Silicon Valley couple Pam and Paul Costa apparently have high hopes for their son Edison. They've decorated the little tyke's nursery in a Thomas Edison theme, and the centerpiece is an actual Cray Y-MP supercomputer they've pressed into service as a seating area. Apparently these horseshoe-shaped behemoths, which were $5 million mofo supercomputers back in 1988, can now be picked up at yard sales.
Let's just hope little Edison grows up to be interested in computers, or there are going to be two very disappointed parents in Sunnyvale. We're wondering if Edison's marriage hasn't already been arranged, too. Check out the gallery for a tour of this unique nursery, and don't miss our favorite, a blackboard complete with the molecular formulas for milk, pee and poop.
Edison's Nursery [Costa]








Comments
But can it play Doom?
Anyone know if you still get a free case of Leinenkugel's when you buy a Cray?
i want a cray super computer chair!
whens a yard sale near me going to have one?!?!
I predict Edison will wind up as a future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, to his parents eternal dismay.
Yea but does it do 1080p, does it blend.... yada, yada, yada.
Great stuff!
My brother brought me a huge control panel from a computer one time when I was very young.
It was great to play with and later was a wealth of switches and light bulbs when I needed them!
Who knows what kind of trouble the kid'll get themselves into??
Aren't there seriously harmful chemical compounds in older computer circuit boards?
I don't really give a f*ck, I mean, it's their kid.
But I'm just sayin', they might want to think about what they're putting in a nursery where their kid will spend countless hours with only moderate ventilation.
Hey...
Aren't there some seriously toxic chemical compounds in older computer circuit boards?
I could care less, I mean, it's their kid.
But I'm just sayin'... they might want to think about what they're putting into a nursery with moderate (at best) ventilation where their kid will be spending hours at a time.
Just my .02
Christ.
My inner dream is that this kid grows up to love football and woodworking and then whenever these parents pull out pictures of this baby room they can't quite make eye contact with each other...
sorry about the double post!
Where the hell did he get an old supercomputer?!? I want one.
I wonder how powerful it is.
More like heavy metal and takes drugs... I would never wish that on anyone, but I just hate it when parents push children to fit THEIR image of what the child should be instead of just nurturing them and letting them blossom on their own and decide what HE or SHE wants to be!!If they really had high hopes for their son they would have chosen a Tesla theme rather Edison. :P
I guess C12H22O11 is supposed to be lactose, but it could be any old disaccharide.
Everybody else's comments are reminding me of what Plato's Republic said about each generation reacting against the excesses of its parents. I guess the worst nightmare for geek parents would be for their kid to become a humanities major =D
If anyone has a Cray 2's fluorinert "waterfall" laying around, send me a message.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cray2.jpg
If they truly wanted a baby genius they would have decorated the room with a Tesla theme. :P
For those interested (and even those not interested), the three chemical formula's are
#1 C12H22O11 as Xenobiologista properly guessed is lactose (i.e. how many feedings)
#2 (NH2)2CO is urea (from urine, i.e. how many pee pee breaks the kid had)
#3 C9H9N is for Skatole (3-methylindole) found in feces http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skatole (i.e. how many dumps the kid took)
Now you know...
The move to gigantic clusters has really ruined the aesthetic of the "supercomputer." The CRAY-2's were really show-off machines in more ways than one.
I did a co-op work term or three at the Canadian equivalent of the NSA a few years back. In one of the staff lounges, they had an old Cray set up as seating. The wiring on the backplane of that thing was unreal.
Very cool.
Show off machines? I see nothing wrong with that in any way what so ever.
LOL@NEWB parents. Seriously.
Bad idea... how's this kid going to rebel when he becomes a teenager? Creationism and Intelligent Design.
*shudder*
I saw an old SGI box turned into a dorm fridge. This is far cooler...(pun intended)
Pretty ironic that the video/MP3 cellphones in mummy and daddy's pockets are probably faster than this closet sized unit from 15 years ago.
The Cray Y-MP supercomputer was a serious piece of kit, costing $5m and resembling nothing so much as a sci-fi nuclear reactor. Produced in 1988, these things were once used for fundamental research. Now they are painted green and used to seat children.
Man! I'd love one of those Crays in one of my living room corners, talk about conversation piece. Envy mode: engaged.
Doesn't seem very cozy to me, but then again this couple's backyard remodel looks more at home in a suburban industrial park than, well, at home. I mean, they tore all their roses out to put a bunch of lawn in. Prune your roses: they'll look nice a lot longer than your lawn. I'm sure they're nice people, but I have a feeling they want their home to look a little too much like their workplace or a moderny hotel or something.
Yeah, everyone saying this kid'll grow up to hate technology is 100% right. Nothin' like cramming your own interests down your kid's throat!
Awesome!
I especially like the crib sides that look like cubicle walls -- get the little Dilbert ready for the cube farm early!
I'm guessing the kid ends up a militant luddite.
In 22 year from now, this kid will be a football player who loves using MySpace on Windows. Parents commit suicide.
Damnit, the .MAC link doesnt work. I am an avid Sunnyvale Garage Saler, and have never seen an old Cray lying around. I call SHENS! I wonder if my neighbors know them...
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