The simple part of moving Grex out of the pumpkin (where it has been kept very well for some time) is moving the computer to provide.net. The hard part is getting everything else out of the room. I think the experience is going to somewhat resemble emptying the house of a dead relative. The good stuff is easy to find a home for. The trash is easy to throw away. And then there's all the other in-between stuff which is just baffling. The pumpkin is packed with in-between stuff. There is some furniture there which might be on the good end of the spectrum. Maybe we could find someone who'd have a use for some of it, and might even give us a few bucks. Best are two steel shelving units that I think DanG donated. They are your standard not particularly attractive basement shelving units, but unusually sturdy. There is a Steelcase desk from University Property Disposition - about five feet by three feet, two drawers on each side, functional but not attractive. There are a some chairs also from property disposition - a wheeled swivel chair that used to have problems with a wheel falling off, but I haven't noticed that lately, and two other chairs. All old, ugly and functional. There are some long 1x10 wooden planks being used for shelving, and probably shelving hardware to hold them to the walls. I'm sure someone has a use for those. Then there is a very large supply of old Sun parts. Personally I'd be willing to give them to anyone who will take them away. We should keep only the Sun 4/670 and a box full of spares. I think DanG offered to temporarily house that. The biggest dinosaur is a computer rack. This was the chassis for a Sun 4/690. It's a little smaller than a refrigerator. I think inside it is a standard computer rack, but the outside is marginally prettier than usual. It weighs a ton. There is lots of other stuff. Check Mark's inventory database for a complete list.99 responses total.
Rex and I did the New Center in a weekend. It took about 4 hours of chucking stuff into a dumpster one flight of stairs upward. Has anyone advertised the list on M-Net or HVCN or anywhere else?
Goodbye pumpkin :(
Goodbye, pumpkin. :(
(I fear that the ultimate sentence of Jan's penultimate paragraph is NOT an exaggeration.) I'd be happy to take the shelving, and even make an appropriately-sized donation for it.
My opinion is that if staff wants any of what's in the Pumpkin then they get first option to take it, without charge, as a small token of what they've generously given to Grex. Would others support this?
I am ok with that although if someone who isnt on staff wants something in particular, I think we could give it to them too. All I know is that I will be cleaning out that place in January. And I am not a good judge of what is useful and what isnt. It is *all* garbage to me.
I'm fine by it all being given away. Whomever takes it away by the end of February is doing us a HUGE favor.
Yes, I support your good idea, mary.
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Does grex have authorized & easy access to a dumpster at the pumpkin? If so, I suggest that baff implement and announce the following: 1) On/by such-and-such a date, people who have contributed stuff to grex that it no longer needs, and people who might want stuff that grex can't use and has no value, they better come and get it, or FORget it. 2) On that date, have identified volunteers who will take whatever is left of value that grex can't use, for possible sale somehow. 3) Pitch everything that is left. Is that workable?
The Mac SE in the pumpkin is my own personal property, on loan to Grex. I want it back. I want nothing else.
the minutes of the last board meeting aren't posted yet. was there actually a board vote to approve moving out of the pumpkin? when does the lease expire? has there been no attempt to negotiate with the landlord for favorable terms for a lease renewal? why move unless grex is being evicted or something...
Richard - yes, the board voted to move Grex. The reason for moving is that we will save a lot of money. The numbers aren't close, so negotiating wouldn't bear much fruit.
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I'll volunteer my time and my pickup truck to help clear stuff out of the Pumpkin, if someone will let me know when to be there (assuming it fits my currently rather loose schedule).
The only thing better than one Eric is three Erics. Volunteering pickup trucks. Thanks.
I noticed last night that fronttalk reports "response not entered" and returns the "respond, etc" prompt, even though the response was in fact entered. I expect Jan will take a look at it when he gets some rest. :)
I volunteer my porch as a staging ground for pickups of things people promised to come get that are not out of the pumpkin in time. It is enclosed and unlocked. Eric could deliver to it. We could recycle what is not picked up. I don't think the rack and shelving and chairs would fit on it though. 5' deep by 14' long and we need to be able to open two doors and walk through.
maybe someone could volunteer to take pictures of everything and sell some of the stuff on ebay. people seem to bid on anything there. one person's junk is another's treasure
Hmm. BT reported a crash which I assumed meant the response had not been posted, thus the repeats.
