Trouble Maker

Best car: who cares Worst car(s): tie between an RX8 and any Mustang V6. :gabe:

I think we are saying the same thing. At the ~$600 bottle that you are saying is 95% of as good as you can get, you've already been at the flat part of the curve for a while. I want to know where the knee is... not actually expecting you to answer, that's just where I personally want to live if my budget allows it. I think you were also saying basically the same thing about the daily drinker $50~$100 bottles; maybe a slightly different price point, but in the same ballpark.

I'm not going to say that you were definitely the one I was thinking of when I wrote this... but you were definitely in the top 2.

Glad to hear that it's not as draconian as my expectation. :thumbup: Order away, that law is dumb if they can't get a proper supply chain in place that you can actually get what you want.

It looks like if the maker falls under some set of rules, they can get a kind of license to ship into Ohio; but only for Beer and Wine.

Technically illegal to ship any liquor into Ohio, I would assume this also covers any kind of transportation like hand carry. Ohio's liquor is a single supplier state run agency; every bottle you see in the state on the shelves is brought in and distributed by them. You can look up the list theoretically ever available in Ohio. Maybe this list is currently available? https://www.ohlq.com/products/ If you are looking for something not common, maybe it's not on there. So, if it's not on the list, and you can't bring it in (by shipping or even hand carry); it's de facto technically illegal to even have it in Ohio. Maybe if they fixed the shitty antiquated single (state run) supplier issues we wouldn't need to think about shipping anything in. I've ordered online before, but my last order was ~1.5 years ago. Last order might have been from https://www.internationalwineshop.com/ I'll try to remember to look up where later, but I don't have access to my personal email at work to check it. Generally I find what I want, then do a google (shopping) search to find it; then you can see if they ship to Ohio. Other way around seems backwards to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I doubt the state is going to or has time to give any care about an individual ordering a reasonable amount for personal consumption. It would probably be another story if you started running a side business and also showed up on their radar somehow. They may be able to attack it at the (internet) supplier or shipping level if they chose to focus on this issue. So maybe that's happening now, why people are having a hard time finding anywhere that will ship to Ohio. I could see that having an effect; whether that state allows business to ship out of state. Regardless of that it is illegal by Ohio lawas to ship any Liquor into Ohio.

We get a sizeable shipment back, so carrying isn't an issue. I've tried to look it up, but the info is not so clear. CBP does says 1 liter, I don't buy it. I brought back ~8 (750ml) bottles one time. :lolguy: It was 2 bottles of alcohol and the others were wine, so maybe that was why it was ok. Maybe you meant CBP? I don't know why the nudie scanner, weenie touchers would care about how much alcohol I have. Then TSA maybe says 5 liters, for 24%-70%abv. I live here, am on assignment for a year, so I'm wondering if the rules are different. I had to follow the same 3 bottle limit into Japan as if I were hand carrying in. But we could go over and just pay $x/bottle depending on type of alcohol. Clearly NOT the same since it is 2 different countries, just using it as an an example.

Anything from Japan, that I can't (easily?) get here. The point is to bring it back, not to get anything here I can get over there. Ease of drinking and approachability are important; none of the people I imagine drinking this with or gifting any too are smoky-peat freaks. I did get a bottle of Eagle Rare the other day, but that was mostly for here; saw it in stock somewhere and I guess it can be hard to find in the US (Ohio)? We will probably get quite a few bottles, so price is always a factor. But, we likely won't have an opportunity like this again so we can splurge. Within reason we are trying to not have money limit us while we are here, realizing that we will spend quite a bit this year. Use my above #s as an idea of what we might be willing/targeting to spend e.g. $50ish or bellow all day, $100 is OK for a few of something special. The gin from Cardrona and Benizakura below will be in that ~$100 range and I will 100% get those while I'm here. For example in the Gin world, these two are on the list so far. A few from https://kyotodistillery.jp/en-GB/ And a bottle of this https://dekanta.com/store/benizakura-9148-gin/ I also plan to order a bottle of Cardrona gin since I can get it here and I don't think they distribute to the US. But, I need to branch out and try more!

