07.19.08
Posted in Rural Tech, Rant, Rural at 2:15 pm by Randy
So we’ve been building a goat barn, right? Well, unfortunately (for me), it’s not done.
The story goes that this goat barn was supposed to be completed before the rains came in 2007. Then we ran out of funds, and the barn was (at best) a covered shelter that kept the rain off the herd (after a fashion). Then it got cold. Then the sheep were lambing; none of the lambs made it. Then the goats were kidding; none of the kids made it (no kidding).
And so it goes. Now it’s summer in 2008. The barn is still unfinished, we now have child #3 literally just about to show up (we’ve bookmarked the name Sebastian Maxwell — “Baby Max”), but at least the herd’s shrinking instead of growing.
The Boss has finally learned the hard lesson that raising livestock is not a simple, uncomplicated process. It’s hard, unforgiving and only occasionally rewarding (this coming from the guy that watches her and says, “it’s your herd, not mine!”)
Where was I? Oh yes.
The barn is the merest framework of a building. Ten uprights holding a corrugated metal roof, as well as subfloor on a split-level layout. The ramp leading into it is cobbled together. There’s a sheet of plywood on one side, masquerading as a wall. Mr. Handy was kind and tied on several huge tarps to attempt (and largely fail) to keep the weather out of the “barn” footprint.
Now, The Boss is a bit more realistic. With still no funds to really finish it the way it needs to be finished, I will ultimately put in some basic framing, then nail on some plywood siding. Windows will be roughed in, and hinged shutters will be used in the meantime to allow for ventilation (until we can actually get some windows to put in).
There’s supposedly room for a second floor that can be hung on the posts. I figure we’ll get that roughed in in the most basic way as well.
All in all, it’s a plan that doesn’t please anyone, but keeps the animals protected in the winter months to come.
Now all I have to do is make it happen.
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06.26.07
Posted in Props, Wine, Rant at 8:56 am by Randy
I’m not usually given over to spending any time promoting other blogs and/or podcasts I like. Part of that is in my personality, a flaw I will likely carry to the grave. Also, I don’t particularly care for blogs and people who do spend tons of time promoting other sites. I usually get my fix from Digg [digg.com] and Del.icio.us [del.icio.us] (though less so of late because of the “popularity contest” that these sites end up being), but recently I’ve been using StumbleUpon (courtesy of Tech.Chick.Blog) to find interesting and innovative sites.
But this post is not about any of those sites up there, oh no. This post is about a man. A “shockingly handsome” man. A man who is dedicated to altering the reality of a very stodgy and calcified institution: the wine industry. This post is about Gary Vaynerchuk and his video podcast called Wine Library TV.
I first encountered WLTV some months ago (and I’m sure Gary will gripe that I haven’t given him the love he so richly deserves) while perusing several of the wine blogs I now frequent on an on-again, off-again basis. Originally, I thought that watching wine reviews was not something I was particularly interested in. After all, I’m keen on the growing of grapes (which The Boss and TBB are basically in the business of doing) and the making of wine, but not particularly in the tasting and reviewing aspect. At least, that’s how I used to feel.
That’s the power of Gary and his podcast. He is so charismatic and approachable that you find yourself wanting to believe in what he offers: that wine is fun and easy and uncomplicated. After having watched him for a few months, I have broken out of my red-wine rut and bought wines I would’ve scoffed at six months ago. Pink wines, white wines from all over, French wines, you name it. I’ve bought $20 wines that sucked (at which I shrugged my shoulders, told myself, “well, at least I know I don’t like that,” and moved on), and I’ve bought $11 bottles of wine that blew me away. Most important of all, it has led me to this epiphany:
I now have no fear of wine. It is not daunting to me, and I have Gary to thank for that.
So, thank you Gary, you have opened up a new realm of experience for me, and I will always appreciate that, and I will always appreciate you.
Go to Wine Library TV and get to know Gary yourself.
