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7 Las Vegas Tech Trivia Tidbits

  • Everyone loves trivia, don’t they? Those little bits of information, usually useless, but endlessly intriguing. And when it comes to Las Vegas, there’s tons of trivia. There’s the well-known fact about the lack of clocks in casinos, and the lesser known fact that most of the famous Strip is actually outside of Las Vegas city limits, in the unincorporated town of Paradise in Clark County.

    Many “facts” about the Sin City are widely circulated but largely unattributed, like how its millions of lights make it the brightest spot on the planet. Plus a lot of lore is associated with Vegas’ colorful past, such as gangster Bugsy Siegel naming the Flamingo casino after his showgirl girlfriend’s long legs. Then there's the story about when eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes overstayed his welcome at the Desert Inn and was asked to leave, so he bought the hotel. Hughes also is said to have ordered 200 gallons of banana nut ice cream while at the hotel, then deciding he preferred chocolate marshmallow ice cream.

    As IT pros prepare to convene in the Nevada desert for Interop, we put together some Vegas trivia with a special appeal for IT nerds. Continue on to find out some techie tidbits about Vegas.

    Looking for IT education with substance? Interop Las Vegas offers dozens of learning opportunities and showcases the latest technology developments. Don't miss out! Register now for Interop, May 2-6, and receive $200 off.

    (Image: tookapic/Pixabay)

  • Hoover Dam

    During peak electricity periods, enough water runs through the generators to fill 15 average size swimming pools (20,000 gallons each) in one second, according to the US Bureau of Reclamation. That’s a lot of pools!

    (Image: powerofforever/iStockphoto)

  • Lucky software engineer

    In 2003, a 25-year-old software engineer from Las Angeles won $39 million after playing $100 on a Megabucks machine at the Excalibur. That apparently still is the biggest jackpot in Las Vegas history. He beat the odds at the time, which were one in 16.7 million. I wonder if he quit his day job?

    (Image: PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay)

  • Neon galore

    Now here’s a Vegas “fact” that gets tossed around a lot about without attribution: There are 15,000 miles of neon tubing on the Vegas Strip. Who knows? Sounds impressive though. It should be noted that Vegas’ famed neon is giving way to LED lights, according to this report.

    (Image: eduponcedeleon/Pixabay)

  • Bellagio fountains

    A lot of technology goes into the crowd-pleasing dancing water fountains at the Bellagio. According to this news report, the attraction uses four types of devices that shoot water into the air, including one that's essentially a robot that makes the water change direction. There are 208 of those robots, called Oarsmen, which make the water dance up to 77 feet high. Another 798 mini-Shooters toss water 100 feet high, while 192 super-Shooters shoot water 240 feet high, and 16 extreme-Shooters can throw up a wall of water as high as 460 feet. Thirty engineers work daily to operate the fountains, which have 5,000 lights.

    If you get to Vegas early for Interop, you can learn more about the technology behind the fountains on Sunday, May 1, during the "Science is Everywhere Day." It's part of the annual week-long Las Vegas Science & Technology Festival. Yes, Vegas has such a thing!

    (Image: Mariamichelle/Pixabay)

  • Record-breaking decelerator decent

    Another Vegas attraction – the Sky Jump at the Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower – boasts the Guinness World Record for highest commercial decelerator descent facility at 829 feet. The fearless – or foolhardy -- can buy a ticket to dive off a platform outside the 108th floor of the hotel's tower. Yikes!

    (Image: Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower)

  • Green tech

    The Las Vegas Monorail that shuttles visitors along the Strip is completely electric and runs zero-emissions trains. It's helped prevent more than 375 tons of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides from polluting the air, according to the Las Vegas Monorail Company.

    (Image: Las Vegas Monorail Company)

  • Switch SUPERNAP

    Las Vegas is home to the massive Switch SUPERNAP data center. At about 1.5 miles, the data center campus is one of the world's biggest data centers. Switch, which has plans to build out the campus to 2.3 million square feet, has even bigger plans for its data center campus near Reno, Nev. Once completed later this year, the 6.4 million-square-foot facility will be the largest data center campus in the world, according to Switch.

    (Image: Switch)