I really need to figure out the import laws coming back into the US (from Japan if that matters), to start to get some things here you can't really get back in the US. One of the big things is, does it have to be factory sealed? We've only got about 7 more months here so I don't want to go crazy, buy a ton, open many up to have a few drinks, and not be able to bring them back. Is there some hard limit, or do I just have to pay tariffs over that, which would be 100% OK. Any suggestions on whiskey? My wife as well as a few close friends like whiskey and that's obviously a thing here. They have a pretty strong Gin scene, so that's probably mostly what I'll pick up here. I'm also going to order a bottle of Cardorna Gin. I got some while I was in NZ and love it, but I don't think you can order it in the states and you can here. Of course we will get some Sake while we are here too; but that is such a rabbit hole I don't even know quite where to start.

Not a whiskey person, nor have I had that one, so I can't really offer direct advice. So, take this with that grain of salt. I think the easy answer is, of course not. Is any bottle of liquor really 'worth' that? If you have the money and that's where you want to spend it, by all means please do. But I think you're probably well beyond the point of diminishing returns. I have had quite a few bottles of vodka, rum and gin at increasing price levels. I've personally bought and have/had ~$100 bottles of Vodka, Rum and Gin. As well as one $250 bottle of rum, and many lower cost bottles. I've done significant experimenting with what ingredients to use for our favorite cocktails at lower price points. Most of the ~$100 bottles were better than the $250 bottle, and all of the $100 bottles were better than any $50 bottle I've had, which were mostly all better than most $30 bottles I've had.... Of course there are always some exceptions, and baring some outlier you'll usually get better for more money. The sweet spot for most of these for me has been around $40~60 range. That's where you get some really quality stuff, but are still getting a good value. You start to get some phenomenal stuff around $100, but not worth twice the price. Past that the value pre incremental dollar spent just goes out of the window. This has been almost universally true across the spectrum of vodka, rum and gin. I can't imagine that the economics in the world of other liquors is that much different. TLDR: >$40, some great outliers, especially for mixing specific drinks. Can be kind of dependent on what you are making, and your taste. $40~$60, daily driver for drinking straight(ish), or high octane cocktails where the flavor of the liquor is the primary star. $100ish, special occasion, really good stuff. Over $100, too much diminishing incremental value. I'm happy to be proven wrong if you offer me a drink of something outside of these ranges to change my mind. Patiently waiting for someone with deeper pockets to be a snob about my price points.

I believe they are based out of Columbus, for anyone that cares about buying locally.

I don't really get it. Everyone of those I looked at took up more room in my pocket than my phone with a slimmer case and a separate minimalist wallet. I've been using the elastic wallets for quite a few years. They definitely aren't a long lasting product, but they are fairly cheap, flexible and about as minimal as you will get. Recently I was using this one. https://www.suprgood.com/collections/slim-wallet Now that we are in Japan and I need to carry around their larger bills and the change I get (smallest bill is ~$10USD), I'm using a full sized bifold. I got a Bellroy, maybe the Note Sleeve. It's definitely well made, but I can't compare to any others at this price point. I might look at a card only wallet when we are back the US even if it's a bit larger than the elastic ones, it should be nicer.

Hmm, if DBW systems can be made good enough for all of the transportation sector (auto, aero and trains) and allowed under the functional safety regulations for those sectors, I'm not sure what actual founded in engineering principles problems they might have.

