Market & Franklin
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flickr
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rajbot
Obama Street
Timmmii and crew changed all the Bush St. signs to read OBAMA St. They got the *entire* street before the cops stopped them!
Satisfied Clients
Originally uploaded by Matthew Williams Design
This pic is awesome:
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may
so funny! i wish i was there!
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rajbot
Here is a behind-the-scenes video… Apparently there were *two* unaffiliated groups with the same idea :)
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flickr
Rico Pan
I stopped by this bakery on Mission and Leese on my way home today.
Got something that looked like angel food cake for 85 cents and it was
yummy with tea. Also got a disc shaped pastry with sesame seeds on top
(they told me it was a quesadilla, but it didn’t look or taste
anything like a quesadilla i’ve had before). I didn’t like that one as
much, but I’m definitely going back to try all the other pastries!may
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rajbot
San Francisco Food Bank
TikiRobot is donating $100 to the SF Food Bank this winter. They feed 132,000 people every year, and this year their dry good supplies are down 15%. If you are in town over the holidays, they need volunteers.
Every time we get a check from Amazon for having their widget in our sidebar, we’re rounding it up to $100 and donating to a worthy cause.
cc by-nc picture by Veronica Belmont-
may
yay! i am going to be in town for xmas since i already went home 2 weeks ago so maybe i will volunteer
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rajbot
I digged you a hole…
I took this pic at Furry’s bday party..
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flickr
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rajbot
Pics from the Halloween Renegade
Since 2001, we’ve spent Halloween morning with a few hundred of our freaky friends. This year we had a spectacular new location and plenty of donuts and bacon. Thanks for another crazy year, Brass Tax crew!
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rajbot
Pics from Love Parade
Sign of the times: following the Bay Area D&B float with a stroller and chillin in the civic center playground while craziness swirled all around us.
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rajbot
Pics from the GitDown
We went to a ridiculous event put on by the GitHib crew. It was like dorkbot but with version control instead of electrons.
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mangtronix
Nerdiest event evar! BTW we just switched Open Library to git!
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rajbot
Pics from Parking Day
Parking Day was a while ago, but I still haven’t posted pics. Now that I have a worspress client on my iPod, I have no excuse to not post!
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may
you have a wordpress client on your ipod? does this mean you take photos with your ipod??? how does that work?
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rajbot
nope, I take photos with my canon sd800, upload them to my computer, which then syncs them with the iPod. Then when I’m riding the bus I can write posts, save them as local drafts, and post them when I am on a wifi network.
That’s my plan anyway. We’ll see if this iPod thing sticks …
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rajbot
Robot Burn Video
Click play to start!
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may
i kinda feel sorry for the robot now…
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rajbot
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rajbot
Bernaling Man
A few weeks ago, we hosted wine tasting at our house.
50 bottles of wine were consumed.
This is the only picture I took:
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may
sorry i didn’t make it :-(
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flickr
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flickr
Reddit open source release party at Swig
Come join us!
Bob, raj, Sam, and rita -
flickr
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shag
yay!
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rajbot
KenFlix: 165 movies for $20/month
We are on the second day of our KenFlix subscription, and loving it! I was wondering if KenFlix was limited to just one movie per day, or if you could get a movie, watch it, and then immediately walk back to Four Star Video and get a new one. I told the folks at 4star we were going to have a KenFlix weekend where we would see how many movies we could watch in two days, and all three people working behind the counter said that was a perfectly great idea. Ridiculous!
So anyway:
(11 hours open per day) * (30 days per month) / (2 hours per movie) = 165 movies a month! -
rajbot
Four Star Launches KenFlix… Netflix reported to be shaking in their boots.
Four Star Video has launched a subscription plan called KenFlix, and it appears NetFlix is about to lose the important Bernal Heights demographic.
The deal: $20/month for unlimited rentals, one out at a time.
Advantages of KenFlix: No waiting for DVDs to arrive in the mail. Video nerds can get 30 rentals a month if they go to 4star every day..
Disadvantages of KenFlix: 4star DVDs usually play in my player, unlike Netflix discs, which usually start to skip about half way through. This means whenever we pick a bad movie, we’ll actually have to watch the whole thing.-
bobslobster
20 dollars a month to have movies sitting around on the coffee table unwatched vs. 15 dollars a month for the same thing from netflix. Kind of a tough one…
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rajbot
Well, right now we pay $15/month for netflix plus at least $6/month from 4star, assuming we get no late fees.
