Disqus - Latest Comments for mortonjl

Re: London's Little Gardens: Gibbons Rent

mr_6 — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 23:18:14 -0000

We stumbled across this last August in happier times. It was like a slice of still time dropped into the city and was our best serendipitous find of the trip. Would highly recommend to anyone seeking peace and quiet.

Re: GOP Super PAC Trades Cable Cars For Golden Gate Bridge After SFMTA Legal Threat

mr_6 — Thu, 18 May 2017 15:40:20 -0000

If the Georgia 6th wants to play "dueling stereotypes," let's go. Get the banjo.

Re: Numerous Notable Tech Bros Embroiled In Sex Harassment Scandal at VR Startup

mr_6 — Tue, 16 May 2017 16:24:00 -0000

Startup? They hold events, have co-working space and run a website ABOUT VR. This isn't a VR startup, this is a bunch of broholes playing Tech Company. I hope whatever VC was stupid enough to fund this loses their entire ass on it.

Re: NFL Approves Raiders' Proposed Move To Las Vegas

mr_6 — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 15:12:23 -0000

$750 MILLION in public money? I blame Oakland NOT AT ALL for telling Davis to crap in his bonnet and tie it tight. Curious to see how full that stadium is on a 99-degree Sunday afternoon in Vegas in 2022.

Re: Tragic Ads Attempt To Glorify Desperate Hell Of Gig Economy

mr_6 — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 19:49:52 -0000

Mighty high opinion of themselves for a service that I've literally only ever heard of before as a way for YouTube "stars" to get people to say wacky racist stuff.

Bring it on, meteor.

Re: Local Tech Workers Make New Enemies By Crying Poverty Over Six-Figure Salaries

mr_6 — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:06:25 -0000

Also, if your whole household income is $160,000, yes I can see how that makes it tough when a townhouse in freakin' MV is $1.2M. If you're on half a million a year, FOHWTS.

Re: Local Tech Workers Make New Enemies By Crying Poverty Over Six-Figure Salaries

mr_6 — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:04:37 -0000

1999: the Internet will let anyone work from anywhere!!
2017: must be able to work from SoMa

Re: Sixteen

mr_6 — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 00:19:39 -0000

I'm of a similar mind - I'm still blogging regularly, but I think maybe three people tops are reading it, and it feels downright archaic. Social media kind of did for blogging as it used to be, and now you have to be a Lifestyle Blogger or a Fashion Blogger or something like that instead of just saying your piece.

Apropos of nothing, we passed the Pier 23 Cafe last week and I remembered that being the header of your Vox. I miss Vox. I think it's a shame it didn't take off, because it managed to split the difference between blog and social pretty good. And that was ten years ago. Where did that decade go?

Re: Study: Ride-Hail Carpooling Could Cut Traffic By 75 Percent

mr_6 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 18:40:35 -0000

Large capacity vehicles on fixed pooling routes I'M ALMOST POSITIVE THAT'S JUST A BUS

Re: Uber Ignores Mayor Lee's Demand That It Cease Unpermitted Self-Driving Ride Service

mr_6 — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 14:27:14 -0000

Negligent with data, abusive of employees, indifferent to the law and proud of all of the above? Uber embodies everything wrong with Silly Con Valley, and now they're going to get a four year government tongue bath for it. Christ, I hate it here.

Re: Greg Gopman, Former AngelHack CEO Who Called Homeless People 'Hyenas', Now Works At Twitter

mr_6 — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 18:44:05 -0000

Ah, Twitter. I depend on it as much as anyone, but it's time to accept that though the wheel is spinning, the hamster's dead.

Re: Growing Number RV-Dwellers In Mountain View Have Homeowners Turning Up Their Noses

mr_6 — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 17:26:15 -0000

I'm a little curious about the figure of 17,000 jobs in three years, although that certainly explains the fecal exhibition that is Mountain View Transit Center at rush hour. But given that the MV population was somewhere in the 75-80K range last census, I'm not sure how a city is meant to add sufficient housing to support a 25% population hike in three years so that all those new employees can be accommodated locally. Meanwhile, someone seems to be building housing all around MV, but it's all either four-story luxury apartments or "single family homes" with four inches between them, and not viable replacements for all those soft-story apartments down California that'll all pancake in the next big quake. Might should have built residential instead of yet another !-ing business complex outside Moffett, but in order to get the kind of housing you'd need to meet the numbers, you'd have to build a forest of tower blocks, which I guess is what Google wants to do...

I enjoyed living in Mountain View these last dozen years or so. I don't know how much I like Googleburg. Meanwhile, if you've managed to dig in with an RV and find a space, God bless. Feel free to borrow a cup of sugar if you like.

Re: You May Soon Be Served Ads On Your Phone During Uber Rides

mr_6 — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 13:44:43 -0000

Honest to God you don't really have to distinguish between the TV show and the actual valley anymore

Re: Caltrain's Twitter Account Is Sassy As Hell

mr_6 — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 15:51:08 -0000

I've done all I can. I voted, I rode, I supported electrification. Unfortunately it's going to be a couple years before that kicks in, and even when it does it won't do much for the fact that a disproportionate number of riders don't understand how to ride transit like a Not-Jackass.

Re: Caltrain's Twitter Account Is Sassy As Hell

mr_6 — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 14:59:12 -0000

Well hell, if you can't maintain enough rolling stock to keep up with capacity or keep your platforms safe for pedestrians or even have the same lame-ass 4G that toy train VTA runs manages to provide, go with snark.

