Tag Archives: Austin

Musical Civic Pride

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Seems I have a new favorite civic pride song. But before we get to that, I’ve always enjoyed collecting songs about the various cities I’ve visited and grown up in. Among the “grown up in” are:

Seattle: Can’t think of a single thing. Maybe it’s a boring place and maybe I was just too young.

San Francisco Bay Area: Who doesn’t immediately think of Tony Bennett’s “I Left my Heart in San Francisco?”

Chicago: While there is a nice Frank Sinatra “Chicago” tune, my anthem was always “Lake Shore Drive” by Aliotta, Haynes and Jeremiah. That song, now almost forty years old, is today part of my iPod collection.

Dallas: Alan Jackson wrote a song named “Dallas” but it’s not high on my hit parade.

Austin: For all its music reputation, Austin has precious few songs about it. The only thing that comes to mind is a “lost love” song by Blake Shelton he titled “Austin.”

San Jose: Who cares? Don’t remind me of Dionne Warwick’s ditty.

Sacramento: I guess nobody has gotten around to it. Even “76 Trombones” is about River City, Iowa, not River City, California.

But my new favorite civic pride song? Jay-Z and Alicia Keys played it during the second game of the 2009 World Series. Jay-Z isn’t my cup of tea so the song never registered. But recently I came across an Alicia Keys solo performance of “Empire State of Mind” and I loved it. It’s about New York City, a city I never lived in but sure spent a lot of time in. Made me smile.

Perhaps we can get her to do something for Sacramento?

WiFi Lunacy

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As a business traveler I find it very humorous (and annoying) that expensive, business class hotels always charge $10-$15 for daily WiFi access, while the lower cost, branded hotel chains are free. Marriott is a good example – The “Marriott” branded locations charge the obligatory $10/day while all their sub-brands (Courtyard, Residence, Fairfield and such) are free. Hilton is the same way.
But get out in the countryside – Say Tonopah or Austin, NV – And the game changes again. Here the service is free but well-meaning hotel managers, not understanding the idiosyncrasies of computer security, establish a whole new set of obstacles. To wit:

Pony Canyon Motel, Austin, NV (see the picture) – This hotel manager clearly doesn’t want anyone to steal his WiFi bandwidth so he a) WEP encrypts and b) creates a password.

Seriously? First of all, his crappy router barely reaches throughout his motel property so it’s unlikely an outsider could steal bandwidth. Second, he uses WEP encryption which was broken in 2007 and no longer in popular use. And third, he assumes a long, complex password is somehow harder to crack than a short one. Clearly he doesn’t get computers.

Tonopah Motel, Tonopah, NV – This one really surprised me – The owner doesn’t encrypt anything, but instead provides access through her personal email account! If you have an ISP account through Comcast or Road Runner or whomever, you are probably allowed to have 6 or 10 email accounts. This owner created all ten accounts (userids and passwords) and then distributes them to the first ten guests that check in.

Think about that for a minute – She hands out userids and passwords to her personal account. Granted you can’t read *her* email but think of the havoc that can be wrecked by using an email address associated with her account. You could order stuff, have it shipped elsewhere. You could break laws. But worse, even after you leave the hotel you *could* still retain access to her account until she changes passwords. (And she hasn’t yet!)

Yes, I tried to explain it to them but it was going in one ear and out there other.

I will maintain, until the day I die, that computer security is a function of that pink stuff between your ears, not McAfee or Norton or any of the others. <sigh>

Austin … Nevada

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Having spent over a third of my life in Austin, TX, I still have a fondness for the city and surrounding areas. And having spent another major portion of my life on Hwy50, aka the loneliest Road in America, I have passed through Austin, NV a couple times.

This trip was a little different – I actually spent the night there and enjoyed the company of some of the residents.

At a Rock and Jewelry store, I found “Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps”  and “Guide to Nevada Brothels” books located next to each other. Guess which I picked up to thumb through? (Hint: Portions of my family hail from Nye county, just 50 miles south of Austin.)

The local cafe (actually the only cafe) had a Ruben (sic) Sandwich on the menu but I went for Chicken Fried Steak, but what really caught me off guard was that this town of ~200 had no grocery stores – In fact the nearest grocery store was 110 miles away in Fallon!

Even with high-speed Nevada highways, that’s a four-plus hour round-trip just to pick up a carton of milk! Imagine the frustration of returning and finding out you forgot the [insert missing food stuff here]. Fresh fruits and vegetables become a luxury in Austin, NV!

I enjoyed my one night stay in Austin, NV, but I doubt I’ll be moving there any time soon.