Mastodawn

Paul_IPv6 Jun 6

@SecureOwl

at one point, we were doing rack installs in 28 cities and we subcontracted to fujitsu.

they dressed and wax laced everything. they cut coax to custom lengths so that they all lined up perfectly. they dressed power cables. it was art.

cable management done right is a true thing of beauty.

John Timaeus Jun 6

@paul_ipv6 @SecureOwl

Wax lacing is the pinnacle of cable art.

Fuji did good work in that area, especially if you were west of the mississippi or New England ... They had lots of old Bell installers.

For the best of it, you really needed an old guy from Nortel, they'd pronounce router as rooter and go off on three day benders exploring the warmth that was a Texas winter -- but they could turn two miles of cat 5 cable into perfectly square stitched bricks with clean terminations at both ends, and a beautiful stacked coil of service loops at either end.

Paul_IPv6 Jun 6

@johntimaeus @SecureOwl

i was lucky enough to hire a former ESS install certified tech as our computer room "czar". i tried to learn wax lacing but never got to that level. but i sure did love looking at it.

@paul_ipv6 @SecureOwl

Outdated certifications I actually have...as well as Nortel DMS 100/200/500 switch supervisor. All of those and five dollars won't buy you anything at Dollar Tree.

I learned lacing from the old Canadians, and some SW Bell wire dogs who ran the CO for an actual clicker-switch. Wirewrap terminations with solder on the MDF.

@johntimaeus @SecureOwl

wow. wire wrap. i was actually pretty decent at that. we had to get T3 as ABAM with wire wrap distribution panels. that's when i still had a 66 and 110 block punch tool. learned what grasshopper fuses were. it was quite a learning period for me.

@paul_ipv6 @johntimaeus @SecureOwl when I was doing backbone work at Sprint, our switch offices were still mostly staffed by The Old Guard. I learned so much from them. There was so much pride in the quality of work done, especially cabling.

Also, do not touch the shiny bus bar.

@petrillic @johntimaeus @SecureOwl

LOL. i learned much of this doing an install at the sprint hub behind the SJ airport. the telco guys watched us computer/router folks struggling and took pity. that and a nearby graybar to buy the tools i discovered i needed, and the journey started.

@paul_ipv6 @johntimaeus @SecureOwl I know that facility well :) I also spent far too many hours in Stockton. I still struggle to lace cables, but I try any chance I can get because I do believe it's The Correct Way.

But boy are those zip ties quick. At least I do make sure they're all lined up.

@petrillic @paul_ipv6 @SecureOwl

To this day I don't allow zip ties.

I've seen too many fibres & cables broken with an over-enthusiastic installer.

I've bled too much from badly cut ends.

Velcro or wax lacing.

@johntimaeus @petrillic @SecureOwl

i'm with you. velcro. lets you dress but doesn't damage the cables and you can add/delete cables semi-sanely.

Velcro is the right answer today.
Lacing was for another era. A time when you put cables in for decades, not months. Same reason you soldered wire wraps.

Having said that, I'm about to build some ICS/OT demo boards, and am going to lace some of the wires just to brainfuck the youngs.

@johntimaeus @petrillic @SecureOwl

yeah. they'd wire up a fill 42 space relay rack full of stuff, then not touch it for 5 years or more.

we were replacing all our gear every 2-3 years.

Some of the old Bell COs I worked in had 100U racks that hadn't been looked at since Carter was president...This was in the mid 1990s.

This trip down memory lane does raise a question.

Does anyone have a copy of the old ATT/Bellcore/Telcordia Network Verification Testing standard that I could beg, borrow, buy?

I still take that as one of the best written standards for 'how do I make sure that things don't fail'. And I'd love to spend some time rebuilding it into something relevant for today's critical infrastructure.

Matt Mullins Jun 7

@johntimaeus @paul_ipv6 @petrillic @SecureOwl if you've got a document number, I'll see if I can track in down

Matt Mullins Jun 7

@johntimaeus @petrillic @paul_ipv6 @SecureOwl for fiber, even wax twine is too much without a layer of fish paper to protect the fibers

@petrillic @paul_ipv6 @SecureOwl

Especially do not touch the shiny bus bar with an un-insulated tool that's touching the _other_ shiny bus bar.

@johntimaeus @paul_ipv6 @SecureOwl this was when I learned about why some tools are red and yellow.

Fortunately, I've never had to deal with any truly high voltage stuff where arc flash is a problem. That sh*t scares the bejeezus out of me. Partially as I have a friend who lost his dad to an incident with a 345kV power line.

I guess it's "good" that it's unlikely the even knew what happened.

@petrillic @johntimaeus @SecureOwl

DC always scared me because AC will kick you out of the circuit. DC just cooks you until you're all tender and done.

Unless you short the unfused bus bars and turn a 12 inch #1 screwdriver into a 4 inch melty stub. Then it'll kick you out.

Had a newb do this while I was walking investors thru the new ~$30M data center on a dog and pony.

He didn't have job the next day.

-48v will arc flash, given enough amps.

A room full of batteries and un-fused 300 MPM is pretty much enough amps to vaporize anything.

When Bobby crossed the streams, it shortened a screwdriver, and put an orange sized hole in a 10mm copper bus bar. The kick knocked him against a wall breaking his arm. I suspect his eyelashes and eyebrows grew back eventually.

https://youtu.be/OC7sNfNuTNU

@johntimaeus @paul_ipv6 @SecureOwl Styropyro would like a word.

400 car batteries wired together!!

YouTube

@petrillic @paul_ipv6 @SecureOwl

Wonder how he would have reacted to walking thru the capacitor room at Arecibo. A few-hundred hand made caps in series. The casings for the caps were Mark 5 torpedo casings. They could drive a transmitter at ~1GW for about a second. Good for bouncing a radar signal off asteroids on the far side of Jupiter's orbit.

There were multiple doors with leaded glass observation windows and intricate electro-mechanical interlocks so you couldn't accidentally be anywhere near them when they had a charge. And so if things went wahoonie shaped, the xrays wouldn't get out and hurt people in the office right next to the room.

One of the scariest places I've ever been.

@johntimaeus @petrillic @SecureOwl

ah, "gives good tour".

i used to get puzzled looks from various sales critters when i'd ask "so, am i the pony or the dog for this tour?"...

After a bit, my answer was "I don't do dog and pony -- but we have plenty monkeys!"

Apparently this pissed off the regional chief sales critter at WorldCom, the VP of global sales at EDS actually understood and appreciated it.

@paul_ipv6 @SecureOwl

Did you learn the hard way about -48v being negative, and black being positive...which is live, and red being negative...which is ground?

I had a boss let me "do it myself" and learn about cricket fuses on a ten foot ladder.

Mark Bryant Jun 7

@SecureOwl Are the bollards there to keep the knuckle-draggers away or are they part part of the requirement?

Cecilia Mjausson Huster Jun 7

@Spartan_1986 @SecureOwl I was wondering that too. They look much older than the charger.

Design suggestion: The flat lid on the charger invites people to put down their phones, sunglasses, wallets etc. If this becomes a problem, consider testing a shape that doesn't invite that. That way fewer people will forget their expensive accessories on top of the charger when they leave.

It could be slanted or rounded, for example.

Mike Sheward Jun 7

@mjausson @Spartan_1986 For an install like that yeah, bollards are part of the standard. Otherwise they just get driven into immediately.

Our next gen pedestal does have the slanty top bit.

Axel Hartmann Jun 7

@SecureOwl - how about putting the charger into the unused triangle space between the curb and the front of the cars, not on the borderline. That front bollard will be a nuisance to avoid if you need the length and width of the space.