So we would, in fact, be saving money with the new 4star plan, and not have annoying late fees, and still have unwatched movies on the coffee table.
What we *really* should do is go to 4star on $1 Wednesday once a month, rent 20 movies, and spend the next three days watching movies non-stop.
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kenflix
What you should “really” “really” do, is sign up for the 20 dollar kenflix subscription, and come to 4star every day, b/c with the subscription plan, every day is wednesday at 4starvideo. Then you can say bye-bye to the corporate nipple, and never pay a renewal fee to your local video store again.
love, KenFlix
p.s. glad to hear our discs are in better condition than netflix! -
rajbot
mmmmm… corporate nipple…
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Pinkbandaids
What happens to the rest of us in SF who don’t live in Bernal Heights? We’re just stuck with the corporate nipple forever?
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rajbot
Trip Report: A Wholesome Evening at the Silver Crest
The Silver Crest is so sketchy. It’s like Sketch Central. I’ve lived next to it for six years and had never been inside. But look at all that great neon! Their sign proclaims: “We Never Close”. We decide we have to go.
Friday night Sam was driving us back from the spaz party at the Li Po Lounge, and we pass the Silver Crest. We’re full of Mai Tais and thumpy beats, but Bob and I have the same thought. We have to go.
We walk in and transported fifty years into the past. There is a bar in the back with a crowded pool table, but it’s 2am and the bar is just closing. We grab a booth in the front. These jukebox things on every table:
It doesn’t work and and eats Bob’s quarter. That probably for the best, since the jukebox is full of with Greek waltzes.
The menu is written on the wall. The food isn’t cheap, but we hope it’s good. The coffee is a ridiculous $2.75. Even for diner coffee, it tastes like crap.
They have these old pinball machines, which mang decides to check out while we wait for the food. There is a sign saying you have to be over 21 to play. We ask the server why, and she says they don’t want to encourage the kids to gamble. Whatever. The kids are all at Li Po, anyway, playing dice for drinks.
The food comes out. I’m surprised by how bad it is, but I don’t know why. I guess I expect shitty diners to have great food. That is not the case tonight. My hotcakes arrive with an entire stick of “butter” on top, which promptly slides off onto the table as soon as the server sets them down.
I’m disgusted but Bob thinks we need to come back. The Silver Crest has donuts, and they might actually be good. Maybe we’ll bring our own coffee next time.
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ambmike
Wow… I can’t believe you guys ate there! I have been driving by that place for a zillion years as well and it never even occured to me to go in. In the SF 24 hour diner world, I like All Star Donuts on Harrison and 5th. The chicken terriaki is suprisingly good! And the donuts are fantastic.
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tracey pooh
omg i nearly wet my pants reading the description of how the “butter” promptly slid off after dropoff.
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may
i’m pretty sure this is where the oddpost guys used to hang out when the were working on oddpost
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rajbot
Internet Archive Brings Free Ultra High-Speed Internet to Public Housing
The Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based organization dedicated to preserving a record of the Internet and to increasing access to the Internet, today began offering free Internet service to public housing projects at speeds far greater than any other city resident can receive.
Valencia Gardens Housing, with 240 units, is the first area to be connected in a pilot project that expects to wire more than 2,500 units in the city in the next eight months, according to Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle.
What makes the project unique is that the apartments will be connected to the Internet, and to the educational resources at the Internet Archive, at 100 megabits per second (Mbits/second). That speed contrasts sharply with the normal Internet service offered by telephone companies, which is usually less than 6 Mbits/second.
The residents can instantly view DVD-quality videos of the thousands of lectures and other educational information from the Internet Archive’s collections, as well as traditional Internet access.
The Internet Archive is able to achieve this high speed by connecting the San Francisco municipal fiber optic network, which runs through the public housing developments, to an Archive switching center, which connects to the Internet.
“We are pleased to be the first non-profit organization to bring public housing online,” Kahle said.
He added: “We are excited to see much faster access to the Internet as a way to experiment with advanced applications, and are pleased that the underserved get first access to advanced technology.”
See also: NYTimes Bits Blog, The Reg, Cnet article by Greeter Dan.
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may
Yay! that’s awesome!
