[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Stealth


not true.  there are many times we all sit around the whole day, fixing a "problem" here and there like replacing a printer toner, etc.  it's not like we have a constant flow of servers coming in that we have to "test/check/implement".  we do have a lot of spare time on our hands.  the better we do, the more time we have.  

on the other hand, there are nights where i've worked from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and then get an email on the way home that a SQL box has gone down, and then i go back to work, and work through the night, till 3:00 the next afternoon getting it up and running again... but it's not always like that.


again... that must be an opinion, because your opinion differs from mine, the rest of our IT, and management.

will it make the servers more secure (physically or electronically), or reliable, or fault tolerant?

Originally posted by Stealth

EDIT:  while i'm on that, do you mind if i ask you how old you are, and what job you hold (what industry you're in), and any previous jobs?  I'm trying to find out with what experience you're making these comments :-/

If you must know; Aged 22, 1st class BSc (Hons) (around 80-85% average over all 4 years) in Computer Science from University of Strathclyde, followed by 8 months rolling consultancy work for Enigmatec (www.enigmatec.com), developing new patent technology designed by Prof. Richard Connor of Strathclyde University (also Head of CS) and Prof Alan Dearle of St. Andrews University.  Currently in final stage of interview process for Amazon SDC / applying for MSc courses (Forensic Informatics / Advanced CS).

(Work included several trips to the London office (both of them) when they were inviting clients from HP, Sun, Intel, etc around for talks)

[Stealth]

wow that's great.  you should replace all the management and IT jobs we have... because your opinion differs so much from theirs... and mine.

[aldo_14]

Perhaps I've just not had the time to allow a pragmatic technological approach towards functionality and efficiency to become overridden with a need to add useless gimmicks?

What exactly did you tell your management?  Did you suggest an alternative or give a SWOT-style analysis? Or just say it'd impress people and hope they took that at face value?  do you have a mockup design set out? (y'know, to check the cabling positions, airflow, power usage, etc)  Have you asked any clients?  What have they said previously when you've been touring them round the server room?

I find it odd that you'd rather have blue lights than a spotlessly clean server room.  As cathode ray tubes AFAIK don't have a noise cancelling purpose, I doubt noise is a differentiating factor.  You made to comparison to seeing the 'body' of a company - anyone wanting to see that, if they have any savvy (and they bloody well should), won't give a **** about lighting, because it has nothing to do with the ability of the company to manage or manipulate the servers.  And if that big client bloke is impressed and goes back to his business, and asks his tech support guys why they don't have little light tubes in the server room - what're they going to say?  Perhaps 'because we don't need them'?

(Of course, it becomes even less important if you're not actually selling server rooms.)

Just tell me one tangible benefit - a factual one, not opinion of what 'looks nice' to Mr Random Client - of cathode tube lighting.

And don't dare think that because someone else agree with you at your work, you can call people disagreeing here 'kid's or say we'll never get a decent job (etc) because of that.

[Stealth]

Originally posted by aldo_14
Perhaps I've just not had the time to allow a pragmatic technological approach towards functionality and efficiency to become overridden with a need to add useless gimmicks?

What exactly did you tell your management?  Did you suggest an alternative or give a SWOT-style analysis? Or just say it'd impress people and hope they took that at face value?  do you have a mockup design set out? (y'know, to check the cabling positions, airflow, power usage, etc)  Have you asked any clients?  What have they said previously when you've been touring them round the server room?
actually i didn't suggest anything... one of our vars did, and the IT manager of the mother-company agreed, and that was it...

I find it odd that you'd rather have blue lights than a spotlessly clean server room.  As cathode ray tubes AFAIK don't have a noise cancelling purpose, I doubt noise is a differentiating factor.  You made to comparison to seeing the 'body' of a company - anyone wanting to see that, if they have any savvy (and they bloody well should), won't give a **** about lighting, because it has nothing to do with the ability of the company to manage or manipulate the servers.  And if that big client bloke is impressed and goes back to his business, and asks his tech support guys why they don't have little light tubes in the server room - what're they going to say?  Perhaps 'because we don't need them'?
but maybe subconsciously they'll think "wow, that looks cool"... i'm sure they'll never go to their IT managers and complain that they don't have cathode tubes, but at least it'll get the effect to them

(Of course, it becomes even less important if you're not actually selling server rooms.)

Just tell me one tangible benefit - a factual one, not opinion of what 'looks nice' to Mr Random Client - of cathode tube lighting.
THAT IS THE BENEFIT!!1... *shakes head*. with all the experience and degrees you're swinging, you can't see the benefit of making something look appealing to a large client?  maybe you should go right back to school :-/  granted there's no 100% guarantee that everyone who looks into our server room is going to be awe-struck, but again... taking slight risks is part of business, right? (another thing you shoudl've learned in college), and if in the end we spent $50 on cathode tubes, it's not really TOO big an investment...........

And don't dare think that because someone else agree with you at your work, you can call people disagreeing here 'kid's or say we'll never get a decent job (etc) because of that.
first, when i made that remark, i'd received the following comments so far in my thread:
- GAAAAYYYYY
- a rack from HP? GAAAAAAYYYYY
- "expects thread to get lots of views based on title"
- hehehe... dongle.
- Yer all a bunch of *****s

Second, the point i was making, whether they liked it or not, is that this would be visually appealing to corporate clients (read: eye-candy).  it's not a matter of whether or not it would... no opinion there... it WILL... since a LARGE PERCENTAGE of the higher-end clients don't care what a server room "should" (in your opinion) look like.  the more appealing we make it, the better.  obviously if we went to the extent of installing a disco light, and fog machine (thanks whoever the clown who broght that up was), then we'd be going too far.  this thread was not created to entertain opinions of what i was doing.  it was to ask where i could get 120v standalone cold cathode tubes.  end of story

... you see where i'm coming from?  the last two replies i got were decent (thx bobbau and matthew).  AT THIS POINT it was not a matter of agreeing with my work or not that prompted me to say that... it was a bunch of kids yelling "GAYYYYY" and laughing because i said "dongle", and not understanding the benefit of appealing to clients... i'm sure you'll agree if that's the way they act, that they most likely won't really increase their financial horizons too much...

