I am Lars Vargas

Category: Internet

I think every blog has an Internet category. Why should mine be any different?

  • The Train! The Train!

    A train that travels at 502KPH. That’s over 311MPH! I imagine getting caught at a railroad crossing would ruin not only your day, but everyone on the train’s as well. I knew that maglev technology was progressing, but not this far.

    See the maglev train video on Google Video.

    I don’t think Las Vegas needs one of these for travel around town, but I imagine a fast train to Los Angeles would have a lot of customers. Heck, it would be roughly a one-hour trip. We could come home from work, hop on the train, grab dinner in L.A., and return home in time for the evening news. Amazing.

  • Learn How to be a Ninja

    With a t-shirt and a little attitude, you, too can be a Ninja. Enjoy that Ninja lifestyle and, of course, kick a little ass if you are so disposed. You’re a Ninja after all. Who’s going to argue?

    Here’s how to do it: (more…)

  • Wallets: I Duct the Issue

    I wanted to wait until after the holidays were over to avoid anyone who saw this and had gift ideas.

    Never give a man a wallet as a gift. Just don’t do it. Men are picky about their wallets. Most men will use a wallet until it becomes a worn leather flap that surrounds their ID, credit cards, and cash. At that point a man then has to search for the correct wallet. This search might take weeks or even months, depending on how picky a guy is.

    I’m pretty picky about my wallets. Mrs. Vargas learned a long time ago not to even mention the subject; that my own wallet replacement schedule and her perception of what it should be would never coincide. In marriage, we all learn. (more…)

  • A Fun Way to Get IP Addresses

    If you’re looking for an interesting way to find out your IP address, IP Vegas has it. Visit that site and your IP address will show up on a Las Vegas style slot machine. It looks like a free ad-supported site.

    IP Vegas .com screenshot. Check your IP address on a Las Vegas-style slot machine along with other network tools and information

    Scroll down the page for a few network utilities as well. You can do pings, traceroutes, whois, lookups and more. There’s even a little bit of travel and activity information for my favorite city.

    Oh, and if you don’t know what an IP address is or why you’d want to know it, they will tell you.

  • Something Else I Don’t Need

    As I cruise the Information Highway I see lots of stuff. Some of it is pretty useful and other things leave me scratching my head and wondering, “Why?”

    I’ll let you guess where I stand on the following product.

    It’s called the VroomBox and claims to make your plain old boring car, their example is a Toyota Sienna minivan, sound like something a bit more powerful and exotic, say a Lamborghini V12 or Shelby Cobra. How does this miracle of technology work? Pretty simple, it hooks into your engine’s tachometer connector and then send a sound signal out to an amplifier and speakers you need to provide. (more…)

  • OK, so I took a week off…

    I love writing this site. And I appreciate the feedback from my friends and family who visit. I kind of wish more people would visit and leave comments, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

    Unfortunately, real life sometimes gets in the way of sharing bits and pieces of your life online. I have a full time job and also to a little side work here and there when I can. Doing that, along with being married, simply takes up a lot of time. The lovely Mrs. Vargas and I realized how crazy busy we are. We’re happy and all, but when you come to the realization that you live in one of the entertainment capitols of the world and haven’t’ been to a single show since you moved here, it serves as a wake-up call that maybe it’s time to either throttle back a bit or learn some time management skills. (more…)

  • Check Your Stats, You Might Be Missing Something

    The say that Google page rank is everything on the Internet these days, and that getting it is somewhat of a black science. I don’t write these pages with any particular page ranking in mind. Since “Lars Vargas” is a fairly uncommon name, I tend to rank pretty high (usually at the top) when searched in Google. That’s nice, but expected. Getting into “Las Vegas Blogs” is a lot harder. I checked once, and I’m at around 700 or 800. Probably lower.

    One of the things I do check every so often is my site stats. It’s nice to see how much traffic this site gets (not much right now), where it’s coming from (mostly other pages on this site) and various other tidbits. One of those tidbits is what search terms landed visitors on your pages. All the things you would think would be there are: Lars Vargas, Mrs. Vargas, Luella the cat, etc. Many of those are my searches to see if I’m in certain search engines and such. (more…)

  • Feeling Like a Flake? Draw one!

    I grew up in the snow. I had to shovel snow. I don’t like snow.

    Yet something draws me to it. I’m not sure what, but maybe it’s pining for some part of my youth that doesn’t’ involve a shovel.

    Anyway, drawn to snow or not, you can draw your own snow one flake at a time. The Make-A-Flake site lets you snip a virtual paper flake and see the results. With a little practice, you can make some really gorgeous flakes. (more…)