I dropped by to visit someone in the Palazzo this weekend, and took my camera with me.

Of course, as always happens, I had the camera shoved away for the best photo op.

When we got on the elevator, the display system above the elevator controls inexplicably crashed and rebooted. It went into BIOS, and we were guessing as to what kind of OS the thing would go into. My money was on Linux, BSD or a custom Unix variant.

Imagine my surprise when 10 seconds later it displayed the “Windows XP” boot screen on the elevator as it was hoisting us skyward.

I was certain that we were all as good as dead. I believe I vocalized as much as I ruthlessly expressed my horror about the elevators being run on XP for the 30 second ride up.

None of the other passengers seemed to know what in the hell I was ranting about. They just looked like they couldn’t wait for me to get off.

XP? Are you shitting me with concrete toilet paper?

It is apparent that the Palazzo is in desperate need of an IT staff. Anyone with a modicum of technical ability, please forward your resume’ to the Palazzo post-haste.

I’m assuming that the elevators themselves aren’t run on XP, just the gee whiz display. Still … do you have any idea how disconcerting it is to see the display above the buttons blue-screen as soon as the elevator doors close? Especially two days after the Paris elevator incident.

I’m assuming that Harrah’s still uses DOS.

Anyway, other than that, The Palazzo still has some of the best standard rooms on The Strip, IMHO.

Since I live within spitting distance of the Palazzo, I don’t go up to the rooms terribly often. This was only my second time up to a room since it was opened in December.

The view from this one was better than my first visit where the room faced East with a beautiful view of crack alley.

I got some good shots of the Palazzo pools, the room, and even the mini-bar. ($5 for a soda, and $9 for trail mix). I made sure not to touch anything since they had the electronic-sensor bars that trigger a room charge if you so much as move something an inch out of place.

Large bed, sitting area, desk, and three plasma TVs … two in the suite, one in the bathroom (to watch porn while taking a dump) … the rooms are certainly in the very top tier of Vegas hotel rooms.

These rooms probably come as a very pleasant surprise to the tourists who inhabit them for the first time.

Sure, it’s no Imperial Palace … but a perfectly acceptable alternative.

If only they would get that elevator situation worked out, it may damn well be perfect.

I thought my Gatorade would class the joint up a bit.

Look … a human frog!