Caltrain’s troubled positive train control solution, known as CBOSS, has now been completely abandoned, to be replaced by the de-facto standard freight PTC technology known as I-ETMS. That’s mostly good news, since Caltrain will no longer be stranded with a globally unique PTC system. I-ETMS is being deployed by numerous other commuter rail operators in the U.S., allowing some economies of scale and standardization.
Monthly Archives: February 2018
Samsung crams 30TB of SSD into a single 2.5-inch drive | Ars Technica
The drive also includes a hefty 40GB of DDR4.
Source: Samsung crams 30TB of SSD into a single 2.5-inch drive | Ars Technica
30T is at least a year of high-quality video.
Before you get too excited, the 15T one they came out with in 2016 costs something like $10k today.
On the other hand, it looks like the largest spinning magnetic disk you can buy from Seagate today is 12T.
What no politician wants to admit about gun control – Vox
After Apollo, NASA still searching for an encore
In an Apollo conversation with space historian Dr. Asif Siddiqi, the Fordham University professor went so far as to say that by going so far so quickly, the Apollo program might ultimately have done humankind a disservice—we got to the Moon in a stunning display of technical mastery and willpower, but the Apollo model falls apart without constant outside pressure. By letting us run before we knew how to walk, Apollo might have saddled the country and the world with a wildly unrealistic picture of what a functional, sustainable space program should look like.
Source: The Greatest Leap, part 6: After Apollo, NASA still searching for an encore | Ars Technica
I have said this before myself: the success of Apollo set back space exploration 50 years.
Caltrain Electrification Construction
Source: Construction Overview – Cal Mod
SF safe injection sites expected to be first in nation, open around July 1 – San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco is on track to open its first two safe injection sites this July, a milestone that will likely make the city the first in the country to embrace the controversial model of allowing drug users to shoot up under supervision. Other cities – including Seattle, Baltimore and Philadelphia – are talking about opening their own safe injection facilities, but San Francisco could get there first. Facilities already exist in Canada, Australia and Europe. Barbara Garcia, director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, said Monday that she’s tending to the details, including where the facilities will be located.
Source: SF safe injection sites expected to be first in nation, open around July 1 – San Francisco Chronicle
Chico’s Burger
Sand Castles before the Tide? Affordable Housing in Expensive Cities
This article focuses on cities with unprecedented economic success and a seemingly permanent crisis of affordable housing. In the expensive cities, policymakers expend great amounts of energy trying to bring down housing costs with subsidies for affordable housing and sometimes with rent control. But these efforts are undermined by planning decisions that make housing for most people vastly more expensive than it has to be by restricting the supply of new units even in the face of growing demand.
Source: American Economic Association
Senators Wiener and Stern Announce Bill to Expand Conservatorships to Help Mentally Ill and Drug-Addicted People Dying on California’s Streets | Senator Scott Wiener
Sacramento – Today, Senators Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Henry Stern (D-Canoga Park) announced a bill to expand conservatorships for California’s most vulnerable residents who cannot care for themselves and who are dying on our streets.