Some classic episodes of Gary’s that are not to be missed:
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02.10.07
Posted in Broadband, Money, Rant, Rural at 9:47 pm by Randy
After a fabulous January, where we enjoyed a long and luxurious streak of clear (or at least only partly cloudy skies), we have arrived at February, with the inevitable return of the winter rains that I so dreaded in December. The Boss flogged me ceaselessly to get the new greenhouse built (and at least partly covered with panels) before the heavens opened up. Naturally, I obliged, knowing my place in the grand order. The greenhouse itself came entirely in pieces, and was put together with great gnashing of teeth over the wretchedly written instructions (clearly written by someone who had never built on of these greenhouses, let alone taken a technical writing class). The entire story of the greenhouse will undoubtedly be told in a future post. For now, suffice it to say that it is standing and (mostly) keeping the weather out.
After about two months of using our interim broadband solution, we’ve come to realize that indeed, it is only a distant cousin to true broadband, and doesn’t quite fit our expectations for fast, reliable, “prosumer”-class Internet speeds (including glorous BitTorrent nights and unabashed iTunes video and podcast downloads). I find myself continuously trying to keep a mental tally on the amount of bits we’ve slurped over the airwaves, wondering how much closer to the dreaded 5GB limit that our service provider imposes. Hence a pattern emerges:
The Boss: “I’ve purchased a subscription to 24 on iTunes. I’ve missed four episodes because the TiVo is dead.”
(Aside: our venerable circa 1999 DirecTivo died and was replaced by a grand 160GB upgraded Series 2 model from Weaknees. Yes, it is muy macho. However, the Weaknees replacement was going to show up a day late for the start of the next season of 24.)
Me: “Hmm, that’s going to be a problem.”
Inside my head: Holy crap, we’ll hit the 5GB cap in no time.
The Boss: “It’s no big deal, only 250MB per episode.”
Me: “But it doesn’t take that many to add up to 5 gigs.”
The Boss: (deflated) “Hmm, good point.”
Don’t get me wrong. The Boss went ahead and downloaded them, because to deny her Jack Bauer and his ridiculous antics would be asking for my left eyeball to be plucked out and used as a cat toy. Anyhow, my paranoia has generally increased, and my discomfort at being subject to what I consider arbitrary restrictions on my usage of the Interweb is distracting me from doing what I’d like to be doing online. So, to ensure I can live online undistracted by such limits, I have once again taken up the quest to link our house to the antenna that sits forlornly up at the vineyard, powerlessly (literally) pointing to Sonoma Mountain and our future lifeline to the net.
I spent the next couple days enjoying my lunch break by browsing our favorite giant orange home improvement center. It seems that, based on their prices, we should be able to get the quantity of conduit and pipe necessary to go the distance for somewhere upwards of $400-500. Then we add the apparent price of fiber optic (on the order of $800), the rental of the trencher (for who knows how much) and finally, the solar equipment up at the vineyard to power the rig (somewhere in the $2500 range). Suddenly, this is looking like a job that will run us between 1/3 and 1/2 of the Wunderkind’s nasty $16k bid to do the job that I knew we could do ourselves.
Yup, Winter is a little bit past the halfway mark, and it’s time to get busy again.
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01.04.07
Posted in Wireless, Broadband, Geek, Money, Rant, Rural at 11:27 am by Randy
The Boss has been on me about updating the blog. The holiday doldrums, with its gray skies, wind and rain, has caught up to me. I have “cave-itis” pretty bad at the moment. It manifests in the overwhelming desire to sit in a dark room, staring intently into a LCD flat panel display.
