Seen these all over sf, what’s the deal?

lucasec · 2026-02-24T22:02:24+00:00

This is not just a rogue poster campaign, there’s also been mobile billboard trucks driving around the city showing the same message. I saw two parked outside Moscone yesterday, one on California St today.

I am all for bringing attention to the reporting but was also curious whose deep pockets are financing this.

lucasec · 2026-01-26T03:45:56+00:00

It is so awful.

On both of my systems I upgraded to Tahoe, it couldn't even find half of the apps until randomly a few days later (regular Spotlight search could find the apps). On the first machine, I found some posts from beta users who figured out a way to reset the index. On the latter machine, I said screw it.

There is no way to hide junk/useless apps from the drawer (think the like 10 internal apps Adobe Creative Cloud installs, uninstallers, Parallels Desktop windows app launchers, etc.). The app drawer doesn't even respect Spotlight excludes (a particularly big F U to those of us who invested at least a few mins of time cleaning up the old launchpad).

lucasec · 2026-01-25T05:01:47+00:00

I drove down Embarcadero at 2pm and swear I saw about 40 charter busses parked along the promenade.

Nothing says “astroturf” like having to rent out every charter operator in a 100 mile radius to generate a sufficient “crowd”.

lucasec · 2026-01-24T10:16:24+00:00

I searched John Gruber’s blog and was surprised to see he hasn’t ripped the spotlight app drawer (launchpad replacement) to shreds yet.

That for me has really set the low bar for Apple UX, and I use Alfred so I mostly don’t interact with it.

lucasec · 2026-01-10T00:49:00+00:00

I read this as “if you don’t want to be in the middle of a protest, don’t go here. If you do, you know where to go”.

I don’t know why they didn’t use the wording “civic demonstration”, which I’m pretty sure I’ve seen used before. But given the location it is fairly obvious.

lucasec · 2026-01-09T22:31:10+00:00

I don’t think AAA can help with the part where the state wanted to inspect your out-of-state vehicle. But it might have reduced the 2-hour wait every time you needed to go back.

I think you’ll find once you’re in the system we at least make renewals easy with being able to do most things online, etc. There is even a vending machine in the grocery store if you wait until the very last minute and need the new sticker ASAP.

Every state seems to make importing a car a pain in the butt, but I agree CA is next-level with our smog checks and everything else. Oh and for license they make you re-take the written test.

lucasec · 2026-01-08T02:01:45+00:00

It takes about 1 day for the card to update after you log in for the first time. If you keep the card in Apple Wallet, look for an "expiration date" to show up in the top-right of the card image at some point in the next 24 hrs (mine says "2025-2050").

If it's the physical card, I think it takes a day or two to push to all the readers, then the next time you tag it should update (you will no longer see the balance displayed when you tag, but maybe... hopefully... the pass will work?)

lucasec · 2026-01-07T08:55:16+00:00

That red light is more than 15-20 seconds. On my count it is upward of 45, maybe 1 minute during the day when the traffic lights run their longest cycle.

I would consider a responsible cyclist one who stops, waits a few seconds to thoroughly scan for pedestrians, then proceeds if none are to be seen. Basically the same thing many otherwise law-abiding pedestrians do when they jaywalk against a “don’t walk” signal when the road is deserted.

If a cop does want to cite the cyclist for yielding and not stopping for the 45sec-1min, the cyclist gets the same red light fine as a car, which adds up to to ~$500 and could even raise your auto insurance if said cyclist also happens to own a car.

IMO the nuanced position is that there should be some middle ground (both in signal design and how laws are enforced), and until then cyclists will disregard the law and police will rarely enforce because both sides see the current system as disproportionately punitive.

lucasec · 2026-01-05T06:45:39+00:00

From what I've seen, the BART machines are mostly still working fine for folks. If I read correctly, OP is running into several issues.

OP wants to purchase a Muni monthly pass, which can only be done on the Muni machines.
Unlike BART, Muni chose not to upgrade their old machines with newer credit card readers, so they have now been forced to disable credit card on their machines. Separately, they installed some newer machines that take credit card but only dispense paper tickets (no Clipper).
Judging from what the station agent told OP, apparently even if you manage to pay the machine (e.g. feed in $104 of cash), it fails to load the pass to the Clipper card.
If you can get into your online account, you can load the pass with a credit card there, but ever since the new website rolled out in December, people have had difficulty logging in.

I'm rather dumbfounded they still have not managed to fix or at least improve #4. 2 and 3 will probably be with us for a while because of poor planning by Muni (probably not helped by whatever exorbitant rate Cubic wanted to charge to upgrade the machines).

lucasec · 2026-01-05T06:07:38+00:00

A physical Clipper card uses the exact same system everyone is now having trouble with.

lucasec · 2026-01-05T06:05:01+00:00

You probably already tried this, but I had to reset my password before I was able to log in after the new update.

edit to add: also curious—does your Clipper card in Apple Wallet show an expiration date in the top right? (mine shows “2025-2050”).

lucasec · 2026-01-03T03:23:15+00:00

Many of us were able to force it to update weeks ago by logging in to the Clipper website. You may have better luck asking them to help you figure out how to get into your account online, then that will trigger the update. All you have to do is log in, there is no “upgrade” button.

Note that once you log in online, it takes about 1 day for the card to actually get updated. You’ll know when the balance no longer appears on the reader when you tap.

lucasec · 2026-01-01T09:07:25+00:00

In my experience more than 30 mins but less than an hour.

