Storage Forum 101: how to make sense of this madhouse

[Tannin]

Hi all and welcome.

This thread is to help new members get up to speed around this crazy place and introduce you to some of the veterans.

I'm Tannin. Right now I'm Chairman of the Admin Team, which is a fancy way of saying that Webmaster Handruin does all the work and I take all the credit.

But you don't want to know all the boring details, you mainly just want to know who is who, right? I'll see if I can get my sister Tea to explain. She's good at that sort of thing.

 

[CougTek]

It would be a lot more fun for both the newcomers and the old-timers if you would let them discover all this by themselves Tony.

 

[The_Giver]

The_Giver agrees with CougTek.

 

[Tea]

Hi.

I'm Tea. I'll explain a bit more about me a little later on. For now, I'm your Storage Forum Tour Guide. I'm going to introduce you to some of the more prominent members here. Let's start with .... hmm ... how about James?

James is one of our Australian brothers. He knows all about fibre optic cables and large scale networking, and works for a major telco. Apart from that though, he's a nice bloke and can usually be relied upon to give you a fair hearing and a sensible response to most questions. He's a busy man so he doesn't spend as much time here as most of us would like him too, but he is always good value when he does visit. If you manage to upset James, you've probably overstepped the line a good long way.

Cougtek, on the other hand, is excitable. He's very strong on CPUs and chipsets; claims to be something over six feet tall and work out obsessively. When he's not looking after the front page, Coug can usually be found somewhere around the place, jumping up and down and throwing his arms around.

Ahh, but these are real members.

It's the imaginary members that are more interesting. Take me. I'm Tannin's imaginary little sister. That's my photo over on the left. As you can see, I'm rather good looking. Tannin and I have huge argumements sometimes, mostly over who's turn it is to use the computer next, but when the chips are down, we always stick together. And not being a real person, I can say all sorts of things that Tannin isn't allowed to. Mostly, Tannin does the boring technical posts and I do the funny stuff, but sometimes we get bored and swap.

Then there is the Bartender. He's probably the most important imaginary person of all, because if you're not nice to the imaginary bartender you can't get an imaginary drink.

Just like me, the Bartender has a particularly close friendship with a with a real person. (I think that's a sort of rule about being imaginary - you have to be imagined by a real person first, otherwise you don't exist. This is very unfair, but - shrug - what can you do?) And the real person that belongs to the Bartender is Buck. Buck is a bit like Tannin: they both spend a lot of time working with computers, and that seems to do something rather odd to the brain cells - boring ordinary people call it "going a little crazy". But we shouldn't hold it against them.

Hey! If it wasn't for people like Buck and Tannin being a little crazy, the Bartender and I wouldn't even exist!

 

[Prof.Wizard]

Hi all,

I'm Costantine, aka Prof.Wizard. Neither Professor, nor Wizard.
Just 22 years old (next month) of muscles and nerves...

Jokes apart, this place is a nut house. You may see more than 100+ persons but we're actually far less. Everyone here owns more than one persona (including me)... :rnd:

Don't get frustrated if you find yourself disagreeing here. It's the usual course. CougTek for example is a pain in the ass... :frusty:

 

[flagreen]

The_Giver agrees with CougTek.

Oh God... here we go again! :cyclop:

 

[Groltz]

Everyone here owns more than one persona

Incorrect. I had a sock-puppet over at SR for a while that was used to flame a few morons that came in there asking about warez, crackz, and appz. After they let the server dump all our forum history last December, I did not resurrect it into the new SR forum.

I don't have any other user names in this forum besides this one.

 

[P5-133XL]

I also do not have any other alias.

 

[Bartender]

I also do not have any other alias.

How boring - but quite professional and predictable. Those are admirable qualities P5, so no need to change. Groltz, you are not to be left out of the aforementioned description.

Then there is the Bartender. He's probably the most important imaginary person of all, because if you're not nice to the imaginary bartender you can't get an imaginary drink.

