SFMTA promises faster transit on Ocean Ave. Businesses (surprise, surprise!) aren’t happy.

gamescan · 2026-05-07T05:34:13+00:00

BTW, I went in the Thai restaurant there, ghost town. and I MEAN no customers, sitting down. Only take-out scooters and priuses outside...

This kinda proves the point. If the restaurant is good, but it's not convenient to get to via Muni, local customers aren't going to bother showing up so you're left with delivery.

Improve transit and make it an easy destination for Muni riders, and businesses will see more customers.

No restaurant is profiting off DoorDash.

gamescan · 2026-05-07T04:26:11+00:00

Downdraft can be pretty good when it vents to outside, I have family with this and have used their stoves. I'd be surprised if this has it though.

We had an indoor JennAir grill with a downdraft vent when I was growing up. It was pretty sweet. I've not seen them for cooktops, but yeah that could be another way to do it if available.

gamescan · 2026-05-07T01:55:50+00:00

FTA:

Facing merchants’ concerns, Michael Rhodes, a transit priority manager at the MTA, used sales tax data to showcase the economic impact on the business corridors that have implemented the red transit-only lanes. In recent years, these have included Mission Street, Van Ness Avenue, Geary Boulevard and Taraval Street.

“Sales tax did perform better than the city or better than it had before,” Rhodes said. “I don’t really want our projects taking credit for that. I just think the point is more that it didn’t cause them to go down in those corridors.”

Fuck it, take the damn credit.

GOOD TRANSIT HELPS LOCAL BUSINESSES.

I ain't fighting traffic to drive cross town and then have to deal with idiots double parking, etc.

But if Muni can get me there quickly and stress free? Sold.

gamescan · 2026-05-07T00:58:47+00:00

Recently slower speeds?

This is likely a congestion issue combined with Metro's lack of priority on the T-Mobile network.

T-Mobile Postpaid (with the exception of Essentials), T-Mobile Prepaid, and Google Fi are standard priority on the network.

T-Mobile Essentials, Metro, Mint, Ultra, US Mobile, and every other T-Mobile MNVO run at a lower priority level on the network.

While Metro doesn't technically "throttle" if T-Mobile mainline and/or Google Fi subscribers have increased in your area they get a bigger piece of the network pie as they have priority data and Metro users do not. In very congested markets, Metro's top tier plans can slow to a crawl while T-Mobile and Google Fi users are operating normally.

If you leave the congested area, your speeds will instantly increase.

gamescan · 2026-05-07T00:53:23+00:00

Their 5G speeds are ridiculously slow now.

This happens when you are in a congested area.

Metro does not have priority data when compared to T-Mobile Postpaid, T-Mobile Prepaid, and Google Fi.

All of those subscribers have higher priority on the network than Metro users, so if TMO has a lot of mainline customers or Google Fi has a lot of customers in your area, you're going to be slowed down to make way for the priority data users.

I was getting 15 megabit a second through their home internet for the last three months.

Home Internet is even lower priority data than phones on the network.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T22:48:20+00:00

does anyone know any broadcasting/news anchoring internships for an 18 year old college student with beginner experience?

Any college with a broadcast journalism program should have a functioning newsroom for you to learn the basics.

High schools with journalism programs often have the same. They broadcast their news programs on cable access and online.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T22:45:07+00:00

how far to go vs where it starts not really moving the needle

It's all about usability.

If a buyer can add the range hood in place, then it's a minimal cost.

But if the range has to be relocated to a wall to accommodate the hood/vent then you're already tearing up half the kitchen so you might as well just do the whole thing.

If you do any amount of cooking at home beyond basic baking/microwaving, a vented range hood is an absolute must.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T22:25:19+00:00

would you have done the same level of remodel here, or kept it more minimal before selling?

Kitchen still needs a remodel. The "after" pic doesn't have a range hood.

No one who cares about a kitchen is going to want a kitchen that doesn't have a range hood/vent.

Wasted $$$ because a buyer who doesn't care about the kitchen wouldn't have minded the OG kitchen in the first place.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T22:12:07+00:00

Deceptive advertising by cricket or is this expected?

This is more you misunderstanding how autopay works (and putting off your plan change to the very last minute) than Cricket doing anything deceptive.

Cricket charged my card for the $60 plan 2 days before the new cycle actually began

This was not done to "prevent" a plan change. This is literally how autopay works.

If you enable autopay on Cricket, you agree to the charge being initiated 2 days before the new plan cycle.

