Wednesday, April 9, 2014

More Downtown Denver

An HDR photo taken in the morning during my walk from my hotel to the conference hotel which is just across the street from the light colored building on the left. In the center is the Trinity Methodist church with the sun shining on the steeple. It seems odd for it to be completely surrounded by all of the large buildings right in the downtown area. What has been surprising is that it isn't the only church in the downtown area.

This is the urban "river" that I referred to in yesterdays post. It looked like there was some sort of construction project and to me it looked like the beginnings of some sort of park. This was about halfway between downtown Denver and EME. The river was a pleasant surprise and it had a nice cooling effect. Especially after walking along the frontage road for a highway. This was along the bus route and my plan was to simply hop on the bus whenever it came by but that never happened. The busses must be pretty widely spaced.

This afternoon, I met Dom for lunch and we took the free shuttle bus that ran along 16th St. for lunch at JJ's Bistro and Sushi which bills itself and the "Best Chinese Food" in Denver. It was decent enough though not quite like places in San Francisco. This was taken later in the afternoon after walking to REI just past the South Platte River (see below and above). I liked the way this pedestrian suspension bridge looked. If you look closely, you could see the moon near the top of the photo.

The photo is kind of dark but you can get an idea of how small the river is at this time. There was all sorts of activity going on in this area in addition to all of the bicyclists such as kayaks and paddle boards. Only 7 miles of walking today. Nothing like yesterday.

One last photo, this is a large television with a touch screen overlaid. The are using it to display the status of network links and how heavily they are being used. You can overlay weather and other things on top of the map as well as zoom. To "spin" the globe you just use your finger and swipe just as it it was a physical globe. They've had this display at multiple events and no matter how many times I see it, I still enjoy playing with it. This was developed at the GlobalNOC at Indiana University.

13 comments:

  1. That is a very cool 'globe', something I'd enjoy playing with.

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    1. It's been at the meetings for a couple of years and I've been tempted to duplicate it with Alaska data but it's one of those "round toit" things.

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  2. Denver is such a great city. I haven't been in a while so I appreciate seeing the downtown views. Interesting platform along the river. Even when dry to a trickle people will still hang out there.

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    1. What wasn't obvious was the new construction to the left that was bringing water in from somewhere to the west. I assume more storm drains. During high water times, I think that it would flow right through the platform area.

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    2. The platform will probably detach during high water, and pontoons will automatically inflate. Would not want those hipsters moving in to be unhappy ;^)

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    3. After all, remember that this is Colorado...

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  3. Another beautiful day in Denver.

    One day we are going to have to go exploring as there is so much of this country we haven't seen.

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    1. Time for your 'round the US trip. There are a lot of really interesting and scenic areas just within North America. Other areas of the world are also cool to see but are much more challenging to get to.

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  4. Richard:

    that urban river looks like it was in the middle of nowhere, not near the centre of town. We don't have an urban river but we do have a 10,000 acre Stanley Park and waterfront areas

    We also have churches in our Downtown which are surrounded by tall buildings. Just never thought to snap photos or churches

    I liked that last globe photo too. Is this accessible on the 'Net ?

    that HDR came out nice. kind of looks like the same parking lot Dom used when he started working downtown

    bob
    A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast

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    1. Unfortunately the globe isn't accessible through the Internet. Plus, the size makes it even more interesting than just the function. When they first set it up, it was just an XP machine with a plasma TV that they picked up from Best Buy with a large multi-touch glass screen taped to the front.

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  5. The first picture does look unreal in its beauty, Richard.

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    1. Thank you. Maybe using HDR contributes to the "unreal" feeling. But without HDR so much dynamic range is lost with just about any camera when compared to you eyes.

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  6. We have a cool little greek orthodox church tucked into our neighborhood. Not quite down town, but surrounded by big apartment buildings, and REI down the street. The HDR is a gorgeous city scape. Love the light.

    Nice little city walk. I'm learning to enjoy the fine art of walking. The perfect activity in an urban area and less work than dragging the bicycle out of the apartment. Just toss on some comfy shoes and go. Pretty sure I'm not doing 7 miles. :)

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