Tele-Reg-o-Mania: In the age of exasperating online class registration and complicated student portals, we should be grateful of the system’s immediacy. In our September 18, 2000 issue, writer Shane Berkholtz complained about the then-new and painful Tele-Reg process, where students use their phones to—get this—call a Camosun hotline to register for classes. Although it may seem simpler, the half-baked menus and busy phone lines proved to be more stressful than classes themselves. Repetitive and unskippable pre-recorded messages further drove callers into a frenzy. Although hardly an excuse, administrators said, “We don’t have enough phone lines,” a problem which hardly persists today.
(Not a) virus dot com: If someone told you to visit the website www.virus.com, your common sense might tell you not to. However, as we learned in this issue, doing so might just teach you something. The site was designed in Victoria by Brad Goodyear, with aims to spread solid advice and unbiased tutorials on keeping your computer safe from malware. Goodyear claimed to have spent $1 million on acquiring the domain name alone, a rather steep chunk of the start-up budget. While providing free, thoughtful resources on cybersecurity, virus.com simultaneously tried to make back the money spent on its catchy handle by hosting advertisements and pop-ups, which, we can only assume, could lead visitors to more viruses. The website is now defunct. Great try, Brad!
Before they were famous: On the events page at the back of our September 18, 2000 issue, we’re greeted by a wall of hot upcoming shows and workshops to attend. Although it tells us to call 370-PUNX for information on punk rock concerts, the line is, sadly, now dead. Among the ads for Stir Fry Wednesdays and the Carpe Diem Club, eagle-eyed readers can spot an early pre-pop, pre-commercial-success concert by “acoustic duo” Tegan and Sara at Lucky Bar. The twin sisters signed with Neil Young’s Vapour Records that year. Victoria, seemingly, had its finger on the pulse.