computer hardware

A couple of tasty bits via Slashdot: Interview with Jonathan Ive, the guy most responsible for the iMac design: The shape of things to come [Independent.co.uk]

Initially, Ive and his hand-picked team tried simply sticking the guts of the computer into the space behind the flat screen. But hard discs, CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs run slower when vertical than when horizontal. The processor-heat output demanded a fan, which would be noisy and, in a "flat PC", perhaps just inches from your face. And the screen would lose its mobility: no tilt and swivel for that one-piece. [Jobs] told him to think again about the pieces he was trying to fit together. "Each should be true to itself," he said. That meant the disc drives being horizontal, and the flat screen retaining its mobility. "We had to liberate the display, explode it, disconnect it from the CPU," says Ive now. The new shape emerged shortly afterwards: a dome is the only shape that lets the screen swivel without having "preferred" positions, maximises stability and offers lots of horizontal space.

Ah, but the cords out the back and the apple logo centered in the front give it back a 'preferred' position (though not as strongly as a rectangle base would, I suppose). Display Guide: A Comparison of 13 LCD Monitors [Tom's Hardware]