The Idea sounds familiar....

There was an early PC - I forget who made it - Burroughs ? - someone like that anyway

Made in the late 80's early 90s it was a row of boxes that plugged together - CPU, RAM, Disk drive etc.... 8086 based maybe even up to 80286. It looked a lot better than the Ugly thing in the picture at the top of the article.

even the one here looks a lot neater:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6629617.html

As for 'future proof' PCs anyone remember the passive ISA bus machines where the CPU was on a plug in card so the CPU and RAM could be easily upgraded? - they didnt last long after PCI came out....

The designer isn't stupid...

...just deluded. It's the people who run these 'design contests' who are fools - I've seen various "PC design" contests, and others of the same ilk, come and go for years. And in an industry that turns on a dime, nothing has ever come of it, because all of the designs chosen are incomprehensibly impractical.

It's a case of a bunch of people who know nothing about electronics picking an electronics design made by someone who knows nothing about electronics.

The worst part is that, IIRC, Intel did one of these a while ago. Some dude won with the same kind of concept, except his was a stack of books, or something. That one was particularly egregious; it solved problems that didn't exist and had already been tried, and failed - and not because it was ahead of its time.

This, unfortunately, appears to be a common delusion. El Reg ought to do its bit to stamp it out rather than playing along.

Idiot

#1, she's sitting on the trolley tracks. #2, that's a lamp, not a PC. #3, she doesn't know the difference, and neither do the judges.

I had initially thought that there was something great, like a PC whose circuit boards were made from a wood derivative. That would be something to celebrate. But no, we get a nut who wants something that goes with her My Little Pony collection.

Copper nanotubes.