Let’s hope that the pandemic kills the open office!
265 karma · joined December 15, 2019
In an alternative reality…
Really happy with my new place!
The first place I found, what a nightmare. I almost committed to buying that house until I remembered to check the high-speed internet situation. Since Skylink is not available yet and the previous owner did not have high-speed Internet, I called the local cable company. All they could tell me is that possibly there might be? There never has been service there, and they can’t guarantee that there will be.
Phone company had 10 Mbps ADSL.
Not to worry, I backed out in time. Working from home only works when you can work from home.
Something now told me to rent instead. The house I found had 250 Mbps cable. This I confirmed with the previous renter. I’m going to put it to good use.
We are in a pandemic and now I’ll be having to entertain myself. It’s winter, I’m new (again) in town, and the pandemic is keeping my from being more social. I guess there’s always Scruff from a safe social (digital) distance.
I also consider the extra physical distance. This is not San Francisco. I love the idea of my more distant, comfortable life outside of California, but living in denser cities is much better for the environment. My greenhouse gas emissions footprint has grown significantly; especially around travel.
I still drive an EV, that helps with my conscience. Maybe all logistics and shipping providers servicing my new home will do so too? Lots of new delivery truck EVs available now. Of course none are good as walking.
I’m now a bit more dependent upon UPS/FedEx/Amazon for shopping online. The new address doesn’t have Amazon Fresh or Instacart available; and Prime Now is only available one zip code over. Every shipment takes two days.... I can make it work - but to do so, I had to get reacquainted with retail shopping.
Trader Joe’s has one location 15 miles away, must go plug in now for tomorrow. I’ve got 100 miles of range; but it’s 30 degrees outside this week for the high (and we just got through a wicked snowstorm.) My cars’ range may take a hit.
It is frustrating whenever I can’t get businesses to free up chargers blocked by cars. But what about snow?
Last week the charger was blocked by a snow bank 8’ tall on the side of the parking lot with the charger. Seriously, I can’t be the only one in this town who needs to use the EVSE!
I moved to SF happy I’d never have to drive 30 miles to get errands done again. In San Francisco, I could just walk; or otherwise it’d be less than 6 miles round trip.
I shop at night after dinner. This town is not taking COVID-19 seriously. Lackluster mask usage, no social distancing. I am hoping that it won’t be as busy. I’ve got one comorbidity that I don’t want to test the limits of. I heard the regional hospital is out of ICU beds; but the bars are pretty full by the University.
It’s like science doesn’t exist. People here have a common distrust of government. It makes sense that in a low tax state, the local government public health department is regarded with the same esteem as the other underfunded and underperforming city departments.
On second thought, I think San Francisco doesn’t seem so bad after all. Eh who needs money, we can’t take it with us when we go.
To each their own.
A few years ago, someone did break a package that many companies cloned and integrated... the internet nearly broke...
My guess; a disruption in services is one thing that’s not already “priced in” to the stock market.
It replaced a 2016 iPhone SE I cracked the screen on. Since Apple charges $129 for a display, and since I don’t have any access to touch and proximity sensor calibration equipment, I can’t properly do it by myself.
I paid $99 for that one brand new last year.
It replaced a 2016 iPhone SE (from 2016) with a battery that only held a charge for a hour and also fell apart - the glue holding the display module together wore out.
The 2016 iPhone SE runs the latest iOS 14. I think the 12 mp camera is suitable enough for my needs, the square sides are great for standing it up without the use of a tripod to take a photo, and I have a headphone jack still. There hasn’t been a iPhone since that’s come close to being as small. Still, I’d like to see it get even smaller. I haven’t found a single phone since that’s had a compelling reason for me to sacrifice this size without switching to Android.
To date I’ve spent approximately $560 on iPhones since retiring my next favorite phone of all time: my Nokia Lumia Icon. I still miss windows phone.
Ever since American CEOs decided to sell out the American worker with decades of offshoring manufacturing to China and our transition to a service economy, It’s been easy to channel the resentment away from the Americans responsible, and place blame on China. If China does things we don’t like, well, American Greed legitimized the relationship with the West in the first place.
None of that is the fault of the Chinese people; but our powers that be seemed to place the blame and hatred there. The fact is we’ve been pushed into a constant cycle of deteriorating civil decorum and mutual respect for each other. The coronavirus pandemic only exacerbates things.
