Of Xserves, iSights, iChats, MacBooks, Slivrs, Razrs, and other oddly-spelled bits

Our Xserve arrived... with an (unofficial) genius included.

We racked our shiny new Xserve (replete with new OS X smell) this morning in preparation for our wider-spread alpha. Aside from the usual array of sharp metal edges, more screws than strictly necessary, and well-written manuals (useful when you relent and read them), our morning rackathon included the assistance of my friend and now-co-colo neighbor, James Duncan Davidson. Yet far from settling in together for a fridgid morning install, the fates (read: Apple/Fedex) conspired to have Duncan over yonder in Santa Clara, California, and me here, xServe in hand, in Portland. What to do?

Bring there here, of course.

Thanks to an array of devices, software, and the internets, we transferred Duncan bit by bit to Portland and got to work. The MacBook Pro's built-in iSight brought us his sight. A Motorola Slivr his speech and hearing. And iChat playing an impressive role as touch in the form of a remote command bucket-brigade between he, myself, trusty sidekick Aaron Huslage, and the server (disconnected at that time).

Of course we could have gone it alone. But why?

(Ironically enough, while Duncan and I and others often make use of one-another as remote googler, mapper, or yelper—a cellphone is quite possibly the most RESTful technology on the market—even we didn't think to put local screwdriver, remote assistance, and technology together until we'd exhausted various other potential solutions.)