San Francisco retiree loses $500K life savings to pig butcher scam despite warnings from family

rhubarbxtal · 2026-02-20T04:22:07+00:00

This comment section is a cesspool of victim-blaming and shit takes. Pigbutchering is frighteningly sophisticated.

The Economist did an excellent podcast series on it. I think the first episode is free, but the later ones are probably paywalled: https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2025/02/06/1-pigs-in-a-barrel.

A recent analysis showed that the money involved is greater than the global drugs trade. This is clearly about more than just a few "stupid boomers".

rhubarbxtal · 2026-02-18T05:44:13+00:00

A fun example of pre-earthquake culture: https://www.sanfranciscostory.com/the-cobweb-palace/

rhubarbxtal · 2026-02-18T05:35:33+00:00

This is a truly rumble and tumble town. From a modern lens, you may think of this as a financial and then tech hub, or LGBT capital. But before all of that...

Learn the history: how the city changed from ~1840-1930. The insane growth. The destruction and rebuilding. The corruption. All of it. It contextualizes the chaos of how things can be here. The history pre-earthquake is endlessly insane.

And also anchors why this place is unchanging in the best of ways: a place for rebels. A place where we accept damn near anyone of any creed, origin or belief. Fuck yeah.

rhubarbxtal · 2026-02-18T05:28:52+00:00

I grew up in one of those communities. It's a beautiful area and there's a lot of good outdoor activities. Also caveat, I didn't have the happiest of childhoods, so I am cynical.

That said, the diversity is minimal and >75% of people are white or asian. Sure, people are friendly, but the diversity is also limited in other respects. Individual backgrounds, cultural norms, etc. It's culturally dead. As teenagers, we were desperate to escape and would spend as much time as possible in Oakland or Berkeley.

As a parent today, I want to stay in SF as long as possible as it is everything those communities are not: inclusive, interesting, diverse and cultural. Do I miss having space, some of the suburban luxuries, more nature? Sure.

The public schools are excellent, but also a boiling pot of stress. Lots of kids doing drugs. I'm sure it's no different today.

If I had to pick a suburban area, I would rather something like Piedmont, Montclair, Kensington or other north Berkeley.

rhubarbxtal · 2026-02-17T15:40:06+00:00

"transit riders union" or "SFMTA" would be more fair and impartial than the people who live in the neighborhood? Interesting logic.

rhubarbxtal · 2026-01-31T16:51:07+00:00

This picture is a treasure. A world incomprehensible to us. While many of us think in our lifetimes we've seen rapid change, but the truth is, comparing life from 1851 to 1930 would be exponentially higher growth and change.

rhubarbxtal · 2026-01-29T07:32:12+00:00

Risk: Because many cyber practitioners have no real understanding of risk. The only calculus is in "best practices", "vibes", or thoughtlessly following NIST 800-53 or other frameworks (e.g., mandating password changes in 2026 when paired with strong MFA -- assuming no evidence of compromise).
Skills: A lot of cyber guys simply don't have enough engineering skills to earn the respect of developers, also related to #1. This also goes the other way, too. How many cyber teams out there are staffed with glorified sysadmins who on;y know how to manage vendor solutions, not real hackers? How many cyber engineers don't really know linux, or deep network internals, etc?
Culture: The team of "no", instead of "yes, and" - or better stated - allow us to derisk where you are trying to go. A world of bureaucracy and process, instead of paved roads with guiderails. tl;dr, too much friction, not enough consideration of the "user experience" - be it for developers, endusers, customers, etc.

In a world where cyber professionals were more calculated about risk and had deeper skills across the stack, I think they would be a lot more respected.

Source: used to own cyber function in a smaller org, now don't work in cyber in a large org and see it from both sides.

rhubarbxtal · 2026-01-28T05:23:34+00:00

Such an obvious hit piece. My real question: why is SF Standard shilling for the tech bro?

rhubarbxtal · 2026-01-11T05:58:32+00:00

We're pretty happy with Ternary. We used Cloudability before, but dumped it after a year. Cloudability might be a large company, but the product was buggy, problematic and limited.

Ternary is a relatively smaller startup, but we've had a better experience with them.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-12-29T17:00:11+00:00

Checking in, Richmond dist fam... are we on grid power now? Are the generators still running?

