By The Brown Messiah – Read Day 1 / Day 2
Day 3: Day 2 of the Con – The Sands
Day 2 started off a little rough. After the poor decision of McDonald’s breakfast, I started feeling sick and decided to stay at the hotel and sleep it off. After a few more hours of sleep I felt well enough to get to the show. Today was going to be at the Sands Expo center at the Venetian. I got a Lyft over and started looking for KT. For some reason my phone was having a hard time getting a signal and I couldn’t call KT and Deedo. For whatever reason, I decided to just walk around; maybe I’d find them. Boy was I wrong about that. Over 100,000 people attend CES each year, so there was no way I was gonna find them. As I walked around, I saw some cool stuff. One thing that caught my eye was a phone charger that also boosted the signal that your phone receives to give you a network signal in remote places. Being from Utah, I couldn’t help but think how awesome it would be to have this, with all the outdoor activities the state has to offer. I’m not sure why it took me so long to do it, but I eventually power-cycled my phone and was able to connect and get a hold of KT.
Reunited, we continued through the show. We were on the ground floor of the Sands which held a ridiculous amount of start-up companies. We spent a good five hours walking around, talking to people and filming interviews. We found some really cool stuff too. My favorite were the ClikⓇ by Mymanu, a pair of Bluetooth earbuds with voice translation. Not only can you use these for music, they can recognize up to 37 languages and, with the an app for Android and iOS, translate it to the language spoken by the wearer. I thought this was amazing because I have family that speaks Spanish and while I also speak it, there are times I get lost and don’t catch everything being said. We found another Utah company, GoPlug that made portable batteries tailored for the world traveler. The power bank is massive, but it can power your laptop, multiple smartphones, and tablets. It also had a nice GPS feature so if you set it down and someone decides to walk of with it, a notification will alert you that someone is jackin’ your stuff! We also saw automated baristas and drink fountains that were app controlled and let you choose your beverage from coffee to juice.
My next favorite of the day was a small device from a company called the Keezel. Keezel uses VPN technology to secure your Internet connection and thus greatly improves your online privacy & security. They are on Indiegogo and offer one model called “The Presidential Keezel” which is has a sparkly gold color to it and a toupé of Donald Trump hair on top.
We went back to the hotel after the show to get ready for the Lenovo Party held at The AquaKnox inside the Venetian. The party was crazy. Open bar, live DJ, and awesome food including prime rib, jumbo shrimp, oysters, and super tasty pudding that almost killed Deedo due to his allergy to cinnamon. Luckily it was a mild reaction and Deedo survived, no one was taken to the hospital. After I had my fill of food and drinks I had to hit the dance floor. Deedo and KT were lame and passed so I had to turn it down. Therein lies the problems with nerds. No one likes to dance. Dancing is a quintessential part of life and I firmly believe we all should participate. Eventually, we got a good crowd on the floor and all had a blast getting groovy so it wasn’t a total loss.
The Nerdd 
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