Happily, we received our Kyocera KR-1 router
, and our online life has begun to approach something akin to normal. Now I know that last statement is a bit heavy with equivocation, but hear me out. We now enjoy lazing around in various rooms using the Internet on our respective laptops. I have managed to make my Vonage phone work over this connection, and I’m not leashed to the window in our living room in order to do whatever I want online. I even have been able to VPN into work and be productive. But here’s the thing: Verizon BroadbandAccess is not broadband, at least not how you would normally consider it. It is a wireless data service (and at $80/month, an expensive one) that Verizon wants you to use only for certain tasks. And after reading it, it’s pretty clear that the way I want to use it is not the way Verizon wants me to use it. To wit:
Unlimited Data Plans and Features (such as NationalAccess, BroadbandAccess, Push to Talk, and certain VZEmail services) may ONLY be used with wireless devices for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing; (ii) email; and (iii) intranet access (including access to corporate intranets, email, and individual productivity applications like customer relationship management, sales force, and field service automation).
The emphasis is theirs. So, here’s the risk to our Internet stopgap: if we go over a pre-set bandwidth limit, they assumes we’re abusing the service and may kill our subscription without notice. Again, from Verizon:
Anyone using more than 5 GB per line in a given month is presumed to be using the service in a manner prohibited above, and we reserve the right to immediately terminate the service of any such person without notice. We also reserve the right to terminate service upon expiration of Customer Agreement term.
Fun.
So, while I am blogging about this and being quite open and honest, my desire is to just fly under the radar and hope that Verizon doesn’t pull the plug on my subscription before I’m able to install the “Trench of Dreams” and run the fiber link to the “Antenna of Doom”.
Speaking of the Trench of Dreams, I recently received a lovely pair of StarTech media converters
, these beauties will convert from the rather limited reach of Category 5e copper (say, about 100 meters) to multimode fiber optic strands (which can pump data up to 2 kilometers). Each one draws 9 watts, when added to the 7.2 watts that the radio at the vineyard is rated to draw, we have devised a relatively low-power rig for getting the real Internet to the house.
Also, a new character has come to play: Mr. Handy. We actually met Mr. Handy indirectly through our pan-dimensional super being, Solar God. He has turned out to be, well, quite handy in a number of projects around the ranch. He’s also a real easy guy to get along with.
Well, through no fault of his own, it looks as if he needs a place to stay, and the ranch having the extra cabin (small as it is), we have a place that is serviceable. Can you say “barter”? (I knew you could.) So, it might be that we will get the trench dug up to the vineyard for just the cost of renting the trencher.
After that, the major costs will be getting the materials (PVC conduit in varying sizes, fiber optic cable, copper wire) to get power, data and water to and from the vineyard. There’s still no strong estimate for solar versus copper for providing power. However, having run the numbers myself, I believe it would take about 5000 feet total of 1/0 AWG copper just to run a 20 amp circuit from our current panel up to the vineyard. Sounds just a bit prohibitive to me. Getting a basic solar installation seems much more likely to fit our budget.
So, as strange as it’s turning out, we’ll definitely come out ahead of the Wunderkind’s $16,000.00 Challenge. It’s now just a question of “how soon”?
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12.23.06
Posted in Broadband, Wireless, Money, Rant, Rural at 12:00 am by Randy
Nothing says “speed” like hauling ass to work during the week before Christmas. On Friday, I blazed to work, even after having stopped by McD’s for the #3 with coffee and a Sausage McMuffin “NO EGG”. The women who work the window there are relatively familiar with me, a distinction I don’t find all that comforting. We’re not on a first-name basis, mind you, but I’m sure that if I asked one of them for her name, she wouldn’t think I’m stalking. But socializing with the McDonald’s chicks will have to wait for another day.
It now seems that the pruning work is underway in Napa’s vineyards; more and more of the vines, now dormant after giving their all for the California wine industry this year, get themselves a little haircut. With the miles and miles of vineyards between home and work, I expect it will take a couple months to give all those vines a shave.
With a certain amount of trepidation, I resumed the research into how best to overcome the Wunderkind’s $16,000.00 barrier to our full re-admittance to the 21st century. The trench seems a fait accompli, with the acknowledgement of The Boss and TBB that the ranch will ultimately benefit from having it, and not just for data. And granted, the antenna is installed up at the vineyard, but without a suitable link between here and there, no bits will flow.
