The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

TechCenter 051—any relation to Area 51?

Mark sent me a link to TechCenter 051, a facility used by IBM and located in Boca Raton, Florida.

You have to check out the video about TechCenter 051. The beginning comes across like a documentary for the NSA—IBM used this facility for back ops and top secret projects for both commercial and government use. The whole tone comes across as the business equivilent of Area 51 (I wonder if there is a connection? Hmmmmm … ) but once the tone changes, it becomes just another generic infomercial (although the building has redundant SONET rings and redundant power generators. It is an impresive facility.

Masks

Spring took it upon herself to fix some pictures I had to get them back on the wall. I had two regular water colors and two rather unusual Oriental Demon Masks. All four belonged to my parents and I know for a fact that the Oriental Demon Masks were a wedding gift to my parents (who were married in Hell, Michigan—fitting, isn't it?). For years they sat in the attic of my Dad's parent's house collecting dust. I gathered them on a visit one year, much to the dismay of my Mom. It was only after I inherited Condo Conner that I actually hung them up just outside the Computer Room.

But eventually the wire on the back of the frame broke so they've been sitting in my room waiting till someone got around to fixing them.

I also had a few African masks that my Dad's mom got for me in the mid 80s. She knew I liked the Oriental Demon Masks but also knew that my Mom would never allow them back in her house. So one summer in the mid-80s we found a pair of masks at a garage sale and paid something like $1 each or something like that. Pretty cheap. And they had been lying around in the room just lying around, since there was no real way to hang them up.

But Spring found a way using picture hooks, one on each side and one at the bottom, and used hanging wire to connect them all in the back with an round picture hook at the junction of wire. She then hung them up along the front entry wall to break up the expansive space of white wall. It actually looks good now.

And yes, we did name them. Bob, Bing, Byron and Arsenio. Any relations to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental.

Obligatory Picture

[It's the most wonderful time of the year!]

Obligatory Contact Info

Obligatory Feeds

Obligatory Links

Obligatory Miscellaneous

You have my permission to link freely to any entry here. Go ahead, I won't bite. I promise.

The dates are the permanent links to that day's entries (or entry, if there is only one entry). The titles are the permanent links to that entry only. The format for the links are simple: Start with the base link for this site: https://boston.conman.org/, then add the date you are interested in, say 2000/08/01, so that would make the final URL:

https://boston.conman.org/2000/08/01

You can also specify the entire month by leaving off the day portion. You can even select an arbitrary portion of time.

You may also note subtle shading of the links and that's intentional: the “closer” the link is (relative to the page) the “brighter” it appears. It's an experiment in using color shading to denote the distance a link is from here. If you don't notice it, don't worry; it's not all that important.

It is assumed that every brand name, slogan, corporate name, symbol, design element, et cetera mentioned in these pages is a protected and/or trademarked entity, the sole property of its owner(s), and acknowledgement of this status is implied.

Copyright © 1999-2023 by Sean Conner. All Rights Reserved.