Lights Out in Reno

Reno, though it is no Vegas, is a neon city, with blinking, sweeping, and glowing lights straining to block out the stars. So you'd think they'd have the whole electricity thing down pat. I'm sure that's what the Supercomputing '07 conference committee had in mind when they chose Reno to host their show. After all, supercomputing means power cables as thick as your arm, with rooms full of liquid-cooled machines simulating particle physics and supernovae.

Tuesday, however, the two hangar-sized rooms hosting the conference went suddenly dark. Fans whirred quietly down; nerdy snickers echoed across the floor. The power to millions of dollars of fancy silicon had gone out.

It would have been one thing if this had been the Ninja Convention or the Adult Entertainment Expo. A little darkness could have livened up both of those. But without power, what are a bunch of computer geeks going to do, talk to each other?

(Snarky article from the Register here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/13/worlds_biggest_reboot/)