TLDR: Can't find a single place in the city thats willing to let me pay a diagnostic fee to either a) use a test bench/bare mobo setup to hook a 4090 GPU up for testing myself, or b) at least be present in the room when an employee does it. Any recs for a small or lesser known place that offers this service, even in the surrounding area? I'm willing to drive an hour or so if need be.

I strictly need recs for this specific service, as I'm a decently experienced builder, so I've tested it thoroughly but have a somewhat unique situation, detailed in this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PcRetailers/s/rsZ42kJup3

Every single place I called in the city limits insisted I drop the card off and leave it for testing, which I'm not about to do with something thats discontinued and currently going for $5k+ due to the AI spawned GPU scarcity, especially given how less reputable shops have been gutting/stealing these cards for parts/resale AND the fact that the card is still under warranty, which they could easily void trying to open it up.

Offering use of a test bench for a fee was a VERY common practice pre-covid (last time I did a full build), due in no small part to people meeting at a store to test a GPU for second hand sale with the customer present to verify the card works. Despite this, every place I called either couldn't understand what I was asking for (pretty sure they were phone repair places pretending to do "computer work"), told me outright that they don't offer anything like that and that I "won't find anywhere that would let you do that," and one even straight up laughed at me when I asked if I could at least be present if they insisted on testing the card themselves. Every single place insisted I drop the card off and leave it completely unattended for them to "run full diagnostics" (its literally plugging the card in and seeing if the OS recognizes it, might take 20 minutes TOPS), and the few shops I was familiar with pre-covid have all closed down.

In any event, this is not by any means a crucial need as its mostly for peace of mind before I send it off for RMA, but theres a few things nagging me that I didn't try, so it'd be worth seeking out a test bench before entering the private hell that is the RMA process in the datacenter/AI era with an items that is worth almost 5x it's retail price on the second market.

Thanks in advance!

I will be a fellow at Jefferson next year and my wife is a doctor looking for jobs in the area and is leaning towards Main Line. We're deciding where to live in the Philly area and are looking for advice from people who actually do these commutes.

Our situation:

• I'd work at Jefferson Main in Center City every weekday (about 8 am to 5 pm), and about one weekend every month or two.
• About one week a month I'd work at the Navy Yard instead.
• My wife would probably work 7 on / 7 off day shifts, or about 12 overnight shifts a month. Unsure about which exact Main Line hospital at this point, possibly Lankenau or Bryn Mawr.
• We will have our baby with us and plan for my mother-in-law to help with child care as needed. She lives in and would travel from NYC, so we are hoping to find a place with slightly more room (suburban?) that can accommodate up to 3 adults at a time and would like to have the ability to drive when needed rather than living in the city itself.

Options I'm weighing:

1. Main Line: For me, SEPTA (Paoli regional rail?) to Jefferson Station. Her commute would be a shorter drive.
2. South Jersey + PATCO: Also drops you off very close to Jefferson Main, and trains seem much more frequent and reliable, with stops near Chinatown which we would probably frequent. Obviously a worse commute for her, with a bridge crossing and a longer drive.
3. West Philly/Delco trolley: Cheaper and frequent, but may not help her commute all that much.

My concerns:

• SEPTA trains look like they run about every 25 minutes even at rush hour. A missed train seems a little painful (I haven't really commuted to work before so unsure what's typical), and SEPTA seems less reliable than PATCO.
• For the Navy Yard week, I think the drive/commute from South Jersey looks easier than the drive from the Main Line.
• I'm not sure how bad her drive from South Jersey would be at 7am and 7pm (depends when her exact shifts are; she might be able to leave earlier sometimes which means worse traffic in the evening).
• I'm not sure if it would be easier for my mother-in-law to commute from NYC to suburbs west of Philly versus South Jersey.

Questions:

1. Is the Paoli line reliable and convenient enough for a daily commute to and from Jefferson Main, or do you plan around frequent delays?
2. How bad is a South Jersey to Main Line drive if you're not doing it every day, or at off-peak hours (e.g., working nights from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.)?
3. How much easier is the drive/commute to Navy Yard from South Jersey compared to Main Line (or another suburb west of Philly)?
4. Would it be significantly easier to travel from NYC to the suburbs west of Philly versus South Jersey a few times a month?
5. Is there a middle option I'm missing, like a trolley or a different town?

Thank you for any help!

