Cal has not moved out of the 1980s technology generation, and still implements policies that make no sense given current technology. Let me give you two examples:

(1) I am trying to change my address, and the Cal system gives me the following message:

Address updates are allowed Monday through Friday, 8am to Midnight.

I wish someone could explain to me why the server can only accept changes to user addresses at certain times on certain days.

(2) When registering for classes at Cal, you are only permitted to do so during certain times of the day. The reason for this restriction is due to the old method of registering for classes from the 1980s--you must register via phone systems, and they are taken down for maintainance at night. But now with servers that run continuously, why do I receive this message?

We're sorry, but the system is currently unavailable. Please call back between 7 am and 12 midnight, Monday through Friday.

An error has occurred processing your request.

If you feel you've received this message in error, please try again.

Note that the error message says to please call back. I'm using a computer, not a phone! For one of the top 4 computer science universities in the world, you'd think that the administration would actually talk to the computer scientists.

Here's a blog entry out there about using Moteiv products.

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/01/wirelessly_updatable_pov.html

Will someone please fix Mozilla Firefox from leaking memory? After about 6 hours of use, Firefox is using over 500mb, sometimes up to 1gb. There's a number of proposed fixes online, but none actually work. Sigh.

I rediscovered how good Scapa is. I have a 1l bottle that I bought in the Heathrow airport about a year ago. What is great about the airport was they poured about 15 different types of Scotch and let me try each of them. Then, after tasting them all, they had a deal that if you bought any two bottles, they would: (1) give you 10 pounds off the total price, (2) not charge any duties, and (3) give you a US$1.75 to 1 pound conversion rate. Very good deal I must say.

Scapa is, unfortunately, not sold in the US. BevMo claims to have a few bottles, but I'm skeptical. Anyone else have some good scotches that aren't the standard American imports?

This quote is quality:

Isn't it nice that people who prefer Los Angeles to San Francisco live there?

--Herb Caen