Apartments for Techies? 335
thedistance asks:
"I'm wondering if anyone has heard of companies retro fitting any
of the failed telecom hotels for apartment use? It sure would be nice
to find an apartment complex that was designed just for the tech
croud with a fiber/cat5 infrastructure throughout. It sure would make
it a lot easier to setup highspeed internet access, video on demand,
and wlans... not to mention an easy way to borrow the spare NIC from
your neighbor... (we can just leave the sugar borrowing to the rest
of the non-techie world)" If you know of an apartment complex
offering high bandwidth, please post a comment, below. Aside from
bandwidth, what other amenities would make an apartment complex ideal
for the high tech worker in the 21st Century?
Wew! (Score:1)
A magnificent view of the Hamersley Ranges... (Score:2)
Other sites you may consider include near Broome, with it's fabulous beaches, or Denmark, much colder and more crowded but with many lovely large trees, or perhaps somewhere along the scenic vehicle-destroying Gibb River Road [cycletours.com.au].
(some Hamersely views included here [fdns.net], mostly from Transmission Hill (AKA Wireless Hill or Radio Hill depending on sobriety levels) at Paraburdoo, Western Australia, some Broome views in the earlier sessions).
Two words... (Score:1, Funny)
A nice amenity... (Score:4, Funny)
...maybe not so realistic, but a good idea none the less.
I live in one (Houston, TX) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I live in one (Houston, TX) (Score:2)
Re:I live in one (Houston, TX) (Score:2)
Aparently even though I got DSL through Verizon a year ago (I talked directly to their network engineering staff), the Verizon call center that handles DSL service subscription hasn't been informed of the hardware installation in the remote servicing my area.
This seems not only to be a failing of Verizon, but also of my appartment management. Their failure to adequately research service offerings in the region has let to undoubtedly thousands of dollars in lost revenue. It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic.
The moral of the story is, don't trust appartment managers who say, 'sorry, no high speed access' or telephone call centers that say the same thing. Find out directly from the network engineers responsible, whenever possible. As for a Cat-5 infastructure... well, it isn't really nessecery now that wireless networking is of reasonably high quality.
--CTH
Re:I live in one (Houston, TX) (Score:2)
Re:OC-3? I think not.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow. I've got a few points of view on this. My first reaction? None, hopefully. When I buy access - that what I want, RAW ACCESS - Each user should provide their own security, I can certainly run my own damn network. Now for the reality. This won't work unless you live in a complex full of people in the know about network security/admin'ing. I know that I certainly dont trust my current bozo neighbor to provide ANY security except the never updated norotn anti-virus prog he runs. Which would of course leave a shared link open to rampant abuse. I dont want my bandwidth killed because his computer is busy sending gargantuan pings to me or the target of some ddos'er. So I would say that some sort of firewall should be provided. But by the same token, I dont want my ports filtered, blocking services i want to run, I mean, who wants to spend a month trying to convince the landlord to call the network guy out to open up some port... I wish you could be cited for a blatant security problem (read: email virus propagators)that affected other users, then be banned from the network until you attended some basic security class and proved your network was at least decently secured....
Re:OC-3? I think not.... (Score:2)
Bad idea (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, never mind.
Re:Bad idea (Score:1, Insightful)
It's been my experience being around people of like minds helps to bring these types out of their "shells" and into more social situations. So this is far from a bad idea for the reasons you gave.
The part that might not make it a huge success is that these types are not a large percentage of the populous. Nich markests with the monies it would take to setup something like this aren't worth going after in general.
Now given the posters request I would think it would be economicly atractive to try something out like this in the given situation. But the likelyhood of it being a big hit is rather small. It would do pretty much as good as any other complex but the clientel would range through several technicly minded areas and might end you up in more trouble than it is worth.
Just my two cents if you don't like it just leave it be and someone else will pick it up.
I think you're right... (Score:2, Interesting)
Then again, I live in a small backyard building in munich and we got DSL a few months ago and wiring the old House was a blast and our small Lan is really a lot of fun ever since. Even better, a coworker of mine just wired his own house he was building. He also included a dedicated Serverroom...cost him a bit though
Have a fun xmas everyone...
