TFA states that the DNA sampling package will come with two barcodes: one on the swab, and one for the student to keep. The student will have to use his/her barcode in order to look up the results of the DNA sample. This basically guarantees the privacy of all the students who give DNA samples as the university does not know which samples belong to whom.

As a current student at UC Berkeley, I'd say that the campus takes privacy extremely seriously. The types of viewpoints you'd see out of the people here are, for the most part, not too different from the general Slashdot population. I'd say this is consistent with the stance the university has taken on privacy.

If your goal is to ensure that you are able to get back home, why bother having all those keys with you? It's time to break up your keys into several groups. After all, you have multiple directories for all the files on your system, so why not gorup the keys?

You'll need the two keys for your own doors, plus a key for the vehicle you need. You can leave the knife, keys to your girlfriend's, etc. in your backpack.

I personally carry around four keys, which easily fits in my pocket -- two for my bike (my main mode of transportation), one for the gate, and one for the apartment door. I have a mail key, but that never leaves the apartment. I also have keys to my (separated) parents' places, but they're stored in a secure location in my home unless I need them.

Don't you think that a SPARCstation is a bit too material and stuck within the times?

Being a geek isn't necessarily about having one particular thing or another, but rather about having fun and pushing the limits with the intracracies of the latest and greatest.

If it was me, I'd hate to spend eternity in that thing. It may be cool for now, but even as little as five years later, the hardware will be outdated and boring. It's simply not timeless enough. Would personally perfer something like a high-tech crementation at an unusually high temperature so that there's basically no remains or something.

Y'know, the real reason why they built this thing is probably to inspire behavior that results in increased demand on the hospital.

Car accident treatment plan? One low monthly price with reasonable overages?

Whether or not your campus supports Linux is a moot issue. As long as all their equipment is standard, you should be fine. The way to be sure is to just bring your Linux laptop to campus during the tour and try connecting to campus WiFi, etc. Also, look up security policies, class syllabi, etc. to ensure that there aren't anything Windows-specific.

Truth is, most professors don't care how you got something done, as long as you got it done properly and honestly. In many humanities classes, I've typesetted my papers in LaTeX and often became the only person whose papers aren't in MLA. Even then, nobody complained -- it was all about the content. Then, if the professor was really fussy, you can always use a package that formats your paper MLA and makes it basically indistinguishable from a Word document.

In fact, the only department that will probably notice that you weren't using Windows / Mac is probably the CS department. In that case, there will probably be better support for Linux anyways.

Point is, if you want to use Linux, you can. However, it's difficult to provide support to all the configurations, so if you can't set up everything based on OS-neutral instructions, then you should either get a geek friend to help or just use Windows / Mac like everyone else. Windows-specific app? No problem, virtualization is the way to go.

Here in Berkeley, CA, we have all the smart parking meters, and I've wondered that myself. Since the parking nazis here really clamp down on the meters and I see them all the time while biking around, it was not hard to talk to one. One day, I stopped and asked a meter maid this exact question. Guess what she said?

"You have to pull up to the meter first, pay, and then come back and park."

Before I could say another word, she added:

"If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact the city at ..."

She proceeds to give me a brochure with all the contact numbers of the city, winked, and left. It's an absurdity, but hey, the city doesn't seem to care. I'm sure they enjoy their $80 parking fines...

The problem with the iron spike idea is that most people don't know that the iron spike is going to do them any harm in a crash.

Don't assume that most people have an understanding of physics. Those that do probably wouldn't be driving dangerously in the first place.