Imaginary my.......Tannin has a lot of nerve letting you loose with these weak descriptions. Buck is the imaginary, overweight, git, who pretends to work, but spends a good portion of the day and evening drinking bourbon and beer. Whilst I, break my back cleaning this place up from the odd debate. Setting kegs, cleaning glasses, fixing furniture (Tea is pretty strong), and consulting with other bars is busy work my friends. The one patron that hasn't shown up around is the OTolizei. I suppose this place has always been in order, so he's quietly died away in one of the corners over at the Storage Review Bar & Grille.

 

[Buck]

Bartender, I think it's time for the sock drawer.

 

[Groltz]

How boring - but quite professional and predictable....Groltz, you are not to be left out of the aforementioned description.

Yes, well, I don't see the need to bring forth a "moron flamer" for this forum. As it was, the one I had at SR posted a grand total of about 8 times in 6 months preceding the data dump.

I had considered asking Handruin if I could change my user name a couple weeks ago, but talked myself out of it.

--Steve

 

[flagreen]

Steve,

What was the alias you used at SR if you don't mind me asking? Did you get caught by the admins checking IPs there?

 

[Groltz]

Steve,

What was the alias you used at SR if you don't mind me asking? Did you get caught by the admins checking IPs there?

I'd rather not divulge who it was, Bill. Not that I have any mistrust of you or the other guys here, of course, but that I'd rather just leave the old puppet buried in case the same miscreants that I used it against ever visit here. I will confirm that my ex-SR Puppet never attacked anyone on SF's current member list.

I knew that my IP could have been traced by the brain trust in charge of SR. Therefore, I used an IP cloaking web site, similar to "The Anonymizer" as a buffer when I created that user and also every time I had him make a post. Also the E-mail I used for him was a throw-away web based operation that was just enough to get my password, etc. Due to the nature of the people I did flame, I never got any complaints or warnings from the SR chairmen. They were probably happy I did it.

--Steve

 

[flagreen]

That's cool Steve. So that it is a pro does it huh? Pretty clever.

 

[Mercutio]

Groltz, were you the anti-Trinton?

I do not have an alias (except this one). I never have. I don't much care for my real first name and I've always gone by nicknames anyway.

At any rate, there is a justification for this thread. A lot of what is shared by the folks here is history is unpreserved now since the loss of StorageReview's database. The knowledge our members have of each other is mostly contained in information that's now in the great bit-bucket in the sky. To take an example, Sol (a new guy) probably isn't aware that part of P5_133XL's identity on SR was as the go-to guy on SR's tech support forum or why Clocker probably has one of the coolest jobs I've ever heard of, not to mention one of the most interesting work computers.
A great many here probably don't know the origin of "sock puppet", why Tannin and I sometimes talk about degrees Cats or the reason Prof Wizard lives in fear of Micropolis hard disks. Heck, even the reason Flagreen felt the need to take up The Giver's mantle is now lost to time.

An archive/chronology project is something that does have value.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

We all miss the old (before 27/12) SR forums, Mercutio...
but WE WILL NEVER FORGET! :wink:

 

[Groltz]

Groltz, were you the anti-Trinton?

Nope. More than enough other people put the heat on him. I didn't feel moved to add to it. "Trinton Assamouth"....Ha! :mrgrn:

Again, my other ID made only about 8 posts, TOTAL. The only attacks were against a couple dumbasses that were asking about crackz & warez.

--Steve

 

[JKKJ]

Errr... as a newcomer, this thread is not doing a lot to help make sense of things.

That being said, it is nice to find you here. I had followed many of you on SR, mostly I just lurked and learned a bunch. After the big burp there, I moved on to other things. For whatever reason I tracked this site down recently, and it's good to see that the community lives on.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

Aloha JKKJ,

are you real or a sock?
(sorry, don't freak out by the question... it's the usual course here) :wink:

 

[CougTek]

Welcome JKKJ,

Don't worry too much about the multiple personalities thing. Eventually, you'll figure everything out anyway.