The right social controls (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, he has an unusual approach to running his business. He doesn't rent out whole apartments or houses. Instead, you rent a bedroom and you agree to help take care of any common areas. The whole business evolved out of the hippie commune the landlord himself lived in back in ancient times.
Anyway, one of the perks of renting from this guy is free DSL service. Which turns out to be his main way of keeping his tenants in line. Fall behind on the vacumming, or allow the kitchen to get too toxic, and the DSL goes away until things improve. Now that is social engineering!
Ancient (Score:2)
Those Darn Commies (Score:2)
Yes, Big Social Experiments inspired by Karl Marx and his buddies have mostly failed. But that's true of all BSPs, right wing and left wing. That's what "experiment" means -- you do something new and different, and end up either with a useful success or an instructive failure. The real danger of social experiments is that they tend to be supported by zealots who won't ever admit to failure, and often get quite nasty with anybody who suggests their ideas have flaws. The example you're probably thinking of is Osama. But there are others almost as scary, and not a few of them are in places of power in this country.
And let's avoid glib statements about "property which belongs to everyone". Life isn't that simple. Yes, socialists and communalists are often naive about how their fellow humans behave. But so are libertarians and free-marketeers. Whenever I tell a libertarian I'm not ready to disband the local police force, I get precisely the same childish assertions about expecting the best from people that I get when I tell a commie that I'm not ready to dispense with private property.
If your Toronto cyber-commune "proves" that socialism is absurd, what does the failure of Enron do? The fact is that neither experiment proves anything, except that selfish people will behave selfishly, if nobody's watching.
Amenities (Score:1)
A beer keg storage room ? a Pizza Hut outlet downstairs ?
Re:Amenities (Score:1)
hell yeah! (Score:1)
Interesting IDEA (Score:1)
Friend in Virginia planning on doing just that (Score:3, Troll)
Re:Friend in Virginia planning on doing just that (Score:2)
Using PCs to *route* gigabit ethernet? (Score:2)
It sounds like either your friend doesn't have a good handle on the technologies involved with this, or there was some miscommunication between the two of you.
It sounded good up until "use Linux and FreeBSD for the router".
You need something better than a PC to route many apartments' worth of gigabit ethernet to each other. A PC doesn't have the internal bandwidth for more than one gigabit connection. If you're using an off-the-shelf gigabit ethernet hub or router, it'll be running its own embedded OS from the vendor (if it's complex enough to run anything at all). If you're using a souped-up non-PC workstation as the router... you're spending far more than you have to for a simple router.
In a similar vein, you'll have an interesting time getting enough static IPs for a medium-sized apartment building without a fight. Maybe when IP6 finally takes over.
This sounds like a really cool project, and your friend deserves praise for trying to pull it off, but he'd better take a close look at the tools he's planning to use for it, and make sure that he's using the right tools for the right parts of it.
Re:Using PCs to *route* gigabit ethernet? (Score:2, Interesting)
He's unlikely to get more than 10Mbps in, and a Pentium 90 running FreeBSD can route and NAT to saturate a 10Mbps link. All he needs is to switch each apartment with 100Mbps switchs with 1Gbps uplink, switch the 100Mbps switches with a 1Gbps switch, and plug the router into that switch complex to route traffic out over the ADSL line. Another advantage of using a FreeBSD/Linux box at that level is that you can firewall... in fact, you could firewall for the clueless users and punch holes in the firewall for those who want it...
Re:Using PCs to *route* gigabit ethernet? (Score:2)
He was talking about routing streaming video within the building. And having gigabit connections to *each* apartment. This suggests he's planning to set up a system with more than 100 Mbit/apartment load internally (I agree that external load would likely be low enough to route with a PC).
Other things needed (Score:3, Funny)
E-paper, e-paper, e-paper and e-paper! On the walls! On the ceiling!
Imagine reading /. on the ceiling while falling asleep, instead of at work! Now *that's* productivity!
Re:Other things needed (Score:1)
Re:Other things needed (Score:4, Funny)
No, that's bound to give me nightmares.
