"What's the difference between a boyfriend and a husband? About 30 pounds." - Cindy Gardner

***

I went to the Business computer lab to print things (and enjoy 4 cent/page printing) and found a sign saying that with effect from July 1st 2006, it would be for Business students only, and access would be via matriculation cards. Why this is the case I know not, since everytime I went there in the past it was either empty or deserted. In contrast, the Arts computer lab at AS7 is always at least 2/3 full, and often during peak periods no terminals are free. Engineering and Computing also have restricted access facilities, as far as I know.

As the former Grace Quek lookalike complained: "We don't have any restricted access [facilities]. Arts - we're like a prostitute. Everyone comes in and uses us."

Someone pointed out that USP has a restricted access computer lab as well, but that's tiny and anyway there isn't 5 cent/page printing there. Hell, they exploit their own students (at least if photocopying in the Reading Room is still 5 cents/page).

In the end, rebuffed by the door at Business, I went to the library to print, only to find that the computers at level 1 had no Word or Powerpoint, and I had to go to level 2 to print my Powerpoint slides. But then I'd run out of time already, so I printed my slides at Arts in the end. Grr.


Amazon.com is described as such: "In order to cope with the Christmas rush, Amazon has far more computing capacity than it needs for most of the year. As much as 90% of it is idle at times." Looks like we've a solution for CORS downtime.

I'm told SoC has cheap colour printing at 30 cents/page, but you need to buy a package of 60 pages.

I'm told that there used to be free unofficial printing in the Cyberarts lab since there was an unsecured printer in there. Then 1 PRC spoiled the market by printing whole thick stacks of notes there. When the printer spoiled, he even had the cheek to email one of the admin staff asking him to fix it. So the printer got spirited away and now no one can use it.

It seems in one module there were 2 mid-term questions, one of which asked how long a pineapple took to mature and another asking what year the Japanese invaded. Both were multiple choice, so in the latter example 4 years in succession were given (I joked about a putative O level history MCQ asking what day the Japanese won, but truly truth is stranger than fiction). Someone whose Malaysian hometown grew pineapples got the first wrong, unfortunately.