Why Is Decent Internet So Hard to Find in San Francisco? Part 1 of ???

I live in one of the densest cities in the US... San Francisco. 49 square miles with 80000+ residents, yet getting a good reliable Internet connection is far more difficult than it should be. 

At this point, I am with AT&T DSL, because it's the standard phone provider, and DSL was counted as an add-on service. I sorta forgot to look at the overall picture, and turns out I was paying $170 a month for 2 phone lines and 1 18 Mbps down / 1.5 Mbps up ADSL line. Including tax. 

Which is ridiculous. That sort of connection won't even get me onto many "work from home" jobs which demands are much better connection. At times, I was getting even LESS than that. My actual usable speed is more like 14 Mbps down / 0.9 Mbps up, as tested by Speedtest. 

Screenshot of my Speedtest results from Nov 2020 to Feb 2021

So I clicked over to AT&T's website, and click on "upgrade my service". Turns out, they only offer ONE level of service to me... the Internet 18 ADSL plan. And I am already on it. And with phone and taxes, it costs me $170 a MONTH. 

My phone's LTE service (through Verizon) was much faster. Averages 80 Mbps down and 10-15 Mbps up. And Verizon is supposedly rolling out "5G Home Internet" in San Francisco. So I went to Verizon's website. Except they aren't. NEITHER 4G/LTE nor 5G Home Internet service is available at my address, and I've had my Verizon account for YEARS. Over a decade, actually. 

So I was thinking... can I use my LTE to supplement my DSL? Turns out, you *can* with Speedify. Connect / tether your phone to your PC, run Speedify, and Speedify will combine BOTH connections into one solid connection for your streaming or uploads or whatever you need. I have one of Verizon's unlimited plans for my cell. Problem solved, right? Wrong, unfortunately. Turns out, unlimited is for phone usage only. Tethering has a 15 GB limit a month, after which it slows down to 0.6 Mbps instead of 15 Mbps.  I blew through the 15GB data cap in TWO DAYS (just for uploading some gameplay videos). So that clearly won't work. I actually paid for a 3-year service (it's only like $3 a month) and I had to cancel. Fortunately, Speedify has a 30-day money-back guarantee. And I HIGHLY recommend the service if you can find a use case for it. 

So back to the search...  I was thinking... if I can't get Home Internet from Verizon, can I get it from one of their competitors? Given AT&T doesn't offer that, it had to be T-Mobile. Turns out, T-Mob has the SAME PROBLEM. No 4G/LTE Home service available at my address in downtown San Francisco, which is definitely in their service zone... for mobile, but not home internet. 

So what's a man who wants the internet to do? Check ALL competitors, of course. This brings me to... Comcast. Let's just say, I've heard horror stories about Comcast, lock you in with modem "rental" that you can easily buy one off eBay or whatever, have to call them every year to demand the promotional rate... But cable Internet does offer a lot better throughput without getting on fiber, which is very limited availability. 

So I get online and chat with Comcast sales rep. He said he will send an engineer out to do a "site survey" to verify availability and get back to me. 48 hours later, I got a call... Turns out, my block is NOT on Comcast's network, but good news... They will wire up my block in the next 60 to 90 days. Guess enough people on my block demanded it to put it on the schedule. But that doesn't help me at all then, does it? And the guy has the gall to ask me if I want to continue the install. I told him no (probably in an exasperated tone.)

I look around for other vendors, but there really aren't many other choices. 

I called Sonic Internet and they will set me up with dual-line bonded DSL which supposedly will do 60 Mbps down and 10-15 Mbps up. Not quite LTE speed but it's uncapped and unlimited. AND it comes with a phone line... for $130 a month (or less). So basically, it's 4x the bandwidth (or more) than AT&T's service, for $30-40 a month LESS than what I pay AT&T now. 

Sign me up, please. 

Then I cancel AT&T. 

I may revisit the situation in 12 months.  I can go without the phone line (nobody calls on the landline, it's not even connected) so Verizon 5G Home Internet will end up costing less and give me MORE bandwidth... if it ever rolls out. 

State of My Games (2020/02/27)

Plane Mechanic Simulator pretty much bored me, so I left it and didn't play it again. 

Did try Everspace, and it was not bad. Some of the interface does take a bit of getting used to, but every game is a little different, as things are randomly generated. That time pressure feeling is nice, as you can't always dawdle in the area. Will keep playing. 

