What R you doing today?

[ceeaton]

PDP 11/70, I used to make robots move around the shop floor at McDonnell Douglas with one of those. What a fine computer. When one of my co-workers retired from MCD, all the folks in our department (30 or so of us) signed the platter of an 80 Mb Hard Drive, As I recall it was 20 inches across or something like that, with 5 or maybe 7 platters. What fun times. Now I carry 1 TB around in something the size of a credit card.

Yeah, remember those platters, heavy as you know what. I used to do the backups in the morning since I was crazy enough to get in there at 6 am (and I was a student to boot). Used to do the backups on Saturday and Sunday mornings as well, not so much fun after a night at frat parties...

 

[wpt-me]

I learned to program in Basic on a PDP-11 at a locale high school. Made some extra money doing it for my company>

Bill

 

[winemaker81]

I watched a couple of airmen de-classify a classified disk pack from a DEC VAX. At that time, the tool used to "declassify" the disk pack was 12 lb sledge hammers -- they pounded that thing flat, then the pieces were tossed in an incinerator.

Regarding the size of storage, this is a 32 GB flash drive that I purchased for use in a Raspberry PI 3.




For those that didn't live through ancient computer history, DEC = Digital Equipment Corp, which was a major computer vendor from the 60's to 90's. It was purchased by Compaq and no longer exists.

Raspberry PI is an educational, 1-board computer the size of a person's palm. If you're into geeky computer stuff, they're fun and very inexpensive.

 

[mainshipfred]

I asked a few of my old boat buddies if they would be interested in helping me do some blending. So today I'm going to try to get 2 blends done though it all depends on how long the first one takes and how much we have to drink to get it right. I think they are going to enjoy it.

Last night while I was doing some racking to get ready my AIO stopped working. I emailed Steve @vacuumpumpman because I thought I needed a new pump. He, as usual, called me right back and we did some trouble shooting. Turns out my carboy bung wasn't making a good enough seal due to being tarnished. I cleaned it as well as I could and was able to limp along to finish the racking and quite for the day. I ordered some new bungs and upgrades and will do a more thorough job on this bung today to finish the racking.

 

[winemaker81]

My son will arrive in an hour -- we're bottling the 2020 red blends, Meritage and Meritage Plus. Then we clean the barrels and the FWK go in the barrels, a triple batch of Super Tuscan and a field blend of Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Merlot.

The field blend is working out well -- both wines are. At this point (3 months old) both are tasty for their age and have great potential. When we fill the barrels I'm going to pour a sample of each, mark 'em, and then mix them up so no one knows which is which. We'll see how the 2 compare.

 

[winemaker81]

Update -- we bottled just short of 6 cases from each barrel. I told my son the wines need another year in the bottle (16 months old currently), and he looked me in the eye and said, "NO, they don't!"

Actually, they're young and need more time, but he's REALLY happy with the taste at this time. So am I!

 

[Khristyjeff]

Update -- we bottled just short of 6 cases from each barrel. I told my son the wines need another year in the bottle (16 months old currently), and he looked me in the eye and said, "NO, they don't!"

Actually, they're young and need more time, but he's REALLY happy with the taste at this time. So am I!

We just tasted a 9 month old RJS Amaroné Classico and it was really good. Kind of on the fruity side still. I told my wife we may want to drink a big bottle soon and save the mini taster bottles for the 1 year mark and later as my other Amaroné took a turn during that period that was less desirable to us before becoming fantastic. Is this common?

 

[BigDaveK]

I do agree that the late 20th century saw incredible leaps. We can agree to disagree on the 21st. I fail to see evidence of this "coasting" of which you speak.

Perhaps "coasting" was a pure word choice. Maybe "consolidation and gestation" would be better. Wonderful advances are made but they're based on discoveries of the leap phase. Then the "consolidation and gestation" phase leads to the next leap phase. Over time the interval between leaps decreases - centuries become decades.

 

[winemaker81]

We just tasted a 9 month old RJS Amaroné Classico and it was really good. Kind of on the fruity side still. I told my wife we may want to drink a big bottle soon and save the mini taster bottles for the 1 year mark and later as my other Amaroné took a turn during that period that was less desirable to us before becoming fantastic. Is this common?

Wine is complex and it goes through a variety of changes throughout its lifecycle. A good illustration is my oak stix experiment -- read the tasting notes to see how the wines changed dramatically from month to month, going up and down.

At 9 months, I'd probably be thinking of bottling the Amarone, not drinking it. When I think of Amarone, I think of a heavier red that needs more time. However, keep in mind that this is my opinion -- if you are happy drinking the wine, do it. No one else's opinions matter.

