University of Hawaii
Early in the development of computer networks, the University of Hawaii was a pioneer in networking, tie-ing its several campuses on the various islands together using radios. The work they did on the Aloha net was significant in how other networks were designed. So I thought it would be interesting to visit the campus. The University System is a set of universities and community colleges, but the main campus is here on Oahu, just North of Waikiki (well a 20 minute bus ride).
I looked the University up on the web, and particularly the computer science department. There are in the POST building (Pacific Ocean Science and Technology).
The campus was completely dead. Clearly we are between semesters. But we wandered around the building which had lots of posters about research that was being done. Back in my day, there was a faculty member here named W. Wesley Peterson who did fascinating work on error correcting codes. I have his book, and even tho there is no relationship, it was nice to see a Peterson in the field.
I thought the bookstore would give me an idea of what classes are being taught and what books used in them, but they were just beginning to stock the books for next semester and everything was roped off.
We took the bus back to Waikiki, and walked over to a shopping building with Asian food in the basement — a Noodle Avenue — where we got cold udon noodles with beef and shrimp tempura. We both decided udon should not be cold.
I then took Linda up to the 2nd floor to a store I had seen while mailing some post cards.
On the back wall I noticed some Hawaiian quilts. Linda had indicated an interest in Hawaiian quilts, saying that they were different from the quilts we normally have. We had seen a few in other places but this store had many.
We looked at several, and Linda selected a nice green one. The shop agreed to ship it back to our home, so we didn’t have to lug it around for the next 3 weeks. $400 for the quilt and shipping.
Then we returned to the room. I worked on renting a car to drive around Oahu. I wanted a one day rental (picking up at 9AM and returning by 9PM). That should give us time to drive around the entire island. The island has 227 miles of coastline, so that seems reasonable. (I also wanted to take a boat around the island, but apparently that takes multiple days at a minimum. Fact: circumnavigating Oahu takes minimum 24 hours non-stop. This translates into a 4-day 3-night multi-day charter.)
If you ask the web, the common wisdom is that renting a car at the airport costs more than renting it in the city. I tried a local firm; they wanted $150. Avis/Budget wanted $120. Another local firm wanted $96. These were all to rent and drop off here in Waikiki. On the web, I could find cars as low as $36 at the airport. So we have a reservation from Budget at the airport. We can use our bus passes to get to the airport and then back again after we return the car.
Otherwise, I did some reading until we went out for dinner. Linda found a local place called Heavenly, and we walked over. I had the fish and chips while Linda had some sushi with a salad. After dinner, we walked down to the beach and then back to the room.
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