VMS Spoken Here

I’ve moved almost everything into my new office.  That means pictures are going to be delayed, because there are about a dozen boxes of stuff to go through before the floor is empty.  I promised myself that I *WILL* have order.  And I certainly don’t want to take pictures of the clutter!

I’ve been pitching lots of stuff.  Since a lot of my business deals with “old” stuff, it’s hard to figure out what to keep.  However, some things are probably not worth keeping — like a CD-ROM 1x speed drive, when new drives are 64x and faster, and not only read but burn as well.  Expect some things to show up on Craigslist.

I did keep the 9-track open-reel tape drives, since I actually use them to read customer data.  Not really often, but desperate people contact me from time to time, and are willing to pay $200 per tape!

I was saddened to discover that one of my VAXstations doesn’t boot.  At least it’s in the equipment rack, and so it’s not in the way.  I’ll fix it once the clutter is cleared (because the new workbench is 6″ deep in stuff, too).

I now have my Professional Engineer license and related documents up on the walls.  Took a bit of work to get them all arranged “just so” under supervision of my wife, Dianne.

In addition to all the business-related stuff, I have drawings of “Q” and “Gowron” from Star Trek:The Next Generation.  I had attended a Star Trek convention about 10 years ago, and had the pictures autographed.  She thought that they needed more exposure than on some dusty shelf, and had them framed for Christmas.  Thanks, honey!

The bookshelves have been loaded.  Now it’s time to sort all the miscellaneous widgets a computer facility accumulates…

The office is shaping up!  The carpet was installed on Monday.

All the servers have been installed in the equipment rack, and the network ports were wired up.  Out of 48 ports, we’re shy just ONE.  I’ll install a 10/100 switch for the VAX computers.  They’re only 10 Mbit/sec anyway.

We’ve moved the furniture into the office space.  Rather than keep the old desk (about 20 years old), we ran out yesterday and bought a new one.  It should be arriving this morning.

Based on the desk location, we can then install the shelf units and filing cabinets.  We should then be DONE.

The contractor has finished!  I now have operational phone jacks, three 15-amp circuits (2 for equipment, one for lights), and 240 square feet of emptiness.

The carpet should be installed in a week or two, and then all the equipment and furniture can be moved into their places…

Yes, they finally have the mud work and sanding done (except for minor touch-up) and have begun to paint!

All the drywall has been installed.  They started “mud” work on Tuesday — where they fix all the little spots, like the screw holes and other imperfections.  With Thanksgiving on Thursday, they left a little early Wednesday, and one guy was in for a few hours on Friday.  Work will resume on Monday.

With any luck, they’ll be able to start painting on Tuesday or Wednesday!

Work has resumed on my new office/lab.  There’s wiring to do for overhead lighting, but they’ll start installing drywall immediately after that’s done.  Kessler Heating & Cooling came out yesterday to re-route some HVAC lines and add two heat registers and a cold-air return to the space.

This time, I wanted to “do it right”.  So, I’m going to have two 15-amp circuits, one for each side of the office, with 4 outlets spaced every 4 feet or so.

There are 3 network lines and 4 phone lines, with outlets spaced every 6 feet.  I did cheap out and go with Cat 5e wire instead of Cat 6.  But I should be able to run Gigabit Ethernet everywhere in my office.

Four cables per outlet times 10 outlets works out to a LOT of wire.  1,200 feet, to be exact.  Not counting the ordinary power wiring…