Tried one game in Total Tank Simulator, which is like a parody version of World of Tanks where you setup two armies using X number of points, (from hyper-heavy down to infantry). Not sure if I want to try again. It's kinda underwhelming even in tutorial mode. I think it's because the game decided to flip on and/off no-harm mode even though it's a shooter. 

Started playing PC Building Simulator and couldn't stop, and ended up playing like 3-4 days straight. You play a guy who just took over your uncle's PC repair shop and if you do well you can buy out his stake in it. Had to learn the intricacies of the game, even though I am a computer engineer and probably knew PCs better than most. :D  

Tried the demo "WH40K Dakka Squadron" where you pilot an Ork fighter and fight other Orks. I didn't like the gamepad interface, and IMHO, it's a bit difficult. 

Tried Mindustry, where Factorio (factory assembly line) meets tower defense. You are one ship dropped onto an alien planet with just one home hub. You need to setup mines to get yourself more resources to build things, setup defenses to protect your area from enemy attack waves, and so on. It gets a lot more complicated due to multiple types of resources, processing plants to convert them, and expanding tech tree that you need to unlock by making new materials. It's complicated, and it's interesting, if a bit exasperating due to lack of a good tutorial mode. 

Playing Battlevoid Harbinger, a rogue-lite in space where you, commanding your warship, needs to travel the local cluster of systems, survive, destroy enemy bases, help local bases with their missions, and generally, destroy an alien mothership or base in the area. But you can't do it immediately, as you need to build up your own ship, get 2 other companion ships, and improve your weapon loadout, by taking on enemies and getting loot and upgrade points. It's more difficult than it seems. 

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What's next? Probably going back to PC Building Sim, Everspace, try the other Battlevoid game: Battlevoid Sector Siege, where you need to command your starbase and its defensive network against an invading horde of enemy ships. Between that, try some games I owned but never played, like Little Big Workshop, Automachef, and Angel Wings. 

Magnetic cables: why would vendors just let someone else sell it?

Back in 2018, I bought a set of magnetic cables from "AS" via Amazon for my phone. It was the best cable set I ever bought, no kidding. Yes, even better than those Anker armored cables with Kevlar. Why? Because the plug separates from the cable, so it cannot be "stressed", so it is practically unbreakable. The plug that goes into the port can be damaged (and I've damaged at least 2), but that's a different problem. I bought another set a few months later, and I've bought extra tips for type C and MicroUSB for my other devices and spares. And I've used it until now without issues. The connection is for both data AND charging (a lot of magnetic cables are charging only). 

So at the end of 2020, I want to buy another set as a backup, only to find that the company had CHANGED the item. The original item I ordered was changed to their "new generation" cable with a ROUND tip. The version I had was FLAT tip. Clearly, they are not compatible.

Round tip version, sold by AS
used same SKU as the old flat tip version

Flat tip version, now sold by a different vendor

I had previously bought another set of "magnetic tip adapters", which lets you "convert" an existing microUSB cable into a detachable tip cable. Unfortunately, this tip has the opposite polarity from the AS cables. You can't exchange the tips. 

I eventually found the "old" flat tip version of cable sold by "Smart and Cool". I did order it, and yes, it's the same cable, as they paired right up to my existing tips. And they are even a few dollars cheaper as they did not come with iPhone "lightning" tips.  

The "round tip" type cable, arguably, is probably better, as it will pair up no matter what orientation. The "older" flat version that I wanted will only pair two ways: right side up, or upside down.  But it is that much of a bother to hold the cable in a somewhat right orientation? 

And why would one vendor just drop the old SKU altogether? In a way, it is to game the Amazon ratings. By replacing the product, they can keep the old product's ratings and reviews, even though it's a different product, and Amazon has done nothing to combat this misrepresentation. 

Today I Learned: The War with No Guns Between China and the World

In recent months, China and India have skirmished with casualties on both sides. Yes, I mean deaths and serious injuries, deep in the Himalayas. But because both sides have abided by 1966 treaties that prohibited firearms near the border, the skirmishes were fought with sticks. 

The border is between China and Indian-Administered Kashmir. And the conflict had been ongoing for months. A clash back in June 2020 is believed to have left over 20 Indian soldiers DEAD. China does not release its casualty figures until recently. 

