I helped sell a Cray on eBay once, in 2000. I remember offering to let the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center use my eBay account, because I had hundreds of karma from selling Magic cards.
The coolest part was a decade later, I ran into the guy that bought it... on Hacker News. And that guy was Steve Blank, who turned out to be a hero of mine.
>"I'm ecstatic," Blank said. "In 50 years, people are just going to go, 'That was the pinnacle of military computing. These machines are going to be as important as the first PC or the first minicomputer.'" ... Regardless of where the machine ends up, Blank said he plans to keep it in working condition. He said he was arranging with Cray and the supercomputing center to ship the machine in a climate-controlled environment.
And then...
>It sat in my barn next to the tractors and manure for five years. I had the only farm capable of nuclear weapons design.
Cray called two years ago and bought it back for parts for an unnamed customer still running one.
That's kind of sad. But he did help ensure another Cray remained in working condition, so I guess that's a positive aspect of the story!
The coolest part was a decade later, I ran into the guy that bought it... on Hacker News. And that guy was Steve Blank, who turned out to be a hero of mine.
http://steveblank.com/2009/11/19/closure/