The weather this morning was overcast, raining and in the mid 30s.  First on the agenda was a quick tour of the Barrow Alaska Research Center (BARC).  Walking into the building was like walking into another world.  All of the buildings we had been in so far were either old army buildings from the 1950s, or interconnected shipping containers.   The BARC is part of a 35 million dollar building project to create a scientific research center for all different types of studies by groups from around the world.  There are labs, conference rooms, offices, and a spacious, modern server room.  The building has tall ceilings, a tiled lobby, modern bathrooms, and very nice furniture.  You would think it would be the place to be, but it seemed to be empty compared to the other buildings we had been in.  The older buildings seemed to teem with activity as people came and went.  The BARC was like a library, whereas the other buildings were like college dorms. 

After the tour, we took care of some meetings and paperwork, and then got to work uncrating the rack.  It was shipped in a sturdy wooden crate we had to disassemble outside in the wind and rain.  Luckily, by the time we got the crate open, the rain stopped and it was starting to clear up.  

 We wrestled the rack into the building and then ran into our first technical issue. Continue reading “Rackin’ Servers in Barrow” →

For some reason, anytime I have a new trip or project to undertake, I have a need to get a new gadget.  Mostly the gadget takes the form of a camera.  For instance, when my son was born, I picked up a new camera on the way to the hospital.  That is not an exaggeration – it was literally on the way to the hospital.  My wife’s water broke in the morning, and while I am driving her to the hospital, I stopped at Best Buy and purchased a new camera while she waited in the car.  Somehow she forgave me and we are still married.  When my second child was born two years later, she made sure I had purchased a new camera well in advance.

Due to my affliction, my trip to Barrow resulted in the purchase of yet another camera.  This time it is the Olympus Stylus Tough 8000.  This is a pocket camera that has the unique feature of being waterproof to 33ft, shockproof to 6ft, crushproof to 220 pounds, and freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit.  http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1448

Now, to be honest, I’ve never crushed, dropped, submerged, or frozen a camera before.  But I didn’t want to take any chances that I might on this trip.  I also have a whitewater rafting trip coming up, and I would like to be able to take a camera along in the raft, and this camera should allow me to do that.  I’ve been using the camera for 2 days now and I must say I like it a lot.

The camera has 12 Megapixels of resolution, which is pretty impressive for a compact pocket camera.  But what really impressed me was Continue reading “Another Adventure, Another Gadget” →