Adventures in home computing

The project for yesterday was getting Dorsai, my "new" recording box, set up with a realtime kernel and the right set of applications. Specifically, the plan was to install the 64-bit version of Debian Etch (the base for 64Studio), and the 64-bit version of UbuntuStudio (which, being based on Gutsy Gibbon, includes Audacity 1.3.3). Along the way, I wanted to make the multi-OS Grub menu work properly. It took all afternoon.

( the details, for the technically inclined )

This afternoon's challenge is completely different. The Wolfling has a batch of documents, taken off her old computer, that she needs to print. Unfortunately, they were written in Microsoft Works, which has a proprietary format incompatible with everything in the known universe, and the only copy in the house is on that old computer. So I have to get it back in operation somehow I have it in the office hooked up to my KVM switch, so with luck it will Just Work[tm], but this is Windows we're talking about. (... OK, it boots. But I never made myself an account on it, so she'll have to deal with it when she gets home, unless I can do it from the guest account. The fact that it won't shut down properly doesn't help.) Maybe the recently freed version of Works will work on Colleen's machine. Maybe.

5:45pm Guest was able to print from the keychain drive. And there is much rejoicing.

Holiday season: eating and shopping

First the food. Last night was the $work holiday party, at a restaurant called Lavanda in Palo Alto. The open bar (Sarticious gin -- score) and hors d'oevres (wonderful olives, assorted dry sausages) were good, though served at the bar where they blocked the entryway and didn't give people enough room to circulate and converse. Good conversations, though. The flower_cat and I were at the LJ table: roanf, mr_kurt, saffronrose, finagler, fairyshaman, and only I think three people not on LJ. Service was slow, though, and the dinner only good rather than as good as one would have expected from the restaurant's reputation. The loud and soulless lounge lizard providing the "entertainment" didn't help.

Today, though, was much better. We'd gone to the Stanford shopping center only to find that our favorite restaurant, Bravo Fono, had vanished without a trace. Grump. We bounced around between various of our other choices (closed on Sunday) and streets that once had plenty of good restaurants and now held nothing particularly appetizing, and ended up at a place Colleen had passed a couple of times (across from one of her favorite fabric stores) and found intriguing, with a mix of Persian, Italian and "American" cuisine: Arya, 19930 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino. (Be prepared for an all-flash site with background music: I never said their website was great.) The food, on the other hand...

They have a weekday lunch menu, but it was Sunday. So we had the "Mediterranean Platter" off the appetizer menu (fabulous dolmeh stuffed with lentils, hummus, borani "bademjoon"), the "Arya Salad" (greens, a couple of roasted bell peppers, pine nuts), the koobideh plate (chicken and beef, with basmati rice). Desert was a Persian ice cream with a hint of rose and pistachio. Made of delicious win.

The other parties in the restaurant (this is 2pm on Sunday, remember) appeared to be mostly families. Many of them appeared to be familiar to the staff -- repeat customers are always a good sign. We'll be joining them.

( The shopping: mostly lamps and luggage. )