7 ms·

That sounds awfully expensive for what amounts to an elaborate prank. :)

by pmiller2 10y ago

walrus01 10y ago
Such servers are basically free if you know anyone in the electronics recycling business.
- trome 10y ago
  Lol, or the old EMC servers, local no-name recycling place I visit occasionally got flooded with a few hundred racks of them a while back.
- cm2187 10y ago
  But the airline will charge you $$$ for checking in such a heavy luggage!
  - derefr 10y ago
    You don't have to come in via air. Do this at the Canada-US land border.
    - WildUtah 10y ago
      Do they still just wave people through there, eh? You might have to carry it a long time to get searched.
      - Kliment 10y ago
        Apparently they refused entry to, detained, and searched people wanting to go to the protests in DC yesterday. So just wait until an event like that happens again, which is likely to be fairly frequent now.
        perryprog 10y ago
        Actually, I think that was on the US side. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/20/womens-march-canada-protesters-denied-entry-us https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/20/womens-march-c...
        dghughes 10y ago
        The US border guards even refused entry from Canada to the US of Trump supporters who had tickets.
      - ChoGGi 10y ago
        My Dad has a mailbox for American packages just across the border, they seem to have quotas as his car is searched fairly regularly (it isn't a busy crossing).
        njloof 10y ago
        I do the same, but with a Nexus card; never been searched, but I always declare what I'm bringing across.
      - trynewideas 10y ago
        The last time I even came near to, but not into, Canada via train, the train was stopped and heavily armed and body-armored CBP came on board to demand customs documents from everyone, including citizens not leaving the country during their trip.
    - sneak 10y ago
      The CBP at the tunnel in Detroit are right pricks, this would work a charm on them. They have repeatedly harassed me and anyone unfortunate enough to travel with me.
  - endless1234 10y ago
    But if you get it seized before takeoff, maybe you get the $$$ back? :-)
- i336_ 10y ago
  I'm looking to get in touch with anyone with connections to these industries around the Sydney, Australia area. Long shot, but I'm currently in a position to highly appreciate some new hardware at the moment.
  - chiph 10y ago
    Do you have the power needed to run them? I once had an opportunity to get a huge HP "cluster in a box" server (two computers and a drive array all in one chassis) for not much money. It was looking good until I saw that it needed 20A to run and I'd have to hire an electrician to expand my circuit-breaker box.
    - i336_ 10y ago
      Very valid point. Wow, 20A is crazy. I'm curious what model that was, or what I can Google to get an idea of what this was. It sounds pretty big! (FWIW, you can retrofit your powerbox for about $80, if you're in AU, and it's not that hard. Ahem.) Ultimately I think my answer would be weighing the machine's rareness or unusualness against its power draw, fan noise or other annoyances. More of the former means that I'll accept more of the latter :) but in a worst-case scenario I'll just collect stuff and file it away, for example I was given some Sun V240s a while ago that I hope to be able to fire up when I can rack them in a well-ventilated faraway corner where I can't hear them. Practically speaking I'm curious where people get rid of i3 based systems and multi-TB HDDs at the moment; I (crazy badly) need a new file server, and (for obscure, fun reasons) saving up for new HDDs is taking quite a few more months (and proving more stressful to my family, sadly) than I'd anticipated.
      - chiph 10y ago
        I don't recall the model (sorry). This was one of the Compaqs that had been given a new HP model name after the acquisition. The 20A was at 110 volts (US standard) so 10A for Australia with your 220 volt standard. I just replaced a mirrored pair of USB drives running off a Mac Mini with a NAS from Synology. File server, plus Plex server, plus backup server, all in one. It won't be cheap (even factoring in the Australian duty) but it's something that can be tucked into a closet out of sight.
Anarch157a 10y ago
Look at Craigslist or EBay. When Datacenters upgrade, they dump massive quantities of server gear for cheap.

That sounds awfully expensive for what amounts to an elaborate prank. :)

walrus01 10y ago

Such servers are basically free if you know anyone in the electronics recycling business.

trome 10y ago
Lol, or the old EMC servers, local no-name recycling place I visit occasionally got flooded with a few hundred racks of them a while back.
cm2187 10y ago
But the airline will charge you $$$ for checking in such a heavy luggage!
- derefr 10y ago
  You don't have to come in via air. Do this at the Canada-US land border.
  - WildUtah 10y ago
    Do they still just wave people through there, eh? You might have to carry it a long time to get searched.
    - Kliment 10y ago
      Apparently they refused entry to, detained, and searched people wanting to go to the protests in DC yesterday. So just wait until an event like that happens again, which is likely to be fairly frequent now.
      - perryprog 10y ago
        Actually, I think that was on the US side. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/20/womens-march-canada-protesters-denied-entry-us https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/20/womens-march-c...
      - dghughes 10y ago
        The US border guards even refused entry from Canada to the US of Trump supporters who had tickets.
    - ChoGGi 10y ago
      My Dad has a mailbox for American packages just across the border, they seem to have quotas as his car is searched fairly regularly (it isn't a busy crossing).
      - njloof 10y ago
        I do the same, but with a Nexus card; never been searched, but I always declare what I'm bringing across.
    - trynewideas 10y ago
      The last time I even came near to, but not into, Canada via train, the train was stopped and heavily armed and body-armored CBP came on board to demand customs documents from everyone, including citizens not leaving the country during their trip.
  - sneak 10y ago
    The CBP at the tunnel in Detroit are right pricks, this would work a charm on them. They have repeatedly harassed me and anyone unfortunate enough to travel with me.
- endless1234 10y ago
  But if you get it seized before takeoff, maybe you get the $$$ back? :-)
i336_ 10y ago
I'm looking to get in touch with anyone with connections to these industries around the Sydney, Australia area. Long shot, but I'm currently in a position to highly appreciate some new hardware at the moment.
- chiph 10y ago
  Do you have the power needed to run them? I once had an opportunity to get a huge HP "cluster in a box" server (two computers and a drive array all in one chassis) for not much money. It was looking good until I saw that it needed 20A to run and I'd have to hire an electrician to expand my circuit-breaker box.
  - i336_ 10y ago
    Very valid point. Wow, 20A is crazy. I'm curious what model that was, or what I can Google to get an idea of what this was. It sounds pretty big! (FWIW, you can retrofit your powerbox for about $80, if you're in AU, and it's not that hard. Ahem.) Ultimately I think my answer would be weighing the machine's rareness or unusualness against its power draw, fan noise or other annoyances. More of the former means that I'll accept more of the latter :) but in a worst-case scenario I'll just collect stuff and file it away, for example I was given some Sun V240s a while ago that I hope to be able to fire up when I can rack them in a well-ventilated faraway corner where I can't hear them. Practically speaking I'm curious where people get rid of i3 based systems and multi-TB HDDs at the moment; I (crazy badly) need a new file server, and (for obscure, fun reasons) saving up for new HDDs is taking quite a few more months (and proving more stressful to my family, sadly) than I'd anticipated.
    - chiph 10y ago
      I don't recall the model (sorry). This was one of the Compaqs that had been given a new HP model name after the acquisition. The 20A was at 110 volts (US standard) so 10A for Australia with your 220 volt standard. I just replaced a mirrored pair of USB drives running off a Mac Mini with a NAS from Synology. File server, plus Plex server, plus backup server, all in one. It won't be cheap (even factoring in the Australian duty) but it's something that can be tucked into a closet out of sight.

Anarch157a 10y ago

Look at Craigslist or EBay. When Datacenters upgrade, they dump massive quantities of server gear for cheap.