All my rights are being stripped away. . .
My processor is too slow. . .
Can't sleep. . . must see Episode II. . .
-"Zow"
I can't resist this... (Score:2, Funny)
What a great idea! (Score:1)
Also, how difficult would it be to set up QOS for each apartment, so that one guy couldn't hog it all and piss everyone else off? This is much more important for home users than for businesses.
Gavle, Sweden (Score:1, Insightful)
100MBit switched net in most of the apartmentbuildings and Gigabit backbone.
The city wide NAT is highpreformance and really nice.
The Uplink to the net is 2x 135MBit which is enough for most needs. The NAT-community offers serveral FTP:s that contains what you need (and don't need). A fresh Linux ISO in 10 min is nice enough for me
When I lived there I used to watch movies from my friends harddrive without problems
Small problem... (Score:2)
Also, anything that was a former hotel or business complex would be zoned commercial, thus not allowed for apartment rent/lease, right?
- JoeShmoe
.
Re:Small problem... (Score:1)
i think..
or it could be the bacon talking..
We have 100 Mbps at home... (Score:1)
I can't resist to once more point out that we are accessing the Internet per 100 Mbps full duplex fibre link to our home.
I have a very detailed description on this [acc.umu.se] page on how we installed a very high-tech network in our entire block.
The page have been slashdotted once before, so the visitor counter have passed 52 000!
Best regards, Tomas
Very Impressive. (Score:1)
I know! (Score:2, Funny)
Aside from bandwidth, what other amenities would make an apartment complex ideal for the high tech worker in the 21st Century?
More bandwidth!
High availibility, fault tolerant... (Score:1)
Well... (Score:1)
EM shielding (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:EM shielding (Score:1)
Re:EM shielding (Score:1)
Kinda scared to move out of the dorm, eh? (Score:5, Funny)
Your idea has merit, though... if it were me, I'd model it as a 'halfway house' for recent grads who aren't quite 'equipped' to make it 'out there' just yet. It would be somewhat similar to a YMCA, except without the fitness opportunities. You could call it the 'Y' Adapter, and you'd probably fill up all your cells in no time.
Amenities could include communal laundries, in-house cafeteria, and a 30-terabyte KaZaa! mirror in the basement. You could offer regular field trips to local social establishments and real apartment communities, as well as social counseling and maybe dance classes.
Oh, and after you've been there a month, you lose network connectivity between 4 and 6 AM. After two months, no connection between 2 and 6 AM. You lose one more hour per month until after 6 months, you can't get on the 'net after dark. This would offer an excellent incentive for finding your own place, negotiating your own broadband connection, and starting a real life on your own.
Take me to the methadone clinic (Score:1)
check around college campuses (Score:1)
Philadelphia, PA (Score:1)
If you're willing to put up with the bullshit though, you can get an efficiency place there pretty cheaply ($550/month) and have a pretty good connection without having to live in dorms. When I was there, cable modem and DSL weren't available widely yet, so it was about the best access you could expect and for a pretty affordable price.
Oh, and, uh, don't use me for a reference, I ended up getting kicked out because of a rather schizophrenic pets policy that I don't really want to get into explaining. Just don't move there if you have pets, regardless of them saying it's okay. It isn't. They'll tell you in person it's okay, and let you in, but if they ever decide they don't like you, since it's technically against the lease they'll use it against you.
How about HUD runs it? (Score:1)
I notice Daschle doesn't have anything to worry about, since he makes 175K - I think congressmens' paychecks should be tied to the economy - we all have to tighten our belts, why don't they? Nah, they'll play politics to dick over EVERYONE, and then they run off to their nice vacation with their great big, taxpayer-paid paychecks, not to mention other perks that fall outside of a salary.
Anyway, it'd beat living out of your car or the local Y. There were already horror stories like that last spring, why we are still importing workers (H1-B's) and doing no tax cuts is a real mystery. Hopefully, all you voters remember to speak out about this crap...H1-B's should be on a ballot for the PEOPLE to vote for in a state-by-state basis, not some representatives to decide to do what never would be chosen by the people. I mean, who would vote to have more foreigners (and I'm not talking about immigrants here, I'm talking about the new class of indentured servants that the H1-B creates) taking jobs that hardly exist in the first place, and who the hell would NOT vote for lower taxes!!!
