Don't close the about;blank pages (if you're using Firefox). If it's taking a long time to load - it'll open up into the registration page.

Originally Posted by -Ish-

Don't close the about;blank pages (if you're using Firefox). If it's taking a long time to load - it'll open up into the registration page.

You are right in saying not to close them, but they are not necessarily the registration page. I went through about 100 blank pages that turned into the full server message before it turned into the web registration page. All the blank page is, is the website processing slowly due to the "spike in traffic" that they are experiencing... They must be way over the server's 15 person limit...

I don't know much about computers, but I think people
don't "log out" after they finish their changes so their account is
still taking up a spot. Then after 45 minutes the system boots.

I think I will try again tomorrow ...

Originally Posted by Rahma_M

I think I will try again tomorrow ...

Or later in the day (evening past 5)? When there aren't as many people trying to get on.
But then there might not be an availability for the courses you need.

Originally Posted by Melanieee

How did course selection work before everyone had a computer and the internet? Did you line up and submit a form? Call in? I wonder which method would be best

Actually, the way it worked in the past is everybody would line up outside the MUGSI building (since renamed to Hamilton Hall). To prevent overcrowding, only ~500 students were allowed on campus at any given moment to line up outside of the MUGSI building.

Once inside the MUGSI building, students then had to line up in a line of ~250 students to speak with the course registration manager Mr. Raymond Solar.

To sign up with Mr. Solar, one would recite to him which courses they'd like to sign up for. This guy Mr. Solar, however, had been in a serious motorcycling accident in his youth and sustained significant damage to his short term memory. Because of this, he would frequently forget which courses you told him (leading to you having to repeat multiple times) or accidentally call on the next person in line before you were done reciting. Reciting courses to Mr. Solar would typically take a long time, but never longer than 45 minutes per person.

If too many people complained to him, he'd get overwhelmed and have a seizure, meaning everyone in line would have to wait about an hour until he cooled down and was ready to get back to work.

Mr. Solar died in the early 90's around the time the internet started gaining popularity. That was also the same time McMaster got their first course registration server; a brand new Casio FX-991 calculator.

This server was sufficient back when McMaster only had 5 undergraduate students, but around 2001 when McMaster's population ballooned to around ~20,000 students - performance problems became apparent.

Rather than buying a new system, administration noticed how closely the current system seems to mimic Mr. Solar's behaviour, and instead decided to rebrand the existing system as SOLAR for nostalgia purposes and in his memory. To handle the overcrowding issues - a new virtual gateway called MUGSI was introduced (just like the old MUGSI building) and a massive efficiency boost of 0.0001% was seen.

And now that's what brings us to the MUGSI/SOLAR system we use today.

... at least I like to think so.

Does anyone know why it says "based on your current registration and payment agreement status, you are not eligible to use SOLAR at this time." This message keeps coming up once you go into SOLAR.

Yeah .. I will just keep on checking every hour or so ... I already have all the courses i need .. its just the time that they are scheduled ... since i am commuting

Originally Posted by -Ish-

Or later in the day (evening past 5)? When there aren't as many people trying to get on.
But then there might not be an availability for the courses you need.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

...
... at least I like to think so.

SO worth the read.

Originally Posted by Luux

Does anyone know why it says "based on your current registration and payment agreement status, you are not eligible to use SOLAR at this time." This message keeps coming up once you go into SOLAR.

Did you confirm your payment agreement?

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Actually, the way it worked in the past is everybody would line up outside the MUGSI building (since renamed to Hamilton Hall). To prevent overcrowding, only ~500 students were allowed on campus at any given moment to line up outside of the MUGSI building.

Once inside the MUGSI building, students then had to line up in a line of ~250 students to speak with the course registration manager Mr. Raymond Solar.

To sign up with Mr. Solar, one would recite to him which courses they'd like to sign up for. This guy Mr. Solar, however, had been in a serious motorcycling accident in his youth and sustained significant damage to his short term memory. Because of this, he would frequently forget which courses you told him (leading to you having to repeat multiple times) or accidentally call on the next person in line before you were done reciting. Reciting courses to Mr. Solar would typically take a long time, but never longer than 45 minutes per person.

If too many people complained to him, he'd get overwhelmed and have a seizure, meaning everyone in line would have to wait about an hour until he cooled down and was ready to get back to work.

Mr. Solar died in the early 90's around the time the internet started gaining popularity. That was also the same time McMaster got their first course registration server; a brand new Casio FX-991 calculator.

This server was sufficient back when McMaster only had 5 undergraduate students, but around 2001 when McMaster's population ballooned to around ~20,000 students - performance problems became apparent.

Rather than buying a new system, administration noticed how closely the current system seems to mimic Mr. Solar's behaviour, and instead decided to rebrand the existing system as SOLAR for nostalgia purposes and in his memory. To handle the overcrowding issues - a new virtual gateway called MUGSI was introduced (just like the old MUGSI building) and a massive efficiency boost of 0.0001% was seen.

And now that's what brings us to the MUGSI/SOLAR system we use today.

... at least I like to think so.

Haha so much time on your hands, still funny though!

I don;t understand why there are people who have logged on multiple times and I have not been able to get on even once .. maybe there is something wrong with my account? .. it worked fine during course selection :S

Originally Posted by L'Étoile

I wrote a javascript to autoclick for me. I got in so quickly although it took me 2 hours to write... haha

Please post your javascript... I've been clicking on SOLAR all day (I'm at work) to no avail, and I think I might go insane if I don't get online soon

Originally Posted by ngarber

Please post your javascript... I've been clicking on SOLAR all day (I'm at work) to no avail, and I think I might go insane if I don't get online soon

Make me.

that feeling when you get on SOLAR after 9 hours only to find all of the cores you need are full and all of your backup courses are full