Alex Chiang

@chizang.net

103 Followers 195 Following

SRE @ Google | SF Yay Area | #bikes #cooking #energysky

The highlighted text says, "$8M is the new luxury threshold Notably, the $5 million threshold is no longer viewed as "luxury" so much as a high-activity price range. A 60-year-old original home on an 8,000-square-foot lot in North Palo Alto now commands close to $6 million, underscoring how elevated baseline values have become."
Dough ball in a steel bowl.
Infographic that explains the article with pictures for visual learners.
A coyote peeks from behind my car's passenger side mirror.
A receipt for McDonald's that says 67.
A headline that reads, "Six-story development poised to replace iconic Mountain View Chase Bank".
A can of banana water.
A whitish mantis staring at the camera.
A cargo bike loaded up with camping gear and a smaller kid's bike.
This bar chart illustrates the population change by age group in Santa Clara County since 2020, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau: The 65+ age group experienced the most significant growth at 13.41%. The 18-24 age group also saw substantial growth at 7.65%. The 0-17 age group had the largest decline in population at -10.65%. Other age groups showed smaller changes, with declines in 45-54 (-5.89%) and 55-64 (-1.35%), and slight growth in 25-34 (1.19%) and 35-44 (0.44%).
THE GRATEFUL DEAD THIS WAS THE LOCATION OF MAGOO'S PIZZA PARLOR WHERE THE PALO ALTO-BASED WARLOCKS FIRST PUBLICLY PERFORMED ON MAY 5, 1965. RENAMED THE GRATEFUL DEAD, IT BECAME A ROCK BAND WITH A UNIQUE STYLE OF "JAM" MUSIC AND A FAITHFUL FOLLOWING OF DEADHEADS. LORETTA OPENED HERE IN 2024.
Time series histogram of solar energy production. The bars form half a bell curve, showing much production in summer months. Duh.
An elephant flares its ears, backlit by the dawn sun.
A male cheetah walks towards and stares at the camera.
A tattoo on a man's calf, of an RJ45 connector, that also says "RJ45" (big font) and "bad life decisions" (tiny font).
Sunset with an expansive view of Hout Bay.
Sun dropping below the horizon, with a row of palm trees in the foreground.
A herd of sable, in the golden hour.
Exterior of Cologne cathedral against a cloudy sky.
A bucolic German village nestled in green hills.
A peaceful scene with a boat in the foreground and another in the background, greenery, and buildings lit warmly in the evening light.
A bowl of chicken dumpling soup with carrots and celery bits.
Burgers on a grill.
A pine tree bonsai, gently leaning right.
Suit aims to kill plan for housing on parking lot Attorney challenges Palo Alto proposal to build affordable units on Lytton Avenue lot A n attorney with a long history of challenging Palo Alto's housing policies has filed a lawsuit in a bid to reverse the City Council's recent decision to develop affordable housing on a downtown parking lot. David Lanferman, an attorney with Rutan & Tucker, filed the lawsuit on behalf of a group called Downtown Vibrancy, which he wrote consists of "merchants, businesses, residents, and property owners in the Downtown Palo Alto area, many of whom are the owners of properties that have been assessed for the acquisition, improvement, and maintenance of Downtown Palo Alto parking facilities for decades." Lanferman had previously represented downtown developer Charles "Chop" Keenan, who successfully sued the city over its failure to use the parking in-lieu fees it collects from developers for their intended use: adding parking. The city ended up refunding about $900,000 to Keenan and dusting off its discarded plan to build a garage on the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Waverley Street. In the new lawsuit, Lanferman similarly contends that the city is failing to comply with its own laws pertaining to parking. In this case, he is claiming that the City Council has no right to change the use of downtown parking lots, which had been funded through assessments levied on the property owners in the University Avenue Parking Assessment District. Since its inception in the mid-1970s, the city had been levying assessments on more than 200 downtown properties. Through these assessments and bonds, Palo Alto was able to add 20 parking lots and build two garages in the downtown area, according to the suit. This includes Lot Ton Lytton Avenue and Kipling Street, a site that the council deemed to be ideally suited to accommodate affordable housing. In January, council members selected the nonprofit Alta Housing to build a seven-story development w…
