What Bizarre IT Setups Have You Seen?

MicklePickle wonders: "I was talking to a co-worker the other day about the history of our company, (which shall remain nameless), and he started reminiscing about some of the IT hacks that our company did. Like running 10BaseT down a storm water drain to connect two buildings, using a dripping tap to keep the sewerage U-bend full of water in a computer room, (huh?). And some not so strange ones like running SCSI out to 100m, and running a major financial system on a long forgotten computer in a cupboard. I know that there must be a plethora of IT hacks around. What are some you've seen?"

Comments

Re:300 wires with a conduit sawed off

[ars]

You have it backwards.

The problem is not the low voltage cable - it's that since it's meant for high voltage cable someone could install some later not realizing that there is some low voltage stuff there.

Yes, there really is a code about that - not mixing high and low voltage in the same conduit.

You can, I guess, claim that the conduit is "low voltage". But if it looks like it's for high voltage you might not get away with that.

Re:the U-Bend

[qwijibo]

I'm glad you don't design server rooms I use. You've solved one problem while introducing various others based on a single superstitious belief.

Air conditioners are a common feature in server rooms. The ones used in this context maintain a certain humidity level. If the humidity is too high, there's risk of damage to the hardware, if it's too low it's easier for static to build up, which is bad for the hardware. When the humidity is too high, the air conditioners remove water from the air. This water needs to go somewhere, so a drain is a good choice. If the humidity is too low, they need a supply of water, for which tap water is sufficient.

Drains are also a common feature in server rooms because if water does get in there, they do not want to have the room flooded.