[Cialug] OT: KVM=how sick of a geek you are.

[Renegade Muskrat]

I have a "full blown cabinet" that even has a tinted glass door on the 
front. But it isn't one of the 8-foot tall monstrosities seen in data 
centers; it is only 20 U. Does that still mean i have a fairly advanced 
case of geek sickness?

The slowest machine i still have in production on the home network is a 
486/66, which is being used as a mail server. It was actually the first 
machine i ever built, back around 1993 or 1994. Alas, none of my 
servers use a serial console. They are all fairly standard PC hardware, 
hooked through a pair of 4 port KVM switches (when i bought the 
switches it was cheaper to get two 4 port switches than a single 8 
port... go figure). The KVM switches are attached to a very old 
monochrome VGA monitor and an old keyboard (old enough that the case is 
made of actual metal and the keys make a solid click noise when 
pressed). I used the monochrome monitor because i figured it would draw 
less power than a color monitor, which would thus allow slightly 
greater runtime on the UPS. I suppose in a few years LCD monitors will 
become throw-away items and i'll be able to find a free color LCD with 
even lower power requirements than the monochrome CRT.

At 12:25 AM 5/21/2005 -0500, you wrote:
 >Hmmm.  "Computer Room", that may be a step beyond the KVM sickness.
 >There
 >is probably a degree for racks too.  Telcom wall-mounted, telcom,
 >floor-standing, four post, and full blown cabinet.
 >
 >
 >-----Original Message-----
 >From: Academician Kula [mailto:tkula@io.com]
 >Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 8:16 PM
 >
 >On Fri, May 20, 2005 at 07:25:10PM -0500, Nathan C. Smith wrote:
 >> I have a theory that states you can tell how much of a geek 
somebody
 >> is by how many total ports their home KVM switches has.
 >
 >Perhaps for some geeks, but about half of the active machines in my
 >computer
 >room don't do this newfangled "video", and have three cables coming 
out
 >of
 >them: power, ethernet and serial console.
                                                -- Dan
   --------------------------------------------------------------------
             "I'm still sane on three planets and two moons."
   --------------------------------------------------------------------
       Daniel Ramaley                  3118 Cottage Grove Ave Apt 8
       dramaley at spatulacity dot cx        Des Moines, Iowa 50311
       http://www.spatulacity.cx/                    (515) 271-5233
   --------------------------------------------------------------------
        WARNING: REDISTRIBUTION OF THIS MESSAGE MAY BE IN
                 VIOLATION OF APPLICABLE COPYRIGHT LAWS.
                 THIS MESSAGE NOT GUARANTEED Y-TO-K COMPLIANT.