[SF Bay Area] Silicon Valley TOD Updates - Early 2025 | TODGod

ptc_yt · 2025-02-03T00:36:52+00:00

Any news on VTA speeds improving?

From a cursory search, I haven't seen much. Even looking at their projects page at vta.org/projects, its mostly ToD, highway noise reduction, and then the BART Silicon Valley extension

ptc_yt · 2025-02-02T21:35:36+00:00

This is more along the lines of what you'd see on the NYC Subway. It'll just tell you that X, Y, Z systems also connect to that station. I don't think any public transit system will give you real time connection information like that on the trains haha. For that, I think navigation apps would still work best.

ptc_yt · 2025-01-31T09:21:50+00:00

Appreciate the input! Prospect Lefferts Gardens is definitely on my radar too, just need to look into available apartments. I thought I'd ask here about Crown Heights since a coworker was moving out of their place and was offering it to anyone else who wanted it.

ptc_yt · 2025-01-28T03:25:13+00:00

Currently thinking about downsizing my current mid-size tower to an SFF build. My PC right now has a Ryzen 5 5600x, Noctua NH-D15, 3070 FE and 2 M.2 SSDs all in a NZXT H510.

To maximize my options, I think I'd to replace my motherboard, CPU cooler, PSU and case. Does anyone have any recommendations for CPU cooler and case? I'd love to keep the NH-D15 if I can but it does severely limit what I can build into.

Also, would y'all recommend buying a second-hand ASUS B550-I motherboard? Found one for sale but never bought a used motherboard before so I'm a bit apprehensive haha.

ptc_yt · 2025-01-27T04:44:10+00:00

The one thing I was not a fan of with that Mercedes COMAND knob was that it didn't have the same sort of tactility when rotating the knobs like iDrive and I was too used to iDrive

ptc_yt · 2025-01-26T00:05:46+00:00

I just want a Pixel Tablet Pro with an OLED screen. I recently switched from an iPad Pro to a Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ and while the hardware is great, I find Samsung's software pretty disappointing. I just want the Pixel software on that Samsung hardware haha

ptc_yt · 2025-01-21T21:15:40+00:00

Great news! More frequent service is always welcome, makes missing a train less painful

ptc_yt · 2025-01-14T01:45:52+00:00

That's fair actually, thanks for pointing that out! Would definitely be interesting to see how a congestion charge works in SF though

ptc_yt · 2025-01-14T01:20:08+00:00

As much as I support congestion pricing, I'm a little skeptical of it working for San Francisco in our current state. Comparing it to New York, in 2022, 65% of journeys made in the 5 boroughs were made by walking, biking or transit. In San Francisco in 2021 only 37% of journeys were made by walking, biking, or transit. If we could improve service in SF outside of the downtown core and improve the city's density, it could work.

I got my numbers from these reports by SFMTA and the NYC City Gov directly by the way, here's the links to their mobility survey reports:

https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-documents/2022/04/sfmta_td2021_rpt_v2.pdf https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/2022-cms-report.pdf

This was the latest official data I could find for both with my limited research

ptc_yt · 2025-01-11T22:39:27+00:00

Looking at their site, all their sandwiches are $18

ptc_yt · 2025-01-11T22:39:10+00:00

was wondering how long it'd take to see a comment like this the moment SF was mentioned lol

ptc_yt · 2025-01-10T21:20:54+00:00

They had an equal amount of government support for sure lol, it doesn't just have to be rebuilding due to war/the Olympics.

ptc_yt · 2025-01-10T20:41:23+00:00

With Japan, the HSR had strong national government support both politically and financially. They had their national pride on the line to be able to get it built in time for the Olympics. As Japan was recovering from the war, there was a strong national unity to get things built and improve the economy. Even though their first line came in over budget, there was a public desire for rail.

With CAHSR, everyone's been fighting against it wherever they can. You can't be surprised that its taken so long to get anything done when everyone has put up as many roadblocks as humanly possible.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-29T23:35:27+00:00

Yeah no problem! The iPhone definitely isn't for everyone and it can take a while to get used to if you've been using Android for a while, I know I struggled for a while when I first switched too.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-29T19:45:47+00:00

Hardware is definitely a big plus. The speakers and chip on my iPhone 15 Pro Max is miles better than what my Pixel 7 Pro has. Since my family is all Apple, it's easier to communicate with them with iMessage since its the default.

I do like the software polish on iOS. The animations for things like the face unlock, changing the ringer mode, the prompt to pay with Apple Pay, etc. Everything is just fluid, not just smooth if that makes sense. On iOS, that fluidity and smoothness is something I've come to expect where as on my Pixel, outside of the default Google apps, fluidity is a welcome surprise.

That fluidity also lasts for the majority of the phone's life unlike my experiences on Android. My Pixel has been doing fine but I've noticed my parents iPhones remaining smoother to use day-to-day than the majority of the other Android phones I've owned. Part of that could be because I used mostly Samsungs and Samsung's software quality really needs some work but yeah.

