If you use Microsoft Outlook and are looking for some way to make your usage more efficient, Xobni might in fact be the answer to your problem. I signed up for the beta a while back and finally am in. If you use Outlook a whole bunch and would like the chance to increase your efficiency, hit me up in the comments with your email address - and I’ll send you one.

First come, first serve basis. I’ve currently got [3] invites left.

Invites are all gone - thanks for playing!

Ugh, Las Vegas is so dry. Seriously - why didn’t anyone happen to mention that it’s in the middle of a desert? I didn’t realize what it was like - even within all the buildings, the air is so dry that you constantly have a drymouth, your eyes dry out and your hands hurt.

Enough complaining - this conference has been awesome. Besides from some of the sessions that weren’t so great - the networking opportunities alone have been well worth it.

Our WebiScope dinner last night went off beautifully. Everyone had a great time, and I was able to put a lot of faces with names I’ve known for the last six months. Absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait to do it again.

So I’ve seen the dancing fountains every night I’ve been here. If you ever visit Vegas, make sure you hit up O’Shea’s. $2.50 guinness drafts. This is probably the cheapest decent beer available in Las Vegas.

Be heading back tomorrow, I’ll be looking forward to getting some moisture back into my life.

This is absolutely great. The Layer Tennis match for today has commentary by Heather Armstrong of dooce.com. If you haven’t ever been to dooce.com, get off your butt and do it. She’s an absolutely brilliant writer, and she’s got a great sense of humor. To see her commenting on a match of Layer Tennis will be fantastic.

Leaving for the Internet Healthcare Conference tomorrow. It’s being held in Vegas this year, so I get to stay at the Venetian. How rad is that? Pretty rad, if I do say so myself.

So, check out some Layer Tennis (if you’re into that whole sort of thing), and say hi in the forums, it’s usually pretty rowdy in there (what with it being Friday and all - most of us cracked out on caffeine, and waiting for the clock to hit 5:00).

I watched this for probably 20 minutes yesterday. Hilarious shit by Picnicface - and you can find the original here.

Powerthirst! IT’S LIKE CRYSTAL METH IN A CAN.
POWERTHIRST IS CRYSTAL METH IN A CAN.

POWERTHIRST IS CRYSTAL METH!

Lmfao ftw.

Also: HUMP - CATTING (SIMILAR TO BEAR-BLASTING!)

Wow. There’s really no other way to describe it.

At first you think - ok this is going to be just another puzzle game. But by the third level, you’re like - wait, so if I put an entrance portal here, and then an exit portal there, I can.. whooooooaaaaaa!!!!

I was really only able to play it for about an hour before work this morning (stupid staff meetings), but am absolutely excited to get home and jump through some more glowing rings.

And I have to say my favorite technique is the fall-fly technique. The way it works is you place a portal on the ground - a portal on a vertical surface (usually close to the ceiling in order to get more distance) and then walk into (or preferably jump from a high distance) into the ground portal. What happens is your momentum is conserved and you end up catapulting through the portal near the ceiling.

“So what?” says you. Well - I say, after you come out of the high portal, throw down a new entrance portal wherever you’re going to be landing. Yea - think about that one for a minute. Your momentum is now what it was from the fall (let’s say x) plus your acceleration from gravity (where g=9.8 m/s/) into the new portal - etc, etc.

Wow, that just got super complicated. I started having flashbacks to college physics.

Have you experienced Portal?

Sitting at work - listening to the musical score from Bioshock.

Fantastic. Utterly amazing. Really brings you back to those wonderful moments in the game and those feelings of wonderment and awe. *Sniff* I misses you Bioshock! Why oh why did I have to beat you so quick? Why couldn’t you have been a little longer?

I guess it’s time I set it on hard and have another go.

Oh - and if you’re looking to score the score, you can snag it here.

I’ll be taking a week long vacation to the north woods of Wisconsin. Unfortunately this means instead of writing clever, witty articles for you people I’ll be sitting around drinking beer in the sun occasionally getting up to stretch and maybe swim in the lake.

Have fun without me

Amazon has an invite-only grocery-delivering service testing right now in Seattle. Remember those startups back in the 90’s where you could order groceries online? Looks like Amazon’s doing it. Only this time I’d like to think they’re going to do it right. Amazon’s got some pretty big capital to throw around, hopefully by starting in one location they can focus their energies into getting it right before expanding.

Here’s to hoping we’ll all be able to order our groceries online and have them delivered right to our doorstep. [via TechCrunch]