Also keep in mind that China has nearly complete control over Weibo (Chinese Twitter) and WeChat and even accounts of foreign diplomats and heads of state, including Indian Prime Minister Modi, can and had been censored before. Modi's statement regarding the border conflict back in 2020 was wiped from WeChat. Similarly, the British Embassy in China's rebuttal of the Chinese "explanation" of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong was wiped out as well. 

In contrast, Chinese diplomatic officials serving in the West are known to spread disinformation about ANYTHING that could potentially make China look bad, from the border skirmish with India to suppression of protest in Hong Kong, to suppression of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. One official spokesperson for foreign affairs went as far as claiming on Twitter that COVID was really an American bio-war experiment. They are often jokingly called "Wolf Warriors", after the Chinese military adventure movie series. 

So basically, China can say WHATEVER IT WANTS to its own citizens, and suppress anyone who dares to contradict them, even foreign leaders and diplomats. A Chinese Netizen was apparently banned by Weibo for a year then arrested by police for "insulting heroes", by merely questioning the number of Chinese casualties in the border conflict (banned 2/20, arrested 2/21 Chinese time). And an app, called "Clubhouse" was banned after briefly enjoyed a surge of popularity as a chat platform in China to discuss such issues. And nobody can do anything about it. 

It's the war against truth as you know it. If it's inconvenient for China, it ain't true (to China). 

It's a war of information. And we are playing by THEIR rules. 

How Much Licensing Is Too Much?

When you see an injustice, what do you do about it? If you said nothing, would you at least morally support those who to decided to speak up against the injustice? Let's assume you agree...

Next, do you support state licensing of various professions? Cosmetology? Engineering? Contractors? It's all in the interest of public protection, right? These are supposed to be responsible for people's lives or money, and they should know what they're doing, so the government is supposed to license them to 1) make sure they meet requirements, like went to a certain school, and b) pay a licensing fee for the cost of this licensing program. If it operates as intended, then there is no problem. 

But when it is used indiscriminately against the citizens then there is a problem. 

Let me introduce you to two heroes who decided to speak up against such injustices. 

Mats Jarlstrom's wife got a red-light ticket while making a right turn in 2013. He investigated the signal and found that the yellow light interval can be shortened in order to elevate maximum revenue, not safety. And he has found that most jurisdictions set the yellow light interval too short and does not account for right-hand turn traffic, but only for straight-through vehicles (who can come to a stop or speed through). He started to advocate his findings by going to interviews with news stations, talking to traffic engineers, and even presented his research at a national conference of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. 

Then "Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying" fined him $500 for "practicing engineering without a license". No, I am NOT making this up. In fact, the board wanted Mats to stop calling himself an engineer (he has a degree in electrical engineering, but he's not a licensed engineer in Oregon). And continued offense could be fined up to several thousand dollars and one year in jail, if he continued to "critique" traffic lights.  

So Mats sued the board in Federal Court for violating his first amendment rights. And he won in 2018. 

In 2020, Journal of the Institute of Transportation Engineers said Jarlstrom was right. 

This is a clear case of state licensing gone overboard. 

But let's look at another example... something a bit closer to home... hair braiding. 

In at least SEVEN states (including Oregon), hair braiders are required to have cosmetology or hairstyling licenses... even though hair braiding was not taught in cosmetology AT ALL. Keep in mind that hair braiding uses NO chemicals, dyes or colors, or other products. It is completely natural, involves no cutting or bleaching. 

Yet in multiple states, hair braiders have to obtain either cosmetology or hairstyling licenses. And these operators are forced to learn things they will NEVER use (like bleaching, or nail trimming). Keep in mind that many of these cosmetology courses require THOUSANDS of hours in training and TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS tuition. 

In 1997, Isis Brantley was raided by multiple state agents who arrested her for braiding hair without cosmetology license in Texas. So when Texas started licensing Hair Braiding in 2007, it was supposed to be a relief, but it wasn't. The new law was attached to the existing barbering statute. Brantley's hair braiding school, in order to become legal, must be turned into a barber school including size, barber chairs, and sinks, and she must become a licensed barber instructor in order to teach. 

No, I am not making this up either. 

Fortunately, over a dozen states have separate "specialty licenses" for hair braiders, and some of them have lesser training requirements, if at all. A few hundred hours. 

So what happened to Isis Brantley? She sued the state of Texas in Federal Court, and won in 2015. Braiding instructor course was shortened to a 50-hour course (instead of 750-hour barber course) and the laws forcing barber school standards onto hair braiding schools? Unconstitutional.  And in 2015, Texas chose to deregulate hair braiding altogether. 

