How a Supercomputer Beat the Scrap Heap and Lived On To Retire In Africa 145
New submitter jorge_salazar (3562633) writes Pieces of the decommissioned Ranger supercomputer, 40 racks in all, were shipped to researchers in South Africa, Tanzania, and Botswana to help seed their supercomputing aspirations. They say they'll need supercomputers to solve their growing science problems in astronomy, bioinformatics, climate modeling and more. Ranger's own beginnings were described by the co-founder of Sun Microsystems as a 'historic moment in petaflop computing."
Re:In an alternate universe (Score:0, Funny)
Re:Really now (Score:4, Funny)
No, no, no. Those are just the public reasons they gave. They are really for all the Nigerian princes to help get out the message about their uncle and his money problems. Now, we can also hear from the Tanzanian, Botswanan and Zulu princes as well.
That poor fuckin' machine (Score:2, Funny)
I bet it won't do a bit of science, but it sure will process a ton of emails from the Nigerian royal family!
Re: Really now (Score:5, Funny)
One of my favorite Michael Faraday stories (of which there are variants) is a visit to his lab by Prime Minister Robert Peel, during which Peel asked "what use is electricity?" Faraday replied "what use is a new-born baby?"
As Faraday licks the BBQ sauce off his slightly burnt fingertips, answering both questions at the same time.