Re:Denver's just fine. (Score:2)
High-speed internet in downtown Chicago (Score:1, Informative)
Rents are expensive though - around $1500 for a one bedroom.
Phoenix AZ has some. (Score:1)
In Houston, TX (Score:1)
College Dorms (Score:1)
-enigmabomb-
Harbor Steps in Seattle (Score:1, Informative)
What about base infrastructure ? (Score:1, Interesting)
Build a computer room so that tenants can have so many RU's of space in a cool clean powered room with security. A relay closure interface so that your gear can handle blackouts cleanly. Stick your servers there and X/VNC/whatever from your apartment.
What is all this crap? (Score:4, Redundant)
a. Building a house for networking from the ground up (if cat6 isn't enough for your damn HOUSE then you have problems)
b. Putting a server room in your house (hint: walk-in closet. If you have enough hardware to cause heat problems, you are beyond help.)
c. Living in a fucking HOTEL, because there's a network drop in your room?
Gimme a break! Think about living in a hotel for a second. It's ONE ROOM, first of all. No kitchen. No living room. No den, no dining room, and I'm pretty sure there's NO FUCKING SERVER ROOM. Do you want to live in a hotel room?
So what does that date think when you ask her to come over to your place for dinner, and bring her to a hotel? Are you gonna break out the foreman grill and cook up some burgers for her? Just cut straight to the streaming porn, over that 'LEET "data port" conveniently located in your PHONE. Folks there are reasons that most people don't live in hotels.
Feeding the trolls; dispelling FUD (Score:2)
One is looking for a hotel/isp. A hotel may not necessarily BE an ISP. He's looking for a combination package. Not necessarily a studio like you badly imply.
Wiring your house is a VERY different project. Discussion involved the type of wiring to buy, which is VERY different than finding an internet appt building. Your house doesn't necessarily mean you'll be an ISP.
Building a server room is a bit of a task. All the user was looking for is cheap rack equpitment.
If you can't deal with the ask slashdot's, how about turning them off, eh?
Feeding the trolls.. (Score:2)
Re:Feeding the trolls; dispelling FUD (Score:2)
Re:What is all this crap? (Score:2)
I guess you haven't been staying the right hotels. Super Motel 8 is not a good example.
Re:What is all this crap? (Score:1)
Re:What is all this crap? (Score:2, Funny)
Date? Huh?
Re:What is all this crap? (Score:2)
Umm, "telco hotel" is what you call a facility that's like a colo (or Internet Data Center, if you're Exodus) but used for telephone switching rather than web hosting. The question was, could you live in one of these when the company that paid muchos dineros to fit it out went bankrupt?
The answer is probably not, at least not without a lot of work, probably more than is economical. These are big open spaces designed to be efficiently air conditioned, the "rooms" are cages so air can flow for that reason, the floors are raised for cabling, there's no plumbing. If might be cool to get all or maybe half of one for a "loft space", but you couldn't really break one up into apartments without getting rid of all the stuff that made it useful as a telco hotel in the first place.
Carl Fisher building Condos... (Score:1)
More POWER (ugh ugh ugh) (Score:1)
Internet is pretty everything I need. (Score:2)
PPA. the girl next door
Re:Internet is pretty everything I need. (Score:1)
apartmentguide.com (Score:1)
LAN Parties (Score:1)
cable modem or DSL (Score:1)
Re:cable modem or DSL (Score:2)
Tower 801 in Seattle (Score:5, Informative)
Features at Tower @ 801
View balconies outside every livingroom and bedroom
Outdoor deck with pool
24 hour fitness room with separate saunas
Club room with DVD home theater system and large laundry room
Cafe Lado open from 5:30 am to 11:00 pm
Laundry facilities
High speed Internet access
Digital cable
Secured underground parking
Storage facilities
Small pets allowed (larger pets upon approval)
Concierge Services
Onsite dry-cleaning pick up and drop off
Package acceptance/delivery
Fax/copy service
Concert and Broadway ticket packages
Restaurant packages
Dog walking
I believe they also have a video library you can check stuff out of. AND, if you're got good enough line-of-sight, you can easily snipe major bandwidth from all the wide-open 802.11 networks downtown! Mwuahahah!