The bits must flow…
Thus, I bent my will to understanding what a fiber optic link would entail. Several terms swirl through the ether: multi-mode, single-mode, 50/125, 62.5/125, SC and ST connectors, zip cord, et cetera. After much gnashing of teeth and clicking of mouse, I struck up a chat with BIL (sister’s husband). As I may have mentioned, he does fiber optic as part of his work, and knows the ropes, as it were. After a half-hour, we concluded that we’ll buy multi-mode 62.5/125 fiber optic, 500 meters (around 1640 feet), BIL will pull the fiber through the conduit and terminate them (and I chose ST connectors), and we’ll use StarTech media converters. The fiber itself will cost upwards of 750 to 800 clams, whereas a pair of media converters comes to a mere $350.
Jeez, this crap starts to add up.
Tonight, The Boss and I talked about what’s next for our broadband lifestyle. Things are pretty decent with the new yagi installed, but I have some nagging gripes.
Me: “So, I’m tired of being the access point for the house.”
The Boss: “I can appreciate that.”
Me: “And I feel like I’m trapped, I can’t just dual-boot to Windows and play my games, since it doesn’t share the Internet as easily as Mac OS does. So now I’m looking at this WiFi router that you plug our data card into. It’d be just like the WiFi we used to have, and I can quit being tethered to the window because of the antenna cable.”
The Boss: “So, why haven’t you ordered it?”
[pause]
The Boss: “What?”
Me: “Well, it’s not cheap.”
The Boss: “Well, how much does it cost?”
Me: “Well… how much do you think it costs?”
[pause]
The Boss: “Four hundred?”
Me: [quickly] “No, it’s less than four hundred. But, it’s more than three hundred.”
The Boss starts to balk, the doubt is clearly there. We add up what we’ve spent on the data card, the yagi antenna, and realize we’re already over $300 into this “temporary” solution. If we keep pouring money into the Verizon broadband thing, we’re taking money away from Clueless Broadband (a good thing), but we’re not getting real broadband like Daddy wants (a bad thing). I go ahead and mention the possibility that maybe we stick with Verizon for the foreseeable future, and tell Clueless Broadband to go pound sand. The Boss observes that halting the trench/conduit/fiber project would free up money to start finishing off the porch (something that is a bit out of reach at the moment, due to all the spending we’ve done of late). A moment passes, then two.
Now, we both know that the amount of money we’re looking to spend on doing the trench, the fiber pull, and even the power (be it solar or a branch circuit from Hell up to the vineyard) is considerable, and we shouldn’t go blowing even more money on what we’ve agreed is our stopgap measure for Internet. The opportunity slips quietly away, and I tell her I’ll think on it for a couple days. We agree that there’s no hurry, and that since it’s Christmas weekend, nothing would get shipped until Tuesday at the earliest.
Back to my gripe: one of the things I’m missing because of the antenna cable leash is that I can’t pick up my MacBook Pro and move around the house with it. I’m stuck with what amounts to a low power-consumption desktop replacement that has to be plugged in and left at home so The Boss isn’t driven mad by lack of Internet (or more specifically, by returning to dial-up). When time comes for me to play MMO’s, I’m in the same boat: stuck the sofa by the window, no suitable ergonomic setup to be had.
I start to mull the problem, then inspiration strikes. I remember that I’ve planned to be away this next Saturday for a friend’s birthday. I deliver the coup de grace:
Me: “You know, when I go out for the birthday thing on Saturday, I will be taking this notebook with me.”
The Boss: [not missing a beat] “Just make sure that router gets here by Friday then.”
Yes, ma’am; it’ll ship Tuesday, FedEx Priority Overnight, thank you very much.
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12.20.06
Posted in Broadband, Rant, Rural at 12:19 pm by Randy
Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for all of us gathered around the sweet, almost retro looking refrigerator we just received!
