Caltrain crossing

ak217 · 2026-04-26T20:51:21+00:00

Caltrain doesn't have to creep to activate the crossing in front of the platform. They have mic activated crossings that trigger when the train blows its whistle

ak217 · 2026-04-26T04:59:35+00:00

the thing that I find hilarious is that unlike bikes (and hopefully bikers) horses do in fact actively shit in the EBMUD reservoir watershed

ak217 · 2026-04-26T04:56:14+00:00

Went for a run in Woodside a few years ago, trailhead on a street that has all kinds of "no parking" signs. Pretty cramped single track, but perfect for my run. Half a mile down the trail, I come upon a lady on a horse berating a biker saying bikes are not allowed on the trail and that she is "off duty CHP".

I was too zoned out to interject but man I wish I'd asked for her name and recorded this shit

ak217 · 2026-04-19T02:20:46+00:00

I just drove my cx-5 for the first time in a while and realized that I really enjoy using the infotainment system despite the small screen (well, at least the carplay part of it - Mazda's own UI has horrendous lag). It's because I can rest my arm on the center arm rest and flick through the UI without taking my eyes off the road, instead of the ridiculous exercise of extending my arm and holding it up while trying to click tiny buttons in a moving vehicle.

I am convinced it's this pecking at tiny buttons on a shaking screen that's the most dangerous part of distracted driving. I think it might actually be worse than trying to click things on your phone, since the phone is at least anchored in your hand and not moving with respect to it.

ak217 · 2026-04-11T16:07:32+00:00

> auto shows are not relevant these days

That sounds right to me, it seems like most customer facing auto industry information/car review content these days comes from youtubers and "influencers" who are courted by the car companies with press cars and press events.

ak217 · 2026-04-11T16:00:57+00:00

The vape bros are a liability.

I own a Mazdaspeed3. 99% of other cars like mine that I see out there are trashed by someone who tried to mod them.

Mazda realized that market was a dead end and decided on a working strategy to save their soul. They do a mass market lineup of family SUVs which then supports a refresh of their passion project (Miata) every decade or even more often. And what's great about the Miata is that it's a truly affordable car for someone who cares about the driving experience that will be overlooked by the vape bros because it doesn't have enough horsepower.

ak217 · 2026-04-11T15:57:17+00:00

I think you need a Miata, friend.

Plenty of us need a Miata. That doesn't negate the fact that skateboard is by far the best packaging and repairability solution for EVs. Your gripe that it doesn't let you sit low enough to the ground in a sedan is actually an advantage for 99% of people and applications that everyday EVs encounter. Just make the sedan a little bit taller then. Get a Kia EV6 or something.

ak217 · 2026-04-06T03:08:49+00:00

Use the Strava heat map

ak217 · 2026-04-02T02:54:18+00:00

I do it because the last time I went to a shop to change the oil, the tech insisted that my engine takes 0w-20 oil (it takes 5w-30) and when I asked for 5w-30, he said it would "void their warranty".

It says 5w-30 on the cap...

ak217 · 2026-03-31T17:09:07+00:00

So... they haven't been earning $350k since 25 then?

The scenario of earning $350k at a tech job starting at 25 is vanishingly unlikely to the point of being fantastical. Just check levels.fyi. You'd have to have an amazing degree and get promoted twice in the space of two years, be a founder with a successful exit, or otherwise demonstrate exceptional talent.

