Happy May Day. Unfortunately for us it's been "Mayday! Mayday!" At 4:43 (PDT) this morning, our science database machine, thumper, became hasenfeffer. It currently refuses to acknowledge that it has any disk drives. Since the controllers are attached to the motherboard, major repairs will probably be required. No work can be created until this machine gets fixed. We are on the phone with Sun now in hopes of securing repair or a replacement. More info in Technical News.