Our neighbor likes playing on eBay. We can ask if he wants anything not picked up by a grexer by some deadline. He can figure out if anything there is likely to be valued as he knows a lot about computer hardware.
The stuff that Grex has is not likely to garner a lot of interest, but it *would* be nice if we could store stuff (well, some stuff) inside where we could try to sell it off. I realize this isn't exactly likely.
We spent part of yesterday afternoon making space on the porch and closing up some of the rips in the plastic enclosure. If you subtract space to open the doors and to store a few of our own things like trashcan, there is now an empty strip 2' wide, about 8-9' long, and 8' high where anything definitely to be recycled can already be dropped off. Email me for the address. We can store a smaller amount indoors while people try to find a market for it.
It's time to make a plan for emptying the Pumpkin. I'll start with a few suggestions and questions. The next board meeting is set for February 18th. The tentative plan is to have the Pumpkin empty and hand the keys to the landlord by March 1st. Once we have handed over the keys we can cancel our liability insurance and stop paying for electric. DSL can be cancelled as soon as the phone lines are connected at Provide. My primary suggestion here is that we simply set a deadline. Without setting a hard deadline, we're in trouble, as we'll simply find one excuse after another to not be out. I'd like to ask for staff support on this. Someone on staff needs to make a list of essential "must keep" items. These need to be tagged, logged, and then taken off-site, before, say, February 18th. Then we need to set a date when Eric and his truck are free, Sindi is available, someone with a Pumpkin key is available, and we need to get everything left in the Pumpkin into that truck and over to Sindi's. The one thing that shouldn't be moved, as is, are the disks. They hold data. I suppose the disks could be mounted and laboriously wiped, but that doesn't really sound feasible. So I suggest any disks, not needed for the new setup, be damaged beyond use and discarded. The hard-ball part of this operation is that the deadline for the move will mean that anything in the Pumpkin, on move day, will be destroyed or moved to Sindi's. Eric and Sindi, do you have the afternoon of February 26th free? That's a Saturday and we could meet around 2:00, after debrief. We may even be able to recruit a few helpers at lunch. Anyhow, we need to have a plan. How does this one sound? Do we have a staff member willing to do the inventory and mark the essentials? A log could be kept so that when something Grex needs is moved to a foster home, that item and it's location could be documented. Yeah, I know, not as easy as having one big pit of a storage place, but those days are over for Grex. We can't afford the rent. So, is this doable?
Jim and I have no plans for any Saturdays or Sundays this year. Or evenings or even afternoons. He is swimming until 8:15 am some mornings and is busy Wed. morning with a class. I am sometimes busy during the day, not predictable in advance, but free evenings.
That date looks ok for me. And if Scott isn't back from Norway by then, I trust I won't have to fight anyone for the old disks, which I will happily destroy in the process of extracting the drive magnets. I can even weld the platters into a stack and make a nice paperweight or something.
You're welcome to the magnets, Eric. I no longer have a metal house.
Are these scsi disks? I have never seen inside one. Regular hard drive magnets are too powerful to use easily on a refrigerator.
Internally, scuzzy disks probably look like I Do it Eventually disks to the layman. The fact that they are high-end might mean they have, on average, more platters (actual disks) inside than the average IDE.
Those old disks are going to bbe 5-1/4" size, and some will be full-height. So they'll have big magnets, just to move the bigger head arm around fast enough.
Nearly everything in the pumpkin has a little sticker on it, with a number.
These numbers are all in the Grex inventory database that Mark Conger set up.
This database is publicly accessible on Grex.
http://www.grex.org/~invent/index.cgi
I think we should hold onto the old Sun computer for a bit longer at least.
I think DanG said he could host it at his house for a bit. I'm not sure it
even needs to be turned on. I wouldn't destroy any of it's disks yet.
All Sun 3 stuff and Sun 4/260 stuff can go. Really, I can't think of much
of anything in there I care about. Some of it is a same to throw away. I
wonder if you could E-bay it. Do we have anyone who likes selling stuff on
E-Bay?
If its no cost to store it then try to eBay or craigslist it. I think it makes more sense to donate it to some computer enthusiasts, though. Putting it on eBay and ensuring its delivery is quite an undertaking.
If the intention is to give it away, maybe www.freecycle.org is the way to go. Or locally, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/annarborfreecycle.
Anyone want to take the time to post this stuff at freecycle? We can store it on the porch until spring.
I think we should grab tar's of all the filesystems on groupie and put them on the IDE disk before we lose connectivity to the old Sun.
