I think I've found what broke in that server - one of the RAM chips was faulty. That chip is presently removed, and the server is sitting in a back room running a stress-test program which I named "forkbunny."
(No, really - it forks off a bunch of little processes and reproduces like crazy, and does all sorts of things to strain the memory and the virtual memory)
Next: To get some research work done. Such as, trying to decipher this letter one of my collaborators sent me. It's not that he doesn't speak English, it's that half the time he doesn't make sense even when he does.
