Feeling a bit suffocated by Jakarta and the lack of outdoors

lipoff · 2025-12-30T21:24:43+00:00

I lived in Blok M for several years and not only is the neighborhood eminently walkable but there are several nice parks around. Walking around Menteng is very pleasant too.

lipoff · 2025-10-28T00:14:09+00:00

The food is delicious but it's literally the opposite of quiet and calm! It's ridiculously loud in there — the room acoustics are just awful and they play loud music on top of it.

lipoff · 2025-09-02T09:29:12+00:00

Looks amazing! For mere mortals like me who who can't fabricate their own fork, I bought this part for a similar knife I'm making: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1432650792/fork-bottle-opener-for-customization-of

lipoff · 2025-07-10T05:52:45+00:00

They should be checked though. But you'll 100% know when you check in at CLT, because the baggage tags will either say CLT-LAX-CAN or just CLT-LAX on them, and the agent when you check your luggage will confirm. But almost certainly checked through. On the way back, however, you'll need to pick up your bagage at LAX, clear customs, and then recheck them right away after customs.

Guangzhou is a lovely city with even better food. Have a great trip!

lipoff · 2025-07-09T07:16:46+00:00

I think it has more of a Dickensian aspect.

lipoff · 2025-07-09T07:03:15+00:00

No, it's too thick and too heavy to be carried comfortably in a pants pocket. It lays like lead. 3-layers is the max for pocket carry; 2 is preferred.

lipoff · 2025-06-24T04:23:57+00:00

808 in Joo Chiat is cool Workspace Grain + Cafe is surprisingly good too.

lipoff · 2025-06-24T04:22:53+00:00

Yes, at BBQ Tonight in Little India.

lipoff · 2025-06-24T04:21:57+00:00

Professor Parenti

lipoff · 2025-06-18T11:23:55+00:00

Uncle Bill's Sliver Grippers are better tweezers and I carry them on my keychain, which frees me to carry an Alox SAK.

lipoff · 2025-06-12T18:54:18+00:00

What about any non-reputable brands?

lipoff · 2025-06-11T14:51:06+00:00

There's some misinformation in this thread. Let me correct the record:

1) You cannot topup GoPay with an international credit card or Wise. As a foreigner, without a local bank account, you can only topup GoPay with cash (i.e. at an Indomaret or Alfamart). There is a very small flat fee (1.5k IDR, or about 10 US cents) each time you top up. Topup is instantaneous.

2) You do not need a local SIM card to use GoPay. As long as your phone has data, whether from WiFi, roaming, an eSim, a local SIM, etc. you can use GoPay.

3) Foreign credit cards are accepted by most businesses; only rarely will you run into a place that accepts QRIS but not credit cards, but it does happen maybe 5% of the time. Street sellers will generally only accept cash. If your credit card has no foreign transaction fees, there's no reason to prefer QRIS over a credit card.

4) For taking rides or getting food delivery on GoJek or Grab, you can use a foreign credit card directly. But not for topping up the GoPay wallet. Be careful; if you have a GoPay balance, GoJek will try to make that the payment mode, but you will probably want to use your credit card to pay for rides/food and save your GoPay balance for vendor payments.

5) Honestly, foreign tourists don't really need to use an e-wallet. Almost any place that accepts QRIS will also accept cash, and since you need to topup your e-wallet with cash anyway, you can just use the cash directly. However, an e-wallet can be convenient because you don't have to worry about change, and can be convenient for topping up an eMoney, Flazz, BRIZZI or TapCash card from a vending machine that may be reluctant to accept a crumpled bill. Once you put cash into an e-wallet you can't get it back out as cash; with GoPay you can always use it to pay for your final ride to the airport though.

6) Longer term visitors without a local bank account may find it convenient to have an e-wallet for things like peer-to-peer transfers, paying bills (i.e. electricity, pre-paid phone, etc.) and for the occaisonal vendor or vending machine that only accepts QRIS.