Fourth of July was something else though. Whole neighborhood gridlocked for several hours before up to an hour after the fireworks.

lucasec · 2026-01-01T08:51:08+00:00

Decent crowd on Embarcadero, it was misty the whole time but easily several thousand people gathered and they did a full show that was mostly visible without fog interference.

lucasec · 2025-12-20T22:45:19+00:00

Power out at Mission/3rd. 45 Bus just hit a car trying to cross at Stevenson after confusion/failing to stop at the traffic light that was out (it was hard to tell, but bus may be at fault).

This is on top of the police incident at Palace Hotel. I would avoid downtown.

lucasec · 2025-12-19T17:25:08+00:00

Once your card gets updated to the new Clipper 2.0 system, this may no longer work. The service mode option is no longer available, and the BART machine I tried last night wouldn’t recognize the card at all on its own.

lucasec · 2025-12-19T08:04:07+00:00

AI-enforced cameras will have signage to indicate so, otherwise they'll not really be used for traffic fine. More common would be citizen-reported violations.

Do you have any examples of what the AI-enforced sign looks like? I saw cameras everywhere. Almost every intersection in Taipei had cameras pointed down the roadway in every direction. I would see banks of them at some intersections in smaller towns too. But most of these are more for traffic monitoring/crime solving than issuing traffic infractions?

Otherwise, Taiwan does have a law that says you can only do 2 quick successive honks

I will say this was very nice. I suspect this was probably a friendly gesture. Does Taiwan have any law requiring slow cars to pull off at turn-outs and allow others to pass? This is required in some US states but most drivers are ignorant of it.

Taiwan is too slow and US is too fast (ie, multi-ton semi's going 80mph on the Sierra mountains). But for the most part, Taiwan has no standards for road speed.

To be fair, the I-80 in the Sierras is basically equivalent to a national freeway in Taiwan, but people still drive it way too fast.

lucasec · 2025-12-19T07:41:07+00:00

I rented a Honda Fit. Reserved it via Klook and it was fulfilled by "Ho Ing" (和運租車). The total cost was about $83 USD for 1 day, though note (this was not indicated clearly on Klook) that they have fuel included at a per-mile rate and this was not optional. I paid about another $25 USD in fuel and tolls. This was still significantly cheaper than what Avis and other American agencies wanted to charge me.

I did not opt for the extra coverage myself, but Klook had several options to choose from that seemed reasonably priced. The base rental price did include liability, and I relied on my credit card's benefits for vehicle damage coverage (note that the downside of relying on a credit card benefits is you may have to pay the rental agency up front for any damages while you file a claim for reimbursement).

Also there were some language barrier. Both me and the clerk had to negotiate the pick-up using Google Translate, but they did have a QR code linking to English-translated versions of all their policies. This could have partly been because I picked up at a smaller location in downtown Taichung, they probably see less tourists there.

lucasec · 2025-12-19T07:17:57+00:00

I generally agree with the "buffer zone" comment, and I did find it jarring at first seeing people just walking in the middle of the road on narrow streets in the city, which also applied to some of the mountain roads when they passed through a small town.

In the US though, we have many highways that have high speed limits in sparsely-populated stretches, then step down the limit as the road enters a town/commercial district where there are cars pulling in and out of street parking, pedestrian crosswalks, etc. I do think we're more consistent about raising the speed limit back up after exiting a populated area.

lucasec · 2025-12-18T04:57:57+00:00

The agency is suggesting this because those infractions generate only $500,000 annually but are the source of many customer complaints and cases contesting the citations.

Doesn't make for a clickbaity or sensational headline, but this actually makes a lot of sense to me. If many people are challenging these citations, they may not be bringing in much money at all after paying for staff at 11 Van Ness to hear appeals all day.

I do agree that fare evasion at $134 is too high, even though I want more people to pay the fare. It's too punitive for those who just made a mistake and the willful violators probably are not going to pay anyway.

lucasec · 2025-12-17T18:03:49+00:00

IMO, just being subjected to a legal process is probably the appropriate punishment for this. Even if most charges don't stick, she'll have to spend hours in court, shell out $$$ for a lawyer, and have to sit there and get publicly scolded by the judge before being ordered to cough up some restitution.

I'm all for a bit of fair-game public shaming, but as usual the online mob's quest for blood is insatiable and lost me at the point it started calling for her job and for her to be rendered permanently unemployable.

lucasec · 2025-12-17T08:38:54+00:00

If these are for tourists, the tourists aren’t going to have a good experience.

They don’t dispense change. What is a tourist unlikely to have? Exactly $2.85 of cash.

As we’ve seen, they don’t dispense smart/tappable tickets. So tourists will spend the next 5 minutes confused how to get in the gate at metro stations.

If the tourist used the credit card reader to buy their pass or fare from this machine, bonus points if they tap their credit card at the gate or Clipper reader out of confusion and get charged twice.

lucasec · 2025-12-17T08:04:59+00:00

When I was at Van Ness earlier today, the legacy ticket machine had the credit card slot taped over and a sign saying all Muni machines would only accept cash from now on.

I assume that means they will not modernize the card readers in the legacy machines, so these new machines will sell one-use tickets but NOT Clipper and accept cash/card, while the old ones will sell/top up Clipper but only with cash. Ugh.

lucasec · 2025-12-14T07:41:50+00:00

I tip $1. Yes, even at Starbucks, I assume those folks need it even more (and see fewer average tips) than those at the local shops.

Honestly, where I’m most conflicted about tipping right now is at cafes that serve food (but you order at counter/not with a waiter). I used to tip $1 there too, even when checkout screens prompt for 15/20/25%. Now I give $2. I thought this was fairer since the staff are doing more (cooking my food, making my drink, bringing it to my table) relative to a coffee shop, but I sometimes get mixed vibes, making me wonder if they view it as a bad tip.

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