When I got my first chance to name the first two servers for a project,
I went with "fides" and "spes" ("faith" and "hope"), so that if we ever
got a third one it would be charity. By the time the project got any
more boxes someone else was in charge of naming, unfortunately. We have
also fallen into the trap of naming servers after products, but we're
getting away from that. Back in the mid-nineties if you searched for my
name in Lycos you found endless postings from a machine named "binkley"
at McGill, no doubt inspired by the Bloom County character - the curse
of all true Binkleys. We also had a period of naming boxes after
deceased or retired colleagues, but that got tired. When we were
recently planning the deployment of several new servers in a major
upgrade, I was late to the meeting and was puzzled at the names on the
whiteboard: all women's first names, but I couldn't see a pattern. I'll
never forget the shudder of horror when it was revealed they were all
women who have dated Tom Cruise. A couple of us quietly indicated that
we would be forced to resign rather than work with such a tacky system,
and we went with British football clubs instead.
Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Jody Fagan
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 1:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Server names at libraries
Dear Code4Lib folks,
I'd like to write an anecdotal article about library server nomenclature
... I'm for-sure that most librarians don't even know our servers have
names. I am hoping that some of you might be willing to share (off-list)
server names you have known in libraries, how/why you chose them, and
any random thoughts you have about them. Did you inherit them? Did you
get to pick them out? Do you think the whole idea of server names is
silly or do you secretly like the fact that your servers have names?
I am happy to guarantee anonymity (that is, I won't use your name or
institution in conjunction with any server names) unless you
specifically want to be identified or given credit for your statements.
I plan on sharing my institution's server names in my article, but not
say where they are from....
thanks for considering this,
Jody
--
Jody Condit Fagan
Digital Services Librarian, James Madison University
540-568-4265
[log in to unmask]
"Machine. Unexpectedly, I'd invented a time" -- Alan Moore
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html
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