Candid snapshots from SoftLayer's Web 2.0 Expo booth (609).

The star of the show: Our Server Challenge!

Attendees are challenged to rebuild a mini-rack of servers in the fastest time possible.

To learn more about why SoftLayer has this crazy challenge at Web 2.0, visit www.softlayer.com

Contour, window door

Production + lab rack in basement. Not complete by a long shot, wiring is sad at the moment.

The 10 Series® Enclosure System is your choice for applications requiring exceptional strength and weight load capabilities while providing contemporary styling at a reasonable cost.

We put Art to work desoldering a PCB from an old amplifier I had.

I ate half of them in the car on the way up to pick up Phobias Server rack, i then felt sick :(

This used to be my workstation.

I reluctantly wonder about who will call this space their office in the future.

Anaheim, California, USA

See what used to be by clicking here.

Photograph by Jeffrey Bass -- All Rights Reserved

some GX150 workstations from Boeing Surplus, they work.

Racks4server

The assembled rack, made of 2x4, 2x3 and plywood. There's a 'cable management system' at the back to keep wires tidy. Next step will be to sand the shelves and paint the rack.

Computerzimmer Aufbau

John contributed the manicured greens for today's tactile blog diptych. You can find the blog at headright.com/blogs/tactile/default.aspx

Apple Dual 1.25 G4 Server, Dell PowerEdge 2850, 2 Dell GigaBit Switches, PBX, Power Control, LaCie TerraByte, and 3 250 gig drives. Mmmm, yummy.

Computerzimmer Aufbau

Unser neues Serverrack kurz vor der Übersiedelung.

back of said GX150s, they are on a 200LB rated slide out shelf that itself weighs 40LBs.

Travis finished these tables today with 4 electrical outlets each!

Between the entertainment and storage areas

Next upgrade will be to add RJ45 jacks and USB chargers flush mounted to the table.

Middle of MNIS server rack, front view, September 11th 2013.

Bottom of MNIS server rack, front view, September 11th 2013.

I'll say it quietly but we were doing some fairly big work in the server room today and it went a lot better than it might have.

While I was in there, I snapped this which shows - or was intended to show - the dramatic size difference between these two structured cable types.

The purple stuff is Cat 6 which carries four twisted pairs in a compartmentalised carrier.

The blue stuff, which in real life looks like hosepipe in comparison, is Cat 7. It carries four twisted pairs, each in an individual foil screen, and the whole thing is surrounded by a braided screen. This was blessedly handled by some external contractors because it is an absolute bastard to work with.