It really does seem about as plug-n-play as you could get with going considering that you are going from mechanical injection to ECU based FI. That's pretty awesome. I had totally forgotten about what leaded fuel is supposed to do to O2 sensors. Are most people tuning by plugs, feeling, speed/time, etc? I imagine the total actual run time isn't super high so maybe the replacement interval might be reasonable? How do you know when it's bad, or more importantly starting to go bad? It would be nice if the had some detection logic for this that could warn you when it had degraded enough to be a problem. I think this is could be a relatively common issue. I wonder how many people will just use the basics and be very happy with the changes VS go further for probably incremental benefit. It makes me wonder if the system is overdesigned (cost more than necessary) for most costumer actual use situations. They could easily build this into the Holley unit by still attaching your cable, but have that drive a sensor and use that to control a motor based throttle... basically like any DBW, but just leave the cable in there. They could even have a bolt on unit that does the same thing, to upgrade down the road. The benefit of this would be that you bring it into the loop of the Holley FIECU control and integrate it into the overall control architecture. They could even have the option of a DBW pedal from a modern car and just use a wire, or you could just keep the cable and that allows a mechanical backup which I imagine could be one of the benefits of the Starting line enhancers. You'll also have some resistance to going full DBW so having the DBW over mechanical cable would allow a higher adoption rate.

So, this also has a built in MAP and ITA sensor? Seems like a pretty nice drop in setup. It's also a pretty nice design that you can do it in steps; step 1, keep current ignition system and it can work well, step 2 install ECU controlled ignition system into the loop for more control. I'm assuming the throttle is still purely cable driven. I guess they are assuming most people already have an O2 sensor for monitoring, despite being carbureted? Has there been anyone that has looked into the effect of a throttle body injection system like that VS port injection? Other than on the wallet and how long the 2 week install period is. Let us know when part 2 is up, would love to read it. It would be pretty cool if they built in or had some adds on's for position tracking; via g-sensor and/or GPS. They could also make provisions or a different version for DBW (drive by wire). With some combo of this and GPS, maybe with some wheel speed sensor add ons they could also add some traction/wheelie/etc control. It could make for a really interesting way to slowly step up the technical ladder.

I mean, that all seems fair. Big data, simulation during product development across a broad range of products*1, AI, # of chips in devices that are Not personal computers*2 is where the majority of growth is probably going to be. My (very wild) speculation is that if anything the personal CPU market may retract; or possibly somewhat implode if cloud computing really takes off. If that happens, it will also mean more market share for non personal computers. So, it seems like he is trying to change the story internally so they both aren't complacent in the CPU market, as well as trying to grow in those other markets. As the article said, it will also diversify the company if the grow in those other markets, even if the shrink in the CPU market; which should make for a stronger more resilient company. *1 It's interesting to see this happen from a few different prospective. I work in automotive R&D, and simulation is getting/has gotten pretty serious. This has trickled down from aerospace. But, now it's getting pretty serious in other parts of my life as a consumer. I'm a bit of an audio nerd. Many of the larger speaker makers are openly talking about how the are using simulation to optimize their designs. The anecdotal results are an increasing number of very high value high quality speakers at reasonable prices. This is definitely at the higher end of what I'm calling reasonable. There are more examples at lower price points, but this white paper definitely tells a story about what's happening. https://us.kef.com/pub/media/wysiwyg/documents/ls50/ls50_white_paper.pdf *2 I have the 'activated' version of the speakers in the white paper above that has onboard DSP (chip) to handle the crossover digitally with time and phase correction rather than in the analog realm. So, these speakers were CAD (FEA, etc) optimized from a physical design standpoint (heavy computer power up front), then they have an active DSP chip in them. Another DSP (chip) solution I've been looking at for a pair of passive speakers I have is something from https://www.minidsp.com/ with https://live.dirac.com/ to do correction at the room level. I think it's only a short matter of time before these improvements (in value and performance at a specific cost point) have a significant impact on regular consumer household audio e.g. few hundred dollar or less sound bars or even in built TV audio. It's already being used in some of the higher end audio in cars so the effects of that will trickle down to 'regular' cars too.

I'm assuming you are just talking about furniture/layout? If also considering any equipment, depending on what you are doing, an ultrawide (3x") monitor can be life altering. Being able to throw up 2 files at one time right next to each other on the same screen, or one very wide file is a huge benefit. Even if you aren't doing that now, you can at least make the furniture setup conducive to that in the future. I've got a 27" regular ratio monitor at my new location, it's great, but I'm really missing the widescreen I had at the old place. 2 monitors next to each other is not a substitute. There is something about having the info on the same screen that makes it easier to work with; maybe that physical break in the monitors doesn't allow your eyes to smoothly track between the two. If you are using a newer laptop, a USB-C dock was really nice change too, when it worked correctly. But, if you are working from home maybe you are not coming and leaving your desk as much, so probably not as big of a benefit.

