We're a non-US startup but decided to stick a couple of servers in a data center in Houston. Location wise it works for us for non-business reasons.
I'm sure very state does this and it's probably my naivety but I was shocked when Harris County (Houston) hit us up for property taxes on the server.
When I looked at what I was paying for (local hospital, schools, roads, etc) I had to protest.
Does Texas get how the Internet works?
Just wanted to share that with anyone else this with anyone else that might have the same idea. It's not a huge tax but it's unfair if I don't get the benefit of the services. Mostly though it's just an irritating amount of paperwork and figuring out how to pay in USD. Texas doesn't do Paypal.;->
You don't have to hate what you're doing to make a bit of cash...in fact it's contrary to the point.
I'm just suggesting having a bit of cash opens up a lot more opportunities that not having a bit of cash.
While being rich doesn't guarantee happiness, neither does being poor.
Guys who are good at IT (and have some communication/personal skills) can do pretty well by being a bit flexible and most of us continue to work at it even after having enough money simply because we enjoy it...
I completely agree. Dell do a fantastic job with the thermal (and therefore noise) qualities of the their systems. However, they choose the cheapest of the cheap when it comes to components and after a while it shows.
I generally upgrade my main system ever 2 years and when I do don't skimp. The thing that bugged me about my current machine ins that after 2 years or so the PSU fan would whine (same thing happened on my last Dell). So this time I did a self build and even though I purchased everything low noise(Lian Li 1100B, Zalman PSU & CPU Cooler,etc..) I was surprised at the noise this thing made. It's not that it's really noisy, it's just the Dell was much quieter.
I'm not a gamer, no overclocking fancy graphics cards or anything. It's just a good developer workstation (it's really about I/O these days). Noisy things mainly seem to be the fans; I'm replacing all of them with even quieter one to see if it helps.
All in all it's a nice machine but hidden under the desk it's not THAT much nicer than a Dell out of the box. Only time will tell if my premium components remain quiet for the next 2 years.
The whole quiet PC thing seems silly until you hear a truly quiet machine. After that your realise just how much noise pollution there is in a modern office that we don't notice.
You can get the same effect with a pair of noise cancelling headphones...turn it on in your office and get ready to be surprised.
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When I looked at what I was paying for (local hospital, schools, roads, etc) I had to protest.
Does Texas get how the Internet works?
Just wanted to share that with anyone else this with anyone else that might have the same idea. It's not a huge tax but it's unfair if I don't get the benefit of the services. Mostly though it's just an irritating amount of paperwork and figuring out how to pay in USD. Texas doesn't do Paypal. ;->
I'm just suggesting having a bit of cash opens up a lot more opportunities that not having a bit of cash.
While being rich doesn't guarantee happiness, neither does being poor.
Guys who are good at IT (and have some communication/personal skills) can do pretty well by being a bit flexible and most of us continue to work at it even after having enough money simply because we enjoy it...
If not, take the money and run. Nothin beats cash.
Technology is largely irrelevant....just ask the guys who made a killing doing COBOL while everyone else migrated to C++.
I generally upgrade my main system ever 2 years and when I do don't skimp. The thing that bugged me about my current machine ins that after 2 years or so the PSU fan would whine (same thing happened on my last Dell). So this time I did a self build and even though I purchased everything low noise(Lian Li 1100B, Zalman PSU & CPU Cooler,etc..) I was surprised at the noise this thing made. It's not that it's really noisy, it's just the Dell was much quieter.
I'm not a gamer, no overclocking fancy graphics cards or anything. It's just a good developer workstation (it's really about I/O these days). Noisy things mainly seem to be the fans; I'm replacing all of them with even quieter one to see if it helps.
All in all it's a nice machine but hidden under the desk it's not THAT much nicer than a Dell out of the box. Only time will tell if my premium components remain quiet for the next 2 years.
The whole quiet PC thing seems silly until you hear a truly quiet machine. After that your realise just how much noise pollution there is in a modern office that we don't notice.
You can get the same effect with a pair of noise cancelling headphones...turn it on in your office and get ready to be surprised.