Category: Berkeley

I had the privilege of spending a gorgeous sunny Saturday in Berkeley, revisiting some favorite spots and enjoying delicious food and sweets.

On every visit to the Bay Area, I’m reminded that Berkeley and San Francisco are quite similar to Seattle in their political inclinations, but rather different in their expression (most notably, in the volume and artistic quality of that expression). The city of Berkeley has decided who it will be supporting in this year’s presidential election (no surprises here), and of course they have their own very unique Berkeley way of expressing their preference.

An Obamamobile — with Obama speeches playing on the loudspeaker.

Obamaphone

I’m flying down to Berkeley this afternoon to work Cal’s Internship & Summer Job Fair tomorrow. [Opportunistic Recruiting Plug: If you’re a Cal student with passion for software and you’re looking for an internship or full-time opportunity, you should come by and chat. Even though it’s primarily an internship career fair, we have plenty of full-time opportunities as well.]

Vidya is going to be there representing her employer, and Kenny is coming along because we’ve been looking for an excuse to go to Berkeley and have a yummy dinner. While Kenny is there, he is going to be working remotely. I remembered from the last time we were in Berkeley that it was a little bit difficult to find places with wireless internet (our hotel had wireless access, but only in the lobby). So I did a little web search.

The on-campus wireless network, AirBears, is only open to current faculty and students. No love for alumni. Which basically leaves local coffee shops. I found two websites with listings of cafes with wi-fi in Berkeley. The lists are short, possibly out of date, and include few places that are all that close to campus. And for some of the listings, it seems that the “free wi-fi” they refer to is just AirBears, which we can’t access.

I thought this was odd, as I can barely throw a stone in Seattle without hitting a cafe that has wi-fi. I think there are at least four on our little 15th Ave strip right behind our condo. Kenny was surprised too:

Kenny: Didn’t Berkeley, like, invent the Internet?
Lauren: No, silly, that was Al Gore.

Update 2/23/06, 10:04PM: It turns out that Yali’s is a good place for wireless.

The PI ran a story today about the difficulties of sharing a name with a president. My college roommate could tell you all about that one. She’s just hoping that Grover Cleveland, age 42, of Seattle, doesn’t come after her for stealing his email address.