The DSL into the pumpkin sticks so badly, that it could be argued that we have already lost connectivity to the old Sun.
We can still walk tapes or something back and forth, right?
Okay, moving weekend is upon us. This Saturday, 2:00, anyone who would like to help out is enthusiastically encouraged to do so. Meet in the parking lot at 416 West Huron. Eric will be there with his truck, Sindi has space on her porch. We're going to mail this project in one afternoon. Scanning this item it seems that Jan wants his Mac, Joe wants the shelves, Eric wants old disk drives (to be destroyed), the Sun 4 will be going to dang's, maybe, and everything else is up for grabs. That includes a big, vintage, Property Disposition desk and unmatched chair, both radiating geek aura. It could be yours. Show up and cart it away, aura and all. Unless someone staffish is there to say something should be saved and sold, all contents will simply be given away. Mostly, it needs to be gone. Those who show to help should bring an empty box or two and be prepared to see the Pumpkin's paint job. It ain't called the Pumpkin for 'nuthin. So come on down. Have fun. Work. Be part of Grex history.
That should be NAIL THIS PROJECT. Just in case you wondered.
Well, in a sense, it is sort of moving grex to another place. Isn't that what the mail does? When they don't lose things, that is?
I think we'll have a lot of fun. Naturally, I will be there. I'll see if I can scare up a couple of boxes.
Bye Pumpkin!
Re. 41: Aren't they still moving things to another place, even if they lose them (either the places, themselves, or the mail itself?)? Re. 40: I wasn't, but thanks for the correction. Re. 42: Good luck. Re. 43: Bye munkey!
Bye scholar!
I don't know if the desk will even fit on my porch - hope someone wants it, and the chair.
Good Luck Fella's Lift w/yer knees! Bye Punk'n - I hardly knew ye (except for the pixs)
likcs ? did u lick 'er ?
Ok, I am getting ready to leave to go to the pumpkin. I am sure it will be lots of fun. I hope lots of other people show up too :)
:)
So far, the stack of hard disk platters on the table is a foot high...
I thought the move went very well. We got a bit of a delayed start but the bulk of the work took us just under three hours. We had a great crew. I'm going to try to list everyone who participated on move day. Hope I don't miss anyone. In no particular order: Lynne, Eric, Scott, Joe, his (adorable) son Louie, Russ, Mark, John, Ken, Drew, and, of course, Sindi and Jim. It's Jim and Sindi who's job is really just starting as they are going to try to recycle a whole lot of spent computer equipment. We were able to be totally moved out and the property manager was given the keys. The reward for all of this came when we were told we were released from the remainder of our lease, beginning March 1st. Evidently he gets asked for available rooms quite often and he's confident he can re-rent it soon. So that's a real savings for Grex, starting sooner than anticipated. Yeah. The moving group, minus Lynne unfortunately, all moved on to a debrief dinner at the Parthenon. Then those older movers went home to take a Motrin and go to sleep. Thanks to everyone involved. You did real good. I took pictures and will post them soonish. If anyone finds my red striped flathead screwdriver, please let me know.
Eric came back and picked up a few pieces that looked like they went with the mounting rack, which provide.net wanted, and also helped us take apart the 6-scsi-drive enclosure (and too the 6 2.1GB drives, which weigh about 10 lb each), and identified for us the other drive enclosures for 1 drive each, the size of a small computer (with power supply, and two case fans). He pointed out the potential value of a portable dumb terminal with a fold-down screen, and we may hold onto the two SPARC consoles and keyboard and mouse and try to find owners. ANyone want the Ann Arbor Ambassador dumb terminals? You can plug one into your linux machine and use it as a console. Eric doubts anyone will want the rest of the Sun boards and case. I did not see the many bags of 4MB SIMMs that had been invoiced but we found a box of diskette labels without an invoice number, and a floppy disk that we are not going to zero out, in the full-height IBM drive.
Wow - this is great news! I'm so pleased the move went well, and that the crew emptied out the whole Pumpkin. I'm also delighted that we have been relieved of the balance of our lease. Mary and others have worked a miracle here.
Here are some move pictures: http://homepage.mac.com/mremmers/PhotoAlbum3.html
Fun pictures. Can I steal one of the full pumpkin ones for my blog?
Absolutely.
Mary, thanks for your diplomacy.
Cool. thanks!
Mary et al: Outstanding job!
