Gordon Banks » Colorado

CAIC Mobile

Gordon — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:42:17 +0000

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) has developed a web page for mobile devices including; Android, iOS, and Blackberry platforms. This page is formatted for small screens to present basic avalanche conditions and alerts, if you need greater details you can click within each mountain zone for more specifics. Each mountain zone displays the “avi rose” for the range, an avalanche statement, and a weather forecast. If you’re a powder seeker (I am not), I believe CAIC does a better non-basis forecast of potential snowfall for each region. Also, you will find the two most current zone tweets giving you the zone forecaster’s snow insights. Note: This is a web page not a mobile application, so just bookmark; http://avalanche.state.co.us/m/index.php within your mobile browser to get Colorado avalanche updates.

Crystal Narrows Notch

Gordon — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 12:51:54 +0000

Fall Colors Central Colorado Rockies

Gordon — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:54:49 +0000

Four pics from Central Colorado Fall Colors. Click to enlarge.

Verizon Hotspot

Gordon — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:18:35 +0000

Just finished a 10 day trial with Verizon using their MIFI Hotspot device (Novatel MIFI 451 for $270.00). This wireless router is supposed to give you a WIFI hotspot wherever you are and can be shared with up to 5 other WIFI enabled devices. The product sounded perfect for mobile users of the Internet. Verizon boasts 4-12Mbps download speeds, in the words of my Verizon sales rep; “this is a replacement technology for Comcast”. My Comcast cable modem can score 12+Mbps with Speakeasy speed tests, but Verizon’s Hotspot technology never tested higher than 1.5Mbps with over 30 speed test on Verizon’s 4G wireless network. Verizon has just introduced their 4G LTE network in Boulder, Colorado and there seems be network tweaking issues, or their 4G network is highly over-rated. From my house, I consistently received 4 bars (the maximum number of bars) of 4G signal strength on the Novatel MIFI router I tested. At times, web images visually-poured into their pages just like back in the dial-up days of the Internet.

The Hotspot’s 4G speed was disappointing, and not nearly fast enough for the type of web work I do. Outside of the metro area, the device reverts to Verizon’s 3G network which means even slower data downloads. At $50 per month for 5GB of data, I was hoping I could drop my cable modem from Comcast ($58 per month) and work from a wireless hotspot since I am currently a regular commuter.

Verizon’s customer service was very good. They promptly answered all my emails and requested their network engineers try to investigate my hotspot performance problems. When it came time to return my hardware, they gave me a full refund including waving their return fee.

For now, I am back to looking for another wireless network solution.

Colorado Whitewater 2011

Gordon — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:55:38 +0000

Kayaking video highlights from the 2011 whitewater run-off.