Featured events- 03/13/2012 - Hari Kunzru: Gods Without Men
- 03/10/2012 - Ton Koopman & The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
- 02/27/2012 - Classical at the Freight: Rossini Birthday Celebration
- 02/23/2012 - Michio Kaku: Physics of the Future, How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
- 02/23/2012 - 2012: a Turning Point? And If So, Which Way?: A Talk by Robert Reich
Category Archives: Information resources
City website down because of expired registration
It’s a bad dream for a lot of web-based organizations: someone forgets to renew a domain registration and you face days — or perhaps permanent — disruption of your service.
That seems to be what has happened to the City of Berkeley, at least for people who visit its cityofberkeley.info domain. Visitors to that site today find a standard page for Register.com, where the old domain was registered. A WhoIs search for the cityofberkeley.info domain suggests that someone in … Continue reading »
Berkeley block by block
Just how diverse are different Berkeley neighborhoods? What percentage of households earn under $30,000, or over $200,00? Where do a large percentage of mortgages consume more than 30% of household income?
The treasure trove of data in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey can tell you those answers and more. But to extract the data you need to be a bit of a wonk, navigating the Census Bureau’s site and finding the right information for the right place. The … Continue reading »
Gear up for the Big One with help from friends
The basement below Barrows Hall was buzzing with activity this morning, since it served as the command center for UC Berkeley’s annual campuswide disaster drill. At University Health Services Tang Center, volunteers simulated having injuries ranging from abrasions to a severed arm, allowing the clinic staff to practice triage and treatment.
The university police and fire departments and hazardous waste teams also established command centers on campus. … Continue reading »
BP oil spill from Berkeley
If you need to bring home the scale of the BP oil spill, have a look at Andy Lintner’s In Perspective. He updates the map with the latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and uses Google Maps to let visitors center the map wherever they want. Needless to say, we wondered what it looked like centered on Berkeley (above).
Tagged BP oil spill, NOAA
Berkeley tweeters part 2: They’re out there
Earlier this month we took a look at well-known Berkeley tweeters. We identified those who do — among them Dave Winer and Markos Moulitsas — those who sort of do, such as Michael Pollan, and then we compiled a wish-list of noted Berkeley people who we hope will take to the Twitter-waves.
Of course, our readers then weighed in with many good suggestions of Berkeleyites to follow on Twitter, as well as adding a … Continue reading »
Berkeley is number one for Internet speed
Sometimes a story seems too good to be true. According to the latest State of the Internet report from Akamai Technologies, Berkeley has the fastest average Internet speeds in the world.
In most surveys of Internet speed, the U.S. fares badly compared to South Korea or Sweden. But when Akamai focused in on individual cities the top three cities in the world were Berkeley (18.7 megabits per second), Chapel Hill, North Carolina (17.5Mbps) and — ha! — Stanford (17.0Mbps).
Tagged Akamai Technologies
Documenting those “only in Berkeley” elements
Because Berkeley is Berkeley, it was only a matter of time before someone launched a blog about Berkeley being, well, so Berkeleyish.
“Go Back to Berkeley” documents random elements that make Berkeley what it is, be it an altered street sign (pictured above) or environmentally friendly initiatives which, in the blog’s view, belong firmly in “that city in the East Bay“.
“Go Back to Berkeley” is run by Adam Singer and Chelsea Pearl, and … Continue reading »
Tagged Go Back to Berkeley
We all know those “so Berkeley” moms
It started out as a joke at work, but little did Roberto Santiago (known as Berto) realize the resonance those two words, “Berkeley mom”, would have.
Last week Berto’s Facebook group, “Your Mom is So Berkeley”, welcomed its 1,000th fan (today the number stands at 1,062). Berkeleyside discovered the group back in December and has been hooked ever since.
Some recent entries testify to how rich this seam is for rib-tickling memories:
My mom is so Berkeley my … Continue reading »
Tagged Your Mom is So Berkeley
Berkeley’s climate progress seen (sort of)
I’d love to be enthusiastic about City of Berkeley see it! (not my exclamation mark). There are many good intentions in the interactive website, designed to present both the city’s Climate Action Plan and progress towards realizing its goals. But the site has one of the worst user interfaces I’ve encountered in a long time. It’s fussy, over-designed, filled with infojunk and prone to leading users up blind alleys.
If you make the mistake of clicking to … Continue reading »
Berkeley residents donate more on-line
Berkeley donates more money via the Internet than any other city in California, according to a recent report. It also has the nation’s seventh highest donor rate per capita.
The average resident donated $10.64 on-line to charities, according to Convio, a Texas company which organized Internet fundraisers. It has an office in Berkeley.
How does San Francisco fare? Read here to find out.
Tagged Convio
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