Michael Buffington

Do I Dare?

Thursday, April 03 2003

I do. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to talk about this yet, but I’m going to anyhow. Carrie, Ultrasupersonic Baby Super Star and I are moving to London, England for 6 months. Isn’t that wild? We’re nervous and excited. We leave in a few weeks, and there’s so much to do before we go.

I need your help.

Before leaving, I have to purchase and configure two servers. One will be a web server, the other a database server. I’m looking for good deals on 1U Rackmount servers. The lowest price I can find is $740 for an AMD 1700+ with 1GB of RAM and a 40GB HD. If you know of a similar setup for less money, let me know.

Camera lenses, as far as I know, are a lot cheaper in the US, so before I go, I want to pick up two lenses for my Nikon D100. A 17mm prime, or 14mm zoom (to 28mm), and a nice telephoto (90mm to whatever, as long as it’s portable). I’ve found the Tokina 17mm prime for about $370, and haven’t priced telephotos but they’re about the same price. Do you know of where to purchase a cheap super wide angle lens for the Nikon?

How do you think I should handle banking? I’ll be getting paid by my US based contracting company, and I was thinking that if they did direct deposit, I could have access to my funds through ATM cards in the UK. Is this crazy?

What do you think I should do with my truck? Do I need to do anything special if it’s going to sit for 6 months? Should I just try to sell it?

I have so much to do in the next three weeks, I swear my brain is going to melt.

Your help is appreciated.