And indeed, in 30 states, hair braiders need NO LICENSE at all. 

So next time you think about licensing, in these tough economic times, consider this: is the licensing HELPING the public... or hurting the businesses? 

State of My Games (20201/02/16)

Wow, it's been two weeks since I've updated state of my games. 

Finished Crying Suns, and tried multiple ships for the first two chapters. On Rookie mode it wasn't too hard. Though they definitely are different. 

Tried to play Hotel Giant, but it appears the creators's HD Update didn't quite work. It doesn't quite run right on my Win10 / RTX2070 dual monitor setup, even when restricted to 1 monitor only. 

Finished Detective Di and the Silk Rose Murders. Pretty good localization to English, though some of the verbiage feels a bit too modern or contemporary. I have a series of videos showing me completing the game. It's not that long, a couple hours at most. 

Giving up on Aeronautica Imeprialis: Flight Command (aka WH40K Flight Command). Played the human campaign, but the planes are kinda lame, the encyclopedia entries severely lacking (there is no explanation on which planes are bombers, which planes are fighters, neither friendly or ally) and the viewpoint jumping around makes for a VERY confusing view where you don't know what killed your guys, who killed the enemy, and basically an overall tactical situation. It's just not good. Did finish some scenarios, but I guess I *could* have played the Ork side too. Nah. 

Finished Aven Colony, a colony manager where you need to keep in balance a TON of factors... power, food, shelter, water, growth, mining, construction, defense, crime, expansion, trade, and so on. Add exploration and combat, health, and morale, and you have a micro-manager's dream... but probably a regular gamer's nightmare. 

Played AFTERBURN, which is an arcade game with you the lone plane with unlimited weapons, have clear the sky and ground of various enemies, and you will be overwhelmed by dozens of targets at a time. Actually did finish Mission 6 (final mission) which was VERY long and VERY difficult to survive. I think I tried about dozen times and only managed to finish it once. But it was fun. 

Re-trying Islanders, a very calm colony building sim that's about creating the best combinations, though the naunces are escaping me. 

Re-trying Molek-Syntez, the chemical composition game from Zachtronics, and managed to solve yet another puzzle. They are getting hard. 

Playing Plane Mechanic Simulator, where you fix up iconic war planes of WW2 on the eve of Battle of Britain. Leave the hint mode on, as you need to figure out where certain things from before you know how to disassemble it, And some of the engine parts are really detailed (read: tedious), like piston ring and head gasket. 

I think I want to try Mainlining, Everspace, and Hardspace Shipbreaker. 

WTF: GM claims "design defects" are NOT covered by express warranty... and they may win

 The TL;DR version: GM seems to have some problems with their eight-speed automatic transmissions... rough shifting, hesitating, shudder, etc. Complaints from multiple states have been combined into a single class action lawsuit in Michigan, and for paperwork reasons, some plaintiffs using their own state law have been dismissed. 

So what's the argument? GM basically argued that "express warranty only covers defects in material or workmanship. Since these problems are inherent in the design, they are NOT covered by our express warranty." Here's Steve Lehto explaining the longer version on his YT channel. 

At this time, you're probably going WTF?! Can they do that? Apparently, they could. It'd be very short-sighted decision, but there's a chance this argument would stand up in court. 

If you don't get the implications, let me give you an example. 

Let's say you buy this broom. It sweeps fine, until you accidentally bump into a wall or a piece of furniture, and the bristles started to bend and won't sweep nicely anymore. The bristles don't have any flexibility. They bend and break, and that's it. You want a refund or replacement but was told: they are all like that, and they are working exactly to our design, so there is no defect in workmanship or material. No refund, no exchange. 

Yes, you can argue that bristles *should* flex and bend but spring back to shape. But the broom maker said this is a DESIGN flaw (they specified the wrong type of plastic), and this is NOT covered by the warranty. 

But isn't the "wrong" type of plastic a material defect? Nope. It works as-is. 

I am not a lawyer so I am not going to go into the intricacies of "implied merchantability" or stuff like that. This goes into the Uniform Commercial Code (which are NOT uniform across all states) and just go watch Lehto's Law episode I linked above. 

But it brings up a very good point: this is an extremely short-sighted decision... These are not cheap transmissions. They are not the stuff that goes into economy cars, but the high-end cars like Denali, Corvette, Cadillac (various models), and so on. 