This GE Profile fridge is huge (22 cu. ft.) and basically uses less than a 1/3 of the electricity that the old propane/electric Dometic that we disconnected. Of course, as in all things, there was a story in its delivery…
Originally, we were expecting it to be delivered on Saturday by a freight company under contract by a Very Well-Known Home Improvement Warehouse. On Friday, The Boss got an automated computer recording letting us know that the fridge of our dreams would be delivered between 3:30PM and 7:30PM the following day.
Then we waited.
First 3:30 came and went. 4:30. 5:30. 6:00. Finally there’s a call from the driver of the truck. They were going to be there soon, but they informed The Boss that they were bringing a 26(!) foot truck up the road!
Now, speaking as someone who has driven a 16 foot truck up our road, I was extremely doubtful they would successfully navigate our one-lane road, especially where there are a couple nasty switchbacks. We’ve seen lesser trucks stranded going up it. But The Boss was hopeful, and not to be denied her prize.
6:45. The phone rings again, and I answer it.
Me: Hello?
Delivery Stooge: Hi, this is Delivery Stooge with Very Well-Known Home Improvement Warehouse. We can’t find your road. We saw Trinity Rd. and then Nuns Canyon Quarry…
Me: Ah, wrong road, keep going, you’ll see a sign for Atwood Ranch, we’re the street on the right after that.
Stooge: OK, thanks.
7:00. The phone rings again.
Me: Hello?
Stooge: Hi, this is the driver again. We’re not going to be able to deliver the refrigerator. It’s dark and we’re hitting branches with the truck.
Me: Ah. So what’s the next step?
Stooge: I’ll call our dispatch and have them call you back to reschedule.
Me: Right, OK then.
So, a few minutes later the dispatcher calls us, and The Boss proceeds to tear into the person on the other end of the phone. However, her tirade was for naught, the delivery company is closed on Sunday and Monday, so the next delivery opportunity would be Tuesday. The Boss makes damn sure they will bring a smaller truck next time.
Bitter remembrances of Clueless Broadband started to seep into my mind. Must every friggin’ company be so brain dead?
Speaking of broadband (that is the thread of this serial, is it not?): Solar God, hallowed be his name, has gazed upon the fruit of Mr. Flaky’s efforts, and despaired.
Solar God: You gotta put a picture of this on your blog, man! I mean, after all the stuff that has happened, and this is what you have to show for it.
Me: Yeah, it is pretty incredible, isn’t it.
I couldn’t disagree with him. He had descended from the heavens (also known as Healdsburg) on Sunday to minister to my spiritual (and high-bandwidth) needs. And as he beheld the result of several months of suffering, he saw that it was not good.
Of course, I still have to take the photo and post it.
We discussed the options, including how much solar to put up there and how best to dig the trench. My preference is to have power run from the house up to the antenna, obviating the need for a separate solar and battery installation, until we’re good and ready to do it right. Naturally, due to the holidays, work couldn’t possibly be started until sometime in January. So that poor antenna will just sit there until we have something rigged.
However, not everything is gloomy on the broadband front. The Verizon data card has been a blessing, and even though my poor MacBook Pro is pressed into service as a makeshift access point for The Boss’ web surfing and email needs, I am still pleased with how it performs. Considering it’s 5-10 times faster than what we were doing with dial-up, the Web is once again someplace I can tolerate visiting while at home. Heck, I’ve even managed to VPN to work through it, so I count that as a win!
So, as Winter Solstice is upon us, we hunker down, throw some logs into the stove, and celebrate that the days stop getting shorter. Broadband is gimped, but working at the ranch.
Here’s hoping 2007 brings better broadband juju for us up here in the boonies.
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12.15.06
Posted in Broadband, Wireless, Money, Rant, Rural at 1:45 pm by Randy
Gloomy.
You know, I always used to snicker to myself when I lived in San Jose whenever I heard the weather report saying, “rain likely, in the North Bay.” After hearing that, I’d go on to have a nice winter day in San Jose; maybe it’d be overcast, but at least it’d be dry.
