The Univac as metaphor

My friend Dustin sent me a note I wanted to share:
I saw these quotes in different media sources and thought you might
appreciate the way they illuminate Hollywood’s understanding of technology:
“This is an interesting way to start my career at Disney,” Mr. Ovitz said he
replied, adding that “My mind was spinning like a Univac trying to figure
out” what to do.
— Ovitz’s Testimony on Disney Tenure Portrays a Thwarted Deal Maker, The Wall Street Journal, 10/27/2004
“In fact, the official count ended up being 442 electoral votes for
Eisenhower and 89 for Stevenson. Univac had been off by less than 1%. It had
missed the popular vote results by only 3%. Considering that the Univac had
5,000 vacuum tubes that did 1,000 calculations per second, that’s pretty
impressive. A musical Hallmark card has more computing power.”
— In ’52, huge computer called Univac changed election night, USA Today, 10/27/2004

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