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rajbot
Bring Your Own Big Wheel Races 2008
Last year a small crew showed up at Vermont St. after the official races ended, and we had an absolute blast. This year, the official races were on Vermont St., and it was awesome:
(click play to start) (link to other sizes)
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rajbot
modeselektor
We went to see modeselektor last night at Mighty! It was super-packed.. a huge crowd for a Wednesday:
The Camo Bus was rockin outside… I love the fact that no one complains that there is an absolutely thunderous soundsystem set up on the street :)
Here is a short video of modeselektor being introduced. The Mighty soundsystem absolutely crushes the little microphone in my camera, so this video is kind of pointless but still fun. What you can’t hear in the video is an insane amount of soul-destroying bass:
(click play to start video) -
rajbot
Quite possibly the worst venue for a Burning Man event
This year’s Burnal Equinox event (called Whispered Dream) is going to be held at the Whisper Ultralounge, which sounds like one of the worst venues in SF for a burning man event.
Their webpage lists the “upscale dress code” as follows:
NO; Athletic/Sports Attire of any kind including expensive designer court shoes, Timberland and/or similar style Boots, Excessively Baggy Jeans, Dark Sunglasses, T-shirts, Athletic Apparel, and Most Hats (Fedora style top hats are acceptable). You’ll have to step it up if you wana step in.
Bwahahahaha… BM keeps getting less and less interesting to me.
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rajbot
How To Filter San Francisco Tap Water
Background
Our water has gunk in it (possibly due to this construction). This gunk gets caught in our kitchen faucet’s aerator, and if we don’t clean it out, the water flow will stop completely. Here is what the gunk looks like:
So we decided it was time to install a water filter. The easiest way to filter drinking water is to use a Britta and Pur pitcher, but these don’t work for me. I use them for a bit, and then get tired of changing the expensive replacement filters every month.
The water filter industry has a standard size for under-sink adsorption filters: 9 3/4″. These filters are similar to but much larger than the standard Britta pitcher-style filter, and they only need to be changed every 4-12 months (depending on filter type). You can buy 9 3/4″ filters from several different manufacturers, which helps keep the prices down.
Choosing a Filter
Deciding what kind of filter you need should be easy. In theory, you can call your water utility (or check their website), find out what contaminants are in your water, and then check which filters are certified by the NSF to filter out those contaminants.
I did a bunch of research and found that SF tap water is generally safe to drink. It is disinfected with Chloramine and contains trace amounts of parasites, copper, and lead. The SF PUC monitors Cryptosporidium and Giardia levels every two weeks, and their 2006 Water Quality Report (published 6/07 PDF) shows that all measurable contaminants are below maximum contaminant levels.
Even after finding that SF water is safe for us to drink, I decided to get an activated carbon filter in addition to a sediment filter, because I’m worried that chemicals might enter into the water main during construction, just as visible sediment enters into the water main. Also, I decided that activated carbon was really cool (one gram has a surface area of 500 m² – 1500 m²)!
Choosing a 9 3/4″ Filter Housing
My first thought was to get an OmniFilter OT32 for $140. This unit has a double housing that can fit 2 9 3/4″ filters, and it comes with a string-wound sediment filter and an NSF-certified 0.5-micron enhanced carbon block filter.
After some digging, I found I get a cheaper 2-filter housing from Pentek Filtration. I bought a BFS-201 housing (PDF) from FiltersFast for $57. It’s seems well-built and looks like this:
Installing the Filter Housing
The recommended way of using under-sink filters is to install a second, low-flow-rate faucet to get the maximum effect from your filter. I didn’t want to do this, because I didn’t want to drill a new hole through our granite countertop, so I investigated splicing the filter into our cold water line.
If we only wanted to filter sediment, we could easily add the filter to cold water line, because sediment filters can handle 10 gallons per minute, and our faucet only had a 2gpm flow rate.
Unfortunately, activated carbon filters only work at reduced flow rates. If you only want to filter for what the NSF calls “Aesthetic Effects” (Standard 42), then you can buy a carbon filter that works at 2gpm. But if you want to filter for things like lead, mercury, VOCs, asbestos, MTBEs, Cryptosporidium, and Giardia (what the NSF calls “Health Effects”, or Standard 53), then you have to reduce to the flow rate to 0.5-0.6 gpm.
We decided that it was OK to reduce the flow rate of the cold water at the faucet, since we will still have the full hot water flow rate for washing, and the dishwasher cold supply is already split off. This means we don’t need to drill for a new faucet.
