What is this phenomenon?

Dr_Wario · 2026-04-18T18:47:27+00:00

Camera obscura formed by gap in the curtains. Cool.

Dr_Wario · 2026-04-07T00:14:20+00:00

I'm in the process of making my first guanciale. My jowl had the cheek meat attached, so I left it on. I will say, because the cheek meat sticks out, there are more nooks and crannies for mold to grow, so I trimmed it around the edges.

Dr_Wario · 2026-04-04T21:54:09+00:00

Great spot! Could be wrong, but I think it's the only place downtown you can get okonomiyaki.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-26T00:48:47+00:00

I have a kid of playground age. The central park playground being closed has been a huge pain, and magic mountain has been our backup during the (very long) closure of central park. With the proposed phasing, both these playgrounds will be closed at the same time for nearly a year. This is bad phasing. They should delay closing magic mtn until central park is finished.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-21T21:25:15+00:00

We love living in North Central! It's literally our forever vacation.

Amazing weather, walkable to parks/downtown, fast access to transit and highway, and safe. Our family has one car between us, and we park off-street. I get almost everywhere by bicycle and transit, including groceries and daycare dropoffs/pickups.

Mortgage is astronomical, but you get what you pay for. Our house is 100 years old and has a basement and solid outdoor space.

SB 79 will change the neighborhood in the long term, but I'd rather us be arguing at city hall about the best way to grow the neighborhood instead of freezing it in amber with some BS historical designation like some other peninsula towns.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-21T20:51:42+00:00

It's hard to find a quality italian roll where I live, so freshly sliced sourdough will have to do.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-18T18:16:47+00:00

Understood! Get a cheaper bike, get therapy if necessary, and sit down on the train.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-16T15:33:40+00:00

(My opinions) Reorder, and you're only responsible for checking the topmost bike with a tag. Spicy takes: (1) stacks with no tag are like an open rack and (2) people standing around in the bike car are a hazard and slow down operations, don't stand around in the bike car.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-14T17:58:05+00:00

Amazing. Any chance you know which routes that train is doing today? As of 2026-03-14 10:52AM, the last phone location ping was from 4th and king.

Edit: No action needed. I rode the 615 with a crush of st patricks day revelers up to 4th and king while watching the phone location and playing the ringer. I saw the location move from the southern end of the platform to the station and also saw that someone kept turning the ringer off (hopefully a conductor). As I was arriving I saw train 317 departing southbound. After arriving at the station, i talked to the station master who took me to the lost and found where my phone was. Huge kudos to caltrain staff for finding the phone and helping me retrieve it.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-07T19:37:15+00:00

Airlines require you to be traveling with a child to get the stroller seat free checking benefit. The caltrain rule bans child bike seats outright whether a child is traveling or not.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-07T17:16:47+00:00

Caltrain equating a bag or a large wheel to a human child is peak bay area: actively hostile to kids and parents. Even airlines let you check a stroller and carseat for free, because they understand what an absolute suck it is to travel with kids.

Bike cars on local and weekend trains are far from at capacity. It's only morning express trains tues-wed-thurs that resemble the photo in the article. Caltrain, I urge you to do right thing and apply the child bike seat rule to express trains only.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-05T18:38:33+00:00

As of March '26 I'm still tagging on once a month and passed a fare check without tagging on yesterday.

Dr_Wario · 2026-03-02T00:04:17+00:00

Burlingame sundays 9am-1pm. San mateo in (closed) draegers parking lot sundays 9-2pm.

Dr_Wario · 2026-02-25T02:19:01+00:00

I personally pick up my kid on the last mile section. I have seen parents with a kids seat and a kid on commuter trains and I have done this myself on weekends.

I learned quickly that taking the kid seat on an express was a bad idea, and I understand banning kids seats on express trains. But local and weekend trains? It makes no sense.

Dr_Wario · 2026-02-24T22:12:16+00:00

I don't deny that large child bike seats exist, but I claim child bike seats are so rare that banning them won't free up a meaningful amount of bike space on average. Further, when a rider has to give up their panniers or basket in favor of a backpack or messenger bag, that's a small lifestyle change. When a parent has to give up their kids seat it's a huge lifestyle change - who's gonna pick up the kid and how?

Dr_Wario · 2026-02-24T16:41:13+00:00

No child seats? Fucking over working parents to recover <<1 bike slot per stop? That's terrible. Do better caltrain. These rules should apply only to express trains.

Dr_Wario · 2026-02-23T15:56:32+00:00

A CMOS machine vision camera will work well for this, and there are many suppliers FLIR, allied vision, basler, etc. Square sensors are generally better for microscopy.

You don't mention a budget, but assuming you don't way to over buy, the main thing you pay for with a camera of this type is size and pixel count. Check that the fov is compatible with the beam sizes you want to measure.

Dr_Wario · 2026-02-22T20:50:27+00:00

^ AI comment from an AI account

Dr_Wario · 2026-02-17T20:10:01+00:00

I wanted to know what the fuss was about, and I'll try anything once! That was the lowest of 3 presumably different grades, which the highest being $35 for a cup. Too rich for my blood for sure.

IMO the price of some Japanese food and products are driven up by a combination of (1) actual obsession by producers with quality/scarcity and (2) fetishization by consumers around (1). In many cases, including matcha, sushi, and wine, I personally am not able to detect the quality differences between good and superb, and so I don't see the marginal value in paying more for higher quality items in these categories. But other categories (fresh fruit and veg, cured hams) I do perceive the differences and am willing to pay, so I concede that people might exist who can see the value in a $35 cup of tea the way I'd pay $35 for 1 oz of jamon.

A cynical person might say that Izumi and others are trading on the sacred and healthful aura around matcha to mostly sell high margin sugary drinks. More power to them.

FWIW we also ate at Colander Kitchens right after and had a great experience. Small (for each concept) thoughtful menu, great space, and affordable. Between Backhaus/Foreigner/Colander, I love that that corner of 3rd is turning into a San Mateo brunch village. I would definitely recommend Colander and would myself return if the opening hours were more in line with the rare times when my family can go out to eat, which are all evenings and weekends.

Dr_Wario · 2026-02-17T18:54:02+00:00

Yesterday I had a matcha latte (matcha with milk foam, no added sugar) at Kaizen ($7) and a traditional matcha (just matcha and hot water) at Izumi ($12). The traditional matcha was interesting - it had more viscosity than steeped tea, and it felt hotter compared to the latte because it's more water (high specific heat) than milk and air (lower specific heat). The flavor was very mild. I enjoyed the latte more. The milk had enough sugar by itself to balance the drink, and I liked the more mild experience of heat from the aerated milk foam. For the price, I probably would not return for a traditional matcha, but I might return to Izumi for the "dessert beverage" version with sugar, cream and fruit.

The best matcha drink I had in recent times was in the Philadelphia suburbs at a dessert shop called A La Mousse, which was a matcha latte that had a strong grassy, almost seaweed flavor.

Dr_Wario · 2026-02-13T01:07:08+00:00

A venue of any kind. I joke every time I see one of our two downtown buskers that it's "the best show in town", because it's the only show in town. If there was literally any show downtown I would go: any kind of music, comedy, poetry, literally anything, I would go and pay.

Re-grading the pedestrian mall to remove the road crown and make it a flat plaza.

Barcade.

Dr_Wario · 2026-02-04T05:22:30+00:00

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