> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Julia Thompson
[snip]
> We have far too many cables as well. I have "organize cables" on my
> list of things, but it's down a lot lower than "go through everything in
> the kitchen and get rid of a bunch of it" and "do the same with various
> closets".
I did manage to sort the cables into data, telephone, audio and RF stuff.
Even put all the connectors and adapters into plastic bags in the
appropriate storage containers. However, there's still a cardboard box of
various old devices, some of which might someday be useful (yeah, sure) or I
keep for nostalgic reasons. For example, I have a prototype VENT
Videomaster, which was a box that would control a bunch of video devices
with IR -- one of Nolan Bushnell's many failed startups. And a couple of
PC-8201A portable computers (upgraded from 8K to 16K of RAM) that I keep
because they make Bill Gates smile -- the BASIC implementation for them was
the last software he worked on.
> The cables and other stuff (ISDN routers, phones, etc.) that are not
> currently being used are in the garage in 2 boxes. What I'd like to do
> is take a box of gallon freezer bags (with the convenient write-on
> strip), put cables into the bags and label the bags as to what cables
> are in them, and put all the bags into a big plastic box with a lid. I
> think I'm going to need Dan to help sort out what we should keep from
> what we shouldn't, but in theory, I can do the rest of the work on that.
The plastic bag thing is what I did with the connectors and adapters. I
have too much other stuff, though. I really should let some of it go, now
that I think about it. For example, I replaced my computers' power supplies
with ultra-quiet ones (hate that humming!) but I've saved the old ones in
case of a failure. But here in Silicon Valley, there are plenty of places
to pick up new power supplies on the cheap.
One of the frustrations is that it's difficult to donate useful things like
this. We have the computer recycling center
(http://www.crc.org/donate/index.html) but they charge a fee for donating
anything that isn't a complete working machine. That irks me, but I suppose
it's necessary.
> Good. If we were still doing a mail server in the house, it would be
> down for probably closer to an hour -- disconnect, get the machine into
> the car, drive 35 minutes, get it into the new house, get it set up.
> That's an hour, probably. One good reason to be doing our internet
> hosting off-site. (You probably have better arrangements for broadband
> in the location you're moving to than we will in the new house. The
> speed quoted for our service in the new place is lower than what Dan's
> regularly getting out of the VPN for work.)
I'll be contacting my ISP shortly... but we don't exactly have a typical
relationship. A friend owns the company, which is really a hosting service
(which hosts Microsoft, Symantec, Oracles, etc.) with incredible uptime and
latency. It's a heck of a deal for me. And when Pac Bell couldn't get my
DSL up on time when we last moved, they even parked my server on somebody's
desk for a week to keep it on-line.
> Good luck. I hope your move is a lot less stressful for you than ours
> is for me.
I just keep telling myself that it'll be easier this time than last. And
I'm going to let the movers take more of the boxes this time. I did so much
last time -- everything but the major furniture, essentially -- that they
didn't even use the minimum four hours to move what was left.
Nick
