I can see clearly now

Boy, are my carpets clean. Anyone who knows me - or who owns up to knowing me - will agree that this is not something that could normally be said with any confidence on a regular basis. It's a long story generally summed up as 'I'm not the house proud type' or, as an ex-girlfriend once put it, 'You're so untidy' (How would she know? She never came to visit me.)

Anyway, after the slow drip drip of marketing campaigns, advertising and word of mouth, I decided to buy myself a Dyson vacuum cleaner. That this purchase coincided with the arrival of a cheque that was too big to simply drink away was purely coincidental, although it is fair to say that had the cheque been just slightly smaller, the opening sentence to this piece would probably been 'Boy, do I have a hangover'.

For those of you not in the know, the Dyson is a vacuum cleaner that doesn't have bags, preferring to simply suck up the gunge from the carpet and deposit it into a clear container. Hence, you are given a ring side seat in the cleansing of the carpet. It's all a bit like boxing, as closer examination of the stuff that has been collected isn't recommended at all - it's all rather yuckky.

But it works and that's good. When I bought it I had a choice - I could get the ordinary designed Dyson, which is more modern looking than the usual Hoovers and Electroluxes, or I could get the clear see-through version. Guess which one I went for?

Ever since the 60s when I fell in love with the plastic kits called the 'See-through body' or the 'See-through P51 Mustang (with retractable undercarriage)', I have been fascinated by stuff made out of see-through stuff. I remember going around a Toshiba factory in Tokyo and seeing a handful of see-through notebooks. My response? I want one!

So the see-through Dyson was a foregone conclusion. Then, after spending a couple of minutes marvelling at the amount of dirt it had pulled off the floor, I glanced at its power lead. It reminded me of something, and I couldn't quite place it.

It was a matter of seconds before realisation dawned - it was the same cable as you get on both the iMac and Power Macintoshes. And then the important realisation hit - I had bought the vacuum cleaner equivalent of the iMac. After all my derision and scorn thrown at the iMac for being over-designed and silly, I went and bought exactly the same thing but in a different market.

Interestingly, the Dyson and iMac share another similarity - they both don't have floppy disk drives, although the Dyson isn't the laughing stock of the vacuum cleaner world as a result.

So now I bow my head in shame as I realise I have applied double standards to my life, the new Macintoshes are well designed, as is my Dyson. So now I want a tasteful see-through case for my PC and I want it now.

Chris Long is a freelance IT journalist.