computer threat greater than nuclear one

[Meg Larson]

A-and he plays a mean guitar, too!
Oh shit, wait a minute--that's _Robert_ Cray.
Never mind!

*********************************************************************
I'm still working on that novel,
but I'm just about to quit
'Cause I'm worrying about the future now, or maybe this is it
It's not all that I thought it would be--
What a shame about me
--Fagen/Becker, 2000

Meg Larson
Saginaw, MI
meg.larson at worldnet.att.net
----- Original Message -----
From: Dave Meury <dmeury at lioninc.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 12:33 PM
Subject: RE: computer threat greater than nuclear one


> Paul's post about Bill Joy got me thinking about Seymore Cray (yes,
that
> Cray) who I had heard used to dig in his basement.  Searching on his
name,
> I found the following on a site called interesting-people.org.
Though I
> was originally going for a wisecrack about him "seeing more" than he
was
> letting on and therefore digging some kind of shelter, I found this
> anecdote much more interesting from a number of perspectives and
will let
> it speak for itself:
>
> Mr. Cray would do much of his computer design work on a fresh pad of
> engineering paper, frequently going through an entire pad in a day.
There
> have been many legends that have grown up around Mr. Cray's
reclusive work
> habits which frequently went late into the night. Mr. Rollwagen
recounts
> one story of a customer who visited Mr. Cray's home in Chippewa
Falls. When
> the man asked, 'what were the secrets of his success, Mr. Cray said,
"Well,
> we have elves here and they help me."  When the visitor, who was a
French
> scientist, expressed his astonishment, Mr. Cray took him to look at
a
> tunnel that he had dug under his home. Shored up with four by four
cedar
> logs, the tunnel appeared to go in random directions, at one point
going
> straight up into Mr. Cray's lawn.  (Mr. Cray later explained to Mr.
> Rollwagen that the tunnel had gone straight up because one day it
had
> collapsed while he was digging it and a tree in his front yard had
fallen
> into the tunnel.)  Mr. Cray explained to his visitor that he would
work at
> his home on computer design problems for three hours at a stretch.
When he
> reached a technical stumbling block, he would then retire to the
tunnel
> where he would dig for an hour.  "While I'm digging in the tunnel
the elves
> will often come to me with solutions to my problems," he said.
>