Well, those days are so very long gone. When the rains come to the Bay Area, especially this time of year, it comes straight for our area. In fact, earlier this week, it was so gloomy, the ranch (and indeed most of the Sonoma Valley) was completely enveloped in clouds for at least two whole days. I’d normally just say it was foggy, but this was middle-of-the-day kind of fog, and it was dark and, well, gloomy.
I’m sure someone in San Jose is laughing right at a weather report, and now I realize it’s at my expense.
Don’t get me wrong: today has offered somewhat of a reprieve. The sun has even shed some light on our solar panels (according to The Boss), and if we manage to get at least three hours of sun, we won’t need the generator tonight, which is a good thing in my book.
The Verizon data card has been working nicely, the external antenna that I shelled out for was somewhat of a bittersweet benefit. Whereas it made the signal a whole lot more stable, the antenna itself seems to only boost the 800-900MHz range instead of the 1.9GHz spectrum, meaning that it only supports Verizon’s 1xRTT service, which has a peak reported speed of 144kbps (Verizon calls this NationalAccess), instead of the 1xEvDO service, which claims 400-700kbps throughput (which Verizon dubs BroadbandAccess).
Bummer.
Anyhow, I discovered something else of note. The cellular antenna I bought way back when actually has a compatible connector to the pigtail that plugs into the data card. The downside is that it too only supports the 800-900MHz range. So now we have what I describe as a “rock solid” (if not blazingly fast) connection to Verizon’s broadband service. Heck, anything faster than 22kbps is gravy.
In fact, it’s fast enough that I actually was able to connect to WoW last night, only to discover that I’ve forgotten pretty much how to play it. The software for that game has been updated several times since I played, and the latest patch actually has broken lots of add-on “mods” that people have created. Since the game’s creator (Blizzard) kicked over the proverbial mod anthill, everyone has been scrambling to get their collective world back in order. The lag issue has gotten better; I find that if I let things settle down for a few minutes after connecting, my latency drops to a point where I’m actually able to play quite normally.
The downside to using the data card is that The Boss relies on it to keep her browsing experience tolerable too. Why is it a downside? Well, I don’t get to dual-boot into my Windows XP partition to play EVE, because I can’t seem to get Internet Connection Sharing to work (though I will admit I haven’t tried all that hard). The Boss says she’s willing to do the dial-up thing while I play online using Windows, but I think the mind control ray she uses has effectively prevented me from taking her up on that offer.
Everyone apparently wants to know what’s the plan with the “final solution.” Well, the plan is… there is no plan. We’re nearly out of spending money from the sale of the house (since we need to hold at least some of it in reserve to put down on an income property) and that is starting to limit our options. We still have projects in progress (read: fence) that need to be paid for, and then we will be discussing with Solar God (hallowed be his name) at some point about how to do the trench and conduit up the road. Throw finishing the porch into the mix, and suddenly we have don’t have enough money to pay for everything.
Hence, we now have to get picky (and if we’re smart, miserly).
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12.13.06
Posted in Rant, Rural at 1:16 pm by Randy
You know, humans are still widely adaptable creatures. Considering how much we as a species have moved the technological ball forward (no thanks to the Dark Ages, but I digress), there still remains the ability to regress to what one might call a “simpler life”. This really amounts to no more than turning off the electricity, unplugging the phone and relating face-to-face with those around you.
What would happen if the web wasn’t working or your cable? You might sit down and enjoy a book if you have any in the house.
I am both fortunate and cursed to have lived this lifestyle by certain degrees over the last several months. Granted, there is still satellite TV (which my daughters currently co-opt for their use), solar electricity has liberated us from the shackles of the propane generator, and dial-up Internet has provided some semblance of Web connectivity, but not much above reliving the 90’s. As I’ve posted in other articles here, without broadband in some form, I’ve resorted to reading books, but it only serves to scratch the itch for a short time. I’m too far gone as a geek to tolerate a world without broadband.
