My Server Farm 2004-Jan-22 Fr 12:12:14 MST

I purchased my first computer, a DEC PDP-8/e, on 1971-05-03 which put me ahead of the home computer enthusiast by about five years. The PDP-8/e came with 4K 12-bit words of core memory and a TeleType ASR-33 for I/O and cost $6,500 (in 1971 dollars). A year later, I added another 4K words of core memory at a cost of $2,750. In 1974, I spent $8,400 for a removable hard disk of 2.5 MB. When I sold the entire system in 1979, I had invested more than $42,000 in it. I used the $9,700 from the sale to purchase a Cromemco System 3 with 64K RAM and two 8-inch floppy drives plus most of Cromemco's software packages. PerSci made the floppy drives and they operated with a linear voice-coil positioner just like the hard disks of the day. If the drive read the last sector on a cylinder and then switched to the next cylinder, it could pick up the first sector on the track without the normal one-rotation latency. The head would move so fast that one could not actually see the positioner move. In 1987, I purchased an Amiga 2000 and later added more hardware. It still works and has 32 MB RAM, 2 MB video RAM, 1.7 GB hard disk, a 270 MB SyQuest removable hard disk and a CD-ROM. My present computer I purchased in 1996 March: an IBM Aptiva (with Pentium @ 166 MHz) to which I have added options. It now contains 64 MB RAM, 2 MB video RAM, 512K cache, 3 hard disks: 1.6 GB IDE drive for Win98, a 10.0 GB IDE drive (devoted entirely to Linux) and an Iomega JAZ 1 GB SCSI removable disk (also devoted entirely to Linux). I stole the SCSI DAT data streamer tape drive from the Amiga and mounted it on the Aptiva for backups. I now use the AcerView F51 LCD monitor. Since 1980, I have used a UPS to power all my computer equipment (except a laser printer--since sold--which required 1 KW). I now have an HP DeskJet 870 Cse Color Printer and an HP ScanJet 5 Pse Color Scanner. I use a BusLogic 958A SCSI host adapter to communicate with the removable JAZ 1 GB drive, the HP Color Scanner and the DAT Streamer 2 GB Backup Tape Drive. I also have a Canon Powershot 600 digital camera for taking pictures. I use Win98 to download them--but not to display them. The Win98 viewers that I have do not do justice to the pictures. I have a Linux viewer that displays them in breathtaking detail. The picture above I took with the Powershot. The computer's "natural" keyboard, manufactured by USA Identity Inc, I covered with a custom made plastic dust cover which stays in place at all times. Since April 15 of 1999, I have had a DSL line running at 960K with a Cisco 675 router connected to an Intel Ethernet Switch running at 100MB. The DSL line runs over my telephone twisted copper pair which also provides standard analog telephone service. On July 31st of 1999, I relegated the IBM Aptiva to a lower level position. I purchased various parts and built my own new system consisting of a dual processor motherboard, one Pentium III/450 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM, 48X CDROM, Intel Ethernet 10/100 MBS card and a new floppy. I stole the BusLogic SCSI controller, 1 GB Jaz drive and 10 GB IDE drive from the Aptiva and installed them in the new machine. On September 1st, I added the second Pentium III/450 MHz CPU. That should give me sufficient processor power to process respectable quantities of data for "seti" ! Later, I purchased two Pentium III/550 MHz CPUs and built another computer with 256 MB memory. The newest machine also has a 48X CD-ROM, a 1 GB Jaz removable and Orb SCSI 2.2 GB removable disks. All three machines I have connected through an Intel Ethernet InBusiness 8-Port 10/100 Switch. I use only one keyboard, video and mouse which I switch between computers using a Conyx Technologies KVM switch. I hope to get Samba up and running on my main Linux machine in the near future so that the Aptiva running Win 98 can access the printer. The 4mm DAT tape backup became unreliable, so I have removed and retired it. Presently, I use NFS to allow both the high speed Linux machines to share the Orb 2.2 GB removable disk drive over the 100MB Ethernet LAN for backups.