Speaking of your family, I understand that your last child was conceived at one of these parties…
That’s correct… (laughs). My wife and I had difficulty conceiving our first child and turned to fertility drugs and our second we knew the proper dosage of that drug that we needed and we knew the time zone we needed to do the act, and this happened to fall on a LAN-party weekend.
I thought you had just gotten back from military training..
That’s correct as well. I got back after being away for a few months, it so happens that the LAN weekend was also the prime time for conception, so I talked to Dan and told him that I needed to leave the LAN to take care of things back home and that I’ll be right back. Dan’s like “you have 45 minutes”. Being that it takes 22 minutes to get back to my house, it didn’t really give me much time.
But thing’s worked out?
Yeah, things worked out, and she (Jason’s youngest daughter) is walking around right now…
You talked about the smaller LANs and the chance to try new games. What do you think about piracy that goes on at these events?
LPNW’s official stance on that is “no piracy”. Not that we “see no evil, hear no evil”. On our forums we take a more strict approach, we don’t want anything in print on the web (about piracy), so we have moderators that are quick to squash any talk of piracy quickly, and change the description (of copies) to “backups”. I, myself, since we have that view, make sure to buy the games. I show those off in pictures and on the web page. I’ve done that since day one. “Piracy” is a good way to test the game out, I suppose, before you buy it. (laughs). A large number of our gamers do buy the retail product.
I understand you had to upgrade the electricity to your house just to make sure you don’t blow a circuit. Talk about your network and electrical experience.
On the electrical aspect of things, I was a reservist for the Marine Corps for 6 ½ years as an electrical equipment repair specialist. So I went to school for the marines for electrical and I learned the basics of electricity: Ohm’s law and what not to figure out how much amperage you will need with so many systems hooked up to a 120 volt system. Doing that and testing things out over the years. We felt safe with 8 computers for each 20 amp circuit and we’ve had to make modifications recently. We’ve found by pushing the limits that we can have 8 computers on a 20 amp circuit. That was back when 250-300 watt power supplies were the norm, and now 500, 600, and I’ve even seen a Kilowatt power supply in my copy of PC Gamer Magazine. 1,000 Watt power supply! So, we’re going to be changing that model to accommodate for the larger wattage computers. For converting things to the house for use for that type of amperage, I was fortunate enough to purchase a house where the previous owner worked for AT&T and had CAT-5e wired through the whole house. Also he was a woodworker and had a lathe and wood saws and other woodworking machines in his garage, and already had 5-20 amp circuits in the garage. I just had to reconfigure them, add a couple more. When we have a full house with all 43 gamers present, I don’t let my wife use the microwave, the stove, the washer & dryer, or the dishwasher! Haha!
You even added air conditioning to the garage.
We did. Back in 2004 we had a couple of hot months, August and September which reached into the 90s. We attempted to use a swamp cooler to see if that would help with the conditions in the garage, and all that added was humidity… it was one of the most miserable LAN parties we’ve ever had. I think it was 94 degrees outside, and about 110 inside the garage with 90% humidity! Haha. Adding that much humidity to computer systems is not a good idea. We noticed moisture on some people’s computers so we had to promptly shut off the swamp cooler, which is using water and evaporation to supposedly cool, and we actually had water dripping through cardboard with a fan blowing across it to produce the cooler air.
So what I did was shop around for air conditioning, and it would take me about a year and a half of gLAN parties to pay for the air conditioning, with our minimal profit margin. Quotes were coming in at about $4000, so I looked into doing this myself. So I looked online and found a handy website, alpinehomeair.com and purchased my own system and put in 90% of it. I had to have an HVAC guy come out with the Freon but I installed my own power and routing tubes and thermostats. I have the ability to use the thermostat in the house for the in-house temperature, or can remove the face-plate, like a little PDA and stylus and put it in the garage and keep the garage at whatever temperature you set it for. I swiped the ducts from the downstairs bathroom & laundry room and routed them into the garage… and that’s how we keep the garage at an acceptable temperature.
