[tech] New Mermaid

[Bob Adamson]

Hi techies,

I've been thinking about a replacement box for mermaid, and now seems like 
a good time to do the job properly while the box isn't being used for 
anything.

Dispense is currently running on heathred, the vendserver is running on 
martello, the door lock is controlled by a service running on mussel, with 
a decserver, a man-eating power supply and a modem in amongst all that. 
It's all very hot, very power hungry, and not all that reliable. What I 
hope to do is put all these services on one reliable machine with a ups. 
It will also require a little electronics later on for the door stuff. 
This will hopefully mean that the services are more likely to stay up in 
emergencies (fuse trips, power dips, hail storms in the clubroom, 
armageddon, freshers in the machine room) and also be easier to 
understand, manage and update.

The replacement box should run on as little power as possible, have at 
least 3 serial ports (preferably more), have static cooling (ie no fans), 
preferably mini or microATX so we can stick it somewhere out of the way.

At the moment, I'm keen on getting something in the $800 range from 
advantech, such as 
http://buy.advantech.net.au/ARK-3360L-3S51/ARK-3360L-3S51/system-3545.htm 

If you have a better suggestion, or can be bothered trawling sites to 
custom build a box, I'd love to hear from you!

Bob Adamson 
UCC Treasurer

|"Bureaucracy is a challenge to the be conquered with a righteous        |
|attitude, an intolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary" |
| ---Peter's Laws                                                        |