Berkeley has recently lost two amazing Berkeley-run businesses, Clifbar and PowerBar. An article about the loss of business says that "businesses grow up and find office space scarce." As a former Berkeley business owner, I have to say that this is nonsense. Businesses move out of Berkeley because:

1. The rates are too high. Places on Shattuck are trying to charge $4 per square foot per month for the space. In contrast, most space in San Francisco is under $2 per square foot per month, and space in the valley has dropped below $1.50 per square foot per month.
2. Parking is a mess. Berkeley is full of 2-hour limit residence zones, expensive parking garages, and impossible-to-find metered parking.
3. Homeless people hang out at your business entrance. Yes, our office in Berkeley had homeless people hanging out in front of our office door and refusing to move when people need to get in the building. Rumor has it that Inktomi started in the same office as Moteiv, but had to usher high-profile guests in through the garage so that they wouldn't have to walk pass the homeless contingent.
4. The university drives up rates. It isn't just the business lease rates, but the cost of living to be close to work. Rates in Berkeley are as high as in San Francisco, and most people realize that they'd rather live in San Francisco than Berkeley if it costs the same.
5. Very few startups are in Berkeley. It is a community thing--the valley has a ton of venture funded startups, and with web 2.0 making the .com irrationality come back, San Francisco is booming with small techie firms trying to build the next best hosted service with fancy web graphics.

To read an article that poorly covers the Berkeley office space situation, check out SFGate's analysis.

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.

Sensys papers are done! Rejoice!

It's the SenSys time of year and that can only mean one thing--lack of phone calls, emails, and responsiveness. Yes, I know I don't update this thing often, nor do I respond to emails, phone calls, or other sorts of communications. Expect that communication to be even more infrequent between now and April 8. No matter what, doing this work will put me significantly closer to finishing my thesis; yay.

As a member of the graduate admissions committee, I have to evaluate
whether a student will excel in research and whether they have a clear
grasp of the english language. After receiving this email from George, I have since questioned whether the english of some of the applications was as bad as I thought...

Dear Ladies and Gentleman

      A quite academic and splendid international conference ICCI2005 will be held from June 26th to 29th, 2005 in Beijing, Capital of China. We honestly invite you to attend this worldwide conference covering almost all communication and information topics. Your attendance is our honour. In addition, famous professionals, professors, companies and high-tech promotion organization, telecommunication operators, local government will also be our respected guests.

      For the most recent progress about ICCI2005, please see the website at http://www.bupt.edu.cn/ICCI2005/, and http://www.confcenter.cn/

      As you know, 3G could be a hardly start in China while our conference, the future of 3G is still very fuzzy. Near observation will let you know the truth. Broad band wireless, terrestrial wireless HDTV standard could reach the final, NGN an NGI infrasture could be further clear. Many things are related to the time while our conference.

      Finally, honestly invite you to make your contribution to the conference, come to see around this quite fast-developing country to find your opportunities, travel along the old but extremely modern and beautiful cities and landscape.

Regards!

Last year, we ceased publication of the full systemwide directory. Instead, we reproduced the front section of the directory, providing campus organizational information, for a limited printing. Because of the budgetary reductions, it is no longer possible for the...