Housing bill raises alarms in Palo Alto Senate Bill 79 would allow heights of up to 75 feet in areas near transit A new bill that would allow housing developers to build taller and denser buildings in transit-friendly neighborhoods is raising alarms in Palo Alto, with one City Council member warning that the bill could transform the character of Eichler-style neighborhoods in the south end of the city. Authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, Senate Bill 79 would establish statewide zoning standards for housing projects within half a mile of transit areas such as train stations and bus stops. Standards would vary based on proximity to transit, with looser rules for those within a quarter mile of transit stops than for those within half a mile of such stops. In Palo Alto, the bill would up-end zoning regulations in commercial and residential areas around University Avenue, California Avenue and along El Camino Real. Within a quarter mile of University Avenue, building height limits would now be set at 75 feet and housing developments would be allowed to have 120 dwellings per acre. Any project that falls outside the quarter-mile radius but within the half-mile threshold in what's known as a Tier 1 transit area would see a height limit of 65 feet and density limit of 100 dwellings per acre. Less transit-friendly areas, known as Tier 2 and Tier 3, would see lower height and density limits, with heights ranging from 45 feet to 55 feet and density limits ranging from 60 to 100 units, depending on proximity from a transit stop. According to an analysis from Council member Pat Burt, the Tier 2 rules would apply to areas all along El Camino Real, which includes Santa Cara Valley Transit Authority bus routes, while Tier 3 regulations would cover neighborhoods around the California Avenue and San Antonio Road station. Burt noted that the half-mile radius around San Antonio and El Camino includes Eichler-style neighborhoods, which are distinguished by modern…
A lavender minivan, with LIDAR arrays and prominent Waymo branding.
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection.
"Sunshine" flavored La Croix.
An upside down ski from Moment, with an IR waxing device in the background.
A license plate that reads "ND VWLS".
Julio from Tesla writes: "Hello Alex, My name is Julio. I work with the Technical Recruitment team at Tesla. I came across your LinkedIn profile and was very interested in discussing your experience. We have a Site Reliability Engineer role open based in Palo Alto. Please send a resume when you schedule your call. I would love to schedule some time to chat: Julio’s Calendar - Julio" And my response is: "I am not interested in working for a Nazi. Best of luck in your search."
A Tupperware box full of Uncrustables.
Wearing North Face puffy slippers instead of ski boots during a sunny lunch break.
A red TELO mini truck in front of a white Tacoma. The TELO is about 2/3 the size of the Tacoma, yet had a similar sized bed.
Citi’s technology team instructed the payments processing employee to manually input the transactions into a rarely used back-up screen. One quirk of the program was that the amount field came pre-populated with 15 zeros, which the person inputting a transaction needed to delete, something that did not happen. One quirk? Fifteen zeros? The quirk in the software is that if you type “send $1” it says “okay sending one quadrillion dollars” and you have to backspace over all the zeros?[1] Incredible interface design. “What is the lowest amount of money someone might want to send,” the interface designers asked themselves, and then answered “one quadrillion dollars” and fell out of their chairs laughing. “Fifteen zeros,” they screamed through tears of laughter.
View of the USS Pampanito, with a Ferris wheel in the background.
A pink and purple sunrise, with trees in the foreground and the east bay in the background.
Ivanpah solar array, as viewed from a plane.
An alpine hut, with the mountains and a storm blowing in the background.
A real estate ad for a 1.03 acre empty plot, offered at $8M. The ad closes out with, "Hurry, this one won't last!"
A stacked bar chart of my energy. Total usage of 745 kWh, with 407.8 kWh from solar and the rest from the grid.
A stacked bar graph showing the increase of Waymo in San Francisco vs Uber and Lyft.
Seaweed and mussels lying on the sand.
An early morning view of the Bay Bridge, with the sun just peaking over the horizon.
A coyote kicking its legs over the poop it just made, but then the video reverses so it looks like it's dancing.
A blurry, cropped image of red-shouldered hawk perched in a tree branch.
A dark cloud on the left sprinkling snow, and blue skies on the right.
A shot of my feet in slides, with a ski mountain in the background, the point being that I'm not wearing ski boots.
Deathwish and Sierra skis.
Fingers of sunlight gently filter through mist and steam in a redwood forest.
Plain flavored La Croix sparkling water, a product I did not know even existed.
The Vessel, with numerous lit trees at Hudson Yards, and various skyscrapers in the background.
An aerial view of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island from the top of the Freedom Tower observation deck.