I think if anything could help the bridge the divide, it would be to convince Americans that China is not full of people who lack the notion to think for themselves, and that people are not uniformly aligned on all issues. Individualism of thought is not a unique characteristic of the West.
With the unmitigated disaster of 2020, I’m “probably not ok,” but I am not in any danger to myself or others. Quite the opposite - I’m optimistic that things are moving in the right direction. I mean, it can’t get worse:
- Shutdown my consulting Business in February because I didn’t feel comfortable with being around new people constantly with a t-cell deficient immune system. - My boyfriend abruptly stopped his antidepressant and quietly completed suicide in his apartment alone. No indication anything was off. It’s been tough to manage such a loss alone during a pandemic where social distancing is important. - I am left with his orange tabby cat; and with the unrelenting frustration in trying to reason with people who never lost their lover to suicide, with multiple “it’s not your fault” conversations. I’m conflicted in that these people are the ones who are standing with me, but I can’t hear this logic again. - Just a few days ago, six months later, I acknowledged what would’ve been his 33rd birthday and also our anniversary. I couldn’t find anything to actually celebrate or anyone to celebrate it with because of COVID. Still waiting for a good time to even have a proper memorial. - My roommate couple friends moved back home to the Midwest. As the master tenant, I’m responsible for the difference in rent, nobody is moving to SF really; but may have a roommate come October. - My best friend in San Francisco died of cancer late March. - We were supposed to have dinner the last week of February, - and all of us were supposed to celebrate my April birthday together at a Honey Dijon show; - and go to the Maceo Plex day party on Treasure Island in May. Yep, as both of them are gone and both of those events will never happen, that calendar event was a rough thing to forget to cancel.
On the bright side, I had time to crash course my way into sharpening my CS skills for flavor of the week programming languages, turned half my garage into a wood shop; created an IoT paradise at home or “who needs an Alexa when Jenkins will do,” been building the tabby a “catio” so he’ll get some outside time, started getting into the fun world of circuit board reworking out of a BIOS Flashing disaster, and enjoying the work of cooking all my meals.
I’m not too stressed about work. I have decided I’m not going back into the self employment hustle; and I’m patient enough to wait for the right next opportunity. Low expectations yield pleasant surprises.
Cable TV industry successfully lobbies Republican controlled FCC in an effort to kill an antiquated standard that did not allow for the collection and monetization of users’ viewing habits.
My issues with the adapter:
- The adapter is allowing higher current devices to connect to an outlet design that only started showing up in the 1960s; connected to “god knows what.”
Some people use two-to-three prong grounding adapters. (NEMA 1-15 to 5-15.)
Some NEMA 5-15 outlets are wired with bootleg grounds.
My Grandmothers’ old house, built in 1837, was upgraded with “knob-and-tube” wiring sometime in the 1910s and had NEMA 1-15 plugs. There’s a certain amount of heat a knob and tube wiring install is designed to allow due to an over current; but this was contingent upon being installed properly, and never modified. The issue today (and in the 1950s) is that many DIYers spliced their safety into a black hole of junction boxes.
Even If it’s a shiny new Siemens Load Center, none of that matters if it connects to wire made during the Ottoman Empire, and illegally spliced into the old breaker panel during the 1970s.
- The breaker box, fuse box, load center.... Well, what is it? It is important to know who made it, and if it was done correctly.
Fuses take time to blow. There could be 10 other things on that branch and it could blow quickly. It’s the big unknown. Did the last occupant get tired of replacing blown 15A fuses because they couldn’t use two kitchen appliances at once, and drop in a 30A?
Same goes with actual circuit breakers. Square D will gladly sell me a single 30A breaker that fits into the spot where I pulled a 15A breaker from.
I bet Federal Pacific Electric would too if they were still in business selling StabLok breakers that cheated their way through the UL tests.... in which their panels are installed commonly throughout the Bay Area. Relying on a Federal Pacific, Zinsco, Wadsworth panel to trip with the correct breaker is too much a liability for most home insurance companies.
If one prefers to rely on circuit breakers, I’d really suggest that they reconsider. Especially during Fire Season here in the Bay Area.
Rachel By The Bay knows what she doesn’t know about the branch circuits in her home. She’s 100% in the right here, as it pertains to her unique situation. Exercise an abundance of caution and hire an electrician!
Those DIYers who reject the “licensed electrician and I need a permit” model could benefit most from them - they’re almost foolproof.
Instead they’re expensive, hard to find as Lowe’s/Home Depot don’t sell them, and not too many average people are familiar with them.
