Short parking times are in the order of 45 to 60 mins.

We actually have shuttle buses that travel from a park and ride station near the suburbs to the stadium during the two annual college bowl games and other sport events. They close a route to only shuttle busses during that time. I've been able to park my car and be at the front entrance of the stadium in 20 mins.

They can always increase the meter rate while enforcing maximum time and possibly shortening them. The more active areas will have short term parking freed more often and if you need somewhere to park for a leisurely dinner or movie (possibly both) you can always use the parking garage.

I used to lease a parking space downtown for work, and they always had reasonable hourly rates for the people visiting downtown after hours. Some would allow you to reserve a spot. Even the city contracted garages had decent spots. The city provides a downtown shuttle for those who park in garages on the edge of downtown so you don't have to walk if you don't want to.

The only thing the auction app provides is a method for individuals to make a buck off of a public parking space from people who don't mind paying for a privilege that isn't offered

Baltimore has a population of 670,000. Between the parking garages and street parking, there's room for over three million cars to park in a one mile radius from Power Plant Live. There's also metro service, bus service, and light rail service. Maryland has a population of 5.7 million.

The population of Baltimore's metropolitan statistical area is 2.7 million. I doubt everybody in that 7 county area will all want to go to Baltimore every night.

Public parking is inaccessible because it's scarce; this scarcity also denies access to public roadways. This solution frees up some access to roadways, and lets you find out how much parking is being opened up--you can then decide if it's worth looking for a public parking space or just go to a parking garage, or take public transit.

So parking should only be accessible to those willing to pay someone to release it to them? We are still talking about an auction app.

Because the third party currently has rights to that public parking by writ of using it at the time. Otherwise I'd just call a tow truck to remove the Ferrari parked in my spot.

Not always true. Where I live there is a maximum time you can stay in a metered spot no matter how willing you are to feed the meter. This is to encourage people to use the lots for long term (2+ hr) parking which aren't really that expensive.

Also you fail to explain how the auction app doesn't provide an incentive to stay in that parking place until you make money off the auction. The result being that people not using the app or unwilling to be extorted are being denied a parking space.

Here are some questions about your so called solution:

How do people without access to the auctioning app get access to what is essentially public parking?

Why should someone pay a third party to have a chance to use public parking?

There are other solutions available to the city of San Francisco that doesn't require the use of an auctioning app.

I travel to the middle of nowhere with my laptop on a regular basis. It either bounces around the trunk of my rental car, get knocked around at the airport, get compressed in overhead baggage on a airline flight, subjected to who knows what while bumping around the nose compartment of a Cessna 402 , bake in the sun while I'm on the tarmac working an issue, or being invaded by sand particles or dust. Despite the unrecommended environment, I never had an issue with my MacBook Pro. I'm still with my MacBook Pro issued to me in 2010 while my colleagues are on their 2nd or 3rd HP or Dell laptop. My first work laptop was a Sony Vaio and it only lasted me 1 year, afterwards I purchased a MacBook Pro and used it for 2 years until the new MacBook Pro was issued to me by my employer. My wife still uses my late 2006 MacBook Pro and it works like new.

The only other person on my team that has a long lasting laptop uses an IBM branded Thinkpad/X40 which works well enough for testing components during intergration otherwise he uses a desktop workstation that we ship to the field. The problems we had with laptops are bad batteries, dead backlight/display, and the problem that plagued our Dell Latitude series - clam shell breaking at the hinges. We hadn't had any noticeable problems with the current high end HP laptops other then being heavier and bulkier than my MacBook Pro and lower battery life.

Regardless of the brand (Apple, HP, Dell, Lenovo) we paid similar price for the equivalent laptop. I don't know how you would consider a MacBook Pro laptop overpriced except maybe when you compare it to a consumer grade laptop sold at your local Walmart. I know several people who are happy with their low priced laptop but they rarely travel with them. They use them at school, sometimes at work, but most of the time safely at home. If you have a similar experience with your purchase then congratulations.

My current router allows me to grant guest access to my cable modem with no fear of the guests accessing my local network. Unfortunately thanks to Netflix and Amazon, I'm barely staying within my usage cap with Comcast as it is. Comcast is looking for any excuse to automatically "upgrade" my monthly service for an additional fee, and I'm not going to make that possible by giving away free internet access.

Do "first looks" with no recommendation on pre-released items and only do full reviews on items purchased from a random retail outlet.

This is old news in the industry that dates back to the "Computer Shopper" days. Basically be skeptical that the product sent to you prior to release for free will actually be the same product sold to consumers when it is released.

The first clue should be that the pre-release products reviewed are available several months prior to the final product actually ships.

I observed during an ARRL field day many years ago that if you want to stop small R/C aircraft from operating near you, simply tune an antenna and begin operating a high powered 6 meter transmitter. The planes will eventually crash into something or fly away from you.

Conversely, never host a R/C aircraft event and an amateur radio event at the same park at the same time.

I wish people would stop using the word "Drone" unless it is a truly autonomous vehicle. What this was is a Remote Controlled quadcopter operated by a fan that wanted to watch their practice session.

Drones are not a truly autonomous vehicle, but I agree that the word "Drone" is being misused. I believe that "R/C Aircraft" is to "Drone" like "boat" is to "ship".

You wouldn't call an aircraft carrier a boat, and you wouldn't call a dinghy a ship. Same could be said about small R/C planes not being called "Drones" and the Predator Drone not being called a "R/C Aircraft". Technically Ships are a boat and Drones are R/C aircraft but their size and capability justify the different terminology.

Just my two cents.