Hope you'll enjoy the forum and the web site in general.

 

[Mercutio]

Let's do this right, a bit.

The history of this site can be found elsewhere but it boils down to the simple notion that a dozen or so of soon-to-be SR expatriots needed a better way to talk than CCing emails.

Handruin started Storageforum. The rest of us followed.

At the moment, Tannin is in charge of the administrative aspects here.
Handruin is the web guy.
Flagreen is our unofficial King and chief lawman (moderator).
I am the other moderator. There will be a third (maybe a fourth, given the opinion of some).
CougTek handles the news on our front page.
The others among the original group all have behind-the-scenes jobs as well.

Personalities:

Tannin: Tannin is the owner of a computer shop in Ballarat, Oz. He's an old hand at the hardware tech stuff, an advocate for SCSI, OS/2 and the opera web browser. He's also very literate and a surprisingly good photographer.

Tea: The original "sock puppet", Tea is a figment of Tannin's imagination. I see Tannin sitting at a computer desk talking to the sock on his hand to decide what Tea has to say. Tea tends to post lighter fare but sometimes things get mixed up.

Handruin: Handruin is the great guy responsible for bringing us SF. He works for EMC, the enterprise storage company (in QA? I think?). Handruin is an all-round good guy.

Buck: Buck is a system builder/integrator. Sometimes he breaks into German. Buck seems to know more about Western Digital hard disks than I would normally say is healthy.

Clocker: Clocker works for GM as an engineer. Safety verification on Corvettes, IIRC. Clocker is a gamer and a hobbyist and a good friend to everyone here.

P5_133XL: P5 is our resident wise man. He's particularly good for tech support issues but his experience as an IT professional as well as old-fashioned common sense, make his comments, regardless of subject, something worthy of attention.

timwhit: timwhit is a college student and an IT Pro in training as well as one of our most frequent contributors.

Stereodude: One of our resident audiophiles and also an Engineer. He doesn't post often but usually has something interesting to say.

Fushigi: Fushigi has an odd area of expertise: IBM i-series (AS/400) systems. Enterprise computing is a rarified world and his expertise on those high-end systems is quite welcome.

Professor Wizard: Sometimes called PeeWee, Professor Wizard is a Greek studying medicine in Rome. Prof seems to like the latest and greatest in hardware and software.

CougTek: Resident wild man. CougTek is a computer reseller and a good person to talk to about CPUs and motherboards. I recall that CougTek has a particular interest in motorcycles.

James(W): In addition to being a really nice guy, James has worked for a couple of cool companies - Sun and Cable and Wireless, and almost certainly knows more about high-level networking that anyone else here.

Sol: Noted for skill at fixing computer hardware in ways that just shouldn't work, but do, Sol is apparently a major reason that Tannin stays in business.

That's as many names as I can think to mention at the moment. Feel free to add your own or to correct what I've written thusfar.

 

[CougTek]

You forgot Gary :-( How could you? Gary is a veteran IT professional IIRC. He often post light-hearted comments, but he his also very well aware of the new developments in the IT world. Also a passionate guitarist.

There's Bill Green too, aka Flagreen. He's our local elder. Bill seems to have an bottomless wallet when it comes to dual-Xeon setups. An original folk to say the least.

Time, another Aussie computer reseller I think. Time has useful computer knowledge and he often helps people with technical problems.

Groltz, the mysterious one. He doesn't say much, but everytime he does, it's worth listening (or reading, whatever). He's a bit like Mark on this side.

There are others too, but I feel other members who be able to introduce them better than I would.

 

[JKKJ]

Aloha JKKJ,

are you real or a sock?
(sorry, don't freak out by the question... it's the usual course here) :wink:

I am real, and I wear my socks with pride.

Let's do this right, a bit.

