CES 2008: Broken Monorail, FutureLooks (Almost) Wins PC Building Race
January 9th, 2008 by Michael KwanI’m in Las Vegas this week for the Consumer Electronics Show. It’s been ridiculously busy and I barely have any time for myself to mindlessly wander the show floor, but all the free booze and food at the parties make it all worth it. I’d like to get in more details — which I will in a future post — but for now, check out a couple of videos we took.
In the first video, Stephen Fung and I get stranded at the Las Vegas Convention Center, because the monorail decided to stop operating on us. We already paid for the ticket and waited at the station for over 20 minutes. After approaching the customer service booth, they said that they would not offer a refund! She just told us to call the number on the back. What’s up with that?
In the second video, we see the Tiger Direct Build Your Own PC for Charity Race. There were 30 competitors in all, building an expensive computer (I think they said it was valued at $3500) for the charity of their choice. It is a race, so the first person to finish wins. Watch the vid to find out who won. On a side note, Tiger Direct announced that they have come to an agreement wherein they will buy CompUSA and all of their retail stores. All Tiger Direct retail outlets will be rebranded as CompUSA, and the CompUSA website will be powered by the Tiger Direct website engine, just with CompUSA branding.
Check back later for more pics and vids from CES 2008.
Filed under Technology.
I think the charity PC race made up for the shitty monorail service. $6000 is a nice donation to one of my favourite charities =)
[...] Kwan – This bastard is enjoying himself at CES 2008 with Stephen. I hope Vegas steals your inner [...]
[...] 2. Monorail – This is one of the more recent options made available to Las Vegas visitors. There used to be free shuttle trains that ran between certain hotels — like the Bally’s-MGM line — but these have been replaced by the monorail which runs from MGM Grand to Sahara Hotel. In the future, they plan to expand the line to reach McCarran International Airport. The Las Vegas Monorail is reasonably convenient, but it’s not great for folks on the West side of Las Vegas Boulevard (Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Monte Carlo, Treasure Island, etc.). It can also get quite pricey, because single ride tickets are $5 regardless of the length of your ride. You’re better off with the one-day pass ($15 regular, on special for $9), which lasts for a full 24 hours from time of first use. Just be wary of broken monorails and lack of refunds. [...]
[...] part of the swag that I got from CES 2008, Sony Online Entertainment gave me a copy of Pirates of the Burning Sea for the PC, which is [...]
[...] you recall, I said that I would have a second prize — a black BlogHaus t-shirt from CES 2008 — if we managed to get 50 or more entries in the contest. Well, we accomplished that feat, so [...]