bugs (i.e., not for development). The implication is that it
wouldn't be such a disaster if that machine crashed, since only the
testers would be inconvenienced.

:crawling horror: /n./ Ancient crufty hardware or software that
is kept obstinately alive by forces beyond the control of the
hackers at a site. Like {dusty deck} or {gonkulator}, but
connotes that the thing described is not just an irritation but an
active menace to health and sanity. "Mostly we code new stuff in
C, but they pay us to maintain one big FORTRAN II application from
nineteen-sixty-X that's a real crawling horror...." Compare
{WOMBAT}.

:cray: /kray/ /n./ 1. (properly, capitalized) One of the line
of supercomputers designed by Cray Research. 2. Any supercomputer
at all. 3. The {canonical} {number-crunching} machine.

The term is actually the lowercased last name of Seymour Cray, a
noted computer architect and co-founder of the company. Numerous
vivid legends surround him, some true and some admittedly invented
by Cray Research brass to shape their corporate culture and image.

:cray instability: /n./ 1. A shortcoming of a program or
algorithm that manifests itself only when a large problem is being
run on a powerful machine (see {cray}). Generally more subtle
than bugs that can be detected in smaller problems running on a
workstation or mini. 2. More specifically, a shortcoming of
algorithms which are well behaved when run on gentle floating point
hardware (such as IEEE-standard or DEC) but which break down badly
when exposed to a Cray's unique `rounding' rules.