Tell You What Technology Can Do

What you see before you is a supercomputer, MareNostrum. Named for Our Sea, the Mediterranean, it's one of the most powerful machines in Europe.

Stacked with 2,560 IMB blade computers, each with two 2.3 GHz dual core PowerPC processors, it connects a total of 10240 CPUs with a low-latency network and SUSE Linux. It's got 20 terabytes of RAM and a quarter of a petabyte of storage. Though supposed to be used for genome research and climate modelling and stuff, most of the time it just runs Colossal Cave Adventure and the occasional MUSH.

Any resemblance between this photo and a certain example of Renaissance interior design is probably not coincidental.

Mare Nostrum [Wikipedia via Gizmodo]