01.27.13

OldSF Buzz!

Posted in san francisco, web at 9:21 pm by danvk

After its recent update, OldSF got an unexpected surge of traffic after appearing on Hacker News and reddit San Francisco.

Traffic peaked at 14,000 visitors the day it hit Hacker News, then trailed off:
Traffic jumping to 14,000 visits/day, then fading away.

I particularly enjoyed the new “Live Analytics” feature on Google Analytics, which shows you who’s on your site right now:
Live Analytics showing 70 visitors on the site

In the end, 40% of our traffic came from Facebook, 39% from Hacker News, 10% from reddit, 7.5% from Twitter and 3% from Google+. In other words, things started on Hacker News but wound up spreading through other social media.

The traffic spike was exciting, but also a bit sad. OldSF is fundamentally a read-only site, which makes it hard to keep people coming back. Raven and I did some brainstorming and decided to start tweeting “pictures of the day” on @Old_SF. Please follow us!

01.21.13

Developing the OldSF Slideshow

Posted in programming, san francisco, web at 7:21 pm by danvk

If you head over to oldsf.org, you’ll find a sleek new UI and a brand new slideshow feature. Here’s the before/after:

OldSF "expanded image" view before update.   oldsf-after

Locations like the Sutro Baths can have hundreds of photos. The slideshow lets you flip through them quickly.

As so often happens, what looked simple at first became more and more complex as I implemented it. Here’s how that process went for the OldSF update.
Read the rest of this entry »

09.12.09

Morning Headlands Ride

Posted in personal, san francisco at 10:07 am by danvk

On my way in to work Friday morning, I took a detour via the Marin Headlands:

It was a total whiteout on the Golden Gate Bridge, but as soon as I got to the north bay, it cleared right up. I went back into the fog for the ~800 foot climb up Hawk Hill before breaking through and getting some amazing views from the top:

Top of the World

I saw a fighter plane zoom into the city, which made me briefly think that it was Fleet Week. Not so! (It’s in October.)

The ride down the back side was misty, beautiful and frighteningly slick. All in all, I left at 7:40 and got into work with a change of clothes right around 10.

One more view from the top:
View from Headlands

06.14.09

SimCity 2000 and the de Young

Posted in san francisco at 3:26 pm by danvk

Plymouth Arcology

SimCity 2000’s Plymouth Arcology

de Young Tower

The de Young Museum’s observation tower.

The analogy struck me when I saw the de Young Tower from the aptly-named Grand View Park. Maybe the resemblance isn’t quite so clear as it was in my mind.

Also, arcologies? Anyone want to hazard a guess what fraction of people familiar with the term learned about it from SimCity 2000? I’m going to say 99.

05.25.09

Close to Me

Posted in personal, san francisco at 11:44 am by danvk

While walking around my block with an out-of-town friend the other day, I found myself pointing out all the restaurants I had never been to. How could I be so remiss? Part of it is the sheer number of food places: 40 within a three block radius.

Here they are. I’ve been to the bolded places. The links go to Yelp.

Within one block (3/4):

  1. Cafe du Soleil
  2. rotee (Indian)
  3. S&W Market
  4. Two Jack’s Seafood

Within two blocks (8/13):

  1. Chili Cha Cha’s Thai Food
  2. Cu Co’s Restaurant
  3. Estela’s Fresh Sandwiches
  4. Indian Oven
  5. Kate’s Kitchen
  6. Lo-Cost Meat and Fish Market
  7. Metro’s Caffe
  8. Nickie’s (bar)
  9. Roland’s Bakery
  10. Squat & Gobble
  11. Thep-Phnom (Thai)
  12. Three Twins Ice Cream
  13. Volare Pizza

Within three blocks (12/23):

  1. Abe’s Market
  2. Bistro St. Germaine
  3. Burger Meister
  4. Cafe International
  5. Castro Coffee
  6. Golden Natural Foods
  7. Hanabi Japanese Restaurant
  8. La Carreta Taqueria
  9. Love ‘n Haight Deli & Cafe
  10. Mad Dog in the Fog
  11. Memphis Minnie’s
  12. Molotov’s (bar)
  13. Mythic Pizza
  14. Naan and Chutney
  15. Noc-Noc (bar)
  16. O’Looney’s Market
  17. PeaCock Lounge (bar)
  18. Raja Cuisine
  19. Rosamunde (“the sausage place”)
  20. Tacqueria El Castillito
  21. Toronado (bar)
  22. Uva Enoteca
  23. Whole Foods Co

Now that I have a list, there’s no excuses!

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