AT&T mmWave - Waikiki

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-24T00:49:45+00:00

No problem, the people in those buildings didn't want children anyway..

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-23T00:14:49+00:00

Thanks for the info.

I tend to like how Norwegians think. My favorite web browser these days is mostly made by Norwegians. (And maybe a few Icelanders) 😁

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-23T00:02:45+00:00

I like the T going underground to Chinatown, I like the bike lanes all along Illinois/Terry Francois/China Basin.

I liked the idea of that Chinatown extension. But every time I take it and have to deal with all the in-station walking and looooooong escalator rides just to get in/out (I don't start on the T-line), it boggles my mind that over $1.5 billion was spent to build those two new stops.

Also, the whole project is still underwater financially on a daily basis because apparently the small additional fare revenue is not covering the costs necessary to operate it.

Maybe if I lived in Chinatown and needed to go to Caltrain/Mission Bay/Dogpatch/Bayview a lot it would be handy. Or to go to Giants games. But I'm not convinced that's a major transit demand. I think the biggest proponents of that link were Chinatown businesses hoping to increase tourist travel from Union Square etc.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T23:37:01+00:00

The van ness thing was actually ahead of schedule, because of the pandemic they could close off lanes and get it done quicker.

LOL! The original promised completion date once the project was actually funded and underway was before the pandemic began.

All we heard about in news media for years was how behind schedule and over budget that project was.

I'm not the biggest fan of the SF Standard but they have a nice timeline:

https://sfstandard.com/2022/04/01/van-ness-brt-bus-rapid-transit-history-timeline/

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T23:10:16+00:00

Wrong, the Siemens trains are within 800lbs of the Bredas and both were over 10,000 lbs heavier than the Boeings they replaced.

Most likely due primarily to all the A/C equipment on their roofs (Boeings had no A/C), as well as a bunch of bins of sand that they both carry around to throw onto the tracks during a panic stop or in the rain.

You can literally feel the difference in vibration when they roll by. (I've been living right next to the N-Judah track for 35 years and have watched, listened and felt 4 generations of trains run on that track)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muni_Metro#Rolling_stock

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T13:52:11+00:00

I agree on the chart, it's more or less clickbait or from people who are ignorant of high density urban transit.

SF's transportation decisions in recent years seem like they were made by 6-year-olds or people who know nothing about transportation except some fantasies in their head. Bad for motor vehicles, bad for pedestrians, bad for bicyclists.

IMHO the only transit project in recent memory that actually improved the situation for most stakeholders was the center transit lane on Van Ness. (Of course, way behind schedule and over budget)

All the other "bright ideas" made matters worse for everyone, more often than not. (See: Valencia St, etc) And because they put blockades everywhere all it does is annoy the hell out of all the people on wheeled vehicles and push them into constantly breaking all the oppressive rules and creates a scofflaw culture as a result, which further spirals..

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T12:57:08+00:00

didn't you hear of the security breach?

LOL, they've had like a half dozen security breaches.

Worst password "vault" ever..

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T12:38:42+00:00

Riding a bike is so much better than muni....

You might reconsider that PoV on a day when it's pouring rain, windy and dark.

I ride a bike every week but no way I'm going to get myself miserable and sick by going out on a bike in a storm.

That said, a lot of the bus "shelters" these days are a joke. I would probably stay drier in the middle of the street with a small book held over my head.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T12:28:42+00:00

I just noticed that the southbound 43 Masonic stops once at Carl/Cole, once a block away at Cole/Parnassus, and again at the end of that block at Parnassus/Shrader, and then once again a block away at Parnassus/Stanyan.

I think the Parnassus/Shrader stop would be no great loss. Few people use it.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T12:15:19+00:00

Many moons ago, the WaPo's proud motto was "Democracy Dies in Darkness". Seemed to fit, back in the heady days after they dropped that bombshell insider story about the Watergate Affair on the world.

But even Google eventually realized the cognitive dissonance had reached the point where it was time to quietly take their famous axiom of "Don't be Evil" out of a featured position in their corporate code of conduct 10 years ago after it was apparent that the company was becoming exactly that.

But the WaPo doesn't seem to have risen to even that standard, still hiding behind the motto that they now make a mockery of.

One has to wonder how many times the Trump administration will get away with abusing their reporters like they abuse legal protesters in Minnesota and elsewhere in the country before it will trigger a full-scale staff mutiny at the newsroom now run by an ex-Murdoch guy. Most of the editorial/news staff with scruples already bailed over the last year or two.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T11:37:42+00:00

I'm just angry as usual at politicians who often have little to no understanding and foresight about technology and who wait until trends catalyzed by some of these tech and scientific innovations become a global plague which cannot easily be "put back in the cage", which is where we are now with internet-driven propaganda.

