Neither Sam nor I had ever been to Las Vegas. We descended into the desert on Monday afternoon and took a cab from our airport to the Excalibur Hotel, where we stayed for the Electronics Distribution Show. Along the way we saw a pyramid, the Eiffel tower, and New York skyscrapers before arriving at our hotel, a medieval castle. Operating on a few hours of sleep, we navigated through a maze of slot machines and advertisements until we found our room. Next stop, the Paris hotel and hundreds of electronic parts manufacturers and distributors.

At the show, we walked up and down the isles, laptops in hand, introducing ourselves and giving impromptu demos of the site. Even though we were on the younger side and slightly underdressed, people were happy to talk to us and we amassed a small mountain of business cards. In true Las Vegas fashion, we attended a catered dinner that night featuring Marilyn Monroe and Elvis impersonators singing on stage.

Now its somehow Wednesday and we only have a few hours left of our Vegas trip. We met a lot of friendly people, some of whom were really excited about what we're trying to do. The only problem with the conference was that the big manufacturers and distributors spent most of the conference in private suites conducting private business. Being a physics-dropout doesn't count for much when you are trying to get the attention of billion dollar corporations. We're learning quickly though.

As for what else happened in Vegas... that's between me, Sam and the electronic parts distributors. No seriously, we talked a lot about data feeds and part numbers so you probably don't want to hear about it.