Why Our Rackmount Server is a Crappy Bedroom Computer
For Codemecca’s first capital expenditure, Mike and I split the cost of a Dell Poweredge 2550 rack-mounted server we’re using for dedicated development among other things. Since my bedroom’s been pretty low-tech for a while, I thought I’d put Lord Xenu (that’s his name, by the way) in there for that ego-boosting feeling, you know.
What a crappy idea.
So for one, since I don’t actually have a rack, I stuck this bad boy right on the ground in the subtle-yet-noticable spot behind my $20 Walmart TV stand. Because old Xenu is so freakin’ long, the back side had to be closest to the monitor for the cord to reach, leaving the CDROM drive, power button, and all the sexiness on the front in full view of the corner’s carpet alone.
Also, since he takes up so much space, I had to reclaim trash can territory on Lord Xenu’s back. Not much could be done for the more necessary deskchair territory in that area. Working there had a few restrictions on movement, but I could manage those. Even his industrial strength fans that sound like a rolled-down car window at eighty are pretty tolerable.
But to top it all off Lord Xenu is possessed – likely with some Scientology voodoo. Apparently Dell has some silly feature built in that causes it to randomly boot. The first time this happened to me was when a nap I took turned into an all-day hibernation. I woke up in the wee hours of the morning fully dressed, sweating because my door had been left open – something I never do when sleeping – and Lord Xenu was completely on at the Linux login prompt. Yeah I was pretty freaked out.
So earlier today I gave Xenu the boot. Now my roommates and I get to deal with his crap in the living room. Moral here? Have big closets.
