The Planet Blog

Forty-seven South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Trade Show attendees took The Planet Server Challenge, but only one could walk away with the ASUS Eee PC netbook and the title of “The Fastest Hands at SXSW.” When we designed the competition, we had three goals in mind:

1. Give participants a the chance to show off their technical expertise
2. Appeal to as broad an audience as possible
3. Take less than two minutes to complete

We anticipated strong performances, and we were as surprised as everyone else to see Tagged Director of Engineering Mark Jen masterfully rebuild the server in a blistering 30.7 seconds. His first attempt was slowed by a stray cable, yet it was still fast enough to take the lead from Idea’s Quang Tran. We flicked on our camera to document Mark’s second attempt in hopes we’d catch a faster time on film. Thankfully, he did not disappoint:

If you made it by our booth to try your hand in the competition, we thank you. Whether your time was thirty seconds or two minutes and thirty seconds, we enjoyed meeting you and sharing a little of what we do. To the team of folks that put together the Iron Geek Triathlon, thanks for inviting us to be a part of the fun!

To Mark: Keep those fingers nimble … now the Internet is going to see your tricks of the trade, and next time, it might not be as easy to walk away victorious.

-Kevin

P.S. For more Server Challenge goodness, check out the coverage on Data Center Knowledge and Keith Shaw’s hands-on test at Network World.

The trade show floor is open at SXSW Interactive, so The Planet Server Challenge is officially underway. We went through the basics of the competition yesterday, so today we’re diving into the details.

The Goal: Reassemble our Pentium4 server faster than your SXSW peers and win an ASUS Eee PC Netbook.

The Rules:

1. You may arrange the components as you’d like* before starting.

*Fan, Heat Sink and RAM must be on the table outside of the chassis.

2. You may not be touching any components when time starts.
3. All components must be installed for your time to be recorded.
4. Components can be installed in any order.
5. Components outside the server may only be touched one at a time.
6. You may attempt the build twice.
7. Time will be recorded by a representative from The Planet.
8. The leader board in the booth will reflect the current “time to beat.”

A Successful/Complete Installation:

• Install heat sink, latch both latches
• Plug heat sink into motherboard
• Install fan
• Plug fan into motherboard
• Install two RAM modules (in any of the 4 slots)
• Plug in Hard Drive power cable
• Plug in Hard Drive ribbon cable
• Plug in CD-ROM power cable
• Plug in CD-ROM ribbon cable
• Slide case lid into place

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’m pretty sure videos are worth a few million. With that in mind, we recorded a quick explanation and demonstration of the challenge:

Do you think you have what it takes to get the best time? Swing by our booth and prove it! We will update the top times in the comments section of this blog so you can keep an eye on the current record in absentia.

UPDATE: We just spoke with one of the representatives from the Universal Records Database, and he suggested that we submit the fastest time to their database, and they will certify the winner as a universal record holder! Forget having the fastest hands at SXSW … You’ll have the fastest hands in the universe.

-Kevin

P.S. Don’t forget to RSVP for tonight’s Tumblr/SoundCloud/Kickstarter party!

In “The Art of the Start,” Guy Kawasaki references the importance of operating under mantra rather than a mission statement. He argues that there’s no need to loquaciously explain your goals and practices to others (and yourself) if you instead pinpoint the key driving force behind your business and make it self-evident and unifying in everything you do.

Guy cites the Dilbert Mission Statement Generator as one of the best resources in creating a meaningless, buzzword-filled mission statement to rival those created by teams of consultants. The tool (now offline) allowed you to enter a few key phrases and select your favorite fancy words to create a mission statement like one he included in his “The Art of the Start” session at the Houston Technology Center:

We exist to professionally build long-term high-impact sources so that we may endeavor to synergistically leverage existing effective deliverables to stay competitive in tomorrow’s world.

The mission statement medium almost begs for $10 words when you really need to express a simple thought.

Take a look at The Planet’s Mission Statement … Notice anything interesting about it? Take a look at the heading:

Our Mission: Be the Best Host for You.

You don’t have to read beyond the first line of the page to know what we’re about. The sentiment might not be revolutionary, but what it loses in originality, it makes up for in sincerity:

To be the best host for you, we need to keep your business online and your Web sites fast. To be the best host for you, if you ever need to get in touch with us, we need to be available, friendly, honest, open and helpful. To be the best host for you, we need to have affordable prices and flexible solutions to fit your business.

The cynics in the audience are probably waiting for someone to break out a guitar to lead a sing-along at this point, but that’s not where we’re headed.

This post is a challenge to everyone reading it: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to reach out to us any time that mantra does not permeate your experience as a customer of The Planet.

Will you take us up on the challenge?

-Kevin