Adam: I like where you're going with this idea... People's perception of a computer are completely out of line with reality. I know this is a bit off track, but it does remind me of the movie "War Games". I distinctly remember a chubby guy (computer geek) sticking his head in a 3420 tape drive (vacuum door opened) and saying "I've checked the computer and I can't find the bug anywhere". Well, maybe if you got your head out of the tape drive and logged on to the machine you might stand a chance! Clearly someone in Hollywood thought the 3420 looked more like a computer than the actual machine (not that the WOPR really looked like one either). Come to think of it, didn't the WOPR have a lot of blinking lights and possibly bubble tubes?
ETH PS: Chubby did have a pocket protector with pencils/pens in it... clearly another stereotype of us computer geeks! <---SNIP---> front; all *real* high-powered computers have glowing bubble columns.
