Day 17 (July 28)

Ran some memory stress-testing software on the computer... for four hours. I saw no errors, so I assume that means it's all in working order. Fun bringing up performance graphs and seeing the memory and the CPU all maxed out.

Day 16 (July 27)

Set up the hard drives on the computer. In a RAID 5 array, three or more drives operate effectively as one. One drive worth of space is used for parity (backup data) while data is simultaneously written to the rest of the space across all of the drives. This results in faster performance and better data protection - if one drive fails, a new, empty drive can be put in its place and the lost data can be pieced together from parity bits.

I still need to get this thing hooked up to the internet, though. Until I do that, I can't activate Windows and it constantly gives me pop-ups telling me I'm using bootlegged software. However, my hunt for the CIS's enigmatic systems admin has been so far unsuccessful...

Day 15 (July 26)

Got the last few parts today. It took a while, but I go the computer up-and-running and had time to install the OS before I clocked out. I'll edit some pictures onto this post when I get the chance.

I purchased a 720p webcam the other day, so I should be able to take some better pictures to put on this blog pretty soon.

Day 14 (July 25)

Actually got to do a little computer-assembly today after waiting an eternity for the parts to be delivered. I'll upload some crummy, low-res phone pictures.

these are the hard drives going into this thing. they total 10TB (or 10,240GB), which is enough space to hold all of the printed works in the Library of Congress. I don't know if a LIDAR requires this much space, but hey, memory is cheap.

motherboard installed in the case (a pretty nice case, at that). you can see the memory sticks installed in the upper-right of the motherboard.

this is a solid-state drive. since this has no moving parts like the magnetic disks in the hard-disk drives I showed at the top of this post, it can access data faster, trading space for speed (it's about 64GB). the operating system will go on this while the HDDs store everything else - this will allow the computer to boot up very quickly. also, look at it! it's tiny!

Day 13 (July 22)

Only worked until two today because I'm participating in the RIT College and Careers program. Visited my lab around six to show a couple of my friends around to find that the last major parts for the computer were delivered right after I left. At least I'll have plenty to do on Monday.

Day 12 (July 21)

Some parts for the computer that I ordered yesterday got here today, but more important parts that I ordered a week ago have yet to get here. Meanwhile I've learned to solder, so I'm soldering a circuit board together.

...and I did it all without even severely burning myself.

Day 11 (July 20)

No new parts were delivered today. It's inhumanly hot outside. I'm glad this building is air-conditioned.