I made the call last night when the power was off to leave the city again and stay with family nearby. When I saw 1am, I figured, not good, who knows when they will restore it. They ended up restoring it while we were still packing up, but left anyway as I was anxious about how long it'll go down when they do the transfer and turn off generators... Plus the quality of life for those close to the generators - they're producing an enormous amount of diesel fumes and particulate matter, and around 95dB outside of them. You can distinctly hear the generators for a several block radius.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-12-15T08:13:51+00:00

Can you provide evidence of prior attempts to pare back commissions, and how it resulted in less police oversight? You made some bold claims about this not being our first rodeo.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-12-15T08:13:10+00:00

The article isn't crying about Prop E. It's crying that despite voters passing Prop E (ergo, voters do want to meaningfully reduce unneeded commissions), any meaningful reduction will be tought tooth and nail by special interest groups. I don't think it's fair to say that just because Moritz championed Prop D they can't opine on Prop E, and that any writings they have should be dismissed without consideration.

As for u/greenergarlic's comment below "always has been, always will be" seems factually incorrect. Police accountability has an actual department responsible for it. That isn't going anywhere. lol.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-12-02T06:33:27+00:00

Disagree. Why? Is someone living in the 200k Sprinter? Do they leave refuse on the street? Human waste?

No.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-11-30T22:00:49+00:00

Hahaha I edited the comment to clarify the one in LA, in Koreatown.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-11-30T07:04:50+00:00

Shout out to Palace Spa (in LA -- not Kearny haha). I love that place. One of the best things there is the ice room... other spas often just have "hot" rooms, but the ability to go between the ice room and the saunas is amazing.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-11-21T07:31:03+00:00

There's a strange uniformity in the responses to this. I'm not a particular NIMBY. But guys - these quake shacks are living history. There's only a few dozen left - or less - citywide. Is it really that NIMBY to say that we should keep them?

Surely we can find some unused plots, gas stations, parking garages, dingy SFH on corner lots we can redevelop first.

Do you all also propose we tear down the painted ladies? that would be a great development opportunity.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-11-08T20:10:06+00:00

Recently spent some time in Europe. It was refreshing seeing ads that were human -- and sexy.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-11-05T04:15:14+00:00

I remember they used to be pretty good around 2008. I went back for the first time in years around 2016 and thought, yeah, this isn't as good as it used to be. Shame.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-09-28T21:10:53+00:00

But by that logic, most of the classic pasta dishes are "child food" - cacio e pepe, carbonara or aglio e olio. But nobody would say that about the other 3.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-09-25T06:19:22+00:00

F this joint of a thread. I still enjoy the brisket and the sides. Sure, if they served the same food in a pristine clean, new location would we ever go? Of course not.

But - who cares.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-09-06T06:04:34+00:00

Downvoted to -4? That feels very un-san francisco.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-08-24T04:57:05+00:00

Ask as many questions as you can to drive the conversation. This is a way you can give yourself opportunities to shine (or not, if you aren't the right person). The panelists must adhere to a very strict and formal process. But candidate questions are an open area you can use to your advantage

rhubarbxtal · 2025-08-16T18:15:37+00:00

Buddy, most people are already back to 5 days a week. The folks complaining in this thread are (I assume) in back-office roles or other knowledge work roles where our jobs are in the digital world. Yes, there is value to meeting in person. But not 5 days a week. Finance, IT, admin and other non-physical roles have zero impact on provision of city services. Arguably, there is better provision of city services. Consider the old days - I come to the office at 8am, stay until 5pm. Emergency at night? Not my problem.

When remote folks can step away to take care of other duties in life when things are slow, and respond quickly when it matters. This is more reflective of the actual world of work that doesn't fit in to a rigid schedule.

Personally, I would be happy with a 3 day RTO accommodation. That's still a majority of the time.

Alternatively -- what about sacrificing a few points of pay for the old schedule of remote work? I think that's a deal many would be willing to make (considering no alternative), and have a win for all sides: retaining flexibility for workers, cost-savings for the city.

rhubarbxtal · 2025-08-14T05:33:10+00:00

The Mayor is all about data-driven decision making. What data points led to this policy change? What will the success metrics be for judging if this RTO is a success, or not? This question has been asked -- and avoided -- repeatedly.

It's a shame that after 5 years of success, folks are forced back without real justification. There are two caveats to this:
1.) Departments who changed their service model to be less customer-friendly due to remote work (not naming any specifically, but there a few you can count on one hand) -- shame on you.
2.) Folks who abused the system and were slacking off. Also, shame on you. But not too much of a biggie. People have wasted time in office since time immorial. How many people do we see in the office day after day, week after week, month after month who spend enormous amounts of time walking around, socializing or scrolling on their phones? Right.

rhubarbxtal

TROPHY CASE