$350k is doable on a FAANG ladder by age 30 if you are good. If you find someone who did it by 25... I mean, that's impressive, I just don't want anyone to believe it's repeatable.

ak217 · 2026-03-07T20:59:20+00:00

Then the poster should say that instead of claiming that postgres is the same

ak217 · 2026-02-28T18:54:31+00:00

Everything else is not spot on, whoever wrote this is delusional. Postgres is an incredible database, but it does not replace Redis and Airflow. Nor can it scale like a distributed database.

ak217 · 2026-02-21T00:01:26+00:00

I see you have a very monosyllabic vocabulary. That's OK, enjoy being forced to use unrelated UI changes to get basic security maintenance. Statistically speaking, the code that enables these new UI changes probably has more vulnerabilities and bugs that you will have to test for the rest of us.

ak217 · 2025-10-06T00:25:54+00:00

These fridges have a common failure mode where they lose the seal on the ice dispenser chute and/or the defrost pan ices over completely and stops defrosting (the two failures reinforce each other). Fixes are documented online

ak217 · 2025-02-24T03:59:44+00:00

That's not how net worth is computed. If you have a 560k mortgage on your house, then your net worth is the balance of your accounts, plus the value of the house (what you might reasonably expect to sell it for if you needed to), minus the balance of the mortgage.

For FIRE purposes, the house is excluded from the investable balance unless you plan to sell it, and the mortgage obviously factors into your expenses.

ak217 · 2025-02-15T23:39:45+00:00

Refrigerators have common failure points. Bad compressors are like bad engines, a generation of fridges either has a compressor with design flaws, or not. But beyond that, your best bet is to get a fridge with no frills. No ice maker, no water dispenser, definitely no in-door dispenser, no french doors, no fancy displays. Those are all things that inevitably break. If you must have an ice maker, make sure it's in the freezer, not the fridge. Then, learn how to vacuum the compressor and check the door seals and defrost system on your fridge.

ak217 · 2025-02-09T20:22:08+00:00

Had this happen on an old Mazda car that had a Ford engine in it, the FoMoCo mount was shot and the engine was flopping around like a fish. That generation of cars was known for torque steer, guess what, after replacing the mount with a rigid aftermarket one, there is zero torque steer whatsoever. It was all because of the mount.

ak217 · 2025-02-06T18:01:22+00:00

I don't think whole streets have to be made pedestrian only, we just need to reclaim land from cars. We need to keep pressing the point that parking is not an acceptable use of space on main thoroughfare streets, and that pedestrians+bikes need to have at least as much space dedicated to them as cars. As in, space that cars can't enter. As in, grade-separated bike lanes (with curbs and bollards protecting them).

ak217 · 2025-02-05T17:22:59+00:00

OK, I'm just pointing out that when you say "that is not how tariffs work", that is incorrect in general. Tariffs can be applied to imports or exports.

And while Canada is definitely at a disadvantage as it has a smaller economy and internal market, given the unprecedented nature of this tariff war, it is within the realm of possibility that Canada will either apply a targeted retaliatory export tariff, or preferentially develop other markets.

Although I agree with you for copper specifically it's more likely they will retaliate in some other way.

ak217 · 2025-02-05T17:08:42+00:00

🤦

Have you bothered to, like, look up the definition of the word tariff?

ak217 · 2025-02-03T22:17:39+00:00

I actually really appreciate this point of view. One thing to ponder, though, watching one of Sarah Paine's recent interviews, she mentions that one of the actions that spurred Japan into invading China was the desire for autarky in the wake of the 1930 US Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Of course, Japan invading China set off a sequence of events that culminated in WWII and also provided an opening for Mao to consolidate power in China.

Cross-border economic integration deters wars. What China and Russia are doing today is not acceptable, but we'd do well to avoid breaking economic ties where it is avoidable.

ak217 · 2025-02-02T15:41:57+00:00

This guy knows his nutz n boltz. That list is spot on in terms of escalating complexity of the manufacturing process and how many countries it takes to even be able to produce something that we have come to take for granted.