I won’t ever buy plain wire nuts again unless it’s to cap a single wire.
In 2007, Steve Jobs’ originally intended “iPhone OS” apps to be only browser based web apps; way before Google uttered the term “Progressive Web Apps.”
Apple’s early web app SDK didn’t win too many fans. As it turns out, users were not impressed with the contrast between the robustness of first party native apps, and the lagging fit, finish, and performance of Web apps in Safari on a 2G device. In 2008, native App Store arrives.
Ever since the App Store debuted with iPhone OS 2, Apple has chose not to implement and champion improvements in mobileSafari that make Web apps work as well as they do on Desktop.
This is strategic, App Store is a lucrative business that gives Apple absolute control over iOS. They heavily promote development for native apps with Swift. They give developers much more to work with in terms of stimulating user engagement and tracking; and users prefer the polished experience of a native app with fewer compromises.
Apple continues to prohibit adding any app with a Web Engine other than WebKit, hindering any further improvement possible with other Web Engines. Imagine someone could deploy an app with a modern web engine that allows a user to have a new web based App Store that bypasses the Apple app review process.
It took Apple forever to half implement Service Workers and other Progressive Web App standards.
Apple doesn’t have the same control over what goes on the desktop. It’s a fragmented mess.
There’s now only two major mobile platforms, but there are PCs with 32-Bit ARM and x86, 64-Bit ARM64 and X64 processors running variations of Windows, Macs, and Unix / Linux operating systems. It’s just not economically viable to try and target them all unless it’s an app that produces content. Users that produce content usually do so on system resource intensive apps from the likes of AutoDesk and Adobe on Desktop - but this is also changing.
I don’t live in the Bay Area because I want to work in tech...
I work in tech because I want to live in the Bay Area, and my skill set of technical knowledge aligned with tech pretty nicely.
In San Francisco, when the pandemic ends and everything starts actually getting back to normal, we don’t have to worry about if the weather will be nice that month. We can pick back up where we left off.
I don’t have to cram our outside summer activities into five months anymore.
I love Chicago, but I did my time.
Leaving was my original plan for this year. My late boyfriend had never lived outside the Bay Area, we decided were going to change that. Since his passing in March, that’s not an option for us anymore.
Why stay? My close friends - some of whom I have known and worked with for 15 years - all live here now. My boyfriend was an only son; being near his mother for mutual support has made this process a bit easier for us.
While moving away would be a good way to reset after losing my boyfriend, I feel that would be too much change to handle.
That’s not to say that things are staying the same around here. Two of my three roommates have cohabitated together here as a couple; and are indeed moving back to the Midwest soon - giving up their bedrooms.
That leaves two of us in a (rare for SF) 4 bedroom 3 bath house; which sets us all back about $4200/month.
I am not yet willing to give up my lease and head for the Suburbs at that low of a cost. Though not rent controlled, we’ve not had a rent increase since 2016.
It’s not just a cheap house. It’s got a lot of benefits. I have a backyard. I’m not sure a new landlord would install 7.2kW EV charging in the garage. I don’t share walls with neighbors. Once life gets social again, I’ll resume enjoying a 20 minute walk or 4 minute drive to the Castro, Haight-Ashbury, or Inner Sunset. If we are in this for the long-haul, I’ve got the interior greenbelt to hike.
If I consider staying in the Bay Area, it’s not substantially cheaper to rent (in comparison) outside of the City for single family homes. The quality of life for me suffers if I had to travel into SF - time, tolls, BART/Caltrain delays - it’s not worth the hassle even mostly working from home.
My plan is to wait for the housing bubble to burst again, and ride this out. I’m not moving back to the sauna like humidity and the frigid cold of the Midwest.
Nothing prevents me from asking for a rent decrease though.
I’ve been using a iPhone SE as my primary phone since summer 2016.
If I recall, my original new iPhone SE had great battery life. It was first on iOS 9.
Up Until iOS 12, Battery life was fine on it. With iOS 12, had to get a extended battery case; that held up As a workable solution until iOS 13.
At the end of last year, after iOS 13 came out I replaced that iPhone SE with a brand new one I bought on fire sale.
That had an accident this week, which I replaced with another new iPhone SE.
For it, I set it up as a new device, without any apps, and not restoring from any backup, I still have the same battery life.
I’m going to chalk it up to iOS background process bloat and third party background app refresh, etc.
