Petty, petty, petty. You'd think that Intel would have a little more self-confidence; after all, here's a company that's broken the gigahertz barrier, shipped more chips than Pringles, and has one of the most recognizable names on the planet. So why do you suppose Intel representatives would be so worried about a few little iMacs? According to an article in the Harvard Crimson, when Chipzilla sponsored an exhibit at the school's College of Arts and Sciences for a recent Internet and Health conference, the company actually demanded that all of the Science Center's iMacs be covered up.

Now, this is the really weird part, to us: Intel didn't just show up at the event, see the iMacs, freak out, and demand that Harvard cover the machines. The company actually brought its own covers with them, implying that it knew all along that iMacs would be visible on the premises and planned to cover them up. How crazy is that? And even stranger, it wasn't like Intel made a subtle suggestion to Harvard that the iMacs might not be appropriate, and Harvard immediately went a-coverin'. The director of the Computer Services group actually refused to cover the iMacs at first, feeling that the request "unfairly impaired student usage," but Intel kept hassling him about it until he had no choice but to comply. He says he eventually agreed "only after multiple requests and great reluctance... usually, if we say no, we're done, but this just didn't stop."

Funnier still, Intel's representative claimed she was "unaware that the heat from the covered computers required them to be turned off"; she had assumed that the students could "still use them" even though they were covered. Now, does anyone else have trouble believing that Intel doesn't know about processor heat? C'mon, Intel knows better than anyone the importance of maximizing airflow around processors; the Pentium III throws off enough wattage to flash-roast a buffalo. We ain't buyin' it. Maybe Intel was hoping Harvard would run the iMacs with the covers on and burn them out. Who knows?

The best part of all, though, is the fact that the covers were removed and the iMacs reactivated "about halfway through the conference," instead of after the whole thing ended. Students needed access to the iMacs, so Computer Services eventually had to bag Intel's request and uncover them earlier than planned. When they did, there were crowds of people "standing in lines" to use the iMacs. Now that's a photo we'd love to have: scores of people lined up to use iMacs underneath a giant "Sponsored By Intel" sign. Photo op!