wednesday 27 february 2008 sunday 2 march 2008

A while back, the box arrived...

I got the box open with my car starting box opener. A tool for every job and a job for every tool... our pappy taught me that.	Do note the rather slick barren silvery shiny surface that is the new server. That'll be important later in the movie...

Here we go - starting the server setup... The first step in any server installation is to verify the installation media. This one's good as gold.

This is me pushing the button for the very first time. It used to be off, now it's on. and the step from 0 to 1 is way bigger than the step from 1 to 2.	In the beginning, it is always dark. As with all newborns, it has nothing. But in nothing, anything is possible. and it's got no OS, no files, no records -- nothing.

you may need to bigger this record to read it

Soon thereafter it welcomed me warmly.   I tend to work late into the night. By the time I was mostly done, and just ready to do the updates, it was already 5:04am.

Open Source software is right in line with the HitRECord philosophy and I dig it. For the first time in a long time, my job has not required that I have a PC with Windows. When I eventually get a new computer for my carrying around use (as opposed to this new server), I contemplate getting a Mac. and I remain tempted. Using Linux would be being the change I want to see in the world (giving away abundant digital things & collaborative open source). On the other hand using a Mac would also be being the change I want to see in the world (well thought out aesthetics and overall user experience that really works and merges form with function). I've got some time to decide.

and here we are -- together nearing the end of this part of the ride.

On to the part where the server moves to the Data Center. Tea Faerie ceremoniously blew the TeaHorn over the server as I was en route to its new home. In some of the following pictures, there's a slew of computers that look similar. I've conveniently photoshop-added a HitREC logo onto this server in these pics for easy identification.

New Home, I say. This place is amazing. it looks like War Games sounds like a jet engine. If the server lived here (on the floor), it'd be home by now. But it doesn't -- it's only New-Home-Adjacent.	This is its new home. It lives in a rack.

Almost there...	The word in french that they use like trendy is branché. Literally translated means plugged in.

Before I pushed the button and turned it on for the first time in the data center.	After. After makes people happy!

Here's the crazy dual workstation up with which I was hooked while I was there making final adjustments.

"Making Final Adjustments" is a bit misleading, actually.
While I was there, there was something wonky with their network.. it was blocking incoming email communication. So email sent to anything at hitrecord.org fell upon deaf ears. rather - listening ears with unseen earplugs. I'm a bit rusty with Linux and kept figuring I was missing something and our server's security system was blocking it. After working long into the night, I gave up and filed the formal request for help. The next day, without me changing anything, it worked. Though the Data Center folk say they didn't do anything except verify it was already working. As with how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, I think I'll never know...

So, you may find yourself asking, what does this new server do for me?
Right now, only a little. With the increase in storage capacity, we've decided to allow attachments to be 50 megs instead of 10. If you find yourself needing more, I'll be proud of you! Ask and I'll see what I can do. Also - there have been some forum crashes and outages that, as best as I can tell, relate to flakiness of the old server in all sorts of techie ways. I'm crossing my fingers that this will do away with just about all of them.

But really, what I'd like is for you to ask not what this new server can do for you, but how you can decorate this new server. Remember the part about the barren surface? I noticed while I was at the Data Center, that just about every computer there has a boring Brother P-Touch label indicating its owner, its name and its address. It didn't occur to me until I was there observing the bad labeldom to do anything about it with ours. By then it was too late - I had nothing with me (except the Brother P-Touch, graciously provided by the Data Center). I'd like you to make me some decoration for our server. Post your art in this thread and I'll print it out on a sticker and stick it to the server. We'll have the baddest assest decoratedest server in the farm.