Thursday, April 8, 2004

Met with student Diane N to resolve problems with loading and syncing Lexi-something—a pharmaceutical database—to her Tungsten T palm pilot. It took us 2 hours, and it reminded me why I avoid such devices, but we finally got it working. The problems were overlapping—She had two folders for the Palm Desktop software—one at c:\program files\palm and another at c:\palm. Another problem seemed to be the cable—the connector where it plugs into the base didn't seem to fit the cable plug well. I'm pretty sure that sometimes when we did a sync I'd push the cable into the connecter tighter and see a reaction on the screen like the cursor changes to an hourglass or something. Upgraded Kristina's computer to Win XP using a clean (reformatted hard drive) install. I initially made the mistake of not unplugging it from the network—within just a few minutes of it being set up it had been infected with Nachi-B. Started over with another clean install after that—bringing Sophos to it like a baby needs a bottle of milk—before hooking it up to the network. After that things went fine. I didn't finish, but I think I got enough done to get her through Friday, and I'll continue on Monday. Lunch at desk: Subway sandwich. Computer support coordinator meeting. Dinner at Shanghai 1930 with me, Patrick, Aaron, Jamie, Demetrius, Joseph, Brock, Nicole, and special surprise guests Aaron's teenage brothers John and Alex, and Aaron's mom Marsha. Patrick and I had never been before. The restaurant is down an elegant set of stairs at the entry and set in dimly lit, spaces that were cavernesque with low ceilings. Jamie had arranged to bring in a case of wine he had purchased—all the wine drinkers chipped in and consequently everyone saved a bundle rather than getting wine from the menu. The meal was stunning—most especially the bill. We all agreed to get the Banquet Royale set menu—an extravagent 12-course meal. Hors d'oeuvres: (1) minced roast duck in lettuce petals, (2) Nanking petite spring rolls, (3) Yiubao prawns. Soup: (4) choice of three precious upside-down soup or hot and sour soup. Intermezzo course: (5) Jingjiang Peking duck. Main courses: (6) 5 spice grilled rack of lamb, (7) Szechwan chili prawns with sauteed leeks, (8) chicken lily with black bean sauce, (9) fish on the vine in wine sauce, (10) Buddha's golden picnic basket, (11) Jasmine rice. Dessert: (12) red bean crepe a la mode. All the food was excellent, suffering only slightly due to delays caused by the large number of diners at our table. People particularly liked (a) the hot and sour soup which was a translucent milky color instead of the typical reddish brown, (b) the fish on the vine—crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, in a sweet wine sauce, and (c) the rack of lamb. I had only a bite of lamb—don't care for eating the animal much—and instead asked the waiter for the Manchrian filet of beef, which was delicious, but almost too rich. I also particularly liked the upside-down soup, which involved I think three kinds of mushrooms molded together with pork broth poured around it in a bowl. Our waitron was Victor Lau—he did a very good job. Someone had a grey goose martini which cost $9.50. An order of coffee (just coffee) was $2.50. Patrick and I shared Jasmine tea. Dinner ended around 11:00 PM, and although there was Ben and Jerry's ice cream cake back at Jamie's place, Patrick and I instead went home. Jamie left a bottle of wine for Victor.