Re: Lyft Loses As Much As $50 Million/Month, President Calls It 'Investing'

mr_6 — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 18:24:04 -0000

Best. Picture. Ever.

Re: Uber Has A Robot Security Guard On The Beat In San Francisco

mr_6 — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 16:21:49 -0000

There are two of these on patrol at Stanford Shopping Center. They make a really weird Star Trek-ish noise as they trundle around. The company is just off Shoreline in Mountain View (turn at the Taco Bell) and there are four or five patrolling the parking lot at any given moment.

Personally I think they look like broke-ass Dalek knockoffs, so I doubt they have the goods to take over the world anytime soon. Keep a hand on the sonic sunglasses just in case.

Re: After Raising Delivery Fees, Struggling Instacart Cuts Driver Pay By 63%

mr_6 — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 17:17:30 -0000

Yeah, but they'll make it up on volume!

Re: The Bay Area's 11 Best Standup Comedians

mr_6 — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 17:15:57 -0000

I went to high school with Dhaya. It was a gifted magnet school in Birmingham, Alabama. Think "Redneck Hogwarts." If you don't think that adds an entire new layer of material...

Anyway, she is awesome and you have chosen wisely.

Re: Twitter Will Expand Beyond 140 Characters Via Unnamed New Product

mr_6 — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 14:41:56 -0000

If memory serves, the original model for Twitter was that you'd use it via SMS, which was limited to 160 characters. Of course, this was before hashtags and @-replies and links, when it was essentially a mass-texting service. But the 140-character limits goes along with texting your tweet to 40404...does that even still work?

Re: the UGC: old drivel...

mr_6 — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:18:08 -0000

the iCloud account is VERY necessary if only for two things: backup and Find My iPhone. I've been using the corresponding email since it was iTools and a free POP account thirteen years ago, even if it's not my primary personal account. But Find My iPhone has saved our ass at least twice.

Now in fairness I am having some weird battery issue with my own iPhone 5. Generally that can be pinned down to a rogue app taxing the hell out of Location Services or Notifications, but I suspect in my case it might be solely attributable to Twitter refresh during the NCAA tournament...

Re: The South Rises Again - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic

mr_6 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:32:44 -0000

I spent the first 22 years of my life in Alabama, went to grad school at Vanderbilt in 1994-97, lived in DC until 2004 (well, Arlington) and have been in Silicon Valley ever since. And I can say in all sincerity that of all the places I have been and lived, no place ever genuinely and sincerely felt like home from day one...except Nashville. And when I went back for a football game last month - my first visit to the city in six years and to the stadium in sixteen - it was like I'd never been away.

I also had a professor who described middle Tennessee as "the Poland of the Civil War." I'll leave it to smarter folks than me to tease out the complexities of that, but in that professor's class, we had about 20 students, and while they were from all over the country and the world (Philly, Nova Scotia, Glasgow) only two of us were from the South - both from small towns in Alabama. By the end of the first week, we were known colloquially as "Bo and Luke."

Also, if you missed the Loveless Cafe, you missed life.

Re: Do you know the way [around in] San Jose?

mr_6 — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:07:17 -0000

Oh, as for the city itself, take the Caltrain up all the way to 4th and King and get your breakfast at the Creamery before delving into town proper. Be sure to read Herbert Asbury's "The Barbary Coast" before you come and then take a stroll through Chinatown and North Beach. Pier 39 is a complete waste of time (think Pigeon Forge-by-the-Sea) but Fishermans Wharf has tasty chowder in sourdough bowls...and while you're there you might as well get a sundae at Ghirardelli. The shops in the Ferry Building are definitely worth a visit for yummy things (get the sweet potato fries at Gott's) and if you like anything mechanical at all, definitely go through the Cable Car Powerhouse to see the machinery that drives those little trolleys halfway to the stars.

And don't call it Frisco, for the love of God. My wife is a Berkeley-educated pacifist and I've seen her kill and eat tourists who use Herb Caen and Emperor Norton's forbidden word.

Re: Do you know the way [around in] San Jose?

mr_6 — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:59:36 -0000

Don't miss a stop in the Stanford Memorial Church on campus. Well worth a visit, both for the scenery and for Jane Stanford's own theology carved on the walls.

Amber India may be in a strip mall down El Camino in Mountain View one town south but it's the best Indian food in the Bay Area. If you want to stick to Caltrain, downtown Mountain View has about fifty restaurants within six blocks of the train depot and Scratch has food and cocktails I would recommend anywhere. Or hit up Tied House if you like local brewing and/or hockey.

Fraiche is an absolute must for frozen yogurt; it's also in the student union on campus as well as downtown PA. Ike's (the controversial SF sandwich shop) has an outlet in one of the engineering school buildings (who doesn't want pastrami and Swiss with mozzarella sticks on the sandwich?)

Also a must: burritos. Try La Costeña for the best (although La Bamba has its partisans); they are right next to each other at the intersection of Old Middlefield and Rengstorff in Mountain View.

Stanford Shopping Center is posh as hell, but you absolutely must visit the Melt for the very best in hipster grilled cheese. It's delightful in cold weather, or as we call it, summer.

Re: The Facts of Life

mr_6 — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:59:22 -0000

Exhale! Instagram for Android popped up on Google Play this morning! Hope that's some bit of sunshine at least. :)