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We have two new staff members joining Assembleron on Monday and I have been extremely busy getting lots of things ready. On a mundane front this has meant things like contracts, keys and swipe cards to organize. On a development front this has meant seriously getting my house in order. This means making sure phpDocumentor was not throwing up too many warnings, making sure subversion setups were identical on the new machines and then checking out the latest code ready for them to start.

To get to this point has meant long hours cleaning down the standard DELL machines we purchased and installing our standard development setups plus office installations, email setup, folder sharing and much much more.

The reason I mention this is that I wanted to have people start in the very best way, this means not having to wait for a PC to arrive, for the right software, to checkout code themselves etc. But how many jobs have you started at where you spend the first few days without even your own machine? It amazes me how often this happens, if a company cannot even be organized enough to make equipment arrive on time says to me that they are not planning well enough. For all the companies I have worked for I have always insisted that preparation became the norm not something of a surprise.

Rack Server
My last bit of preparation this week has been installing new fans in the top of my rack cabinet. When we moved into our offices we quickly realised that our PowerEdge 1900 was going to be too noisy sitting in the corner. For those with large budgets the solution would have been simple but I was not prepared to waste £1500-£3000 for a soundproofed server cabinet when it could be better spent on better equipment for employees. I managed to get a non-soundproofed PRISM 12u cabinet which I decided I would soundproof myself, how hard could it be?

Apart from miscalculating the overall surface area that I needed to cover (I forgot to take into account the hole in the top and bottom of the rack) the soundproofing went to plan. I then needed a heavyweight shelf as my 5U server weighs in at 40kg+ and would laugh at sitting on a standard shelf supplied by PRISM. Ebay again came up trumps and a adjustable shelf that would hold a sherman tank soon arrived. The last issue after soundproofing was the extra insulation it was giving and the inevitable internal temperature rise. After trying to repeatedly offer £15 to a Ebay shop (under best offer) for the required fans that were going for £59 and getting rejected I finally succumbed to buying it from an official stockist.

Here is my overall shopping list.

• 12u Prism rack on wheels - £25 (Ebay)
• 14 x Contoured Acoustic Soundproofing Foam - £18 (Ebay)
• 19″ Rack - 10 M6 cage nuts, bolts & washers - £2 (Ebay)
• 19″ Rack 1U Adjustable Shelf 550- 900mm - £30 (Ebay)
• Prism 4 Way Roof Fan - £75 (KeyZone)