Isn't hygene and health an issue? (Score:1)
Those places can have the foulest BO stench you can imagine.
I'll tell you something else. There comes a time in a man's life when his space and the people who chooses to share company with start to matter in different ways. A better idea, I think, or at least a safer idea would be to encourage geeks to all buy houses in the same community and set up a wireless network or something. I still can think of better things to do with my time but atleast you'll have your own building and space.
The hotels did not go out of business! (Score:1)
Bottom line as it regards your question: Those hotels are still hotels with RJ45 (or whatever) connections in their rooms that don't go anywhere particularly useful.
a company (Score:1)
Inside out Outside of the "Student Gehto?" (Score:2, Interesting)
To break away from university life - but who would want to - you are going to have to move into a new complex. Who can afford a new home though, not this poor student?
The cheapest and most efficent way I'm sure is to get a dedicated line, T3 perhaps and share the bandwidth with other neighbours in the area (5, 10 people should bring the bill down). Check contracts for that though, some providers don't like you networking too many computers because you turn into an ISP. Don't get your connection though them if that's the case.
Competition is great.
Cheers.
Jersey City, NJ (Score:1, Informative)
cambridgeside (Score:2, Informative)
I'm plenty happy in my place with cable modem - but I only have one outlet and the place is old so the power sucks...
I'm out in Somerville (slummerville)
Philly (Score:4, Informative)
Dont forget... (Score:2)
Everyone at work used Kozmo till they went out of business. Was a shame, they sure had alot of business...
Of course the apartments that come with a consierge are 3x the price of a normal apartment. Doable if your 3 guys all working at startups. (-;
Sure, just move to (insert metropolitan area here) (Score:3, Funny)
BTW, I'm looking for a great pizza place. Anywhere in America's fine with me. TIA.
Cool Amenities? (Score:2, Interesting)
I live in one (Score:4, Insightful)
Apartments with T1 access (Score:2)
Soundproofing (Score:3, Insightful)
Any good geek hovel must have good soundproofing. Even if you aren't the type to play loud music all the time, common everyday sounds can get annoying (particularly if people are keeping erratic schedules, as many of us like to do). Soundproofing is a must.
The landlord (Score:2)
I still can't see why anybody would want to run public servers out of their house. That's what hosting companies are for. Let somebody else fix the servers.
Why... caffeiene, of course. (Score:2, Funny)
It's not about the bandwidth (Score:3, Insightful)
What you really need in a geek's apartment is lots of power. Well-placed outlets in every room are key, as is not having to worry about blowing a fuse if you have a whole bunch of equipment running at the same time. Pretty much anything else you can set up yourself if you need to, but if the wiring is lousy and the landlord's not interested in improving it then you're probably screwed.
Great Googly Moogly (Score:2, Funny)
Just what the stereotypical tech needs - less socializing with real people and more with the same kind of poeple you see at work . . .
Cherry Hill, NJ (Score:2, Informative)
The rent includes broadband Internet access. Each room in the apartment has a jack with a DSS, cable, and 3 or 4 RJ-45 jacks for network/phone. There is a patch panel in the front closet where everything ties in. See http://www.roselandmgt.com/ and look in the "Roselink" section for more info)
Ideal Apartment (Score:5, Interesting)
Sound Dampening:
There's nothing like the rumble of Quake at high volume, but don't inflict it on me in the wee hours of the a.m. I would want to protect my neighbor from my own noise as much as I would protect myself from his. Abundant sound dampening would be a big plus.
Air Filtration:
With all of the different lifestyles (smokers, non-bathers, obscure candle lovers) I want to make sure that I only get the scents that I invite into my apartment. I currently have neighbors who smoke like chimneys, and it has seeped into every fiber of my carpeting. Then they installed a bunch of air ionizers, so now my apartment smells like a mix between an ashtray and a public pool.