150% yes.... as long as you aren't going through 23&270 area during rush hour, especially Friday rush hour. I haven't frequently been that way during that time since they redid everything up there so maybe it's relatively OK now? I'll take the BS on 23 until you get past Delaware to not have to deal with 2 lane busy country basically the whole way. Once you get past somewhere around Delaware, the speed limit bumps up to something around freeway speeds. And you have 2 lanes each way so you can actually pass someone instead of getting stuck behind a line of 15 trucks on 31. Really, what do you have to lose with trying it once to see which way works better for you? It sounds like you're going to have plenty of opportunities to drive that way over the next few months. It sounds like a nice car, congrats. It really seems amazing what some makers are doing to limit how much you might have to compromise in each segment.

Why are your trying to ruin that stores quarter Carl?

http://www.okmoviequotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/13-01-Hot-Rod-quotes.jpg

It's a simple pull force test F=ma The Force possible at the tire is the Mass on the tire times Acceleration (gravity, constant). So, what changes between the two cars is the Mass on each tire. Higher mass means higher force possible before tire slip. Force possible at 4 wheels is higher than 2 wheels, all other things (weight) being equal. This is why 4WD can accelerate faster than 2WD Everyone is also assuming, probably rightfully so, that the Tesla is heavier. The tires on the Ford truck are spinning (tire smoke), they simply hit their maximum force possible given the weight on only the rear axle. The Ford facing downhill actually means less mass on the rear tires. .... but it does also mean the Tesla has more work to do, so there is some balance there. In other words, put the exact same engine/motor in those 2, and the Tesla still 'wins' by Weight and AWD. So, not an apples-to-apples comparison. There is probably some good tidbits in here. https://www.carthrottle.com/post/engineering-explained-everything-you-need-to-know-about-summer-winter-allseason-tyres/ At the very least, that test needs to be on flat ground. It definitely should also be AWD vs 4x4. You really should compare similarly priced vehicles too; so either compare the base Tesla (2WD) to whatever F150 cost $40k, I'm guessing you can get something with AWD and 3.5TT in that price range. Or for the Tesla the showed put a Raptor on the other end of the rope and see how things turn out. Or, like someone else said, if you are getting a truck for towing you can probably get some Super duty with a diesel in that price range too. -In just a few minutes on Fords site I built an F150 with 3.5TT and 4x4 for $39k and an F250 with diesel and 4x4 for $48k.

This seems like a great option in that realm for only $25 more, but I would want to read some subjective reviews too. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-new-jds-labs-atom-headphone-amp.5262/

This guy doesn't usually have a ton of positive things to say about Schiit products, but seems to like this one. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-topping-a30-and-schiit-magni-3-headphone-amps.4024/ His reference (iDSD Black) at the end that he says is better than these, is an amp+dac, but it's $600. So, it seems like to get to the next level you have to spend about 2-3x as much. Also, the Magni 3 is $99 directly from Schiits site, without shipping included, but I can't imagine shipping being $20. It's even $79 from their b-stock without shipping, but currently not in stock. At $75 new, it seems like a good deal!

Glad to hear you like them so well, they are on my wish list. I went through a similar crisis of conscious when I got the Bose QC25s. But, the noise cancelation just works so well, especially on airplanes, that I haven't looked back. Everything I've read about those SONYs is that someone finally got on the same plane as Bose in NC area, but with even better SQ. Before it was a trade-off; you could get better SQ, but at significant sacrifice of NC. I Want wireless, especially now that my phone only has USB-C port and no headphone jack. I Want those SONYs. I just can't seem to justify it since the QC25s are still more than alive and kicking. Sounds like the same as what I was saying above, just more eloquently written. I'd love to try some high end open backs, but I don't think they hold a practical place for me. Maybe I would try them and be blown away, especially at the value proposition?