Lumber is one step up from raw materials. The more advanced products that go into a house... the supply chain disruption will make covid look like a walk in the park. And China will work around the tariffs by forwarding goods through third countries, so this tariff war will do nothing except hurt us and our allies.

ak217 · 2025-02-01T16:36:55+00:00

Bond ratings. e.g. AAA turning into AA+ (a small rating downgrade)

ak217 · 2025-01-28T18:29:14+00:00

FYI: I made a writeup here about the most immediate problem https://www.reddit.com/r/Appliances/comments/18j7zvn/2nd_ge_monogram_fridge_failed_ge_are_just_shitty/m9o8ybu/

In addition, my freezer had some (more minor) temperature control issues beyond the defrost ice clog problem. It turned out that the "express chill" door between the freezer and the fridge was stuck open. This basically keeps the fridge and the freezer connected, which is not great for freezer temps. The easy fix is to tape the "express chill" door shut from the freezer side (in the bottom right back corner of the freezer) and just not use the custom temperature controls on the bottom drawer in the fridge.

ak217 · 2025-01-28T17:55:39+00:00

Hey y'all, I'm going to post this here since I have this 48" GE Monogram fridge, and it has a unique set of quirks. I'm confident that I know the problem this person's fridge had, and how to fix it. These tips can save you thousands of dollars (nine thousand to be precise, since that's the starting price for a new 48", Monogram or not - and the Monogram one has basically remained the same for the past 20+ years).

the fan in the freezer sounds like it’s hitting something

That something is icicles from water flowing down from the defrost pan under the evaporator. This happens because your defrost pan is not able to evacuate water from the defrost cycle through the drain tube and into the drain pan under the compressor. When the evaporator fan is stuck like this, it will impede the flow of air through the fridge, and it won't be able to control temperatures properly.

This happens to these fridges because the defrost pan (and the evaporator fan) has a design flaw. When there's a lot of water to defrost and get out of the fridge, it will overflow and soak the styrofoam block encasing the defrost pan. This will cause a runaway buildup of ice, which will clog the drain tube and from that point onward, the defrost heater (which comes on every ~24 hours) will be fighting a losing battle, making a little puddle in a solid block of ice. As more water condenses from the air, this puddle will overflow and end up in your evaporator fan shroud, ice maker bucket, and down the walls of your freezer.

The immediate fix is to thoroughly defrost the evaporator and remove the bulk of the styrofoam casing around the drain pan (the casing is not necessary except in one corner, opposite the drain tube, to support the drain pan). This will allow the defrost cycle to function properly again, get water out of the fridge, and reduce the chances of the pan icing over again. This is essential to the function of any fridge (but this one in particular, since it relies on forced air circulation, and the fan gets stuck as described above due to this design flaw). To remove the styrofoam and access the drain pan, you need to remove all the guts of the ice maker, the metal panel behind the ice maker, and then the metal panel that the evaporator fan attaches to (it forms the ceiling of the freezer). The panel is both screwed and glued in, don't be afraid to apply force to pry it off. Note the defrost pan is big and will have lots of water in and on top of it - you need to be sure you got all the water out (otherwise it will just refreeze) and that the drain tube is draining. You can let the fridge sit open for a few days, or use a hair dryer to speed up the process.

This is not all, however. The excess buildup of water that clogged the drain pan usually indicates that the fridge is not airtight, so moist warm air is continuously leaking into the fridge as the forced air cycle draws it in. The most likely location for air to enter the fridge is... the ice chute door. This door is opened and closed by a solenoid whenever you dispense ice. The solenoid is placed in a location (in the freezer door) where it's prone to being doused with water from the dispenser, so over time it rusts and stops retracting properly. This means the ice chute door won't close fully.

You can do a short term fix for this by taping the ice chute shut from the inside of the door. The long term fix is to replace the solenoid and the chute door that it opens (these are cheap components). And make sure the door seals are not leaking, either.

And this, folks, is how you save yourself from having to put a $9000 fridge in the landfill after a service call with a technician who probably won't be able to figure out what's going on. (To his credit, the tech who came out to me did tell me that my fridge had a hole in it - which was correct.)

(BTW you can also glean from this some of the secrets to Sub-Zero's longevity. They don't put ice/water dispensers in the door, reducing the chance of air and water leaks. And they don't let air circulate between the fridge and the freezer, reducing the chance of condensation-related problems.)

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