Since Tech-centric people are really sensitive about how hot their technological box of choice can get, here's something that can help them feel a bit less insecure.

Despite the fact that this page over at the URL http://granulator.gg.utk.edu/~web/thermalcam is entitled "Fun with a thermal camera", their geeky endeavors into the actual temperatures of a MacBook, an Xbox 360, and a 38-inch CRT HDTV is presented in a very academic fashion. The short of the long story? They took several pieces of essential tech-gear, and put each under a thermal camera. They found out that the appliances can get hot, really, really hot.

Here are their images of the MacBook.

And here's the 38-inch HDTV CRT, followed by the Xbox 360.

The author of the site would like to note that he is not making any claims about the safety of the above products. He's just simply showing the images he took, and he is taking the time to report the results. Also, the author of the site claims that the above images were taken in conjunction his current PhD research, as test cases for calibration of their camera for future field work.

We now wonder what the PS3 looks like under a thermal camera. We also wonder how the Xbox 360 would look under a thermal cam if one of those spangly third-party cooling devices were attached to it.