for a game of football via hoover :)

I have a petty correction - Roombas don't 'hoover', 'vacuum' or even 'suck' (in that sense) - they merely have a little rotating brush that picks up loose dust and deposits it in a compartment.

iRobot are pretty clever in their marketing, by not specifically referring to the Roomba as a 'vacuum cleaner' - it's just the press which mistakenly refers to vacuuming, giving their products better PR than they deserve.

That's not to say, of course, that the iRobot line aren't a lot of fun. Stick a couple of eyes on one and you have your own instant, bumbling, pointless pet.

When are they going to combine the awesome tech of both the Dyson and the Segway for the ultimate geek hoover.

Reading your old Roomba review and this it looks like you managed to damage your brush unit with a rug edge or a toy. Mine did that after trying to swallow one of junior's toy centipedes. One email to their tech line followed by a call to their warranty center and 24h later I had a new brush unit and it has worked flawlessly ever since.

The tell-tale signs are bad cleaning, inability to clean rugs and dragging rubbish around (essentially not passing the wife acceptance test). What happens is that its brushes do not spin so the primary cleaning mechanism (the brush rotation) no longer works. From there on you are down to its vacuum cleaning abilities which are frankly laughable.

While on it - it is not a robot vacuum cleaner. It is a robotic version of the old "Italian" push-action carpet/floor cleaners from the 1970-es with a vacuum cleaner assist.

But the haptic feedback when you accidently send the thing down the stairs is going to be a bitch though.

"it still won't get the floor clean"

But think of the possibilities - if you could transmit these control signals over a great distance, perhaps with radio waves, you could offer a remote cleaning service to wealthy families. You could earn some pocket money without leaving the house. You could clean several houses at once, using several boards, hopping from board to board like a DJ.

When airwaves swing, distant houses clean.

I've got an engineer who works for me who approaches problems in the same way - i.e. he spends hours trying to find a way to avoid to a 5 minute job

I read the title as hovering instead of hoovering, "Geek takes hovering to new heights" sounded pretty cool, I had instant pictures of hoverboards, hover cars et al, imagine my disappointment to find an article on hoovering.

Thanks for the obscure Kraftwerk lyrical paraphrase.

Wait - this story from the same Reg which this morning also published a story poking fun at 'political correctness' over sexism on the grounds we're all so enlightened we don't need it any more?

"If the Missus always nags you to help her with the cleaning, she’ll faint when you offer to vaccum the whole house."

This the Reg's view of today's society - Jack Geek out working in the server room while his missus waits at home with the vacuum cleaner (and, presumably, Jack's pipe and slippers)?

What's next, an article titled "Ladies! Learn to use the Personal Computer to store your knitting patterns!"? This is pathetic.

Also, vacuum has one c, two u's.

Who said men can't multi-task?

Apart from the obvious drink beer/scratch arse/watch telly combination we can now have get fit/clean floor/design race track in our armoury of excuses. It could be possible to add the beer drinking element to further infuriate our loved ones and add to our 'What? what have I done?' list of innocent pastimes.

The Wii proves itself once again as the most unique*console.

*yes, slipped in to sports commentator mode there

The register: so simple, even a woman could read it

But don't let the missus find out!

et fecking cetera

Yeah, it sucks. But that's the point :-)

Yeah, coat..

Er, Reg readers can't get girlfriends, nevermind wives! Jeez, you must be a first time reader....