I'd like to point out that in the last two months, Grex has:
(1) Been upgraded to a new, substantially faster computer
running modern software.
(2) Moved into a colocation facility providing increased
bandwidth and improved connectivity.
(3) Moved out of the pumpkin, greatly reducing operating
costs.
(4) Eliminated at least one piece of redundant and
potentially flakey equipment (the terminal server).
This time hasn't been without its warts: dialin capabilities have
now gone beyond the reach of some users, and there have been
issues associated with moving to the new machine. But on the balance,
I'd say grex as a whole has accomplished quite a bit and in the long
run, it will turn out to be almost all good.
Unlike, say, your mother.
Whoa ! Can someone tell me who's who ? http://url.rexroof.com/1240
It should be kept in mind that I've never met any of these people, so my guesses are based on extrapolations gained simply from PICTURES, though that made be appropriate to this sort of task! First of all, Mary Remmers up there lists TWELVE people who attended, yet there are only NINE pictured (though, if I'm correct in my GUESSES, this shouldn't present much of a problem because there are an ample set ELSEWHERE of pictures of these present yet absent people), and so we must conclude that three are missing. One, I would think, is John Remmers. This is based both on seeing OTHER pictures of John Remmers, which, let me tell yuou, are quite plentiful at http://www.grexergalleryn.et/ or whatever it is, and also based on the fact that up there Mary Remmers said SHE took the pictures yet seems to be pictured, and the fact that this phrasing would lend itself particularly well to suggeseting that John Remmers was the one who (in body) took the pictures, especially with the connotations around marriage of becoming one, etc., though this may be taking things a little to far. The other two? Based again on pictures, I can only conclude that it must be Jim and Keesan, whose visages I've been but don't currently see. Now that we've gotten this taken care of, let's decide who exactly is who in the pictures, starting with the BACK ROW. NOW, the first person (.e.e, the one from our perspective on the left) seems to be none other than Joe Gelinas's son, who I don't believe I've ever previously seen a picture of before, but seems to be the youngest person in a picture composed of people who are self-proclaimed middle-agers or up. Ah, the next (the one to the right) person must simply be aruba, whose visage we've all seen on grexergallery.net. The next one could only possibly be Joe Gelinass himself, what with the unkempt hair he no doubt aquired in the particularly kempt Marines and other secret societies he's been a member of. The next guy, who looks short, punkish, and Jewish, could only possibly be other, the person who wished to have me imprisoned for a crime he knew he didn't know I committed. Based simply on pictorial evidence, the next two must be, in order, Scott Helmke and krj, both of whom I have reason to believe may be homo- or bi-sexuals, though I have never received any direct suggestion pointing me towards that reality.
Ahh, a lower (higher) response for the lower (higher) people! The first two must be slynne and mary, the two's being always sociable and personable being reflected in the picture. The last man (which you could use other methods to prove, i.e. he's the last one, but for whom I'd rather use a positive method of Proof) must be Russ Cage. We all know, both from charicature and what we see, that Russ is always hanging out with the ladies yet is being (in a way consistent with Asperger's, no doubt) particularly (at all times and in all contexts, we can only assume) clumy and awkward, something that is reflected by where he's standing in the picture and the awkward (I mean, geez, just look at him! He looks like a football palyer in a huddle or something, mean tough-guy grimace and everything!) way he's standing. This is a truth I hold to be self evident.
Wrong. But partial credit for showing your work.
What! How was I wrong?! What!
Is the one on the bottom right (based on pictoral evidence) Jim?! In such case, oughtn't one wonder just what Russ and Keesan were doing together at the time?!
I have reevaluated (based on PICTORAL EVIDENE) and now believe that every single person pictured is none other than Tim Shores.
The PERSON who is CROUCHING who scholar mistakenly identified as RUSS, must of course be the famous JIM KEESAN, and the Ms. Keesan proper, who is missing from the picture, must of course be enjoying some QUALITY time with the equally well-known RUSS CAGE, known more for his pimping skills than anything else.
Dude. But the evidence was so strong!
Dude! The EVIDENCE as you so aptly said, can simply be found in the hair-style. Compare the style of the hair of the crouching man in the aforementioned pumpkin photo with the hair style of the man in this photograph: http://www.geocities.com/sindijim/misc/ushouse.jpg Based on pictoral evidence, and the fact that jim's last name seems to be DEIGERT, it's gotta be the right guy..