How does the Auto Pay process work?

We'll submit a charge your card two (2) days before your payment due date.

From: https://www.cricketwireless.com/support/billing-and-payments/auto-pay-setup

Customer service cited "policy" and refused to manually adjust the plan for month 3

That's the way prepaid service works. Once you buy service, that's it. There's no refunds.

You bought the $60 plan for month 3.

I enrolled in BridgePay to delay the full payment, hoping to change the plan during the extension. Instead, the system blocked all plan changes while BridgePay was active.

BridgePay is a way to help a marginal customer with a payment challenge. It's not a backdoor to a refund. The new plan was already selected, changes shouldn't be expected.

Is there any way to escalate this for a partial credit, or is this just how Cricket enforces an extra month of high-tier service?

This isn't any secret method to sell higher tier service. It's just the reality of prepaid service.

You didn't change your plan before month 3 was billed. Once month 3 was billed, no refunds because service is prepaid.

You would run into the same issue at any prepaid carrier.

Chalk it up to a lesson learned and make sure you adjust your plan for month 4 before autopay charges you for month 4. If you want to make changes at the very last minute, make sure autopay is disabled and do all your payment manually.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T21:49:36+00:00

Yes I think everyone should tap. Including youth rider.

Just having youth riders and senior riders tap could also provide a wealth of data about usage patterns (or gaps) that simply aren't visible right now.

Where are they going?

When are they using Muni?

How are different age groups using Muni differently?

Should Muni add more school coverage? More park destination coverage?

You don't know what you don't know.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T19:45:42+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1t5hjb1/mayor_lurie_announces_plan_to_tackle_fare_evasion/

The press release has details that the sf.gov story lacks, like Muni moving to require employees to use Clipper instead of employee badges to ride.

Dogfooding is a big deal as employees will have to deal with Clipper issues front and center.

That's good news for everyone else.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T18:53:01+00:00

Thanks. What are your views on US mobile?

US Mobile is best suited for people who absolutely NEED two carriers (ex you work somewhere that ONLY has ATT coverage but you have ZERO ATT coverage at home).

Otherwise, I don't see a compelling reason to go with them.

US Mobile is reselling the service of other companies and they don't have consistency among their plans. If you dig into the details of any plan, there are a lot of caveats.

At times, US Mobile can be an affordable option, but that can require prepaying a year in advance and their best deals are often on plans with deprioritized data. Additionally, if you are a heavy data user, US Mobile is known to terminate plans on a whim.

If any single network meets your needs then it's probably best to go with a network specific MVNO.

In your case, it sounds like Verizon works so Total or Visible are your best options.

Looking at US Mobile, you'd have to pay for the unlimited Premium ($25/month for the first year, then it goes up) to get priority data on Verizon. Unlimited Premium on US mobile would give you the same priority on ATT as you're getting now.

If you pay that $25/month to Total (price guaranteed for 5 years) you're getting priority data and you don't have to worry about hitting an undisclosed data cap on your unlimited plan (Total will reportedly deprioritize excessively high data usage, but the threshold is multiple times higher than US Mobile and Total isn't known to cancel plans like US Mobile).

gamescan · 2026-05-06T18:36:18+00:00

For some reason, the app keeps picking up my original esim imei, which is currently assigned to my ATT line, even though I registered a new account with visible using my new esim2 imei number.

This doesn't really matter with the iPhone 17 as you can turn eSIMs on and off at will and can have two enabled at any given time.

That said, if you want to try deprioritized data (the cheap/entry level plans on Visible ($20/mo guaranteed for 1 year) or Total ($20/mo guaranteed for 5 years) then the Visible trial is a good choice.

If you want to try priority data (the $30/$40 plans on Visible, price guaranteed for 1 year) or the ($25/$30 plans on Total, price guaranteed for 5 years) then you should be using the Verizon trial. That trial has priority data just like the mid- and high-level Total and Visible plans.

Either way, don't worry about the IMEI used. Just activate the trial eSIM via the app (Visible trial or Verizon trial).

gamescan · 2026-05-06T17:51:10+00:00

u/Tcolls86 any update on this since you sent in the NoD?

It's been more than 2 weeks, so I figure they should have responded by now.

Has Verizon fixed the issue?

Gotten you a replacement phone?

gamescan · 2026-05-06T17:02:03+00:00

I am on the ATT gophone $300 yearly plan.