And if GM refuses to make things right, they will lose even MORE market share in the more profitable high-end market, as this sort of experience is what will drive a previously brand-loyal auto owner to switch to something else, often, an imported brand. 

To People Seeking Help on Craigslist: Leave a PROPER email!

For a second time in 2 months, I tried to reply to someone with a short computer gig on Craigslist, and found an "error" and was unable to reply. 

First time, someone was asking for a little help on a Coursera data science course I had taken before, and I was not going to charge a lot. $5, $10, very reasonable. Except when I click on reply, I got "an error has occurred".  Reload the page, retry, same thing. Cannot reply. 

Today, I ran into the same thing. 

A guy wants to rip his own DVD back into some sort of computer video so he can upload it to a video host. This is very easy if you have your own DVD drive... Handbrake can do it easily in 15 minutes (more if you have to transcode). And that's free. Then it's just a matter of upload, so I won't even charge the guy, just send him a link so he can do it himself. 

Same problem. Click on it, "an error has occurred". Cannot reply. 

So sorry if you end up paying somebody for something you can look up in a few minutes and do it in a few more minutes. But I can't help you because CL keeps throwing me errors. 

Best of luck. 

Getting the COVID Vaccine: It ain't that easy

My dad is in his 70's and has COPD, so he's on the priority list. However, now that he got a notification, there are NO available vaccines in the entire city of San Francisco he can get. 

Basically, there are three primary vaccine sites in San Francisco: Safeway + SFSU (@ Safeway on Front street), UCSF + City College (@ City College), and Kaiser Permanente + SF City (@ Moscone). 

Tried all three, none are available for ANY appointments. 

What's worse, the City College site was a "drive-through" site, which means you MUST go with a car, or be prepared to make the rideshare driver sit for 15 minutes (which they may not want to). 

Also keep in mind that the advice is self-conflicting. Some sites are saying "contact your primary care physician", while other say "register at myturn website, and we'll tell you when". My dad got his notification, but there are no appointments available. 

But then, people have been crazy enough to get a COVID vaccine they spent thousands to fly to a remote village of indigenous people (who are getting priority shipments of vaccines) and impersonate such people. 

Other celebrities are getting vaccines by chartering private planes that flew them hundreds of miles out of their residence, esp. when in California vaccines are restricted only to health workers and over 65. Which lead to coining a new term: COVID tourism, and Florida seems to be the destination for such, where Mexican TV personality Juan Jose Origel and ex-Time Warner comm chief Richard Parsons  (both in their 70's) got their COVID vaccine shot in Florida. Parsons actually lives in California, and Origel flew to Miami from Mexico City for his shot. 

Doctors in California claimed that some rich people have offered them 10K, 20K, even 50K to get the vaccine shot. 

And let's just say when such news were made public, people were NOT happy. 

And such news is hardly unique to the Americas. There were loud protests in Europe when celebrities got them. 

So the frustration is universal. 

PSA: Uninstall "The Great Suspender" immediately (should be already done)

The Great Suspender was a good extension as it "suspends" the tabs you don't use so Chrome doesn't eat up so much memory. But recently, a different maintainer took over the app, and some changes appear to be not so innocent. When several places classified the item as malware or potential malware, you should uninstall it immediately. And indeed, my own version was automatically uninstalled by the Chrome store. 

And this is actually a common pattern: a free utility changes hands, and suddenly some sort of trackers or potentially malware got added to the app. Another way is to release a utility that sounds VERY similar to an existing popular one. Chrome, having over 60% of all browser market share, is the most popular target of hacks. And being a trusted app, if it can be compromised from within, it can be VERY dangerous, as it also saves your passwords, and tracks basically EVERYTHING you do. 

What can a rogue extension do? Rogue extensions have been found to:

• bank hack -- steal login info if you log into a certain bank
• Phishing specific app logins via browser, such as Whatsapp
• impersonate popular extensions such as AdBlock Plus
• mine Bitcoin -- Coinhive was dubbed the first cryptojacking extension, using your PC to mine Bitcoins for someone else
• and much more

So beware of browser extensions you download. Only download from Chrome store if you can (which will remove the bad ones for you, even if by remote). 

For now, I have downloaded a replacement of Great Suspender which supposedly is without the controversial appendages. But as a separate download, it's not an approved extension, so I will likely have to replace that with one from the Chrome store soon.