Conversation with Someone I'm Supposed to Work With

Her: I believe you said there was a list of [important stuff]. I thought you said you had sent it. If it is in Filemaker Pro, I will be able to read it at home.

Me: Here's a link you can use in your browser:
fmp7://fms6.[hostingservice].com/[filename]
For using OPEN REMOTE, the server is
fms6.[hostingservice].com
the file is [filename].fp7
Your username is: user
Your password is: pass

Her: Yahoo does not recognize the site you provided. Any advice?

Me: try doing it directly from FMP with "open remote"

Her: I am having no luck accessing it. Any other ideas?

Me: No idea. It works for everyone else.

Her (on the telephone): I'm still having trouble accessing [that information].

Me: It might depend what version of FileMaker Pro you're using.

Her: I don't have FileMaker Pro on this computer.

Today's Theme: Computer Science and Computing

1. Worked on the computer science. Turns out that none of my ideas worked. Everything I tried was wrong.


2. Chief Minion taught me enough MATLAB to try more things.


3. Visited Akamai and met with Tom Leighton.
   

Recent Past, Near Future

1. Thought that I was going to get caught up on my sleep/rest and work on research. Wandered all over Boston and Cambridge on foot, tiring myself out. Didn't work on any research. Ended up getting in a fight last night about something really stupid. Went to bed in a foul mood. Was woken up at 9am this morning. Have not slept that late in about a year.


2. Bought a gift for The Topologist. I really want to open it and use it myself instead of saving it for when I next seem him (in a little over three weeks). Ironically, I have a complete spirograph set at home (well, all the gears and plastic parts -- the pens died and/or disappeared roughly 25 years ago) that I never use.

   



3. Did more crap for the budget at work. Need to submit the lastest revision and request for money on Monday.


4. Started to make a list of things that I should be doing for my real job. I should re-read the book that I've assigned for my seminar (Sync. As it doesn't come in a Kindle edition, I can justify delaying a Kindle. Since I have no time to read, I can also justify buying the book. I suspect that a desk copy will await me upon my return.). I need to revise my calculus slides. I need to figure out how to harness the power of databases to enforce prerequisites.


5. Got in another fight with my mother about stupid things. She can not see my point of view at all, so she insists that I do certain things to "relax" that I do not find relaxing. My job here finishes up on August 3, and my regular job resumes on August 17. She is insisting that I should go on vacation in the gap between jobs. Because nothing is more relaxing than having work pile up in my absence so that I will start the semester already behind? Similarly, she is suggesting that I should eat more junk food. Eating junk food does not make me feel better.


6. Also suggested by Mom yesterday: Since I have so much time off at Christmas, I should spend it in New Mexico. My parents will be heading to New Mexico to visit my brother and his wife and their baby. I have no interest in meeting the baby. Let me know when it turns into a person, and we'll consider it. Better yet, let's just wait until it knows calculus.


7. Pardis Sabeti was so awesome on Friday that I am tempted to start studying genomics.


8. Tomorrow is a tour of Akamai and then dinner with Tom Leighton followed by his talk. We'll see how that goes.

Minor Superpowers

I decided to do some work for my real job today. I harnessed the power of databases to find three students who were enrolled in the wrong courses. One of them I sent an email suggesting that she get re-advised. She's taking eight credit-hours worth of math classes that don't count towards any requirements and that are normally taken in a sequence instead of all at once. The other two I just dropped.

Things That I Realized Today

1. I forgot to reserve a room in the Student Center for the dinner with Pardis Sabeti tonight. I suppose this means that I will have to assign some minions to push tables together near the Dunkin' Donuts or maybe it will be nice enough out to eat outside. One of my minions will be upset with me.


2. Option-F1 (and -F2) will open the displays control panel. Option-F3 (and -F4) will open the expose/spaces control panel. Option-F11 (and -F12) will open the sound control panel.


3. One of my difficult-to-find minions who has been slacking at his job with me has another full-time job.


4. Some grad students have no sense of what's in their best interests. One of the grad students who I'll be supervising in the fall has included on his draft syllabus for the lowest level math class that counts towards fulfilling the math requirement a 4500-word paper.


5. My time in Cambridge is nearly half over. Still have not ventured out for dim sum.

Today I Didn't Do Any of My Jobs All Afternoon

I think that this morning is when the last guest left. Since my job is week-round, I have trouble keeping track of what day it is. Also when I nap during the day, it gets harder to measure the passing of time based on sleep. I think that I dealt with checking the guest out and turning in the key.

This morning me and a coworker went to MGH to spring the guy who'd been in the hospital since Tuesday night. Since he started out in the ER, he didn't officially check in to the hospital until Wednesday morning. All of the tests for alarming things turned out negative.

And then my co-conspirator woke up. And we spent the rest of the day trekking all over Boston and eating food and exploring. We had lunch at Mary's and dinner at Steve's. Ended up taking the red to the orange to the blue to see how to lead a group to the harbor. Walked back to MIT via the Longfellow bridge. Pretty much spent the whole day eating and trekking.

On the Bright Side

Best news I heard today: It isn't malaria.

The joys of working with an international group.

Blogging Lost Things Renders Them Found

The Topologist came off the Appalachian Trail somewhere in NYS with his brother and then called me in response to the flurry of text messages that I had sent. Of course since I have AT&T and was on the MIT campus (Stata) and was at a lunch meeting, I couldn't talk to him.

All the meetings so far today have been horribly awkward. But I suppose that this is what happens when you send someone from overseas to spend two days learning about things that could just as well be handled over email and with a quick afternoon visit.

The Topologist is Missing

He hasn't responded to my text messages. His phone goes straight to voicemail.

Thinking of asking a neighbor to check to see if his car is in the driveway.

Odds are that a combination of hiking and absentmindedness has his cell phone lost, unavailable, or out of batteries. I hope.