[tech] Down! With the machine room ;)

[Andrew Williams]

On Wed, 13 Sep 2000 18:27:52 +0800, Jean-Paul Blaquiere wrote:

>good idea, if it's feasible.   also good preparation for if ever we want to
>tear down the machine room.  That should not be something that happens soon,
>because, as other people have laread mentioned, the roof leaks, we do store
>*other* stuff in there, Packrat's DEC bits, etc...
>Having a lockable region would be good for this sort of stuff, _if_ we can
>create it.

The machine room _is_ currently full of stuff, and most of it is
presumably in the machine room for a good reason. Demolishing the walls
doesn't make all the stuff inside take up any less room, nor does it
remove the reason it's in the machine room now - to be secure. Have a
look inside and work out how many racks and cupboards we'd need to
store all of that stuff...

Lockable racks would be great - especially if they had clear fronts,
and were secure at the backs of the machines too. Don't forget the
cabling needs to be secure too, and run between racks without being
vulnerable to  grabbing/yanking/cutting.

I think people that want to rip down the machine room should actually
_have_ a solution that's demonstrably better, and affordable, before
there's any demolition. If they want to destroy something that other
people built, they should try _building_ something to replace it,
first. 

>metalworking, shmetalworking.  have grinder, have wire brush, have metal shears,
>have welding gear (of the TIG and manual variety).  have hammer.

Ooh - cool. You don't want to help make an entrant for the World Solar
Car challenge next year, do you? :-)

Andrew