@NanoRaptor Fun fact: SGI made a server variant of the Indy, the Challenge S. The case molding was the same, down to the front volume buttons (which were non-functional on the Challenge S).
One would think they would have just made it the same case with a different badge, but no, it was molded in a slightly lighter shade of blue than the Indy.
@NanoRaptor (If anyone is wondering if this is the usual tech fantasy world-building which tends to come with Dana's posts: no, this is literally true. A photo of my personal Challenge S is shown on its Wikipedia page.) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SGI_Challenge_S.jpg
@foo@NanoRaptor Can verify. http://www.merck.com ran on an #SGI Challenge S from 1995 to 1998. For the first year I updated it by dumping files to tape from the Indy on my desk and then walking the tape down to the server room to untar them via an attached #DEC VT320 serial terminal, because IT didn’t trust the web server to be connected to anything but its own T1 line.
Eventually I came across Tatu Ylönen’s #SSH and convinced IT to let me scp files.
@foo@NanoRaptor those things were the bane of my existence, circa 1995. SGI signed some sort of deal with BBN where I worked to offer IRIX web hosting services and we had to install 6 racks of them.
…which meant that we had to open them all up to install memory upgrades and multiport Ethernet cards. And the interiors were made out of razor blades and broken glass: the question wasn’t if you were going to cut yourself, but when.
…and spoiler, no one wanted to buy IRIX web hosting.
@memory@foo@NanoRaptor Did #BBN have any customers who wanted to host their own web site on #SGI gear? Because that might explain the situation when @ajstarks hired me in 1995 to be webmaster@merck.com and I arrived to find an Indy on my desk and a Challenge S in the server room hooked up to a BBN-provisioned T1 line.
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