The Pentek filter housing has two 3/8″ female NPT water connections. Our cold water line has a 1/2″ IP straight thread on the faucet side and a 3/8″ compression fitting on the other. To splice the housing into the cold water line, we need to add two 3/8″ NPT to 3/8″ compression adapters to the filter housing, using teflon tape to ensure a good seal:
Choosing a Sediment Filter
Now comes the fun part! We get to choose some filters. Since these are a standard size, we can choose from a bunch of brands, and mix-and-match. Sediment filters are very inexpensive. They are usually made of wound string, last for 10-15,000 gallons, and cost under five bucks. I got the Pentek CW-MF from FiltersFast for $3.30. Looking at the spec sheet, I should have gotten the WP-5 for $5.60, since it has a 5 micron rating instead of a 30 micron rating. It might not matter, since the water will be flowing through a carbon filter anyway. This filter is mostly to lengthen the life of the carbon filter.Choosing an Activated Carbon Filter
The OmniFilter CB3 seems pretty good. It costs $36 dollars and has NSF Standard 42 and Standard 53 ratings to reduce Asbestos, Atrazine, Cyst, Lead, Lindane, Mercury, and VOCs, as well as Chloramine and Chlorine.I found Pentek CBR2-10R, which is basically the same thing as the OmniFilter CB3, but it lacks the NSF Standard 53 rating. However, it costs only $17 at FiltersFast, and I decided it was good enough for me. It also has a built-in 0.6gpm flow restrictor, which makes sure you get the full effect of the filter.
After installing everything, this is how it looks:
The water definitely tastes different; it has a slightly-metallic aftertaste, similar to distilled water. I’m interested to see how much stuff the sediment filter catches after 3 months.
Costs
This is my bill from FiltersFast:Filter Housing BFS0-201 $56.99
Carbon Filter CBR2-10R $16.95
Sediment Filter CW-MF $3.30
Filter wrench SW-1a $2.70
Shipping $1.99
retailmenot.com coupon -$5.00
Total $76.93I also had to buy two 3/8″ compression to 3/8″ MPT adapaters for $4.79 and a couple hoses from Cole Hardware, bringing the total up to a hundred bucks.
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CC
Where is the part numbers of Wall mounting for both housing in line?
Secondly, my father concern about the PSI will drop sharply after installation of the water filtering system. Is anyone who have such an experience without adding the pumping machine?
Setup cost like the photo total cost will be in filtersfast.com
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Mike McCabe
Thanks Raj!
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rajbot
SF Subway Map 2008
SF has a public transit problem. Muni has great coverage, but travel times across the city are unbearably long. BART and CalTrain are OK for getting to the burbs, but what if you want to go to the beach? Taxis are only for the incredibly wealthy, and they won’t come to my neighborhood on weekend evenings.
That’s why I created the San Francisco Subway. Completely underground, the SF Subway never gets held up in traffic. I can get from my house to the gym in one stop, or to the datacenter in two. Dogs are allowed, and Fort Funston is only a 12 minute ride from Bernal. Instead of traveling at Muni speeds (5.3 mph!), the SF Subway reaches speeds of 75mph between stops!
I drew the map in Gliffy, so let me know if you want to add a stop or a line, and I’ll send you the edit link.
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may
oh that would be awesome! a monorail would be pretty cool too :)
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tracey pooh
perfect! i can get to and from work in the presidio to transbay ideally,
hit my doctor and latte in the castro,
pickup hunter downtown,
hit suppenkuche,
watch gay pride,
and still shop for funky glasses around union square.raj gets promoted to SF Regional Transit Director!
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tracey pooh
oh, and btw, coincidentally, i was driving my bike from orinda to lafayette along the bart line, and just for fun, clocked bart to see how fast it was going. i was *quite surprised* to see it did the bulk of the distance between the two towns at 69 mph!
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shag
bart is cool. except for the horrible shrieking.
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may, 
rajbot, and 
shag are discussing. 
mangtronix is discussing. 
Pinkbandaids, 
tracey pooh, and 
ambmike are discussing. 
Mike McCabe, and 
CC are discussing. 
shag, 
shag 11:54 pm on March 5, 2009 Permalink |
resembles the tiki monkey king, no?
rajbot 11:27 am on March 7, 2009 Permalink |
I wonder what happened to that poor tree…
may 1:22 pm on March 9, 2009 Permalink |
he does look like the monkey king. needs some ears though :)