Cutting the cord

[Kierland]

[Dinsdale]

HDMI cord

First, it's a "cable."

But anyhoo, since you guys are my both my bestest internet bros, and a bunch of truly stupid, stupid individuals, let me help you out...

When purchasing an HDMI cable (not that I've ever done that, I have a pile from work), the difference between the $6 HDMI cable and the $120 HDMI cable is... $114.

There is no signal degradation through a HDMI cable (unlike analog formats, like VGA, Component, RGB, etc). Either the contacts are touching, and there's some sort of wire between them, or they're not -- which will be quite obvious. Sure, the cheapies won't withstand as much bending and whatnot... which shouldn't be an issue. And $120 buys a lot (say around 20) of $6 cables.

But hey, you spent $600 on a new 4K UHDTV, and you want the best picture, and don't want to but the el-cheapo cable, right?

[Mikey]

You mean the gold plated connectors don’t work any better?

[Dinsdale]

You mean the gold plated connectors don’t work any better?

BUT IT'S GOLD!!!!!!

[Mikey]

But it looks really cool with gold connectors and little LED lights inside the cable to show you it’s actually working.

[Dinsdale]

There's many retailers that base their business on the idea that most consumers are tards (sup wine). More expensive = better.

[Mikey]

Got to have a heavy glass bottle too.

You know the juice is primo if it comes with two pounds of glass and a really deep punt.

[Dinsdale]

Got to have a heavy glass bottle too.

You know the juice is primo if it comes with two pounds of glass and a really deep punt.

Dude -- another winery I help out with bottling does exactly that. Fancy corks and foils on the Reserve, too.

A case goes from 36ish lbs to about 40 (give or take). And the cases are even of different enough dimensions that a pallet (sup Screwey) goes from the standard 56 cases to 44.

And it brings a higher price.

[Mikey]

A winery where I belong to the wine club wrote about this on their blog just a few days ago.

https://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/ ... later.html

[Dinsdale]

While I delve into that beyond the first paragraph, I'll correct myself -- I think the big-glass cases were around 42lbs, IIRC. Very noticeable difference stacking them, or loading the line.

[Dinsdale]

https://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/ ... later.html

I know you've pimped them forever, and I've never had their wine, but they sound cool. I found no fault in one word they wrote, which is rare in any wine articlethingy.

I'll pass it on.

And it must be nice to have all those options for glass in Califonwine. With the tariffs, the Chinese garbage (and it's fucking garbage) got more expensive. A company opened a new plant just in Kelso, WA the last few years, down the river (that would be the Columbia, where it heads north before heading west again), but they only want to deal with the big outfits, it seems.

So frankly, glass seems like a problem here of late. Like... almost $9 a case (delivered) problem. Was never like that until recently.

[Dinsdale]

BUT -- I'm also leery of a bottle that's significantly lighter than the norm. In the real word... bottles break. And when it happens at any point from bottling (line shut down, liquid and glass cleanup ensues, or heaven forbid it's a leaker that gets onto a palllet), to storage, to... whatever. Shit makes a mess, and glass shards that tend to bring about blood. And if one goes in the corker... it's like Hiroshiburgundday.

I suppose it's all about quality of manufacture.

[Mikey]

I’d think there’s definitely a limit to how lightweight you can go. One thing about Tablas Creek, and I think he mentioned this in the blog post, is that very little of their product ever makes it to a retail shelf, so handling is pretty minimal.

I actually first found them at Costco maybe five or six years ago. They had some of their lowest tier GSM blend (still a 90+ point wine) for under $20.00. Must have had a surplus that year because I haven’t seen any there since. Went on an extensive tour of their operation next time in Paso, sat for a reserve tasting and was hooked. Not just the wine but they’re family owned (in partnership with a French winery) and (seemingly) very committed to sustainability.

[Dinsdale]

.

[Dinsdale]

handling is pretty minimal.

Noooo. It slightly reduces handling. It gets handles a lot. Every point has breakage risks. They eliminate a small one here.

They had some of their lowest tier GSM blend (still a 90+ point wine) for under $20.00. Must have had a surplus that year because I haven’t seen any there since.

I might, maybe know someone who was hit up by a distributor for the Costco thing.

If a place was behind on the bills, or was grossly overstocked, it makes sense. Huge risk of watering down the brand. Although for Tablas, in at least one case, it did the opposite.

very committed to sustainability

Quite the buzzword these days. Get woke, go broke.

The bottle thing was justifying cheaper shit... and brilliantly sugar-coated.

[Dinsdale]

Some baaaad UBB, right there

[Screw_Michigan]

On Friday I replaced our old Netgear WiFi router and range extender with three Google WiFi devices. Suddenly we went from a max of about 25 Mbps and frequent buffering delays on the Amazon Fire to 200+ Mbps near the cable modem and minimum of 90 in the rest of the house. Feeling a lot better about streaming right now.

How much did you pay?

