Just rolled into the hotel and grabbed some pics of this great room.
This place rocks.
Author: lnorwood10 (Page 10 of 12)
Yes the menu is greatly reduced. And there is no social distancing Couldn’t get my favorite burger so went with the sliders and truffle fries.
The food was served quickly. The fries were really good but the sliders were a little over cooked. This is pretty typical with sliders so not really holding that against them. Another party member had the chicken salad. The chicken was typical.
Taking a quick get away to give everyone an update on the strip.
The airport is open and not busy at all. This should be a good trip.
Just realized we had some technical problem with old post not going out. Going to be fixing that soon.
Coming soon a trip to South Carolina turns in to a travel adventure.
So we got in yesterday and this was our first day here. We had some great sightseeing and some good eats.
The day started off at the Denver Botanical Gardens. We loved it. I would definitely recommended dropping by if you have the time. I grabbed a few shots to share but they do not do the flowers or the feel of the place any justice.
We also made a stop at one of the restaurants and picked up a couple teas. They were great and refreshing.
Afterwards we strolled around the Cheery Creek area and ended up at the Cheery Creek Beer Garden. I have to admit I was a little disappointed. The CCBG is actually a hotel bar. In fact guest check into the hotel at the bar. It was different. But the worst part was the lack of selection. I really expect a Beer Garden to not only have open air seating but more than seven beers on tap. But the beer was cold and the staff was nice, so we had a small beer and headed back into the City.
Later that day we ended up at Blue Moon Brewery Company -RiNo. Now this was awsome.
They were a little crowded, so we had a seat at the bar. We lucked out on that one. The bartenders were great. We told them generally what we liked to drink and they were all about trying to help us find a beers we liked. This is also where I realized I love the 10oz pour. I normally only get two beers or a flight at a time, but with the 10oz pour I can have three different beers without increasing my total intake. I should also mention that we ended up having dinner here and it was great. The pretzel bites were great and the burgers were awsome.
One more thing before I sign off. I had no idea that Blue Moon made so many different beers. If you get a chance to visit because I am use you will find something new an different.
Till tomorrow.
So we rolled off the plan and heading for downtown Denver. After a 30 minute Lyft ride we get to the hotel, store or luggage and start hunting for some food.
We had done some research before we came off local establishments to visit. I strongly recommend doing that for every trip. The thing you have to remember is not too over plan and be flexible. Sticking to a schedule can destroy a fun trip.
See walked from the hotel to this establishments and we were well rewarded.
We were quickly seated on a nice shaded patio looking at the train station.
The service was quick and friendly. We tried four of there in house beers and one from another local brewery. All were excellent. Good and unique flavor profiles.
We grabbed a sandwich and a burger. Both were very good. I was ex m especially pleased with the chipotle ranch sauce. It was week balanced and very, very tasty.
If we lived here we would definitely be putting this place on our go to spots.
It’s been a long time in coming but we at DFTBAT have finally got the road. We landed in Denver today after taking a Frontier flight. The flight was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The plan was pretty empty and the crew were very strict on ensuring everyone was wearing a mask. Other parts of flying Frontier hasn’t changed. I still want to know where they get those tiny trays.
If you’re in search of an easy to setup and econmical 10Gb switch that supports 2.5Gb and 5Gb then you should definitely check out the QSW-1208-8C Switch.
QNAP is not a name we normally think about when we are looking for switches. They are know for the Network Attached Storage (NAS) devises. But I recently needed to add an office to the house, which required opening walls. This gave me the opportunity to run CAT 6e cable throughout the house. I wanted to keep the setup simple which ruled out managed switches. I really just wanted to be able to plug everything in and it is all visible.
I also new I wanted to do some future proffing so I wanted to be able to support 10Gb. 10Gb has been out a long time but the implementation is expenses. This is due to a lot of reasons but the biggest is that CAT 5 cables do not support it. As a result manufacturers are pushing 2.5Gb and 5Gb standards. These run on CAT 5 cable that most individuals and companies have installed in their homes or business.
Which bring us to the device specification that started the hunt:
- It must be simple to install, therefore unmanaged switch
- It needs at least eight ports
- It has to be able to transfer at 2.5Gb, 5Gb, and 10Gb.
- Must be affordable.
That doesn’t sound like a lot but it is surprising how few switches can meet these requirement. Ok to tell the truth it was the affordable option that was the problem. You can go out and buy a switch for a enterprise that will do this all day but you will need to bring a lot of cash.
So after conducting hours of internet searching and research I stumbled on the QNAP QSW-1209-8C. It is a 12 SPF+ port switch that has 8 combo ports that accept RJ45 or SPF+. RJ45 and SPF+ are just the type of plugs at the end of the cables. For my purpose I have 8 ports.
To make sure that evaluation was free of bias and to allow me to evaluate the SPF+ connections, I purchased two switches from different vendors. This help ensure that I didn’t just get lucky and to let everyone know that this review is not sponsored by anyone.
What did we get in the box.
