[ILUG] Seen on Usenet: SGI Challenge XL Server for sale

[Jakma, Paul]

> [snip description of massive SGI box]
> 
> Your bedroom is in an ESB substation is it? Reminds me of a 
> true story where
> US universities donated old Mainframes to universities in developing
> countries. By the time the shipping/electricity/special 
> room/maintenance
> costs were factored in, it would have been cheaper to by new 
> state of the
> art stuff.
> 

yeah, i found a site once with a section on "Mainframes at home" full of
stories of people with PDP's at home, browning out the apt. block on bootup,
etc. I can not find this site back. IIRC it had other sections like humorous
man pages, sysadmin horror stories, etc. Anyone know it?

However, the Challenge XL is a mid 90's machine. About the size of a rack.
And I'm guessing it'll take 220/50 V/Hz. (at least our big AS4100 220V
lines). It's not really a mainframe, more an overgrown Unix machine - like
the big Sun E, DEC Alphaserver, IBM xyz... etc, boxes. 

Now i just need to find an Onyx2 for a reasonable price... :)

> GMC
> 

-paul.