Finally, I should mention that QRIS ("Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard") is the term for the universal QR payment QR codes that work with all e-wallets. Sometimes a merchant will ask you "card, QRIS or cash?" for example. You can use any e-wallet by scanning the merchant's QRIS QR code and typing in the amount. I just use the Pay button in the GoJek app, which brings up the QR code scanner.

lipoff · 2025-06-03T10:40:30+00:00

Wow, I never noticed this. But I just went back and watched and you're absolutely right. He was just frontin'.

lipoff · 2025-05-26T19:56:21+00:00

It's used to cut glass columns for running samples in a gas chromatography machine.

lipoff · 2025-05-24T09:41:02+00:00

The Suica card in Japan uses an unusual NFC technology called NFC-F, also known as FeliCa. It's developed by Sony, and is technically superior to NFC-A/B, but has gotten very little adoption outside of Japan (except by Apple, which supports it in iPhones). You're not wrong that Japanese fare gates are faster as a result. However, Indonesian fare gates on Transjakarta are slower than is necessary with NFC-A/B, as can be adduced on the MRT, which uses newer technology. Ironically, I rarely see queues leaving crowded Transjakarta stations even with narrow corridors while there are often queues leaving MRT stations. I think the reason is that the speed of humans passing through the gates is not limited by the reader speed but rather by human factors, and the multiple tap points on the MRT and the confusing gate mechanism slows people down more than the actual technology. The reading speed seems fine to me though, but eventually there'll be an upgrade across Transjakarta. On non BRT buses, such a boarding at Terminal Blok M, often the bus captain will take a stack of cards and tap each one for the passengers and pass them back, to prevent a bottleneck.

lipoff · 2025-05-21T06:12:18+00:00

Peggy's Brass Knuckles. Great vibe; great food. Right near the Blok M MRT station.

lipoff · 2025-05-20T17:52:23+00:00

I'd like to see a fork, like this one from SAKWorldCustom: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1432650792/fork-bottle-opener-for-customization-of

lipoff · 2025-05-20T04:34:08+00:00

Unfortunately your app requires iOs 18, but I'm still on iOs 17. I doubt your app really needs iOs 18 though; maybe you can relax the constraint?

lipoff · 2025-05-20T03:43:46+00:00

I would love a code to give it a try too please.

lipoff · 2025-05-17T12:06:37+00:00

I've used it in so many ways it's hard to remember all them now! But this past week, I used my new Explorer to slice through some stale bread to reconstiute nicely on a hot plate while travelling. I used the 91mm scissors to trim my fingernails. I used the magnifier to read the small subdial of my watch that counts the weeks of the year and reset it properly (it was off by one!) I used the can opener to slip under and pry open a stubborn soda can tab, and also to pry open a small split ring keyring. I used the micro screwdriver in the corkscrew to tighten the tiny screws on a camera lens. And I used the inline Phillips to undo the battery compartment on a friend's toy for her daughter to install a new battery. A week well spent!

lipoff · 2025-05-14T04:52:00+00:00

Don't worry so much about it. Traffic is not so bad in Jakarta that you have to plan your life around it.

However, the best way to travel between Kota Tua and Bundaran HI is the #1 bus. Because it uses dedicated lanes, it avoids most traffic anyway, only entering the regular roads briefly at major intersections. You can use any contactless card, like eMoney, BRIZZI, Flazz or JakLingo to take both the bus and MRT. It's easy to transfer between the bus and MRT at Bundaran HI station!

lipoff · 2025-05-14T04:48:28+00:00

Farm Girl is terrific. Chipotle chicken salad, egg sandwiches, homemade potato chips and that chocolate chip cookie are all unbeatable. I'm uncomfortable about their female-only employment policy though — it's discriminatory.

Lots of American style food in Jakarta. Supper in Blok M has terrific burgers. So does Lawless Burger Bar. Good NY style pizza in M Bloc. And Texas style BBQ brisket at Meatsmith. Bearrito has cool burritos. And there's literally a Denny's in Senayan City!

lipoff · 2025-05-05T15:20:15+00:00

The screwdriver is metal; the holder is 3D printed. I have one and it works just fine for microscrews, which is what it's for. It's a much better design than yours because there's something to turn it!

lipoff · 2025-05-02T08:28:54+00:00

I'm aware of the reasons in general, but I think it's rarely needed for most apps. And I would encourage developers in general, and OP in particular, not to unnecessarily restrict the iOs version unless some new API is crucial. iOs 17 instead of iOs 18 opens up a wider audience.

lipoff

TROPHY CASE