The history of this site can be found elsewhere but it boils down to the simple notion that a dozen or so of soon-to-be SR expatriots needed a better way to talk than CCing emails.

<snip>

This is better, thanks.

By way of introduction, my first computer was an XT, and things were hobby-ish until I put my hand up when someone at work asked if anyone knew about computers around 386-time. So now in addition to managing at a commercial flooring distributor, I'm the resident techie.

 

[Bartender]

Welcome JKKJ. I think you'll enjoy this forum, especially the bar. What would you like to drink?

 

[JKKJ]

Welcome JKKJ. I think you'll enjoy this forum, especially the bar. What would you like to drink?

I'm currently drinking wine from New Zealand, hope that's OK. Cheers!

 

[Bartender]

What you drink is what we serve. Some folks like Bourbon, others Scotch (Lagavulin for the love of God!), some rootbeer, and then, some enjoy their tea. For me, a kettle and some Tetley is fine. If you like your New Zealand wine, we'll store all you want, and more variety then Tannin has hard drives collecting dust in his shed.

 

[JKKJ]

<snip>and more variety then Tannin has hard drives collecting dust in his shed.

Ahh, an large cellar. Excellent.

Funny, I noticed a couple of hard drives sitting in the closet while I was working on my house today. Why are they there? Where did they come from? They're not in my system, I've really no idea what's on them, or when they became inactive.
I never used to be this way. Storaholics Anonymous?

 

[Groltz]

Groltz, the mysterious one. He doesn't say much, but everytime he does, it's worth listening (or reading, whatever).

Mysterious? Hardly. What do you want to know? I know that in the course of my posts through SR and here that I have divulged my age, my location, my employer, my employment status, my marital status, at least one of my vehicles, most of the components making up my home PC, and my 2002 New Years resolution. Also both iGary and Mercutio have unwittingly made discoveries about what genre of music I listen to. (By means of the Misfits avatar I used to display). 8)

He's a bit like Mark on this side.

Oh CougTek....Mark is probably having apoplexy over that statement, the poor guy. I can't agree with you on that one.

--Steve

 

[P5-133XL]

Groltz, the mysterious one. He doesn't say much, but everytime he does, it's worth listening (or reading, whatever). He's a bit like Mark on this side.

Perhaps I was lying and Groltz is my sock puppet or I am his. Perhaps we are twins or doppleganger's. You'll never know for sure.

 

[Sol]

Funny, I noticed a couple of hard drives sitting in the closet while I was working on my house today. Why are they there? Where did they come from? They're not in my system, I've really no idea what's on them, or when they became inactive.
I never used to be this way. Storaholics Anonymous?

I had a simmilar experience recently. I just gave mine to Tannin and Tea.

 

[Sol]

As any new members reading this can see I'll be the one with the stuffed up and poorly formated posts.

And as I'm only now beginning to notice my computer smells like radiator cooland and old socks. Not I think a good sign.

 

[James]

JKKJ,

Which North Shore in Canada? Pretty much everywhere I know there that has a northern shore has such a place name, either formally or informally.

I lived in Nova Scotia for six years (I'm going back there for a visit at the end of this month) and there was a North Shore there too. It's home to such alphabetically challenged places as Antigonish.

 

[James]

It's funny to see other people's view of you. My area of expertise is really the business analysis and then managing the design and build of large scale Internet-connected IT systems - I've had about eight years experience of doing that. This telco thing is really only a sideline for the last three years - I was supposed to do lots of the above but ended up mostly doing bid pre-sales and management for network sales to global multinationals.

Because I got bored out of my skull waiting for projects that I was skilled in to come along at Cable & Wireless, I started causing trouble by looking into things I wasn't supposed to, like cost base and infrastructure issues. As a result, I pioneered some work to redesign C&W's AsiaPac network for better margin, ran a program in Japan to deploy our new fibre metro network in Tokyo, then when I got back to Australia I was eventually given responsibility to negotiate the wholesale agreements between C&W and other carriers in Australia/NZ, and now I'm regional pricing manager. And lucky me, I still get to keep my old job as well. Oh, and I started off a program to build out our regional IP network and deploy MPLS - always tricky stuff to do when capex controls are in place, I can tell you. It looks like we've been successful though, which is excellent.