[Mikey]

On Friday I replaced our old Netgear WiFi router and range extender with three Google WiFi devices. Suddenly we went from a max of about 25 Mbps and frequent buffering delays on the Amazon Fire to 200+ Mbps near the cable modem and minimum of 90 in the rest of the house. Feeling a lot better about streaming right now.

How much did you pay?

I bought the three pack on Amazon for $239. You can get a single one for $98.00. They're completely scalable. You just buy as many as you need to cover your house or condo or whatever. The first one connects to your modem with an Ethernet cable. The rest communicate with each other wirelessly. I might have been able to get by with two but it would have been borderline. It took me all of about 30 minutes to set it up, including removing the old equipment. The secret is to give your new network the same SSID and password as the old one, that way you don't have to reconfigure any devices that were already set up to use the original router.

[Left Seater]

For any of you that have a "home office" or regularly sit in the same spot when on a computer, do you still use your wifi signal for that?

When I am in my "home office" or for the tv in the living room, those places have a hard wired connection back to the cable modem. The speed is so much faster with the wired connection. Just wondering.

[Mikey]

very committed to sustainability

Quite the buzzword these days. Get woke, go broke.

The bottle thing was justifying cheaper shit... and brilliantly sugar-coated.

I get the cynical POV and stuff, and you obviously have a lot more "insider" info than I do.

But it seems like if you can do the glass reduction thing, plus the organic, biodynamic and dry farming; lowering costs, reducing your impact, keeping the vineyard healthy, and still put out a superior product (they seem to know what they're doing), the improved PR would make it a win/win situation.

[Mikey]

For any of you that have a "home office" or regularly sit in the same spot when on a computer, do you still use your wifi signal for that?

When I am in my "home office" or for the tv in the living room, those places have a hard wired connection back to the cable modem. The speed is so much faster with the wired connection. Just wondering.

I've thought about running Ethernet throughout the house due to the poor Wifi reception in some areas, but it would have been a pretty big project. The cable modem is in our bedroom at one end of the house, and the TV in the family room is at the other end about 80 feet way, with an additional three or four rooms that would need connections. This new Google mesh network completely gets rid of that option. I have minimum 80 Mbps at the farthest end of the house, which is more than fast enough for anything I might need, and could probably get good reception outside.

Have you run a speed test on your service lately?

[Screw_Michigan]

I bought the three pack on Amazon for $239. You can get a single one for $98.00. They're completely scalable. You just buy as many as you need to cover your house or condo or whatever. The first one connects to your modem with an Ethernet cable. The rest communicate with each other wirelessly. I might have been able to get by with two but it would have been borderline. It took me all of about 30 minutes to set it up, including removing the old equipment. The secret is to give your new network the same SSID and password as the old one, that way you don't have to reconfigure any devices that were already set up to use the original router.

Sorry, was wondering how much you paid for your router.

[Left Seater]

Have you run a speed test on your service lately?

Not in months. Last time I did though I was over 400 on the hard wired connection and 120 I think on wifi.

[Mikey]

I bought the three pack on Amazon for $239. You can get a single one for $98.00. They're completely scalable. You just buy as many as you need to cover your house or condo or whatever. The first one connects to your modem with an Ethernet cable. The rest communicate with each other wirelessly. I might have been able to get by with two but it would have been borderline. It took me all of about 30 minutes to set it up, including removing the old equipment. The secret is to give your new network the same SSID and password as the old one, that way you don't have to reconfigure any devices that were already set up to use the original router.

Sorry, was wondering how much you paid for your router.

That is the router, or at least takes the place of it. You get three (or one or two or four) of the Google Wifi devices. They're all identical. The first one connects to your modem and acts as the base unit (router). When you configure the rest of them it creates a mesh network where they all communicate to act sort of like repeaters or access points. The network is self-controlling so that you will get the the signal by the path of least resistance in whatever location you're in.

Each one of them has two Ethernet ports. The base unit uses one to connect to your modem. If you have any device that needs a hard wired connection (like some printers) you can connect to any of the units as if it was a router. I added an 8 port Ethernet switch to expand the base unit.

Plus, you can do the setup and monitor the entire network on a smart phone app.

https://store.google.com/us/product/goo ... lsrc=aw.ds

[Mikey]

Have you run a speed test on your service lately?

Not in months. Last time I did though I was over 400 on the hard wired connection and 120 I think on wifi.

Then, unless you're playing several simultaneous multiple player games and streaming three or four HD movies at the same time, you probably wouldn't see any difference using your Wifi.

[Left Seater]

Well I am often playing HD videos of my football games. I will often set up multiple screens and run the tight wide and endzone views at the same time. Wifi struggles with that at times.

[atmdad]

Well I am often playing HD videos of my football games. I will often set up multiple screens and run the tight wide and endzone views at the same time. Wifi struggles with that at times.

So that is what you call it when you are getting freaky with Mrs. Seater.

[Left Seater]

Huh?

[Kierland]

What a fat greedy planet killing POS. IndyFriscoSeater.