A Day in the Life….

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…of a nerd.

This is what I have been elbow deep in the last two days.

cables-cables

Lovely, isn’t it?

** Update:

As Rob mentioned below, this isn’t exactly the recommended way to route cables, let alone mixing cable types (ha!) which I suppose in a real data centre is a large no-no.  But this is a government data centre, and the prevailing theme here is to do the least amount of work possible, so this is what happens after 10 years or so.  You are free to formulate your own metaphor from this picture, having it symbolize the red tape and bureaucracy most of us identify with when we think “government”.

Ali sent along a sample of what happens in her tech writer world.

cable management

She helpfully mentions:

Notice how eight cables per side rail are invisible behind 1/8 of an inch of rack flange. Also observe the tidy, physics-defying 90-degree cable bends which are helpful in these situations.

I will have to amend our real life data centre to reflect the manufacturer’s view of these sorts of things ASAP.  Most notably absent in Ali’s picture is the patina of grime and dust that dulls every surface in our location, befouling the fingers of anyone foolish enough to try to impose order in the chaos.  Trust me, I know all about the grime.

7 thoughts on “A Day in the Life….”

  1. You mean your cables don’t neatly and magically disappear into the cable management troughs as depicted in the customer documentation?

  3. Hmmmm.
    Copper, Fiber and Power cables all running together…that doesn’t look quite up to spec. to me… 😉

  4. Some would be honoured to work with The Great Spagetti Monster, especially at this time of year.

  5. I think we’re all missing the really important thing here… The cables are at least connected to something? 😛

  7. Totally unrelated, but I love that term from the books too Nikki! And it’s so suits this group doesn’t it?

    Court…..Friggin’ yikes! Somehow I pictured your job a little differently.

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