dbloom's comments

The Toronto line failed because it basically only catered to rich business travelers. By only having two stops — downtown and airport — it significantly constrained its TAM just to shave a few minutes off of its travel time.

There is a great write up of why it failed here: http://humantransit.org/2016/03/keys-to-great-airport-transi...

California HSR goes to San Francisco, Millbrae, San Jose, Gilroy, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Hanford, Bakersfield, Palmdale, Burbank, Los Angeles, and Anaheim. It provides frequent single-seat rides between every origin-destination pair of these cities. Many of these routes don't currently have any similar commercial air service (or the air service that does exist has very high fares due to low competition and scale), so HSR is providing new connectivity that didn't exist before.

The San Jose to Bakersfield segment is scheduled to begin operating in 2021. It will provide 1 hour travel time between Fresno and San Jose[1]. High speed rail isn't replacing regional rail -- it's providing it over a much longer distance than would otherwise be possible.

[1] http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/23/will-san-jose-to-fresn...

Not to mention people whose spouses/partners work at a different company!

If you're sending an even slightly significant amount of money, there are potential tax implications too. You might need to do a 1099.

This is a good point.

Two counterpoints though:

1. I posit (without evidence, because I'm lazy) that most people who buy "fast" new cars are more concerned about image than the actual performance specifications. For example, I suspect that the vast majority of original owners of Corvettes never take their cars to the racetrack. And in terms of image, number of cylinders and liters of engine displacement are much higher priority than dyno readouts.

2. More combustion chambers in an engine = higher power, higher manufacturing cost, and lower fuel economy. If you have less than $2000 to spend on a car, and you spend it on a 1980's V8, it's probably going to be slower than a three-cylinder 1.0L 2016 Ford Focus. But it's still probably the fastest option in your price range, so it's a good representation of how much you value performance in the car you choose to buy.

This is a great explanation. I'd add one small clarification:

> Back to four stroke engines: Momentum and the firing of other pistons keeps the whole thing cycling back around

The firing of other pistons helps, but really, momentum alone is sufficient. There are tons of single-cylinder, 4 stroke motorcycle, scooter, and off-highway engines out there.

There are LED bulbs on the market that have great compatibility with all dimmers. I hope that market forces eventually weed out all of the less compatible LED bulbs. At that point, LED bulbs should be truly interchangeable with incandescents for lighting (heat generation, not so much).

Yes, it was. (I saw one in the wild many years ago)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayChoice-10

In this case, "servicing" was probably referring to a heavy maintenance check.

There are several different tiers of checks, ranging from short frequent ones, to expensive, time consuming, infrequent ones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_maintenance_checks

Usually, older aircraft that are being phased out are mothballed shortly before their next heavy maintenance check. And the resale value of used aircraft, especially older ones, is heavily influenced by how soon the next D check is.

Comcast charges $34.95/mo for a sports pack for bars and restaurants: http://business.comcast.com/tv/restaurants/plans-pricing

...but only $8.95/mo for the same sports pack for waiting room TVs and other "office" uses: http://business.comcast.com/tv/offices/plans-pricing

Because Comcast uses cable (instead of satellite), they actually have two-way communication with most of their equipment. And even one-way-only equipment (like CableCard and DTA) can still be restricted to only work on the encryption keys for a very small geographical area. If Comcast equipment is moved to a location other than the address where it's supposed to be, it usually won't work.

For what it's worth, a lot of bars and restaurants use DirecTV (it has popular exclusive sports packages). Even though it's satellite-based, I've never noticed any sort of "pub glass" or the licensing indicator. So I'm not sure how they enforce licensing.

Killing the battery isn't a bad idea either, actually :)

(Usually there's a recessed traditional key in the fob that you can use as a backup)

Your microwave oven is likely a better choice, since its faraday cage-like behavior is required for both safety and regulatory reasons.

I bought my Prius used for much less than 20k, and it has this system. (And when you buy a used car, you don't choose what features you get!)

For those of you not in the loop, these "keyless" systems let you walk up to your car and open your door without getting your key out of your pocket. There is a proximity sensor under the door handle (similar to proximity sensor on your smartphone). When the proximity sensor is triggered, it searches for a nearby key fob and then instantly unlocks. You can also usually start the car (with a push-button start) without getting out the key. And you can lock the doors (from outside the car) by pressing a button on or near the door handle with the fob in proximity. Basically, you never have to get your keys out for any reason.

Anyway, fortunately, I can never find street parking near my apartment for my Prius anyway. But I'm still going to find a small faraday cage I can leave by my bed to put my keys in before I go to sleep...

I wonder if they're pulling a Gmail by announcing this on April Fools Day (it's April Fools Day somewhere, right?).

(Like most stuff coming out of Amazon, I can't actually tell if this is a good idea)

This was almost certainly illegal.

Removing dwelling units in SF (as they did to the downstairs neighbor's flat) almost always requires a public hearing. See http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?page=2816

(via https://twitter.com/markasaurus/status/577252542419062784 )

How do you turn a wrench with your human hand without breaking your arm? :-)

Context: http://www.reddit.com/comments/m16fd

At least on the 2013+ models, you can choose to make the TV not show the "smart" interface every time it boots. And you can disable the "Smart TV" boot-up splash screen, too.

I only bought the "smart" TV because Samsung's best plasma panel is not offered in a dumb TV (http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-tv/#apps ). But, since I had to buy it anyway, it does make a decent Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu player, which saves me an HDMI input and also means one less remote control.

Samsung actually has a bug bounty program for their Smart TVs: https://samsungtvbounty.com/Home.aspx

I would not have been willing to connect my Samsung TV to the internet if their bug bounty program didn't exist. (But, just to be safe, I always keep the TV's camera retracted :-))