[rescue] Trade?

[Bill Bradford]

On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 11:33:18AM -0700, Skeezics Boondoggle wrote:
> Picture this:  a large vestibule outside the datacenter, plain white,
> completely empty except for a large low-slung couch across from a huge
> plate glass window, behind which were three ranks of modem racks, six
> abreast, three deep, with 16 modems per chassis (old Microcoms[1]) and
> about 8-10 green and red LEDs per modem.  Many a late night, after pulling
> 24+ hour shifts, you could slink down onto that couch and be completely
> mesmerized by the soft warm glow of the twinkling lights, and literally go
> into a trance... 
> Dang, I wish some pictures or video of that had survived.

Dude, at Texas.Net, they had custom chassis they designed, built, and even
sold to third parties.  We'd take a USR Courier, take the board out of the
plastic enclosure, and slide the board into a set of vertical rails in this 
chassis.  Plug in power and phone to the appropriate leads on the back of the 
board.

One power cord per enclosure (it was 10 or 12 modems if I remember correctly),
one phone cord per modem.  (these was the pre-lines-on-PRI days).  The only
thing you saw in the front of the enclosure was the red LEDs on the front
edge of the Courier PCBs.

You can see some of them in this 1996-vintage picture of me at T.N.  they're
above and below the Portmaster.

http://www.mrbill.net/me/older-pics/1996/bill.gif

Imagine nothing but four or five full 72" racks full of these in the back
of the room, with the lights off.  VERY impressive, but man, so was the
heat all those Couriers and power supplies put off. 8-)

Ahh, the golden days of ISPs.

Bill

-- 
bill bradford
mrbill at mrbill.net
austin, texas