However, I’m not hopeless, inasmuch as I also get to step outside to a breathtaking display of nature’s beauty in eastern Sonoma County. Indeed, a different world whispers to you there, a voice that hearkens back to a time where you wake up long before the sun, worked the land, came in after a long day, ate an evening meal with your entire family seated at the dinner table, then share stories or play before heading off to bed. Hardly the story of our lifestyle now, but still romantic in the telling.
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12.12.06
Posted in Broadband, Geek Tech, Money, Rant, Rural at 2:42 pm by Randy
It’s amazing when you find yourself involved in events that move so fast, you have almost no time to do anything but react. Such was the situation after my last installment. After the price tag of Wunderkind’s $16,000.00 shocker finally wore off, The Boss and I set to work figuring out either:
- How we were going to pay the ridiculous sum for broadband
- How we were going to get it done more affordably, but less timely
An interesting dilemma, to be sure. Luckily, we happened to be hosting our holiday open house last weekend. Among those in attendance were TBB (all the way from Japan) and Solar God, whose coming was foretold by the great prophet, The Boss. We also had several friends (some of which even read this blog, if you can believe it), but others begged off for various reasons, including one friend who decided that spending the afternoon with the regional president of his firm was more desirable than driving 100 miles to drink good wine in a really warm house. Climbing the old corporate ladder can be a noble pursuit, but come on now, this is wine country we’re talking about.
As an aside, what made the party really work was the fireplace insert we had installed last week. It has given us a warm house in a way that propane wall heaters just can’t match. As it stands, we get more heat from each log of wood than we ever got burning them in the original fireplace. The amount of heat being pumped out of that stove is impressive, and during the party we even had to open the windows and doors to help even out the body heat from the guests and the heat from the stove.
Anyhow, when the harmonic convergence of minds occurred, something magical happened. We came up with a plan to thwart Wunderkind’s evil scheme to separate me from 16 large. Now the solution will be even better, very likely cost less, and even become an asset for the ranch. Here’s the plan:
- Digging the trench along the road to the vineyard, just as Wunderkind would pretty much do it, just not spending $150/hour to do it
- Laying conduit not only for the fiber optic run, but also a second, larger conduit for running copper wires for power
- Laying PVC pipe suitable for future water service
- Determining which is cheaper: buying and installing solar panels plus batteries, charge controller, inverter, wires, and all the trimmings for an independent solar installation; or pulling copper wire from the house up to the vineyard gate and providing power to the remote radio from the solar install we already have
- Bringing my other brother-in-law up from Arizona to pull and terminate the fiber optic
- Installing the media converters and other network equipment myself (as I’ve been known to work with such things in one of my former lives)
The only downside? This wouldn’t really get underway until after the first of the year. Suddenly, the prospect of tearing ass through web page after web page fades yet again. The joys of BitTorrent, VoIP, and MMORPG remain beyond my reach.
Nevertheless, this accomplishes a huge amount for us and the ranch. Simply put, running copper up to the vineyard (or even having the conduit there) provides future expandibility and facility to the vineyard. If we determine that buying solar is cheaper for the vineyard area, we leave the conduit empty so that, in the future, we can link the solar up above to the rest of our solar installation. If vice versa, we pull the copper now and add solar panels later.
Next, if we put water pipes in the trench, we have the option of pumping water up to the vineyard, or even providing plumbing in case we ever had to put a well somewhere up high on the ranch.
Finally, we have the conduit with fiber optic, our lifeline to the Interwebs and my sanity. The fact that I have a relative who works in telecom and is willing to pull fiber optic in exchange for good food and drink, I’m thinking sha-wing!
Oh, but that’s not all folks.
Solar God, hallowed be his name, spoke to me in a dream (or I suppose, at least, in our dining room) that The Boss and I should try a Verizon Wireless data card. Solar God, during a previous earthly visit to the ranch, used that service, and it did please him. Verily, I thus betook the pilgrimage yesterday to the Verizon Wireless store in Napa and layeth hands upon a brand new Novatel Merlin V640 1xEVDO data card. Returning presently to my domicile, I plugged it into my MacBook Pro and behold!
