Hey, What's All That Noise Outside The Gate?

Tired of April Fools Gags? Wait, There’s More, Wall Street Journal
“Then there is an entirely different category of things that leave you scratching your head-like the news that Rackable Systems is paying just $25 million for once-mighty Silicon Graphics, which is filing for Chapter 11 protection for a second time. When a reporter sent the news release to the public affairs office of NASA Ames Research Center-which operates a massive supercomputer built by Silicon Graphics-the agency phoned backed quickly to ask an important question: “Is this an April Fool’s Joke?”
NASA, Intel, SGI Plan to ‘Soup Up’ Supercomputer, NASA ARC
“Under the terms of a Space Act Agreement, NASA will work closely with Intel and SGI to increase computational capabilities for modeling and simulation at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.”

Fallen star SGI to sell most assets for $25M, San Jose Mercury News
“In 2000, it sold its interest in supercomputer maker Cray Research. In 2003, it vacated its Mountain View headquarters and leased the buildings to Google. Two years later, it hired a turnaround company to help it stop hemorrhaging money. But in May 2006, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and emerged from that status in October.”
Former Highflier’s Final Landing, Wall Street Journal
“Silicon Graphics Inc., once one of the computer industry’s highest fliers, filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time and will sell its assets to Rackable Systems Inc. for $25 million.”
Editor’s note: So much for the notion that ARC PAO benefits by their physical proximity to Silicon Valley. Perhaps adding a public “awareness” functionality to NASA ARC public “affairs” responsibilities is in order. This applies to all NASA facilities, by the way – especially when the Wall Street Journal starts to take notice. If I had a massive asset such as ARC’s supercomputer, I’d sure want to pay attention to the health of the company that sold it to me – and keeps it running especially since NASA has a Space Act Agreement with SGI and Intel and SGI already had entered into bankruptcy twice in the past three years.