -- well, the maid did steal the remote control and we never got it back -- but I'm not sure I would recommend it to others.

After breakfast at Bouchon, a visit to the tuxedo rental place, and a quick stop at the county clerk's office to get a marriage license and be accosted by dozens of salesmen asking us if we have a chapel, we spent the rest of our time shopping and losing money in the casinos.

If you are headed to Sin City anytime soon, some of the places I recommend visiting include:

• The Carnival World Buffet at the Rio.  Sure, it's no Joël Robuchon, but if a buffet larger than many grocery stores doesn't excite you, you have no soul.  Oh, and the Carnival World Buffet is a favorite with Vegas locals as well.
• The Buffet at Bellagio.  While the Rio offers a staggering quantity of food, the Belagio offers great quality ... especially for a buffet.  Rated the best buffet in Vegas by the readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, don't be surprised to see both buffet mainstays like roast beef and shrimp next to stations serving duck, venison, and fresh sushi.
• David Copperfield's An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion at the MGM Grand.  Even if you have seen illusions like the squeezebox, reunion, and man versus steel on TV, Copperfield does one heck of a live show.  No, really.

The US interstate subway map

About two months ago, Chris Yates created a wonderful map showing the United States interstate highway system in subway map format a la Harry Beck's world-famous London Underground map.  Unfortunately, Yates' map included more than a few inaccuracies. The pseudonymous Gochi Sanfrid [which, if you pardon the obscure Dave Barry reference, would make a wonderful name for a band] took a stab at fixing those errors, and the result is worth a look.

Like the London Underground map, Yates' and Sanfrid's maps are not drawn to scale.  And for some reason that escapes all logic, both Yates and Sanfrid chose to save their maps as JPEGs instead of GIFs.   [Remember: JPEGS are for photographs, GIFs are for screen art -- like these maps.]  But both maps are fun, and that's all that matters.

Special thanks to the J-Walk blog for posting Yates' original map.

I'm back [again]

Note to self: Don't launch a new blog in the midst of cramming for the GRE and speaking at ed tech conferences in Illinois, Washington, and Michigan.

Well, I'm back.  Again.  I want to give a special thank you to the folks at the Illinois Technology Conference for Educators, Northwest Council for Computer Education, and Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning for inviting me to speak at their conferences over the past few weeks.

If you weren't able to attend my conference sessions, all [or at least most] of my presentations are are licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license.  For an alphabetic list of all of my presentations, including the ones I did at ILTCE, NCCE, and MACUL, just visit the PowerPoint Files section of my NetSquirrel.com website.

Happy downloading!

More TSA travel recommendations

If you will be flying anywhere within the United States this holiday season, check out the Transportation Security Administration's new holiday checklist [PDF].  In addition to the TSA's new rules to help combat the global war on moisture, TSA strongly recommends that all travelers

• Travel with unwrapped gifts. If a wrapped gift sets off an alarm, TSA security officers will need to unwrap the gift to resolve the alarm.To minimize the risk of damage or loss, don’t pack fragile or valuable items in checked baggage. Take them with you in carry-on baggage, or ship them to your destination instead. Keep in mind that many holiday foods like cake and pie have characteristics similar to liquids, gels and aerosols.  These items are permitted but may require further inspection.  If you are not sure if an item is a liquid, gel or aerosol it is best to pack the item in your checked bag or ship it to your destination in advance.
• Do not over pack bags.  If security officers have to open them, closing overstuffed bags can be difficult and may result in that checked bag being delayed until a later flight.
• When traveling with children, a discussion in advance of airport security may be helpful.  At the checkpoint, children will need to temporarily part with such things as blankets and stuffed animals, and older children need to know that any comment suggesting a threat to an aircraft or its passengers is taken seriously by TSA security officers.
• Passengers are required to remove their outer coats and jackets for X-ray before proceeding through the metal detectors.  That includes suit and sport coats, athletic warm-up jackets and blazers. 
• All footwear must be removed and placed in the security bin for screening.

TSA's new 3-1-1 rules

If you have been reading BoingBoing recently -- and if you haven't, SHAME ON YOU! -- you know that the United States' Transportation Security Administration [TSA] is waging a global war on moisture.  There are some new carry-on rules you need to read if you plan to take a flight within the United States this holiday season and plan on carrying pretty much anything onto the airplane, especially liquids.

Under TSA's new rules,

• All liquids, gels and aerosols must be in three-ounce or smaller containers. Larger containers that are half-full or toothpaste tubes rolled up are not allowed. Each container must be three ounces or smaller.
• All liquids, gels and aerosols must be placed in a single, quart-size, zip-top, clear plastic bag. Gallon size bags or bags that are not zip-top such as fold-over sandwich bags are not allowed. Each traveler can use only one, quart-size, zip-top, clear plastic bag.
• Each traveler must remove their quart-sized plastic, zip-top bag from their carry-on and place it in a bin or on the conveyor belt for X-ray screening [along with their shoes, laptop computers, and camcorders]. X-raying separately will allow TSA security officers to more easily examine the declared items.

Check out http://www.tsa.gov/311/311-carry-ons.shtm for more information.