The light, with a happy green glow, blinked.
Could it be true?
I fired up the supplied software, and it connected!
I launched my browser, and my blog came right up!
I started World of Warcraft, and it connected! My little dude in the game appeared, and I cheered! I started to move around, and after a few moments, the world seemed to stand still. No, it wasn’t my imagination; other players quit moving, the little indicator in the game that tells you how “in sync” you are with the virtual world was red, and when I hovered my mouse over it, it gave me the bad news.
7000ms latency.
Hmmm.
So, I must temper my enthusiasm just a bit. The long Internet Hunger Strike seems to be at least partly concluded, but all won’t be entirely set to rights until we have the “final solution” in place. I feel a lot better about the prospects ahead however, since at least web pages and email are once again approaching 21st century speeds. My prolonged visit to Dialup Purgatory was nearly too much to bear.
[ring ring]
The Boss: “Hey, honey. The 90’s just called. They want their modem back.”
Whew. Just in time.
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12.08.06
Posted in Broadband, Wireless, Money, Rant, Rural at 10:17 am by Randy
My mind reels. I break out in a cold sweat. I go numb, start to feel like maybe I’m having a heart attack.
I recall a certain quote waft its way through my memory…
“It’s going to cost $2500. It’ll be the most expensive Internet we’ll ever buy.”
Oh, I was so, so wrong. So very wrong, by what feels like an order of magnitude (and financially speaking, it is an order of magnitude). You see, the Wunderkind sent us his bid for digging an enormously long trench, filling it with conduit, filling the conduit with fiber optic, and putting it all together. The cost?
$16,000. Sixteen. Thousand. Dollars.
The sound of those words and the amount of money it represents rattles through my brain. My mood is one of utter hysterics. I laugh, I cry, then I pause, only to start either laughing or crying all over again.
I always thought that I’d be willing to pay whatever it takes to get broadband. However, I think I’ve just realized what my pain threshold is for the first time. Nowhere in my deepest, wildest nightmares did I ever think that broadband would cost that much money.
So here’s the breakdown. $10k for equipment. Ten thousand dollars for such things as solar panels, batteries, charge controllers, inverters, poles, guy wires, enclosures, media converters, fiber optic line, conduit (including all the pull boxes and glue to put them together), concrete, and the rental charge for a trencher to bury it all in the ground.
The kicker is the six thousand dollars worth of labor. Get this: the Wunderkind’s time is worth $150 an hour. I’m willing to pay that for the level of expertise that he should bring. However, he wants me to pay $150 an hour for two other people, one of which is the friggin trench digger. Now, I get that operating a trencher is not a trivial task, and that the route they were going to trench through might have rocks and culverts to avoid. But $150 an hour? That means I would pay $450 an hour for three people to do something that I know I can do myself, given an infinite amount of time.
[sigh]
So, the options start to float into my head. I could buy a couple parabolic 2.4GHz antennas and start going door-to-door across the valley (within line-of-sight of the ranch) and offer free broadband if only they would place my equipment on their house.
Or, I could raise an enormous antenna mast near the house in order to get line-of-sight to the vineyard, then put a 2.4 GHz wireless link between Clueless Broadband’s antenna and the house. The solar up at the vineyard would need to happen then, so then I’m in it for $4k in equipment.
Or, I could rent my own damn trencher, and take the next four months to do what these guys could do in three days.
[sigh]
Or, I could just cry more and pay these guys what they ask and get broadband to the house by the end of next week.
There’s just no good solution here. I can pay a ridiculous sum of money to get what I’ve suffered months waiting for. I can take some or all of the tasks on myself for varying degrees of monetary savings. I can abandon Clueless Broadband and try something else. I could call the satellite broadband folks, hat in hand, and pay too much for broadband that’s too slow.
I got some thinking to do.
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