The NYT’s Freakonomics pointed me at something I think we’ve all suspected for years - Expensive wine is only worth it if you’ve either trained a highly educated palette (and we’re talking lots of practice here), or you’re one of those people who just like’s pouring money into glasses so other people can see your glasses full of cash.
I don’t buy the highly expensive bottles (I’n not that rich, nor that trained), but when other people have been kind enough (or when I’ve drunk too many cheaper glasses and am in a suitable bar), I have indulged and come to the same conclusions. But I’ll add a corollary - on average, very cheap wines can be hit and mostly miss, especially in the realm of red. The value curve has it’s peak at about, for me, £10 to £15 a bottle.
Now, I certainly don’t think you can’t get decent wines for less (I have, do, and continue to), nor that every “mid price” bottle is better (some are dross). Just that if you do your research, that price point has the widest selection of bottles that taste well above their price range, without seeming ostentatious.
Note that I’m talking about wines bought from a store, not a restaurant. Wine by the bottle with a meal starts at about that range (and normally they’d have paid about a tenth of that for it).
Insanely busy, but not dead. Here’s a photo from last summer. When I can spare the editing time, I’ll distill some of my academic writing into posts here.
I’m still around, just busy with form filling and contract work. I’ve a few ideas of what to fill this site with over the next few months that I’ll hopefully start soon. Just hard to know what level to pitch content at!
In the meantime, here’s a dragon.
I’ve fallen behind on my “test lots of Web 2.0 style” websites routine, so I guess it’s time to upload some of my photography to Flickr and see how the world has moved on whilst I’ve been cloistered in academia.
I’ve got mixed feelings about it all so far, but in general, I suppose it’s a step forward.
I spent a lot more time at home over the holidays than I do normally, and so my trusty iBook has become less of a laptop and more of a desk ornament. After a few days of sitting there, plugged in permanently, it started giving me shocks via the metal components on the case. Nothing serious, just a small tingling, so I wired up my multi-meter and sure enough, there was a small current flowing whenever the machine was connected to the mains.
I guess I’d never noticed before because it spent most of the unplugged, and being curious more than worried I decided to give Apple a ring. Apple support is still some of the best in the industry and after a minimal amount of time on the phone, they said they’d contact me with a resolution. Well, true to form, they called back two days later with the following interesting snippet.
The power adaptor that Apple ships supported two methods of wall connection. There’s an AC power lead (e.g. a long cable with the plug in the end) as well as a wall plug that slips right onto the adaptor. Because my desk is well supplied with sockets, I’d just slipped the wall plug (the Apple support person called it a “docket” [sic]) onto the adaptor and into the wall. It transpires, however, that this plug is ungrounded.
Sceptical and surprised, I said I’d try it and sure enough, my laptop no longer shocks me when plugged in via the longer AC lead. Not being an electrician, I can’t say why they didn’t connect the ground for the small plug, but it certain seems to be the case. I’d also been experiencing trackpad problems (it was getting stuck in scroll mode), and these problems also went away when the unit was grounded. I understand the trackpads work on a capacitance difference between fingers and surface, so perhaps this also cured that problem (though this just speculation).
Anyway, issue resolved. Hopefully this information can filter through Google and save someone else a call to technical support.