It will be I nteresting to see how iOS 14 Holds up on the iPhone SE 2016.
What can I say, I refuse to use a phone without flat sides, no headphone jack and not of a reasonable size. I could take a few of those exceptions but all three has been a no go for me. Really the new “meh” battery life is the only complaint I have about this device.
Really excited for the rumored iPhone 12 5.4 inch since it may be about the same size as the old SE; with flat sides.
Fry’s is either always going out of business (Palo Alto) or always out of stock of whatever I need.
Now with Microsoft gone, that leaves us Best Buy, Central Computer, Fry’s, the internet, and Apple.
The “family room” employees now make up most of the Apple Store staff. One can buy an iPhone anywhere, but same-day service to fix that iPhone is more limited. I mean, where would you go?
The cost of payroll for Geniuses, Technical Specialists, Genius Admins, and Trainers, is quite a bit higher than for sales staff - higher pay and the larger headcount of the department. Because of this, any profit from the sales side is absorbed by the tremendous cost of operating their service business.
I can’t sign up for “Microsoft 365 Home“ or “Personal” inside of Microsoft Word for iOS or any other Microsoft app, but Apple still approves them without this mandate.
I think Basecamp is in the right here.
In my early 20s, living in Cincinnati, I used to hate the stress of being tethered to car maintenance and ownership. So I moved into “The City” (Chicago, then SF) and got rid of my car. Well, that worked great in my able bodied youth days.
At some point in my early 30s, frustration with having complete dependence on someone else (MUNI/BART, Uber, Lyft) or worrying about having rentals available to get me from point A to point B became too much of a burden; too much of a time suck. At some point spending an hour a day total on transportation aggravation made the suburbs look appetizing. I told myself I would never settle for that commute again.
Staying in the city, I bought a car. I still hate maintaining cars, and EVs don’t require very much long term maintenance. Going EV simplified getting a car.
Renting in western San Francisco, everybody has a garage. It’s all suburbanesque mid century tract housing. Parking at home is not a problem.
What is? A 30 minute walk to Forest Hill station or :15 minute bus ride to Forest Hill station. By driving myself, In 15 minutes I could be in Civic Center without having somebody from Stockton get lost In SF In their rental Nissan Sentra with loud sales bro taking a conference call in a Uber Pool.
I can say the convenience of living in the city with a car is unparalleled. In (especially western) San Francisco, the transportation infrastructure is geared toward driving.
Hearing that BART stops at 9 PM now reinforces the practicality of my decision.
https://www.uber.com/blog/california/keeping-you-in-the-driv...
They’ve removed the “acceptance rate” metric for drivers. There’s no longer a penalty for declining rides for drivers in California.
https://www.uber.com/blog/california/keeping-you-in-the-driv...
The advantage is that since drivers know where a passenger is going before accepting, riders can be assured that the driver wants to take them to the destination they have set.
No more waiting for the driver to arrive to hear they are declining a super long distance trip; they won’t even know they’ve been declined even multiple times.
If it takes one longer to get a rides’ information with Uber, take a look at their rating. Indeed, It is becoming more important.
Try to keep an Uber rating sharp. I’m likely to accept a 4.86 score for $4-6 fare, decline a 4.63 for a $25-30 trip.
I don’t expect to have everything done for me either; there’s lots of un-fun tasks to complete around here. While deferred maintenance issues are a landlord’s responsibility to correct; the tenants could have taken a more proactive approach to remediation of the mold; or any other nonissue complaint lodged against San Francisco.
As a QA Engineer, I have an unfair advantage when it comes to understanding the need to mitigate risk. Seems this couple makes decisions without any regard to future consequences.
1. Didn’t mention whether or not they discussed the condition of the property with the current tenants in the building or any neighbors prior to signing the lease. 2. Clearly no understanding of tenant rights and responsibilities; would have known that rent can be withheld for fixing things. 3. Didn’t get mold coverage riders on renters insurance; yet has lived in a damp city for much of their lives. 4. Orders packages to an apartment without any way to safely store them; taking into account any/all edge cases 5. Didn’t do homework / ask questions to landlord regarding package delivery best practices for tenants back before lease signed in ‘15. 6. Didn’t see if other alternatives existed for broken doorbell. 7. Cancels health insurance because they couldn’t help with costs from the mold situation; forgets that a multitude of other accidents, trauma, and sickness still occur in the present and future.
All of their complaints seem to come back to being unprepared for handling problems that appear in life.