I'm working out my looooong notice period while I'm waiting for KPMG to free up their headcount freeze so I can take up the job I've accepted there.

So really anything I've learned about telco networks is accidental. :mrgrn:

 

[JKKJ]

JKKJ,

Which North Shore in Canada? Pretty much everywhere I know there that has a northern shore has such a place name, either formally or informally.

Yes.
My North Shore's on the other side.

 

[Onomatopoeic]

You forgot Gary :-( How could you? Gary is a veteran IT professional IIRC. He often post light-hearted comments, but he his also very well aware of the new developments in the IT world. Also a passionate guitarist...

I'm actually not an IT person, instead an engineering / management position. I've been working at the same place here (yes, I'm at work right now) since forever (early 1980s). Systems design and operational issues are what I'm about. I haven't done the "real work" in a long time now, since there are finally people in these modern times flowing out of academia that have most of the necessary training to perform image processing work and writing image processing applications and utilities. There is a traditional IT group here at work, but I have nothing to do with them -- unless it's an emergency, argh.

Guitarist, yes, but I'm not sure about the passionate part. I'll admit to having basically grown up with guitars, since the early 1960s. Unfortunately, I don't get a lot of decent practice time on a regular basis, so my hands have to go through about a week's worth of reconditioning to get them back into playing shape like in the days when I played in bands. Much to the chagrin of my wife, I have guitars and musical equipment stuffed into a closet or two (or 3) and a "music studio" -- some of which I've had since the early 1970s. If you don't mind looking at a bunch of guitars, here's my collection:

http://www.gary-hendershot.com/instruments/

 

[flagreen]

Damn Gary, you have more money tied up in guitars then I do in Computers. And that ain't easy.

 

[CougTek]

20 guitars and it doesn't pasionate you :eekers: I don't even have half as many computers.

Some people have way too much money in their hands.

 

[Cliptin]

Nice colection Gary. The most fun bass I ever played was a Gibson Thunderbird. Very distinctive sound.

 

[Onomatopoeic]

20 guitars and it doesn't pasionate you :eekers: I don't even have half as many computers.

Some people have way too much money in their hands.

Heehee... It's not like I went out and spent a mint last weekend! That's about 30 years of accumulation -- which would actually include the few guitars that I sold or traded over the years just to get to the point where I am now. I'm not really into duplicating any instruments, though many of these instruments do have some overlapping qualities.

Besides, it's not about having a bunch of guitars (actually I believe its 37+ guitars, not 20). I've only bought and kept what I have a need for. As far as people with collections of guitars, there are people that I've met over the years that have collections in the 100s or even 200s (!). Unfortunately, these are typically people who are "collectors" and not actually really players -- a group I don't much care for to be honest.

 

[Onomatopoeic]

Nice colection Gary. The most fun bass I ever played was a Gibson Thunderbird. Very distinctive sound.

Yes, but they are neck-heavy, unlike a P-bass or a J-bass, and that's why I never did like 'em or nearly any other Gibson bass (other reasons).

But, there would be one exception to that, and that would be the Gibson Les Paul Signature bass from the early 1970s. Normally, I would go running in horror from a Gibson bass. But, the Les Paul Signature Bass was a pretty astounding instrument in its own right. I have an Epiphone "reissue" of the Les Paul Signature Bass, now called the Jack Casady Signature Bass (yes, Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna). The Les Paul Signature Bass and more-recent Epiphone Jack Casady Signature Bass are true hollowbody electric instruments with no centerblock (semi-hollowbody). These are fast and responsive players and their tonality is big and round and full of nuance unlike many solidbody basses.

http://www.epiphone.com/legacy/images/ebjc.jpg