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September 2006 Archives

Today's Object Lesson In Cabinet Design

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We're in the middle of installing a dozen or so APC cabinets in our server room, a complete replacement of all existing cabinets and racks. APC cabinets (like many others) have what they call "0U" slots on the sides of the rear of the cabinet, for hanging things like vertical power strips, or cable-management trays. There are two on each side, an "inner" and an "outer", with the outer being closest to the rear doors of the cabinet, and the inner being closest to the vertical rails of the cabinet itself.

Our initial design called for the inner slots to be vertical cable-management, and the outer slots to be vertical Power Distribution Units (PDUs). The thinking at the time was that the power cable would come in from the server horizontally, go directly into the vertical cablemanagement, and come out to the outer-mounted PDU where it needed to. It seemed like a great idea on paper.

However, for those of you who some day go to design these things, don't do it. It simply doesn't work (it so doesn't work, that as I type this I have our two student interns correcting every one of our cabinets to fix the problem). The reason it doesn't work is because the prongs from the vertical cable-management (which hold the cables) extend too far horizontally. Initially, we thought the limit of the effect of this was that they sometimes can interfere with the horizontal cable-management rows, but that was something we could work around easily enough. Worse, though, is that we found out this morning that they also interfere with the servers' rails, if those rails extend at all past the rear vertical rail (which often happens).

So, learn from my experience -- PDUs on the inside, cable management on the outside. Your life will be a lot easier, even if does mean that your power cables cross the PDUs to get to the cable-management.

UPDATE: Ignore all this for reasons to be disclosed later.

UPDATE 2: OK, so here's the deal. If we swap those around, then the rail extensions block the power outlets that are in the PDUs. Also, the circuit breakers at the top of the power strip completely block access to the vertical rail mounting squares. That last part is fine if all I ever mount are quick-connect devices, but if I should ever need to put in capture nuts, I'm screwed.

We've contacted the manufacturer of the gear to find out "what is it that other people do, because surely this has come up before?"

Britney Spears, Child Thief?

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Now, I'm not saying she did it, but c'mon, tell me that the picture to the right, which is an artist's sketch of the woman who slashed a woman to steal her newborn, doesn't look exactly like you'd expect an artist's sketch of Britney Spears to look.

Quotes From The Concert

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D and I went to see Def Leppard tonight. She's a real trooper, not being a Lep fan at all, but she put up with a loud rock concert all for the love of her man. :-)

Runner-Up for "Quote of the Night":

Me: I'm starting to get kinda annoyed. This bitch is totally like taking over the space in front of my seat like she owns it.
D: Umm, babe, your seat's over here.
Me: ... ... Oh. So, um, I'm the asshole.
D: Yeah, kinda.

Quote of the night:

Joe Elliott is introducing Rick Allen, the crazy one-armed drummer, and asking the crowd to give him a round of applause. D is slapping my stomach.
Me: (puzzled look) Huh?
D: You can only do it one-handed, right?

Pieces Are All In Place

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After a pair of meetings this weekend, the final two pieces of the wedding puzzle came into place. We (FINALLY!) nailed down an officiant, and after trying some wedding cupcakes from a couple vendors we weren't really happy with, we fell back and punted and went with another place that we both loved the taste of, but had tried to avoid for other reasons.

It's coming down to the wire now, less than a month to go, and I have to say I'm as excited today as I was the day I asked her to marry me... even more so, actually. At this stage of the game, the odds are a lot higher that she'll continue to say "Yes." Coulda gone either way, the day I asked her. *grin*

Authentication Required

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I'm officially tired of clearing out the junk comments. Leaving a comment will require a TypeKey login to authenticate with. The upside, though, is that comments will go right up automatically if you've authenticated.

Damned comment-spammers.

This morning's article in the Daily Freeman concerning the Ground Round worker found stabbed to death after her night shift had concluded had a very interesting TiVo ad displayed on the same page, that included a picture of a knife and the word "back-stabber" (as it was cycling slowly through all the things Tivo would help you view this season on TV).

But, not entirely sensitive to any of Inger's family members who might be reading that article online....

Take The Blue Pill

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Ordinarily I just ignore spam. I mean as in "I delete it before I even mentally consciously recognize it as spam". That's why I was kind of annoyed that after I got a particular spam, it took me a week to get another copy of what has to be one of the funniest images ever to be in a spam:


Classic stuff I tell you. I laughed for like ten minutes. Not often that a viagra spam invokes The Matrix, and in such an appropriate manner, even if it does get the pill colors backwards.

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This page is an archive of entries from September 2006 listed from newest to oldest.

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