[Stealth]

soooooo let's put an end to this 'discussion'... i'll let you know when i've got it done (thanks to the few people who actually CONTRIBUTED to this thread), and post before/after pictures, and you can tell me what you think.  since in the end, after all, it's a matter of opinion...

[aldo_14]

[q]actually i didn't suggest anything... one of our vars did, and the IT manager of the mother-company agreed, and that was it...
[/q]

(vars?).  AAh, so it could just as easily be to keep the employees happy?

[q]but maybe subconsciously they'll think "wow, that looks cool"... i'm sure they'll never go to their IT managers and complain that they don't have cathode tubes, but at least it'll get the effect to them[/q]

Even in the best case, it won't make them sign up.  In the worst they'll dislike it.  Any representative worth their salt would judge on something a lot more tangible than server lights - to do otherwise would be neglecting their responsibility to their company.

[q]THAT IS THE BENEFIT!!1... *shakes head*. with all the experience and degrees you're swinging, you can't see the benefit of making something look appealing to a large client? maybe you should go right back to school :-/[/q]

No, I see through it.    You've no guarantee what the Client will or will not like in terms of aesthetics.  You can see that here by the difference of opinion; and this sort of demographic (gamers, probably mostly in the 16-mid 20s range) is the sort who really you'd expect to like flashy lighting.

If I was assessing a company I wanted to invest, or purchase from, I would ignore flashy lighting in the server room.  The 'eye candy' I'd be interested in would be organizational - are the servers in good condition, is the cabling organized and tucked away from tripping risk, etc.

It's not a factual benefit.  It's a matter of opinion.

[q]what some of you kids will never understand, and what will most likely keep you at the level you're at financially for most of your lives, is that what something LOOKS like is very important. If we have corporate clients walk into the offices, and they want to see the server room... most of them don't even know what a server IS, but if they open the door, and see our racks, with all the lights, and a soft, cold blue light illuminating the servers, that's eye-candy, and they'll think to themselves "Wow. this looks really professional"[/q]

That didn't apply to anyone replying, that applied to anyone with a different opinion.  Implying that to do so, would mean you'd never get a promotion or good paying job, etc.

Personally, I don't give a **** about fancy lighting, and I focus on functionality and efficiency above flashy stuff in my work.  That's my opinion, and I think it has, does and will stand in good stead in my line of work.

Nor do I like having my intelligence or experience asked for - because if you want to challenge my opinion, challenge it based on what I've said, not what degree I've had, etc.  i think I've explained enough of measoning for that.

EDIT; and that's my opinion.  You'll note (and hopefully forgive me if) I get narky if I feel I've been attacked for holding it.

[Stealth]

no that's fine, and i'm sorry for anything i said on my part... no hard feelings.

i just want to give this a try.  it's not going to be "flashy lighting", it's just going to be a soft, cold glow around the servers.  i think it will look cool.  i'm not going to overdo it or anything, don't worry, and it won't be a large investment, or too hard to revert to the previous configuration

[Bobboau]

I think the idea is silly, but you didn't ask for my opinion, you asked me how to get it done, that's why I sudgested getting/makeing a seperate power suply for the 12v tubes. I work in a plant with a upper management office built right into the front of it, the plant's primary purpose has clearly been demonstraited to be to impress investors, this has been made painfully clear given there investment in new machines that cost 3/4ths of a million dolars that all look very cool (includeing a machine that has a built in robot arm) but actualy work slightly slower than the older equipment we had, and with a vastly higher waist and mess. yeah, haveing tubes that light up the equipment would probly do the job of displaying the assets, they are set up so that you take the side off of a rack and they can see all the stuff inside lit up by them right? it might be a good idea to hook these into a seperate circit so you can turn them off when not showing off (weather you do turn them off or not isn't important, just so it's set up so you can), that way on the rare occasion you get some IT guy who looks at it and gets a bug up his ass like most of the people here have, you can say; "well we usualy only turn these on when were showing off or fixing some hardware /*flips switch*/ see, anyway as I was saying the router over here handles..." or if your boss ever asks what your going to do about all the electricity the lights are waisting.

[Ulala]

The way I see it, he probably went to his superiors and said "hey, I could get some cool looking lights to go with the racks for the server room" and they probably said "hey, that does sound cool, go for it" with the company covering it and all (at least, that's basically how it works at my job). And if his superiors said "go for it" then he'd better. I'm not sure why everyone's giving him such a hard time. If you're having such a problem, contact his superiors about how you think their server room should be run.

[Stealth]

similar to that, except it was actually suggested by someone else, and they liked it, and told me to go with it

[Ulala]

Well there you go. My supervisor tells me to waste boatloads of ink to make the DVDs for the office staff look cool.. even when it's their own personal copy that no one else will see, nor care.. and even if it's a waste of money and resources in my opinion, it's not in her opinion. So, I do what I'm told, and I keep my job. Amazing!