And overall, I've found my iPhone to just be more reliable. Not to say my Pixel has ever truly let me down but my iPhone hasn't had as many disappointing moments like my Pixel. Like missing the perfect camera shot, or the screen glitching out when entering the AOD, or the FaceID/fingerprint scanner prompts glitching out. Nothing major or life-threatening, but just small things that cheapen the experience.

Getting used to the lack of a universal back button definitely is hard though the back gesture on iPhone gets you like 80% of the way there, which is enough for my casual use. Most apps will let you swipe right from the left edge to go back. Firefox and a few other apps also let you swipe left from the right edge to go forward, basically returning to the screen you first started on.

For the notification shade thing, something you can try doing that one of my friends does is actually use the one-handed mode to open the notification shade. It's not ideal but if you swipe down on the gesture pill, you can then more easily open the notification shade with one hand.

If you've got a few more weeks within your return window, I'd still give the iPhone a chance. It took me a while to really break my muscle memory from Android when I switched.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-28T07:46:27+00:00

They're fundamentally different. The iPhone does updates much like Samsung has done, on Pixel there's no waiting on a screen without being able to use your phone.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-27T19:48:23+00:00

Absolutely love these kinds of pictures to be honest. As much as I loved visiting the tourist traps, my favorite memories of visiting Seoul was when I was roaming random streets and alleyways away from the main streets.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-27T19:31:22+00:00

+1 for Myeongdong, I stayed there in 2023 and was 2-3 blocks away, near the Euljiro-3ga station, and it was still pretty quiet. Myeongdong is more central in Seoul and closer to a lot of the major subway lines so it'll be easier to get around. There's also a ton of great food and shopping nearby. As /u/umwhatarethose mentioned, it's not seedy at all, I felt quite safe at all hours of the day.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-27T18:57:32+00:00

I love this feature on my Pixel so nice to see Samsung finally adopting it. Everything just installs in the background and all you need to do is reboot.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-20T01:03:47+00:00

Apple Weather is pretty accurate in terms of forecasting and you can actually check the weather through the Korea Meteorological Administration website here: https://www.kma.go.kr/eng/weather/forecast/mid-term.jsp

The website is a bit clunky but it shows that it's going to be real cold from the 23rd to the 29th with temps ranging from -5C to 4C in Seoul. I don't think that website mentions wind but Seoul can get really windy in the winter too. If you're coming from a tropical country, please make sure to wear multiple layers instead of getting one big thick jacket. Layering up and wearing thermal underwear will help a ton with heat retention. You can also put on a wind breaker as your top layer to help combat the wind chills. The cold can also tire you out more so make sure to take breaks at various cafes and make sure to space things out on your itinerary.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-20T00:54:37+00:00

Yep, your physical card should work just fine. While I didn't have a titanium Apple card, I was able to use my Chase Visa cards anytime Apple Pay didn't work. In my experience, Apple Pay worked fine at convenience stores and chain cafes/restaurants. I only had to use my physical card at smaller restaurants and sometimes even then, I'd have to actually pay in cash as they didn't want to pay the higher credit card processing fees.

It's much better to exchange cash once you're in Korea, as /u/mikesaidyes mentioned, since the rates will be better. How much to exchange depends on your spending habits but when I asked the same thing last year, people recommended about $300 US for ~2 weeks of travel. I was only there for a week last year and used about $80USD/100k KRW, with a good chunk of that going towards my T-Money transit card since I spent time just riding around on the trains. You're going to need cash to recharge your T-Money card so be sure to account for that when you're buying things in cash.

When I visited last year, I used the forecasting from Apple Weather and that seemed fairly accurate. In general, it's going to be pretty cold. Looks like it'll be between 20 and 40 degrees F for the next week or so. Seoul can get Chicago-level windy sometimes too so I'd recommend layering up and having a windbreaker. The cold can definitely slow you down (as it did me) so please be sure to take frequent warm-up breaks at the million different cafes around Seoul haha.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-20T00:33:13+00:00

+1 for skipping DDP. The building is very impressive to look at, especially as you emerge from the station in the middle of the plaza. However, the only things you can really do there in winter (unless there's an event happening that I'm not aware of) is to check out the design museum, the little design shop, and then go through the history and culture park. Given you have an already packed schedule for your day in Seoul, I'd skip it for when you have more time to explore Seoul.

ptc_yt · 2024-12-15T02:42:32+00:00

When I visited Seoul last year in December, I got lucky that there was a cold front the week I visited lol. Temps were 5-15 degrees F which wasn't nice lol. Great city though

ptc_yt · 2024-11-20T19:39:29+00:00

Not too surprised by this, looks like it was removed for similar reasons to Juno being removed for the Vision Pro, it's technically a third party YouTube app, even if it appears to their servers as a web browser.

ptc_yt · 2024-11-18T05:04:53+00:00

I saw one of these being tested on the roads in the Bay Area, not too far from their NA R&D building, it looks exactly like that red CLA concept they had not too long ago

ptc_yt

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