The QSW-1208-8C switch arrived in a plan cardboard box. Which right away indicated that this was not your typical retail item. There were no fancy pictures of jet plans or spaceships trying to demonstrate how fast the switch is. But after thinking about it the plan cardboard makes sense. The average consumer is not going to be grabbing this switch. Someone who is buying the QNAP is buying from spec not pictures so why waste money on packaging.
When the box is opened it revealse a well thought out minimalistic design that protects the content while keeping the packaging small.
Included in the box are a power cable, two brackets, rubberized feet, a manual and warranty information. The included brackets are used to add the QNAP to a sever rack. Needless to say I will not be using those.
Overview
As mentioned earlier the switch has 12 10Gb-port that are unmanaged. This allows you to upgrade or build a network without having to worry about a lot of technical settings. Also by being unmanaged it keeps the cost lower.
The switch supports 10G BASE-T, and N BASE-T standards. The N BASE-T is the industry term for saying it supports both 2.5Gb and 5Gb. There are 12 SFP+ ports of which 8 are combo ports that accept RJ45. The RJ45 are the typical ports you think about when thinking of ethernet cables.
How Does It Work
First let’s start with setup. It was a breeze. Just plug in the power cord, plug in the ethernet cable and your done. You have flashing lights that tell you the status of the connection. But in truth that was the extent of setup. It couldn’t have been easier.
Some other things to not about the switch is that it is very quite and doesn’t get hot. This can be improtat if you put the switch in a living or work space area. From my research a lot of 10Gb swithches get hot and therefore they have many fans running to keep them cool. This equates to a lot of noise. Not a problem here.
Initial Conclusion
The QSW-1208-8C is something unique and special at the time of this writing. It will work for a large section of the market due to it’s affordability, number of ports, and technology supported. If you have a NAS you should really check this switch out. I would say that if you are building out or upgrading any home network you should check this switch out. Now as we do with all review items on DFYT we will be keeping these units for an extended period to see how they perform over time. So stay tuned for future updates.
Review of AfterShokz OpenComm headset
The first big thing about this headset is that it does not have a speaker to transmit sound. Instead it uses a bone conduction pad in front of your ear that transmits sound via vibrations. This leaves your ear free, which helps you keep your situational awareness.
To start off what comes in the box:
- AfterShokz OpenComm headset
- Hard-shell case
- Proprietary magnetic charging cable
- Some paper handouts
The first think I did was to charge the OpenComm so that I could really put it through it’s paces. I would normally start complaining at this point about having to use a proprietary charging cable but the magnetic connection the charging cable uses is fantastic. The charger is literally pulled to the port with little effort making it easy to charge.
The first hurdle I had to get through was to wait for the headphones to charge. I think this is the first product that I have received in a long time that was not charged before I got it.
While the OpenComm is charging let’s talk a little bit about the setup. It’s a one size fit all type of arrangement. Which is not as bad as it sounds. The band that connects the two ear units is flexible and pretty light weight.
On the right side you have most of the controls and the charging port. The controls consist of the volume up, volume down and the multifunction button. the multifunction button on the conduction pad, and the volume controls are on the underside
The left side only houses the boom mic. The mic can swivel back and out of the way if you are listening to music or just want it out of the way. Unfortunately moving the mic does not cause the mic to be muted. I think this was a real misstep by AfterShokz which I hope they fix in future models.
Once the OpenComm was charged I immediately pared it to my computer following the short instructions that came in the box. To par the OpenComm and in fact to turn them on you have to use the volume up buttons. Not the big orange multifunction button on the side. Again a misstep but one that can be overlooked.
One the OpenComm was pared, I was ready to give it a try. I have to admit I was really excited to see how this headphones worked. I have been keeping an eye on the bone connective technology for years. I wanted to try bone connecting headphones but it never worked out.
Which was probably a shame if any of the ones I looked at in the past were actually as good as the OpenComm. The sound is clear and the noise canceling mic worked great.
I have been using a number of different headphones and ear buds over the past year to try to find what worked best in my Zoom and Teams meetings. I would forever have problems with dropped sounded or the mic picking up background noise. None of that was a problem with the OpenComm. I could hear the conversations clearly and the mic effectively eliminated background noise.
The other important thing is comfort. I have using the OpenComm for a little over two weeks. I have been initially wearing them eight hours a day. I do not get the fatigue like I get from wearing other headphones. So these are definitely good for all day usage.
The good think is that the battery can take it. At a listed 16 hours, the battery last way longer than the average work day. I have not ran a batter test, but with my habit of charging after work and I have never ran out of charge during the day.
I would also like to point out that after a week of using the OpenComm, I was searching the AfterShokz website when I say this headset supports multipoint connection. I was shocked and tried it out immediately. I am happy to say it works fine. I can connect to two different devices simultaneously. Of course you can only hear one device at a time it is still a very nice feature to have and one that should be documented better. I should not have had to accidently found the convoluted process of paring on the company’s website.
As with all things there are some short falls. Luckily or unluckily the OpenComm’s short fall is it’s software. The on board software can not be updated and it is just enough to get by. It reminds me of the type of connection you would find on a headset four to five years ago.
Even with the bad software the hardware more than makes up for it and I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone.
For those of you who have tried AfterShokz OpenComm put your comments below. I look forward to hearing other people’s opinions.