Fazal Majid's low intensity weblog » San Francisco

Crime does not pay

majid — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 07:06:57 +0000

Two years after the Staceycide, the spot is still vacant. At a reported rent of $65,000 a month, that adds up to a cool $1.8M loss for the greedy landlords who pushed them out of business.

Is this a Google Street View car?

majid — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:20:48 +0000

Update (2011-05-12): the answer is no, it’s a Navteq 3D mapping car with a LIDAR array. Thanks to Darrell Kresge for the clarification.

As I was walking to lunch today, I caught sight of this weird contraption, and had just enough presence of mind to grab a few snaps of it.

One strange feature is a spinning white cylinder inside the arm canted at a 45 degree angle. It doesn’t look like any of the Google Street View vehicles captured before, nor does it have the Google markings. The Michigan license plate is a bit odd as well. A prototype, perhaps? Or is some other company is getting into this racket, perhaps Microsoft?

I love my ISP

majid — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:31:29 +0000

Not only do Webpass give me fast 45Mbps symmetrical access for $45/month, with no capricious restrictions or anticompetitive shenanigans, but they are also real mensches.

My top 10 hamburgers in San Francisco

majid — Sun, 02 May 2010 05:10:58 +0000

See also this list of cloth napkin burgers.

Bix
Mission Beach Cafe
Marlowe
Slow Club
Orson
Magnolia
Mos Grille
Custom Burger
Bistro Burger
In-n-Out

As a bonus, the most overrated burgers:

The Burger Bar in Macys—the Las Vegas one was OK, but the SF one is a wreck, far worse than even a McDonalds, with inedibly gristly meat the one and last time I had the misfortune to go.
Zuni Cafe—the shoestring fries are lovely, but the burger itself blah
Joes Cable Car—OK, but nothing to write home about

Yet another bag company in San Francisco

majid — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:54:33 +0000

Women’s handbags have become the mainstay of the luxury industry, generating well over $10B a year in revenues. San Francisco has no dearth of companies designing, and sometimes manufacturing, bags locally, but most have an urban, not luxury sensibility. We have more manufacturers than any place with the possible exception of Australia. To mention but a few:

Waterfield Designs (motto: No mass production or overseas workforce. WaterField bags are designed and made in San Francisco, where rent is high, labor is expensive and competition is intense. We wouldn’t go anywhere else!)
Chrome
Timbuk2
Hlaska
Mulholland
April in Paris

There is a newcomer to this list: Rickshaw Bagworks

“Look what we can do”?

majid — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:57:38 +0000

No wonder the SF Independent School District is in such trouble…

xkcd reading

majid — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:32:50 +0000

From the Reddit list of questions to xkcd author Randall Munro:

At the EFF organized reading tonight in San Francisco:

Ty Couz

majid — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:16:32 +0000

One of the best values in San Francisco dining, their $8.50 scallop galette (Breton for buckwheat crêpe).

City government waste in San Francisco

majid — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:22:18 +0000

A 33% hike in Muni fares was announced today. This will hit the poorest people in the city first, and to add insult to injury, this is accompanied with cuts in service.

San Francisco has a budget of over $6B, about the same size as much larger cities as Chicago or Paris, and exceeding the budget of 20 of the US states. It also exceeds the entire GNP of countries like Mongolia or Georgia (in the Caucasus). San Franciscans get little to show for it in services.

One reason why: SF has over 8,000 city employees making over $100,000 a year (the head of Muni is one of them, making $325,000, or more than US Cabinet ministers who make $191,000). The share of the city budget spent on those high flyers is over $1B…

Anthony’s Cookies grand opening

majid — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 01:44:24 +0000

Another gourmet treats shop joined the burgeoning scene in the Mission. Anthony’s Cookies opened today to a line that stretched around the corner.

As one of the officials present said, it takes courage to start a business in this economic climate. Specially in as business-hostile a city as San Francisco, if I may add.

Inside the store was a buzzing hive of activity, with the eponymous proprietor busy preparing batches of free cookies for the awaiting hordes. At $5 for a half dozen, these cookies are a steal. I tried the double chocolate chip, it came fresh from the oven and had a strong chocolate aroma and the right texture. All in all, a great addition to a neighborhood that already has more than its share of good places to indulge a sweet tooth. I added him to my Google map of recommended bakeries, ice cream parlors and sweet shops in San Francisco.