WW: Colo Vending Machine

Sat Feb 18 14:39:39 UTC 2012

> Do you guys ride your bike to the colo and show up in shorts and a 
> t-shirt? Who goes to the colo without things like their laptop?

Quite frankly, when the colo is 800 miles away and you've flown out
to do something important, only to be tripped up by a lack of some
stupid $something, and it's 11PM at night, you get a very different
(*very* different) outlook on it all.  Especially with the way it is
these days to fly, you don't want to be carrying odd stuff with you
if you can avoid it.  We'll ship gear via FedEx or UPS.  We rely on
existing on-site supplies to cover most unexpected stuff.

It is easy to justify keeping a well-stocked toolbox with a ton of
generally-useful tools, and also some specialty tools, for example.  

Our Ashburn toolbox contains, among other things:

Laminated maps of the area with distributors like Graybar located (now
probably useless, 8 years out of date, anyone familiar with NoVA will
understand, haha), Notebook and pen, pencil

Precision flat & Phillips screwdrivers, Mini Maglite, Sharpie RGB Markers,
Utility Knife (cutting boxes), Xacto Knife set, hex bit extensions, DB25 pin
inserter/extractor tools, scissors, surgeon's clamp, metal nibbler, wire
stripper, various general crimp tools, several pliers, several needlenose/
bent-nose, flush cutters, adjustable wrenches, Victorinox Swiss CyberTool,
Milwaukee Power Screwdriver #6546.  22" (not a typo) hex Phillips bit.

Outlet wiring tester, telephone line tester, RS232 snooper, AUI xcvr (don't
laugh, I actually used one within the last 5 years), wire wrap tool and
wire, pencils and sharpener, anti-static wrist strap, logic probe, tool
magnetizer, digital multimeter, soldering iron and supplies, electrical
tape, punchdown tool, heat shrink tubing kit, hex key sets, socket drive
sets, medium screwdrivers.

Tap & drill set, 20' tape measure, hammer, rubber mallet, big pliers, big
utility knife, torp level, various bit kits, large adj wrench, tongue and
groove pliers, big wire cutters/needle nose, spare charger and battery
for power screwdriver, small cordless drill, crimpers, first aid kit,
big MagLite, test lead kit, serial adapter kit.

Now I will concede that we've used a lot of this stuff only a few times
over the years, and some of it maybe even never, but the point is that
it really stinks to be on-site and in-need without an easy way to address
the need.  It's really amusing that there've been people who have made
it a habit to borrow tools out of our toolbox "because we have just
about anything."

Since you guys like pictures:

http://www.sol.net/tmp/nanog/toolbox1.jpg
http://www.sol.net/tmp/nanog/toolbox2.jpg
http://www.sol.net/tmp/nanog/toolbox3.jpg

We also keep some small roughtotes with:

Fiber supplies
Copper supplies
Power cords etc
Server parts
Telecom supplies

So, yes, sometimes I show up at the colo in shorts and a t-shirt.  Matter
of fact, most of the time I do.  It's more fun that way.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.