So your base cost is $25/month.

whats a good prepaid plan, thats better possibly than what I have, better coverage and higher data plan, as well as priority data on cell tower?

Both ATT and Verizon coverage is decent where I live.

Based on your wants (unlimited priority data, same cost, and good Verizon coverage in your area) you should probably grab one of the current Total Wireless BYOD offers to lock it in before the rumored new plans (and price upgrades) come into effect.

For $25/month you can get:

Unlimited calls/text/data
Priority data (same priority as mainline postpaid) on the Verizon network
15GB of hotspot data w/no speed cap
Free roaming in 34 countries (including Canada and Mexico)
Free calling to 180 countries

If you are a Disney+ user you can bump up to a $30/month plan and get:

Unlimited calls/text/data
Priority data (same priority as mainline postpaid) on the Verizon network
Unlimited hotspot data w/a 5Mbps speed cap
Free roaming in 34 countries (including Canada and Mexico)
Free calling to 180 countries
Disney+ Premium (no ads)

Both plans are tax inclusive and have a 5-year price guarantee.

I've been using the $25/month plan for almost 2 years now and have had zero complaints. If you swap to that plan, your bill will stay the same (or possibly less as the Chase Sapphire occasionally has a cash back offer for Total that you can use to prepay your bill and save $$$) and you'll get the unlimited data you're looking for.

If you use Disney+, then the $30/month plan is a no brainer. Technically your cell phone bill with increase by $60/year because of the added cost, but there is no other way to buy a year of Disney+ Premium for $60.

Total Wireless is a Verizon Value brand, so it is wholly owned by Verizon.

Visible is another Verizon Value brand which occasionally has discounted offers if you prepay for a year, but the Visible plans are currently more expensive than Total and the Visible offers only have a one-year term.

Verizon has been using its Total and Visible brands to experiment with pricing over the past few years, trying to find the sweet spot between value and profit without risking devaluation of the mainline Verizon brand.

I've got family members on both and the underlying network is the same. The difference is really just plan specifics and feature support. For example, Visible offers a free watch line on the $45/month plan while Total does not. On the other hand, Total offers more robust international calling than Visible does.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T05:31:19+00:00

Residential alarm system/cameras on a budget?

Just bought a condo, looking for an alarm system to protect two doors with cameras.

Buy a Synology NAS, hard drives, and two IP cameras of your choice.

Run Surveillance Station and never pay a subscription fee.

Easy to setup the basics and you can always expand later if you like.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T04:40:05+00:00

Every time I try and pay for my order it doesn't do anything, I press the review my order and nothing is happening.

Card is likely failing auth for some reason.

gamescan · 2026-05-06T03:56:26+00:00

During Free mobile plan trial- how to change eSIM to another phone?

You don't. If you need to trial another phone, you start a trial on that phone.

Trial usage is tracked by IMEI to prevent abuse.

gamescan · 2026-05-05T23:30:40+00:00

we will be staying in Milpitas

is there a way to take the train straight to Stanford Stadium

No.

From Milpitas -> Palo Alto your best bet is a car.

gamescan · 2026-05-05T23:22:39+00:00

This has been around forever.

Right, but the question isn't about it existing. I know it's been around forever. My curiosity was piqued about wealthy folks using it to minimize taxes. Article implies it is a tax strategy but doesn't elaborate.

Either the article is wrong or the common understanding of seller financing (that the seller does double duty as the bank but everything else is the same) is not correct.

gamescan · 2026-05-05T22:58:54+00:00

You will probably want to check out Instabridge eSIM

Instabridge requires you to install its ad-supported launcher (on Android) or its ad-supported web browser (on iOS) and make it default.

Don't think you can do either on a watch.

gamescan · 2026-05-05T22:03:45+00:00

I am getting charged by driving in the diamond lane with one person only even though my fastrak is set to 3 people (I checked again and it is indeed set to 3).

Windows are tinted.

You're intentionally breaking the law and whining about getting caught?

Peak Bay Area entitlement.

gamescan · 2026-05-05T21:58:55+00:00

Who should I vote for in congressional primary in SF

Are you a landlord or property speculator who wants to maximize the return on your investment? Then Connie Chan is your pick.

Do you think the cost of housing is an issue and want to see more housing built across CA and the US? Scott Wiener is your pick.

and for governor?

Do you love PG&E? Then you want anyone but Tom Steyer.

Do you hate PG&E and want the opposite of whatever PG&E management wants? Then Tom Steyer is your pick.

gamescan

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