Monday, August 23, 2004
School plan survey edits for Susie. Updates for a listserv for Chris. Laptop maintenance for Chris: upgraded Eudora to 6.1.1, upgraded Firefox to 0.9.3, removed viruses and spyware. Eudora had a very strange problem: whenever it would check mail, the CPU usage would jump to 100% and stay there, essentially hanging the computer tightly, requiring a force powerdown—sitting 4 seconds on the power button. When not connected to the Internet, Eudora performed just fine. The problem was consistent—I must have reproduced the problem a dozen times while attempting to find a solution. The POP inbox was near quota but not quite. Several mbx files were very large—some as large as 25 MB. I compacted mailboxes, I did a clean install of 6.1.1 and migrated mail folders, I tested on a different computer (same problem there). The thing that eventually resolved the problem was using the Eudora setting called Skip Messages Over ?? KB in Size (Tools > Options > Incoming Mail). I set it to 40 KB, then did a check mail—it worked. I set it higher—80 KB—and did a check mail—it worked. Eventually, unchecking the option let it work no problem. Fedexed the cdrom master to Ben at Mr. Toad's. Late lunch: pork loin with mashed potatoes and gravy, side of zucchini, from the cafeteria. Met with Cindy and Susie. Met with Susie. Chatted with Chris about privacy issues. Dinner at home with Patrick: salad, cheese tortelloni in vodka red sauce. After dinner we tried creating a PDF of Patrick's novel. He usually works on it on his computer—Windows 2000 and Office 2003. We opened the same document on another computer—Win XP and Office 2003—and all the quote marks were somehow set to the font called SimSun. After much frustration, I eventually resolved the problem by uninstalling the SimSun font from the Office setup program (red X on International Support something or other), logging off, then logging back in and reopening the document. Like magic the problem is gone. Sorted through empty picture frames for some new photos to frame. Patrick finished his final revisions to Second Island today, meeting his goal of completing it before school started. Hooray! A big relief for him—he celebrated with a glass of white wine. Patrick brought home a 2-disc CD set for me which he got from Jamie, whose former roommate left behind a number of CDs. It's The Shamen Collection, Hits + Bonus Remix CD (1998) with mixes by Paul Oakenfold, Orbital, LTJ Bukem, Renegade Soundwave, Moby, and Danny Tenaglia. It's the best "new" music I've had since the Alliance Ethnik CD Patrick got me a long time ago.