Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

All Articles Published: July 2012

July 25, 2012

Render Quality Control Unto Caesar

Posted by daveschwartz

Attention to detail.

On paper, everyone agrees it's important. Like being "goal-oriented," it's one of those generic hallmarks of a good manager. In theory, it all makes sense: people should sweat the small stuff if they want the big stuff to turn out correctly. In practice, though, there are plenty of reasons why attention to detail is honored more in the breach than the observance: time (or lack thereof); conflicting priorities; lack of quality control; loss of ownership over a project.

After the jump, I'm going to talk about one small instance of a critical lack of attention to detail, and what it all might mean.


July 19, 2012

Vegas Gang #80 - July 19th, 2012

Posted by Hunter

Episode #80 is up!

Listen here: http://www.vegasgangpodcast.com/2012/07/vegas-gang-80-july-19th-2012/

- VIMFP
- Hunter S. Thompson

This time on the show:

- Atlantic City: Revel and more...

- Coffee Shops and Late Night Dining

- Political Donations and Casino Owners

- The Harmon

- The Quad

** Sure Bets **

Chuck - Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock
Dr. Dave - Balloon Baby School
Hunter - Soda Stream

Feel free to leave your comments at the link below. If it's a question that you want asked on the show, please make that clear in your post. You can also send those to editor@ratevegas.com.


July 16, 2012

Venetian Launches App w/ Indoor Navigation

Posted by Hunter

Smartphones like the iPhone and Android devices revolutionized personal navigation with GPS and Google Maps, making it easy to navigate to anywhere you want to go. The one big omission? Indoor support.

GPS, the technology used to pinpoint your location on the globe, requires line-of-sight to satellites in the sky. It doesn't work indoors and even the tall skyscrapers in large metros can cause problems for reception. To combat this, phone designers have used other technologies like Wi-Fi radios to triangulate indoors. Typically, this gives a low level of precision, far less accurate than GPS.

Google, a constant pioneer in mapping technology, started working in earnest on indoor maps this past January, using this technology. With a heavy mesh of Wi-Fi base stations inside a building, the system can, reasonably accurately, determine your location just like it would with GPS. A preview of that support is available on Android but it's not widely deployed and not available on iOS as of yet.

This morning, The Venetian announced a new version of their iOS and Android app that includes similar technology to provide indoor mapping and navigation for people wandering around the MEGACENTER complex. I haven't tested it yet myself but it looks pretty great... or at least the idea is great, if it works.

This is an important moment. Eventually, indoor mapping will be something that users come to expect but for now, it's an 'oh wow' feature as people realize they never have to wonder how to get to the restaurant for dinner again.

I'm looking forward to a lot more of this sort of thing and the minute that it's practical for Vegas Mate, expect to hear more about the details.


July 11, 2012

Vegas Gang #1, #2 and #3

Posted by Hunter

A listener contacted me and reminded me that the first three episodes of the Vegas Gang were not on the VGang Web site... I looked around and thought they were lost but no, it turns out I did have them. I'm re-posting them here for anyone curious.

This was before we even had the name. Enjoy.

Vegas Gang #1

Vegas Gang #2

Vegas Gang #3


July 9, 2012

VIMFP 2.0: Bally's Bound

Posted by Hunter

As announced on VegasTripping earlier today, the second annual VIMFP (Vegas Internet Mafia Family Picnic) will be held at Bally's in the Indigo Lounge, right off the casino floor.

http://www.vegastripping.com/news/blog/4680/vimfp-the-announcement-youve-been-waiting-for/

We can't wait to see you there!


July 4, 2012

Happy Birthday Jeff - Listen to the Interview

Posted by Hunter

Today would have been Jeff Simpson's birthday. It's a good time to re-listen to the interview I did with him last November, covering most of his personal and professional life.

Happy Independence Day.

Listen here: http://www.vegasgangpodcast.com/2011/11/vegas-gang-69-november-9th-2011/