I forgot to post this last month, and I have since acquired a couple more pieces of equipment the most impressive one being an HP DL360G5 4G RPS Performance Server. Dual QC 5345 Xeon, 16gb FB ECC RAM, 6×146gb 10K SAS SFF hard drives, in a 1U. Here is the post I saved last month. Don’t miss the recent photos at the bottom of the post.

In 2007 a friend and I both started moving out equipment to rack mount setups. We each had our own reasons, but the common reasons were saving space, organization, and it is kinda nice to say you have a rack in your house. When I was looking for a rack/cabinet I found someone a couple hours away that had a lightly used 45U fully enclosed cabinet for sale. The cabinet came with sides, doors, caster base, two shelves, four-fan unit for the top, and a $350 price tag. A few days after picking up the cabinet I spoke with him again and we made a deal that resulted in me having an entire car full (trunk full and front and back seats full to the ceiling) of equipment. I recreated an album containing the older pictures of the cabinet, and how things were organized, which can be viewed in the Rack Project album.

After moving to Atlanta I was able to acquire even more rack mount equipment and fill in some of the gaps I had to leave empty in the beginning. The details of what is in the cabinet can be read on my Gear page, but here is a parent list.

• Linksys WRT54G 4-Port 10/100 54mb Wireless Router
• Canon CanoScan 8400F
• brother HL Series HL-2070N Laser Printer,
• 4U, Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Desktop
• 5U, AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ File Server
• 1U, Intel Pentium III, 850mhz Endian Firewall/Router
• 1U, Intel Pentium 4, 2.4ghz IBM x305 Servers (x4)
• 1U, Tripp Lite HTR07-1U UPS (x2)
• 1U, Dell PowerConnect 5012 Gigabit Switch
• 1U, Cisco Catalyst 2900 XL 24 port Switch
• 1U, CAT5e 24 port Patch Panel
• 1U, Rack Writer
• 2U, Intel Pentium 4, 2.6C Linux Desktop

I am currently not using the Cisco switch, the 2U desktop, or any of the x305 1Us on a regular basis. With the monitor and 5.1 audio connected to the same power source I am pulling 515 watts right now, which does raise the power bill, but not to an outrageous amount.

I am opening up time to start doing a little consulting so I have taken some time to organize the work space and make it a better work environment. The following pictures are of my home office that were taken on March 2nd, Home Office album is on PicasaWeb.

I grabbed this off of Go Fondue. I was a little confused at first because the names of the cheeses seem to be misnamed (Emmenthaler and Gruyère are the named I know).

I haven’t tried it yet, but this recipe is probably going to give you the real Swiss fondue experience. The fondue I had in Zurich had white wine in it, which was different from other fondue I have had, but sooooo good.

1/2 lb Emnenthaler Cheese (shredded)
1/2 lb Gruyeye (shredded)
1 clove Garlic
2 cups Dry White Wine
1 tbs Lemon Juice
2 tbs Flour
3 tbs Kirsch
1/4 tsp White Pepper
Nutmeg and/or Paprika to taste

Rub the inside of the fondue pot with the garlic clove – add clove to pot or disgard
Heat up the White Wine & Lemon Juice – should be hot but do not boil
Reduce heat to low and slowly add cheese while stirring
Slowly add remainder of ingredients while stirring
If fondue is too loose add more cheese
If fondue is too stiff add more wine

Not a big deal, but I just posted my resume. I had it down for quite some time. I am not actively looking for a job so please do not send me job offers for full time positions. I am however open to accepting offers for contract work.

Today is the 2nd Sunday I have been in Zurich and I love it here. There are some things I think I would be annoyed by and it is sometimes difficult not knowing any German, but overall it is a great place. There is graffiti, but what city doesn’t have it. The crime is super low so I don’t have to worry when I am out walking late at night. There are a lot of attractive women here as well, as I walk around I amazed just how many there are compared to other cities I have lived in.

I have felt like a jerk not being able communicate with a lot of the people I have to talk to, co-workers are of course excluded from that since they all speak English. A lot of stores seem to be closed on Sunday, and they are of course different from stores in the U.S. The food is good, I have had Italian, Swiss-American, Swiss, and some German food and have enjoyed them all. The Swiss-American burger could have been better, but it was of course “American” food in another country. Food is pretty expensive. I have been paying 20-30 CHF for a meal, which is about $17-$25. Not horrible, but when that $25 is fries, a coke, and bratwurst it is a bit expensive.

I am pretty sure I am going to put in the effort to relocate to Zurich even with the downsides, I feel there is more opportunity for travel, career advancement, personal growth, and excitement here than in CA or NY and certainly more than Atlanta.

You are more than welcome to browse through all of the photos taken during the trip along with some of my favorites displayed below.

This Saturday will be my first time leaving the country. I will be going to Zurich Switzerland for two weeks for work and I am so incredibly excited. There really isn’t much more to say than that. It will be mostly work, but I will be going snowboarding in the Alps next weekend and taking a lot of photographs with the DSLR. I will probably post some pictures while I am there and when I do I will post links.