Hardware!

So, this has been an interesting week. First, a guy down the hall got the capacitors and laptops shipped in mentioned in my previous post. Then, discussion was made in the CSLC about running a big LAN party (100 pre-registrations), then an even bigger one (possibly up to two hundred or so). A LAN of a hundred machines is a large LAN, and needs a solid backbone. Well, I happen to be the server administrator for an organization that has several 24-port 10/100 switches floating about, so I offered my services and then asked LUG if they were interested in doing this for the CSLC. The answer was positive, and then the unexpected happened. Dr. Phillip Merkey, our faculty advisor and one of the people who helped develop the concept of a Beowulf cluster while at NASA, offered the use of a large box of CAT5 cables and a 72-port 10/100 switch, formerly from a Beowulf cluster (scroll down a bit until you see Ecgtheow) he brought with him to Tech from NASA. This equipment is currently sitting in my room, waiting until the LAN party to be restored to part of its former glory. It is really kind of awesome.