Dude. I totally agreen ow! Especially after I considred that how Russ doesn't like havin g pictures taken (perhaps aware of the way in which he undoubtedly LOOKS awkward)
It is now fit for one to wonder, then, just what exactly Russ and Keesan were doing together at the time, and of course, what role, if any, Tim Shores played in this matchmaking day of Pumpkin emptying.
I wonder if public masturbation is illegal in Canada...
Russ, now I understand. ;-)
Dude. /me waves at Ary and Mother
We should commission tsty/lkjh to photograph those MISSING from the above photograph, in order for our world, and other's penis, to be complete!
Re. 75: If it is, I'm sure you'd suggest we should arrest hayz for the crime committed in this item.
74! not 75!
Re. 73: No doubt it was yet another instance of "filling with the purpose of emptying", much in the same way that metanarratival purpose of the day was to fill the room with bodies to empty it of bodies.
Oh dear. Insomuch that drew has been imitating Mr. Deigert's hair style, he has succeeded in making a complete fool of myself. http://grexers.nether.net/assets/images/drew.gif Although the picture may be old, the smirking face behind it is timeless. How naive was I to think that Jim Keesan would shave his proud beard, as of course him and tsty are beard brothers; may the facial hair live forever. And oh, how some things just didn't work out, such as hair colour and height. Regardless, we have now succeeded in pinning you down out of the photograph, drew. We have you, drew. We have drawn our weapons in purpose. Now we have to figure out what the hell those three clowns (russ+keesan+jimdeigert) were doing behind the camera.
Dude.
Oh, oops! I don't know how I messed up and thought one of the people there was John Remmers! This is terrible! But at least now we know whaT's up.
(but 11 out of 12 isn't bad!)
And we now must ask: What exactly QWERE Jim, Keesan, and Drew dewing?!
Yeah! Not bad at all! do you suppose they were with Tim Shores /!
Whoa! That is an interesting idea!
Another big "thank you!" to mary for organizing the exodus. Thank you to her and her minions who carved up the pumpkin, so to speak. :-) (||)
Thanks to scott for thinking to bring power tools! Thanks to gelinas for the monster van. My truck would have been far less adequate unless I somehow removed the cap and rack (which is not in my plans).
Thanks other!
Thanks to whoever wanted the three big chairs. We found only a dismantled metal desk. Friedmans' Nonferrous Metals says they were kicked out of their nearby location and are now 2 miles So. of Rt. 94 on So. State and that this is not a safe place to bike to even in warm weather. They will let us drop off the steel for free (or we can get 3 cents/lb for it halfway to Chelsea) and pay us something for the VME boards (and the aluminum, copper wire, and other greenboard we are removing from power supplies, floppy drives, printers...). Small steel cases are getting flattened for the recycle bin. Does ANYONE want the Ann Arbor Ambassador terminals, or the SPARC terminals or mouse or keyboard? We can bring monitors/terminals to Kiwanis where someone will pick them up and pay 5 cents/lb (or maybe Kiwanis has to deliver to some place west of town that takes them). I offered to photograph the SUN stuff for various websites but so far no response.
Hey, I just set the date. Otherwise, I was just another "minion". What made the move work was that everyone was dedicated to getting it done. They showed up. My cello teacher once told me something I'll never forget: Often, the hardest part of any accomplishment is just showing up. That could be for practice, or PhD work, or a garden that needs weeding, or a move. Sounds so simple, but it's true. We were also very fortunate to have had staff there, who knew what to keep, what to destroy, and what to recycle. And both Scott and Eric are very skilled at moving large objects through tight spaces. It was like a testosterone ballet. ;-) Joe & Co. kept on trucking, even though muscles and truck axles were strained. And the more time I spend around Lynne the better. I mean, if she could carry that much, so could I, dammit! Everyone involved made it happen. Everyone gets to feel good about helping Grex with this transition.
Dude.
Whoa.
Re #75: Yes. Among other things, it creates such wonderful entertainment. Re #91: I may have a taker for the other Ambassador swivel base. other, have you scrapped those disc platters or are they available for use as ornaments?
Re 53 & 91. One of the Ambassador's was ours, the other was Marcus'. I believe that they are both dead.
The platters are still piling up on the dining room table.
Russ, the terminals are all on my porch - email if you want either or both (and the keyboards). Or the portable or SPARC terminals. Soon. We generate disk platters that we usually recycle - we can save them.
TROGG IS DAVID BLAINE
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