You got me ruminating on how hard winemaking is for beginners. Beginners at any endeavor want clear instructions, and most things in winemaking are judged on the situation. This is no doubt one reason kits are popular -- follow the instructions and produce a good result. When a fermentation question is asked here, the response is typically, "trust your hydrometer, it will tell you when fermentation is done." This produces a lot of nervous questions from beginners, for reasons I understand.

Same for aging -- "until the wine is ready" isn't all that useful, is it? Which is a major reason why I suggest sampling a bottle every few months and recording impressions. Having strangers on the net tell you to age your wine will have far less impact than reading your notes from a year's span, and seeing how your impressions changed during that time.

 

[ChuckD]

I spent about five hours cutting the joinery in this beam for my timber frame woodshed. It’s probably been 20 years since I did any timber framing but I’m getting into the flow now!

 

[crushday]

Internet Explorer needed to have a stake driven through its heart, the mouth filled with holy wafers and garlic (posterior orifice as well!), sprinkled with holy water, beheaded, and burned to ashes. Plus anything else you'd do to keep a vampire from rising.

Wow. Maybe you’ve watched too many horror movies! Lol…

 

[jswordy]

I spent about five hours cutting the joinery in this beam for my timber frame woodshed. It’s probably been 20 years since I did any timber framing but I’m getting into the flow now!
View attachment 84854

That is some genuine craftsmanship.

 

[winemaker81]

Wow. Maybe you’ve watched too many horror movies! Lol…

Horror and Internet Explorer are good buddies, so the same treatment is necessary.

 

[ChuckD]

That is some genuine craftsmanship.

Thanks. The scale is intimidating but it’s just basic joinery. I’ve spent too much time this winter sitting on my a$$ and it feels good to have another project to keep Me busy while the wines are aging.

 

[jswordy]

Thanks. The scale is intimidating but it’s just basic joinery. I’ve spent too much time this winter sitting on my a$$ and it feels good to have another project to keep Me busy while the wines are aging.

Yeah, well, I am looking at your mortises and they look very, very well done. Really looks good. Did you laminate the beam, too? (It looks laminated to me).

I would really like to do something along those lines to build a gazebo-like structure in the yard, but it won't be true mortise and tenon, it'll be that fake kind that looks like it. You know, lag bolt and PT. I want a hot tub out there something fierce, but I won't set it out in the Southern sun, no sir. That sun is amazing. It will destroy a 30-year shingle in 15. That's why my house is metal roofed now.

 

[ChuckD]

Yeah, well, I am looking at your mortises and they look very, very well done. Really looks good. Did you laminate the beam, too? (It looks laminated to me).

I would really like to do something along those lines to build a gazebo-like structure in the yard, but it won't be true mortise and tenon, it'll be that fake kind that looks like it. You know, lag bolt and PT. I want a hot tub out there something fierce, but I won't set it out in the Southern sun, no sir. That sun is amazing. It will destroy a 30-year shingle in 15. That's why my house is metal roofed now.

The timber’s are solid ash. The one in the picture is an 8x10. I harvested them on my property and had a sawyer cut them up here.

When I retire, in a few years lord willing, I want to build a timber frame pavilion by the new vineyard. Complete with outdoor fireplace and pizza oven. On the cheap of course, using timber’s and stone from the homestead. Should keep me busy for at least a year.

 

[Kraffty]

Brought back from California yesterday 4 bags of large oranges from my mom's house. Big, juicy and sweet. Zested about 30 for 1500ml of base for Orange-cello. Juiced for 1-1/2 gallons of really nice Orange juice. We'll see how it turns out in a week or so.

 

[ChuckD]

The timber framing is coming along nicely. I’m working on the top plates now. Each half is 20 feet long and joins eight other pieces. they are joined with a scarf Joint with two tenons (shown). It took me almost two hours to lay out the joinery and six to cut the whole timber. With these you measure 5x before cutting. I don’t have many spares.

 

[Jovimaple]

Bottled 2 FWK Frutta kits yesterday and a 6 gallon batch of Skeeter Pee today. Now all I have left to bottle is a 2 gallon batch of tomato wine.

So I started an Orchard Breezin' Wild Watermelon kit - I added 3 cups of sugar to raise the s.g. from wine cooler territory to wine abv, and also shorted the water to just over 5 gallons. I did the same with the Orchard Breezin' Peach Perfection kit last summer and it was a favorite of my friends. I am hoping I get good results with the watermelon kit.

 

[winemaker81]

I started 7 gallons of Elderberry and a 3 gallon Global Vintner Chocolate-Raspberry port wine, and have plans to start a gallon of coffee melomel.