Multiple Multi-Connector Outlets:
You can never have enough power/cable/telephone outlets.
No Exterior Stairs:
Either give every apartment ground floor entry, or provide an elevator. The stairs should be an emergency exit only. I've had too many drunk neighbors stumble home late at night.
Package Safe Deposit:
I hate getting home to find a note that the office is holding my package. I have to plan my day around the office hours so I can get my shipment of penguin reds. Not good. Give me a large safe deposit that I can give the FedEx/UPS guys access to.
Thick Window Coverings:
Most apartments come with your typical set of slat blinds. These are great until you try to watch a movie on your big screen at 5 pm and find the glare obscuring your view. The ideal apartment would have blinds capable of completely shutting out outside light sources.
Independent Hot Water Heater with Large Capacity:
Let me adjust my hot water to the temperature that I like, and make sure that I never run out. Same goes for the HVAC system.
And for the ideal techie apartment I would add
Electronics Closet:
An extra closet with a monster UPS/Line filter. Run all of the CAT-5, speaker, KVM, S-Video, etc. cables here. This is where I would keep all of my A/V equipment, big iron/Beowulf Rack, High Bandwidth uplink, and a router. This room would also need an independent temperature setting, as all of this equipment will be generating a lot of heat.
Pre-Routed CAT-5:
I don't want my apartment complex supplying my internet access, as I wouldn't put my faith in their capabilities. But if they would run CAT-5 throughout the apartment and leave the connections exposed next to the washer and dryer so I could hook up a router: fabulous.
Pre-Routed A/V wire:
Run speaker wire throughout the apartment. Run S-Video/Optical/and component outs throughout each room as well. Make sure the outlets are on multiple walls on each room so I have a choice of where to put my equipment, but also provide covers so the unused ones aren't exposed.
Remote Control Extenders:
Since all of my A/V equipment is in the closet, I'll need some RF/IR repeaters to get my remotes signal in there.
Re:Ideal Apartment (Score:2)
dot-bombed (Score:2)
No I didn't get any warning from ReFlex Communications, although there were 3 days between when they filed and when they shut off the service.
Too bad, it was pretty sweet and a very good deal.
Internet Ready corporate aparments (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually Sydney has a few of those .. (Score:2)
Telco-hotels? (Score:2)
Re:Telco-hotels? (Score:2)
...find a college area (Score:2, Interesting)
Reston and Herndon, VA (Score:2)
Caution: in Reston, stick with the north side of the tollroad, in Herndon the south side seems to be wired better.
You have your pick, from do-it-yourselfer hack apartments like mine at The Summit of Reston: washer and dryer in apt with outlet that is suitable for SGI Crimson, cable modem service, DSL available through everybody except AOL (no loss there), decent insulation and sound dampening between apartments, etc. There are also apartments with extensive internal networks, huge bandwidth, etc.
Part of the "charm" is there are very few old buildings around here, most of the construction has been leading into and during the
I can think of something (Score:2)
Two Words: Beer and Women
Merry X-Mas
Apartment / Condo Telecom Business Models (Score:2)
At somewhat the opposite ends of the spectrum, friends of mine who lived in an apartment building Palo Alto a decade or so ago wired it for Ethernet (Thinwire, aka 10base2, aka Cheapernet.) They had a startup company with offices in one apartment and several of them living in various apartments in the building, so telecommuting was even more convenient. I think they had a T1 feeding the business at the beginning, and after the business moved out to a Real Apartment they shared some kind of fractional T connection among the interested tenants.
The first network wired house I looked at when househunting achieved its status in about the most minimal form possible - there were two adjacent rooms with 10base2 jacks on the wall connected by about 6 inches of cable
Re:High speed for what? (Score:2)
Not to mention the fact that very few providers or Telcos would want a bunch of techies crammed into a building, what with all the wireless antennae strung out the windows and on the roof, cat5 all over the damn place, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry with their own private WLAN.
Yep, like they are ever gonna let us get our hands on that kind of fiber. Upload cap at 250kbps, NO servers. Like having a hotrod that won't fit through the garage doors.