1. Early morning views of the city, just a little ways from my hotel.

2. Walking to see the iconic "Rocky Steps" and The Philadelphia Museum of Art.

3. Bust of Benjamin Franklin by Jean-Antoine Houdon on display at the aforementioned museum.

4. Shot of Reading Terminal Market from across the street.

5. Shoot. Is this City Hall? It's beautiful, regardless.

6. A cute little bookstore I found. I bought some pretty neat books here!

7. Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, which was absolutely fascinating.

8. An art exhibit at the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site honoring the victims of the prison's offenders.

9. Just a cute little street that I thought looked pretty in the overcast weather.

10. My walk to Boathouse Row in the rain.

11. Gorgeous view from the row itself (I think, haha).

12. Just some of the delicious food that I enjoyed over the weekend. I'll try to list more details in a comment, where I have more room.

Me using a single SEPTA key card to swipe multiple fares on the bus when out of town friends visit.

Must have slept through the rollout of this functionality.

A new one just opened up around my way in the past month. Making 3 in a 1 mile radius. I wish they would go back to NY. Good riddance if this can stop them from opening here as excessively as they have been.

And how can I get one of these as cheaply as possible?

My grandparents are coming to visit us in Philly for the first time & I was going to buy us Big Bus tickets so they could see all the tourist sites without having to walk too much. Then I discovered CityPass as well as GoCity, which also cover Big Bus plus two museums for only a few dollars more.

But i'm seeing CityPasses being sold on Groupon for even cheaper. Is that legit? I work at Penn and they used to have a staff deal with BigBus for discounted tickets but it doesn't seem like the deal exists any more. So now I'm looking for the cheapest way to buy three legit CityPasses. Ideas?

We'd love to also do the Museum of the American Revolution and Betsy Ross House, possibly even Longwood Gardens on a different day. Open to your recommendations!

As the title states. I love League, and was wondering if any bars or other places would be showing the League finals. Would love to watch with other fans/players instead of by myself at home lol.

The spot under family ownership had cheap frosty pints of beer, huge portions of delicious food, and an absolutely no pretentiousness atmosphere. I went again tonight and the new ownership is not running the place the same. It is more expensive, you need a reservation now, the beers are smaller, and they only do seafood. No veal parm over pasta no more.

I am not even that mad because the food that i did get was pretty good, but the family run, affordable, chilled out, red sauce spot that feels like a part of an institution is gone. Welcome to prix fixe seafood only menus and not being able to order from the full menu at the bar.

RIP bomb bomb

Prosecutors allege Ha’s posts also exposed his colleague’s home address, infant child’s name, and pictures of the home’s exterior...

The spouse and children of the colleague, who has not been named publicly, fled their home, which is in the same neighborhood as Ha’s. Ha sent more than 50 messages across the various accounts, at times threatening the colleague specifically and at others threatening Jewish people more broadly, invoking Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Oct. 7 attacks...

Despite the allegations, roughly a dozen Haverford professors across departments... came to show their support at the hearing...

“I’ve always known [Ha] as someone who is very justice oriented” and who cared for students and marginalized people, said Ahmet Tekelioglu, the executive director of CAIR-Philadelphia, a civil rights advocacy group focused on Islamic civil liberties and fighting hate speech, in a court testimony on behalf of Ha.

This mornings SpaceX CRS-35 heading to the ISS

This is the second in an interesting series ProPublica has been doing on issues related to Pennsylvania’s Post-Conviction Relief Act. Pretty interesting. Reminder that Pennsylvania was the only state that did not fund public defense until 2023-2024, and even still, it’s a paltry $7.5 million. Pennsylvania could also help solve this problem with PCRAs by founding a statewide appellate public defender’s office.

I know several of the attorneys mentioned or quoted in the story, and I filed a number of Finley letters when I did PCRAs as a public defender in one of the counties. One aspect I feel that’s underreported in this story: the sheer volume of utterly meritless PCRAs thrown at lawyers causes a kind of snow blindness where lawyers are prone to missing that 1 in 50 case that actually has a justiciable claim.

I couldnt book a ride yesterday and cant again today, the curb people have shitty support and I cant figure out if its my problem or theirs ...

Just an FYI for anyone else using JFK near 18th Street....HBO is blocking the Market St bike lane and directing bicyclists to go against traffic on JFK to get around it. As a bicyclist who will never go against traffic, this seems like a recipe for disaster. Personally, I think it would be safer to set up a temporary bike lane, but, at the very least, it might be helpful for drivers and pedestrians to be aware that bicyclists are being directed that way.

Philadelphia Gas Works CEO in apparent violation of state ethics law - WHYY