Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Spent the morning at Mike Lemont's place. His computer has been failing to connect at faster than 28.8 kbps. He had an old external modem from 1999 (I think) so I figured that the first thing SBC would suggest if we called the problem in was to upgrade the modem and get the newest drivers. So I installed the modem I got for him on Sunday, but the same problem remains—doesn't connect at faster than 28.8, and usually we got only 26.4. I thought I was stuck, but then I remembered he said on Thursday that both his phone lines had gone out for a few hours and after much trouble SBC finally restored his service. He said something about SBC saying he got the last assignable lines in the phone box for his entire block. I surmise that SBC must somehow have screwed up his line giving him one with a weaker or less stable connection. To test this hypothesis, we realized I needed to take his computer to my place. (I can't test it at work because I don't have an analog phone line.) So I took it back and told him I'd test it tonight and also migrate his Eudora addressbook to his WebMail account. He'd also mentioned that people he works with told him they didn't receive his messages, so I told him I'd test sending and receiving as well. Early lunch at home after dropping of the computer and before heading back to Parnassus: Patrick's leftovers from Tangerine. Toured MSB9 again, this time with Cindy and Kristina. The new walls for Cindy's office and my office are up, but the windows are yet to arrive. I take a few photos. Spent an hour resolving links to ITS's "soft launch" site which contains, in particular, new and important VPN information but for which John K failed to create complete redirects. I didn't want my people leaving my site and running into his redirects because he uses very old Javascript code which breaks the Back button, so I choose to spend about an hour tracking down all the places I link to their site. It's time well spent. I run a linkcheck, and all looks clean, so I make the changes live. Updated current student news and calendar. Updated the MPH page to remove the date when we expect to have new information (since the date had passed). Made live Joel's Pharmacy Info Day changes. Dinner at River Side with Patrick: lemon chicken, vegetable chow mein, hot tea. Patrick's fortune: You are very expressive and positive in words, act and feeling. My fortune: Your mentality is alert, practical and analytical. Spent 2 hours more working on Mike L's computer: migrated the addressbook, installed a new connection for Sonic, tested the 3 dialup connections—all connect at faster than 28.8, tested sending and receiving (all is well). Unfortunately for Mike L, it seems the speed problem is his line. However, the only remaining way out is if he tries at night and gets a faster-than-28.8 connection, in which case it's not his line and just not enough fast modems at SBC. It's now past midnight, so I'll call him tomorrow to tell him the news. Patrick's speech is tomorrow, and he's been studying very hard for it. We both think he's going to do pretty well. After all, he skipped Mandarin 3, so even a good grade on this would be a great achievement. Odette Reyes, a second-year pharmacy student, sent me a very funny e-mail explaining her resolution to a computer problem I helped her with. Essentially, I coached her into threatening to cancel her DSL service and ask for a refund if SBC didn't help her fix the problem that was created after she installed software from their CD-ROM. She followed my instructions and got a knowledgeable technician and now has a workaround with which she's happy. She also asked how to set up a firewall, so I pointed her to the Web page I had created months ago to answer specifically that question.