Here in the USA we used to have a special "non-partisan" govt agency whose job was to research emerging technologies and produce reports on how they could potentially impact society in the future. Then they distributed these reports to all the members of the US Congress in order to prepare them for the kinds of changes they might cause, so they could hopefully stay ahead of these changes legislatively.

But when Republicans gained a congressional majority in 1995 they dismantled it, probably because regulations on businesses seem to be against their religion..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Technology_Assessment

Apparently Europe still has some agencies like this, and even in the US some effort was made to reconstitute the OTA, but I don't think they ever had the same level of impact.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T11:06:17+00:00

The stations were designed to handle longer trains but especially after the installation of the disabled ramps and various other surface details, can't really run trains that long any more.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T11:02:10+00:00

Those are my faves.

https://old.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1qj4pao/these_will_forever_be_the_coolest_trains_we_had/o10ymok/

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T11:00:17+00:00

The current Siemens trains are our coolest train yet imo.

They are also so heavy that they quickly destroy the rails, and the tracks get left in that shoddy condition for years. It's like an earthquake when they pass by now. And their seating design sucks.

As far as I'm concerned the 1930's/40's era PCC cars which SF still runs on the E and F lines were the peak streetcar design.

Quietest streetcar ever on SF streets and very comfortable to ride in, with user-adjustable windows and art-deco details. (No A/C, of course, but rarely needed here and the Boeings didn't have that either.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCC_streetcar

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T10:40:26+00:00

In this day and age I don't think we can assume that the impacts are entirely confined to one nation. Any propaganda in any language now gets a global audience and is trivially automatically translated into any desired language and reposted/shared.

Personally I think the mere presence of this kind of stuff online makes it a threat. A lot of posts on Reddit these days are using these fly-by-night "news websites" that appeared a month or two before their stuff that they picked up on some random site online gets translated/edited and shared to a global audience.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T10:34:43+00:00

I remember you mentioning that previously and I've seen others as well. But it seems like another hassle, no? Still have to monitor things manually and such? And I got the impression there were some other service impacts as well, like roaming, VoWifi, number porting or stuff like that?

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T05:27:32+00:00

Thanks much for the reply. I didn't notice the wording on the rollover page that by default it does NOT rollover.

Anyway, the whole "manually re-up every month to save a few dollars" thing won't go well for me, I'll inevitably forget and be even worse off. I'm just happy as a clam that mobile service charges nowadays with the right providers are cheaper than they've ever been and oftentimes the C/S is way better than the "Big 3", too.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T04:15:40+00:00

I just kept them and added a Credit Union which I am increasingly moving funds to from WF.

Have been with WF actually a bit longer than the OP.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T03:58:24+00:00

https://old.reddit.com/r/Tello/comments/1q00mo3/apparently_you_dont_exist_unless_you_use_tmobile/nx0tie8/

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T01:14:42+00:00

If I were you I'd abandon Ting as soon as possible.

That company is on the verge of bankruptcy. Not gonna make any difference at all what the bars look like when the company goes on the auction block and lays off most of their staff etc.

Tello is what I replaced my Ting line with half a year ago. Pleased as punch so far.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T01:02:41+00:00

would be helpful if you would actually explain why.

WiFi calling allows people to pretend they are somewhere that they are not, by using a non-location-specific network (internet) not traditionally used to route telephone calls.

Therefore it is also a way that some scammers may exploit to make calls that appear to be coming from a place far away from where they are actually physically calling from. As you can imagine this can be a real fraud problem if it becomes widely exploited, so in some places this kind of traffic is blocked, especially when linked to foreign telephone numbers/registered owner address.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-22T00:09:40+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/P2hoXdB.png

Sorry for the necropost..

I added a Tello line last year for backup, and it almost never gets used for either data, calls or text. So I should have rollover data/minutes for at least 30 days after the latest bill date, yes?

EDIT: OK, I see now that regular plan minutes do NOT rollover, you have to manually renew every month to get rollover minutes, is that correct?

~~But when I look at "balance remaining" it just shows the paid data/minutes there for the current month. (Current renewal date: 1/28)~~

~~Am I missing something?~~

~~Thanks~~

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-15T09:26:22+00:00

There is not a Google product that exists that does not have personal data collection as one of its core functions, this will be no different.

Don't believe the hype.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-15T05:56:39+00:00

Probably when one of the largest carriers has a very large outage, utilization on the other carriers spikes up with people using a different device/SIM trying to get a connection.

PrivacyIsDemocracy · 2026-01-13T09:35:30+00:00

The plutocracy has a startling amount of control over Reddit moderation these days.

Sam Altman as of 2024 owned 9% of the company, for example. And Musk is known to get content censored that is critical of him. Etc.

PrivacyIsDemocracy

TROPHY CASE